2250: test Feb 11, 2021

While there are a number of words surprisingly related to 'testify' or 'testimony', 'test' is not one of them. This word actually for much of history both in English and the original Latin referred to a potsherd, or another small piece of pottery. The sense which it currently holds of an examination is relatively modern, deriving from the notion of checking molten metal in a mold, which eventually superseded the original sense of the word.

2248: scythe & sickle Feb 9, 2021

'Scythe' and 'sickle' are related semantically, but the etymological connection more distant than one might expect. The word 'sickle' in Old English was 'sicol' or 'siċel' while 'scythe' from the Old English 'sīþe; sīðe', though granted both are thought to come from the Proto-Indo-European '*sek-' meaning 'cut', and which would also relate both of these word to 'saw' (as in the tool). Indeed, the fact these are two separate words is not exclusive to English among Germanic languages, but many make no distinction. The -c- of 'scythe' came in with a perceived connection to 'scissor', but these words aren't related.

2247: testis & testifying Feb 8, 2021

There are a lot of etymologies related to genitalia, such as 'avocado', the word 'testis' (of which 'testicle is merely a diminutive) has perhaps a surprising origin. Ultimately it comes from a Latin word meaning 'witness', related to 'testimony; testament' and ultimately the word 'three' from *tréyes (three) as in a third party observer. The witness in this case is as a proof of one's virility. Lest this be considered an isolated example in history, consider also the translation of the Greek synonym derives from a word meaning 'one who is present'.

2246: ham & hambone Feb 7, 2021

Ham has been strongly associated with the theatre since the late 19th century. A couple of different phrases popular at the time such as 'ham-handed' (clumsy) and 'hamfatter' (low quality) were used generically, but these became connected with low-caliber actors and performances, especially with regard to minstrel shows. This led to the sense of 'ham' or 'hammy' today as 'overacting' or just generally exaggerated, also found in the phrase 'going ham (on...)'. While this would often connote anything done in an amateur way, the term 'hambone' meaning 'inferior actor' is a remnant of this, and is still associated as a description of often exaggerated aspects of black culture.

2245: sneeze Feb 6, 2021

There is an Proto-Indo-European root *snu- that has led to a number of semantically related words including just in English ‘nose’, ‘snot’, and ‘snout’. In that, ‘sneeze’ should not be included, though its association would be obvious on first glance. Consider that the word in Middle English was ‘fnese’ from the earlier Old English ‘fnēosan’, related to a number of other Germanic words like the Dutch ‘fniezen’. Many sources will say this change over time is due to a misprint, but people don’t often cause change of common words in their own language for this sort of thing, and the change is historically attested from [f] to [s] in other words too, including ‘snore’ with all word-initial [fn] falling out of use by the 15th century. That said, once [fn] had been lost, it could certainly have been influenced both by other semantically related word (even if not etymologically related) and indeed spelling.

2244: turban and tulip Feb 5, 2021

The words 'turban' and 'tulip are related, loaned to European languages through Ottoman Turkish دلبند‎ (tülbent), but initially the word was from Persian دلبند‎ (dolband). These two English words are clearly related in shape‚ hence the original meaning in Persian, but not so clearly in phonology. In Italian, the word for 'tulip' in 'tulipano' retaining the '-an' ending, but this was dropped in Germanic languages, being very similar to some of the most common suffixes. Likewise, it isn't exactly clear what caused the change of -l- to -r- in 'turban', but it likely happened in a even before it was borrowed into any Romance language.

2243: lobster, locusts, and spider Feb 4, 2021

Although they do have many legs, exoskeletons, antennae etc., lobsters are not insects. That said, there is believed to be a close etymological connection between that word and 'locust' insofar as it is thought to be a corruption of the Latin 'locusta' meaning both things. It also has an Old English suffix '-estre'—as with 'spinster' and 'gangster'—making this originally feminine. Others have connected this with the Old English lobbe/loppe meaning 'spider' along with the same suffix above. It's possible that both explanations are partly true, with the word 'lobbe' influencing by the current -B- in 'lobster' exists.

2242: halva Feb 3, 2021

The sesame dessert, halva, is spelled in hebrew as חלווה—featuring a somewhat unusual digraph וו—but also חלוה and even חלבה can be found. The latter form is considered a misspelling, but it's not totally random; the Hebrew word for milk is חלב‎ (kholov), though halva contains no milk. Indeed, the two have nothing to do with each other, with the dessert named from the Arabic حلوى (khalwa) meaning 'sweet; candy'.

2239: hide (v); hide (n); sky; shoes; and obscure—How Are These Related? Jan 31, 2021

Although there is somewhat of a connection between 'hide' as a noun and as a verb, the verbal meaning might be just as if not more closely related to words including: hut, house, shoe, and even 'sky' and 'hose'. The obvious connection between 'hide' (i.e. skin') and 'hide' as a verb is the idea of concealment, but these words diverged before Old English, and the connection is prehistoric. Some of the words listed above like 'shoe' and house' also have that semantic relation, and all the more so with 'hut' there is a phonetic one, but not all of them. In the case of 'sky', the original meaning of this word in Old Norse was 'cloud', and is related to other words like the Old English 'scūa' (shadow) and Latin obscūrus (dark; shadowed), again in the sense of covering. In the case of 'hose', both with reference to water and women's legwear, this also had the general sense of 'covering' etymologically, and is related to words that now have a vast array of meaning, from trousers (German 'Hose') and intestines (Russian кишка [kishka]).

2235: Etymology for Clocks around the World Jan 27, 2021

The word ‘clock’ is derived from the sense of a bell, but other languages have even stranger origins for their words for ‘clock’ including ‘water thief’. In Old English, the word was dægmæl or literally ‘day measure’, from ‘mæl’ meaning ‘measure’ or ‘mark’ still retained in ‘piecemeal’ and of course the idea of a meal, eaten at regular times throughout the day. The Latin word is ‘horologium’, originally from Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion) meaning ‘hour-count’, but the Greeks themselves used a term κλεψύδρα (klepsydra) literally meaning ‘water-thief’. Today that word refers specifically to an hourglass or water-clock.

2234: clock and cloak Jan 26, 2021

The words 'cloak' and 'clock' are related, but as little as as those two have to do with each other on the surface, they also might not seem to do much with the common root. They both come from the Medieval Latin 'clocca' which actually meant 'bell', though this is thought to be originally Celtic. That word itself it thought to be onomatopoeic, and related to other words meaning 'laugh'. The cloak was called such not for the function or sound of course, but for having a generally bell-like shape. More on clocks in the next post. ב״ה

2233: fawn & fawn Jan 25, 2021

Little fawns may be cute, but the verb 'fawn' and the noun aren't related. Indeed, the nominal form, such as to denote a young deer is closer related to the word 'fetus' than to the verbal form 'fawn'. While now 'fawn' and 'fetus' look to only share one, initial sound ([f]), looking to the Vulgar Latin *fetonem it should clarify things. This evolved into the Old French 'faon' from the Latin fētus (offspring) understood to come ultimately from a root meaning 'suckle', and referred to any young creature as late as the 17th century. 'Fawn' as a verb on the other hand is closer related to 'fain', originally in the sense of 'rejoice'. Those two words have both shifted meaning somewhat, with 'fawn' coming to mean 'exaggerated flattery; swooning', and 'fain' meaning 'happy, relative to the circumstance'.

2231: petticoat, cotillion, and cotte Jan 23, 2021

As mentioned, the word 'coat' comes from the French 'cotte', but this is not the only word derived from it in English. Now obsolete in French opting for 'manteau', it is really only found in the phrase cotte de mailles (chainmail). That said, it also gave rise, somewhat unsurprisingly, to 'petticoat' (though now this describes a type of skirt, it was once an undercoat, but also to 'cotillion', a type of dance. Cotillion, which once had the same meaning as 'petticoat' i.e. 'small coat', now has the sense of referring to any formal dance-event, but in the 17th century referred to a specific dance in which one would raise her dress enough to display the petticoat.

2230: Reborrowing Jan 22, 2021

Reborrowing is a process by which a word that is adopted into one language has a derivative that is borrowed back. A few examples are:

•'Anime' (English) from Japanese アニメ (anime) from the 'animation' (English)

•'Cookie' (Dutch) i.e. online information from English 'cookie' from 'koekje' (Dutch)

•Modern Hebrew תכלס [(tachles) 'directly'] from Yiddish תכלית [(tachlis) 'serious business'] from Hebrew תכלית [(tachlith) purpose]

•There is even double borrowing in the case of the English 'redingote' from French 'redingote' from English 'riding coat' from French 'cotte'.

These are usually doublets, that is to say a pair of words with identical origins and different meanings, but also included this would be borrowing calques, i.e. literal translations, such as

ready-to-wear → French prêt-à-porter (1951) → English prêt-à-porter (1957).

2229: clog Jan 21, 2021

A clog today refers to any sort of block, and much like with ‘block’ itself, its origins are essentially wooden. Although the precise root of ‘clog’ is unknown, it used to denote a mass of wood, related to the word ‘log’ and Norwegian ‘klugu’ (knotted wood). The word, once also used to denote large jewelry or testes only retains any connection to wood in the case of the shoes, clogs.

2228: scandal & slander Jan 20, 2021

Although the overall meaning has generalized, the word 'scandal' has always been negative, originally from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon) referring to a trap lain for an enemy to fall into. In that sense, it is also related to the Latin 'scandere' (to climb) but it also referred to something that causes a moral fall. In Ecclesiastical Latin 'scandalum' went from meaning something which causes malfeasance to something causing discreditation, though bear in mind this may not have only been cultural but also influenced from words like the Old English 'scand' (disgrace). Moreover, the word 'slander' is related via the Old French 'esclandre' (scandalous statement) with the L added somewhat curiously.

2227: Aubergine vs. Eggplant (& Why) Jan 19, 2021

Around the anglophone world, between 'eggplant' and 'aubergine', only the Brits and Irishmen favor the latter. First off, the name 'eggplant' comes as a description of the white variety [see photo], and not the more popular purple ones of today, though this same pattern is also found in other languages like Icelandic with 'eggaldin' or Welsh 'planhigyn ŵy'. Outside of that, the reason South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia also use 'eggplant' is that this term is slightly older than 'aubergine', with the written first record in the US from 1763. Now, the white variety are called 'garden eggs'. 'Aubergine' is not only popular in the UK but also much of Western Europe like in French and German because the more diverse varieties from Southeast Asia (brought via the Middle East), using the Arabic اَلْبَاذِنْجَان‎ (al-bāḏinjān) or literally 'the eggplant', originally from the Sanskrit वातिगगम (vātiga-gama) or 'plant that curls in wind'. The Arabic 'al-' turns to 'au-' in French, which is fairly typical. Other English speaking areas especially in Southeast Asia use the word 'brinjal'.

2226: balk Jan 18, 2021

The word 'block' these days pretty obviously means 'keep from moving', originally from a physical source, but there are other words like that too. 'Balk' for instance originally referred to a partition, or especially unplowed land on a field. The sense of being blocked by an obstacle then led to the modern sense of to make a blunder or to hesitate. It is even related to 'balcony', originally from the sense of 'beam', as was the case with 'block'.

2225: block Jan 17, 2021

The original sense for a block was that of a large, solid piece of wood. This was only generalized in the late Middle Ages to mean 'any solid piece', originally with the senses of an executioner's block, and then later a stump from which to sell slaves. Other Germanic languages have related words connoting trees or large planks of wood, but the English block eventually related to anything solid, usually prismatic etc. to the point as a verb (or as a noun in 'blockade') it came to mean 'prevented from moving'. This is also related to bloc, which in Old French simply meant 'log', but now in English means a solid group, especially referring to political entities.

2223: How a Scrivinal Error Changed a Word's Pronunciation Jan 15, 2021

Spelling is not particularly connected to pronunciation, as is obvious to anyone who's looked at English even a minute or two. It has, however, made an impact on those of adopted words over the years. For instance, another name for a 'gharial'—a type of Indian crocodile—is a 'gavial'. It is not because V and R have much to do with each other phonetically, but rather that 'gavial' emerged simply from a scrivinal error. The word in Hindi is 'ghaṛiyāl' but it is believed that the R became a V when a French scribe at the time wrote it wrong.