2150: ser/estar: Why Differ? Nov 3, 2020
The Spanish verb 'ser' is notable for a lot of reason, but both it and its counterpart 'estar'—meaning 'to be'—come from the Latin meaning 'to sit' (sedēre) and 'to stand' (stāre) respectively, which may help to explain why 'ser' is for permanent things, and 'estar' is more often for transient uses. This is not actually so rare to see verb meaning 'sit' or 'stand' used existentially. While in some languages this is standard, even English has the phrase "that sits well with me", though this is obviously not exactly the same. In the case of 'ser', the verb is irregular partly because some forms come from the Latin 'sum', always having meant 'to be', namely present tenses, the imperfect, and the preterite tenses.
2148: 'merely vs. 'only' Nov 1, 2020
The difference between 'mere' and 'only' is qualitative, with both referring solely to what is specified, but 'mere' exerts a judgement that it can be no better than that, at best. In the past however, it referred to purity, coming from the Latin 'merus' meaning ‘undiluted’. The sense of lacking contamination has technically remained, though these days people would likely opt for 'exclusively' in order to convey (merely) high quality, which is no longer possible with 'mere'.
2146: país, land, or country Oct 30, 2020
English is a language classes as Germanic, with some 60% overall Latinate vocabulary and yet both often it seems to go its own way. Its grammar is far more analytical than either, but even in the simple things like vocabulary, most Germanic languages use a word like 'Land' for 'country', whereas many Romance languages use a word from the Latin 'pagus' (countryside) like the French 'pays' or Spanish 'país'. The word in English instead comes from a word meaning literally 'lying opposite (i.e. land)', from the Latin "(terra) contrāta".
2144: black, bleach, bleak, blank... Oct 28, 2020
The word 'black' and the word 'blank', going way back are related, and while the base assumption might be that they are both void, this is not the source. Indeed, 'blanch', 'bleak', and 'bleach' which actually means 'make white' comes from the same root. There is a presumed Proto-Indo-European root *bʰleg- relating to fire, and drawing from the sense both of darkness from soot and other combustion, but also radiance—such as the Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga) 'radiance'—relating to white light and also probably ashes. This is relates the French and Spanish 'blanc/o' to 'black', all of which have a Germanic root; that said, the Modern German 'schwartz' is obviously not related, and instead shares a root with 'swarthy' meaning 'dark; dirty'.
2143: Productivity of 'fruit' Oct 27, 2020
The idea of fruit having a more generic sense of 'productivity' is fairly obvious considering phrases like "fruit of the womb" (children) and its tongue-in-cheek offshoot "fruit of the loom" (clothing) or just 'fruitful' all having meanings not relating to tree-fruit. Indeed, etymologically this is true many times over considering words like the Latin 'frui' (enjoy), German 'brauchen' (to need), and so forth all originate from the Proto-IndoEuropean root *bʰruHg- (to benefit from). This pattern of success, enjoyment, and physical productive creation exists across many other languages. The sense in English for many centuries was anything that came from the ground, including vegetables, which, like with apples, gained more specific meaning over time. NB the English 'blade'—for both swords and leaves, as in grass—originated with the botanical meaning, and shares an etymological root with this very productive 'fruit'.
2142: South African 'k*ffer' & Hebrew כפרה (redemption) Share Same Arabic Cognate Oct 26, 2020
The Arabic كفر (k-f-r) is the source of the very offensive South African slang 'kaffer', but also to the Hebrew כפרה (kapará) which in modern slang is a term of endearment. This is because the Arabic word meaning as a verb 'to disbelieve' can be used as a noun, كَافِر (kāfir), essentially to mean ‘infidel’. This word comes from Bantu—the Africans of this region of East Africa having extensive contact historically—but has now been taken up in other languages as an offensive term for black people. Meanwhile, the Hebrew כפרה (kapará) literally means "atonement; redemption", and also practically 'sacrifice'. This connection then to 'infidel' may seem odd, but it may seem even odder than the Semitic root relating these words means 'village'. Essentially, an infidel would be someone outside the village, and in other Semitic languages it came to refer to a more generic covering, or in this case protection. The phrase in Modern Hebrew comes from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic 'nímšī kapā́ra ʿalēk', or literally “I will go as atonement for you”, as a way to express humility—sort of like with ciao—and abbreviated as כפרה.
2139: excruciate and crucifiction Oct 23, 2020
Christianity historically has had a large influence on languages around the world, and many phrases like "one's cross to bear" have entered mainstream lexicon. One example people may not even realize though comes from 'excruciate' which can refer to anything being exceptionally bad or unpleasant. The Latin Latin 'excruciat-' however means 'tormented' and comes from 'crux' meaning 'cross' i.e. as if being crucified. Some have contested the idea that the was so literal and point also to the use of "crux interpretum" or "point of interpretation" such as a decision that is impossible to make, and thus stress-inducing but certainly the connotations will always be strong either way.
2138: knight Oct 22, 2020
When one thinks of a Medieval knight, ideas of nobility likely arise. Indeed, for much of history in different places, only the upper echelons of society could participate in wars. However, the German 'Knecht' means 'servant' and comes from the came root. This root, *knehtaz, has many derivatives among other Germanic languages, and in English it originally meant 'servant' or 'boy'.
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2137: ciao Oct 21, 2020
Especially in Italy but also around Europe more broadly thanks in part to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ‘ciao’ is a common greeting. As might be discerned from the fact that it is used for both farewells and meeting, it has a generic meaning along the likes of ‘aloha’ (love) or ‘shalom’ [שלום] (‘peace’), but in this case it comes as a variation to a dialectal form of Italian ‘schiavo’ meaning ‘I am your slave’, shortened from the Latin phrase ‘servus humillimus, domine spectabilis’ (I am your humble servant, admirable lord). In that sense, it is a gesture of humility. However, in the Italian, like ‘slave’ itself, the word also comes from the same root as ‘Slav’, but in Greek Σκλάβος (sklábos) and Latin ‘sclāvus’ the word has a [k] that is not seen in either English or Italian but is still seen in German ‘Sklave’. This is also connected with the Greek κλάβος (klábos) meaning ‘fame; renown’, which was also itself used as a greeting, but in any case in Italian [skl] becomes [sch] as with ‘ciao’ (or ‘schiavo’) . The [s] at the beginning just got dropped off.
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2134: Lifting and Stealing Oct 18, 2020
A number of languages have a connection between words meaning 'to lift' and theft. In the case literally of 'lift' it has been suggested it might actually be related to the Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) meaning 'theif'. If so, it would have a connection to the Latin 'cleptus' (Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)), or in other words the same root as 'cleptomaniac'. Indeed the Greek has a far more general meaning including not only theft per se but also cheating and disguising.
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2133: The Basics of 'Basis' Oct 17, 2020
A lot of basics principles (and quirks) of English language history can be seen through the word 'basis'. First off, although the Greek is βάσις (básis) the root first entered English as 'base', and 'basis' entered via a more direct etymological path a few centuries later. Moreover, although it looks completely different, the word is related to 'come'. In Greek, the word means 'step' as in a stair, and likewise even 'step' in English means in a basic sense 'platform' or a measure of walking. Both 'basis' and 'come' are traced back to a Proto-Indo-European root *gʷem-.
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2132: The Evolution of 'Idiot' in Hebrew Oct 16, 2020
The Hebrew word אידיוט (idyót) is a loan word meaning 'idiot', probably coming as a loan word through Russian. This word however, in many languages, was adopted from the Greek, whose meaning there was more or less neutral, and changed into something explicitly negative, as happened in English. This is seen clearly through another Hebrew word הדיוט (hedyót) which come from the name Greek word ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs) with both of them meaning 'layman' or 'regular', as in someone who is not educated on a particular subject. but not necessarily stupid as the modern sense implies.
2131: 'Dexter' in Heraldry Means on the Left... Oct 14, 2020
In heraldry, such as coats of arms, the term 'dexter' means refers to when an animal faces the left. In general, the word 'dexter' and all its derivatives like 'dexterity' in some sense or another have the meaning of 'on the right'. Indeed, across other languages as well as across the various meaning of 'right'—the actual direction, laws, morality—the word retains the meaning and connotation. In the case of heraldry, this is in reference to the bearers perspective rather than the depiction, similar to how people refer to 'stage right'.
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2130: The Relation between Gossip and Relations Oct 14, 2020
Gossip and siblings are connected...and also they have an etymological relation. Upon first glance, those two words might not look alike, and that's because both have second element connected to it. With the common element being 'sib', 'gossip' comes as a noun from 'god-' from the same pattern as 'godfather' or 'godmother': in this case god-sib(ling). Eventually its meaning moved to that of 'neighbor' and then women invited to attend birth, still mostly in keeping with the meaning of non-blood family. The association those people will have however to idle chatter is a consistent throughout time apparently, because within about 200 years or so the word went from meaning 'relation' to meaning what it does today, and this exact process happened in other languages too.
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2128: dope vs. dopamine Oct 12, 2020
While dope (as in drugs, particularly heroine) causes someone to have a chemical reaction with a rush dopamine, these words are not related however. 'Dope' originally meant 'thick sauce' and as such refers to things that make one slow, or just a slow person or especially a horse. Dopamine on the other hand comes as a combination 'dopa' and 'amine' (a type of chemical compound), with 'dopa' originating as a abbreviation (from the German) for dihydroxyphenylalanine, which by the way has nothing to do with thick sauces.
2126: Chai vs. Tea Oct 10, 2020
Around the world, lots of languages use a world like 'tea' and many others use 'chai' to describe the same thing; English uses both words but to describe the different preparation of the same plant-leaves. The word 'chai' comes to English via Arabic or Russian, ultimately from Mandarin ch'a, which also led to the now rare 'cha' or 'char' used in the 16th century. The word 'tea' came in the 17th century as a later variant (pronounced [tei] like 'pay') and also comes from this Chinese root, but through the Malay 'teh' (via the Dutch who held colonies there). The words in language like German, French, Dutch and so on that have the T come from this root, and the others like Greek, Farsi, Russian, and Arabic take the more direct Chinese root.
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2119: leopard and panther Oct 3, 2020
Leopards and panthers are the same species, even if people usually use 'panther' to describe the black ones. These two terms have existed alongside each other for milenia, and in Latin 'pardus' and 'leopardus' was apparently the source of some confusion, but they both are from the same word: 'pard', as found in 'camelopard' (i.e. ’camel’+’pard’ = giraffe). The 'leo-' of 'leopard' means 'lion'.
2118: Correction on "Well Good god!" Oct 2, 2020
Correction: It was stated in a post 5 years ago that "'[g]ood', however, comes from the Old English 'gōd', which meant "god, deity"" but this is not true. This is a popular folk etymology, but a look at the terms historically shows this to be clearly off. First off, in the Germanic pantheon, and hence the Old English root, pagan deities were not considered to be clearly and consistently good; that notion came later and from a separate religion. Likewise, 'good' did not have the ethic nor moralistic sense it has not until later, and just meant more along the lines of 'pleasant'.
2117: sooth Oct 1, 2020
The word 'etymology' comes from the Greek adjective 'etumos' meaning 'true', but this root may also be connected to the English 'sooth'. At first glance these may not seem to look the same at all but the Greek stem is actually 'et(a)-', and -(u)m- is apparently derivational morphology. This Greek root also appears in other words, and is connected to a derived Indo-European root *set- (true). Some also connected to ‘sin’, the original meaning of which was guilt in a legal sense, and if this is true, then this would too be related to the German ‘sind’ ([plural/formal] ‘are’) and the Latin ‘sunt’, from where the ‘-sent’ of ‘absent’ and ‘present’ derive'.
2115: Wallonia and the Celts Sep 29, 2020
Wallachia is a historical territory in Romania, a Romance language speaking area, named by the Germans after the Celts. This region, in which resides the modern capital Bucharest, is among other places including Wallonia in Belgium, Wales in the U.K., and the German 'Welschtirol' (Latin Tyrol) which have Germanic exonyms for once (or in the case of Wales, currently) Celtic populations. Most of Europe, from Britain and Spain over to Turkey was dominantly Celtic before the Romans who in extreme cases displaced or genocided them, or otherwise assimilated them to Roman culture; indeed that is why they are now Romanian.
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