Emmett Stone 4/21/21 Emmett Stone 4/21/21

2317: walnut Apr 21, 2021

Walnuts originate from Persia, but they are named for Wales, sort of. 'Walnut', or 'wealhhnutu' in Old English literally meant 'foreign nut'. This is from the Germanic root *walhaz, whose meaning developed in many ways including 'Roman; Romantic' (hence 'Walloon'), 'Celtic' (hence 'Wales'), or just generally 'foreign'. This is also seen in 'Welsh onions' which are Japanese, and in many other Germanic languages.

Emmett Stone 4/19/21 Emmett Stone 4/19/21

2315: Italy, Włochy, and Olaszország—How Are These Related? Apr 19, 2021

Many names for Italy follow a similar format: Italien, Italia etc. Some clear exceptions to this exist however in the Polish Włochy and Hungarian Olaszország. In the case of Polish, this word actually has an old Germanic root, despite Germanic languages by and large not using this anymore for 'Italy' from *walhaz meaning 'Roman; Romance', and having the same root as 'Wales' and 'Wallonia'. Similarly, 'Olaszország' is also ultimately of this same proto-Germanic, and proto-Slavic root, possibly related to the Latin 'Volcae', the name of a Celtic tribe. At any rate, only the first half of this comes from the 'Vlasi' root, and the rest is a suffix, as can be seen in Hungarian's related word 'Oláh' for a Romanian.

Emmett Stone 4/18/21 Emmett Stone 4/18/21

2314: psycho-: psychotic vs. psychopomp Apr 18, 2021

Words like 'psychopath', or 'psychotic', could give an impression that the combining form 'psycho-' related to problems in mental health, but as can be seen in the word 'psychopomp', this is not the case. A psychopomp is the name for a guide through the underworld, as might be said of Anubis in Egyptian mythology, Mercury in Greek mythology, Valkyries in Norse mythology and even the Grim Reaper. The origin of this word is Greek ψυχοπομπός (psychopompós) with 'psycho (psūkhḗ) meaning 'soul', and 'pompós' here meaning 'sender; conductor'. Thus in its purest sense, 'psycho-' as a combining form means 'soul' or 'mind'.

Emmett Stone 4/17/21 Emmett Stone 4/17/21

2314: Cat=Dog, Lamb, and Goat?—Wanderwort Apr 17, 2021

The word for 'dog' in Latin is 'canis' (hence English's 'canine') but the word for 'puppy' is 'catulus'. This also led to its own derivative word in English: 'cat'. This gets stranger however, with more distant relation to the Russian око́т (okót) meaning 'lamb', and Old Irish 'cadla' for 'goat'. Others go on still to connect this to the Arabic قِطّ‎ (qiṭṭ) (i.e. 'cat) and other Semitic words to classify this root as a wanderwort across Indo-European, Uralic, and Semitic languages without one clear origin. The original idea seems to involve however young, often small animals, or sometimes more generally animal fertility.

Emmett Stone 4/15/21 Emmett Stone 4/15/21

2312: The Use of the Term 'Byzantine Empire' Apr 15, 2021

The name for the Byzantine Empire as such really only came after the fall of the empire itself for complex religious and political reasons. For its near eleven centuries of existence after the fall of the city of Rome (and with it, the western half of the classical Roman Empire) it was known as the Roman Empire, or in Medieval Greek, Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων (Basileía Rhōmaíōn). It was only in the Renaissance that Europeans—now with a goal of reviving and adapting many aspects of Classical Greek and Roman culture and thought—wished to draw a distinction between the ancient Latin-speaking, pagan Rome and later Christian, Greek-speaking Roman Empire, that the term Byzantine, from the Ancient Greek 'Byzantion', was renewed. That said, this term actually predates (ancient Roman) Emperor Constantine's move of the capital from Rome, and renaming of the city of Byzantion as Constantinople.

Emmett Stone 4/12/21 Emmett Stone 4/12/21

2309: plato: a nickname Apr 12, 2021

While most people are familiar with the name of Plato and his school of thought Platonism, fewer people would be familiar with Aristocles. This is not only the same person but in fact Plato, or Platon as he called himself comes from πλατύς (platýs), but this is a nickname from the same root as led to the English 'plateau' and 'place' meaning 'broad' relating to having broad shoulders. Aristocles means son of Ariston.

Emmett Stone 4/11/21 Emmett Stone 4/11/21

2308: Nuns vs Sisters Apr 11, 2021

Christian nuns and sisters (in the ecclesiastical sense) may have more or less the same roles, they actually are different. Nuns take solemn vows while religious sisters take simple vows, one main difference of which is that sisters can own property and other capital. This means they are free to make endeavors in certain vocational areas like charity, education, and health. Nuns—the term for which comes from the Latin 'nonna': literally (female) monk—tend to live in the enclosure of an order and are not involved in those affairs.

Emmett Stone 4/10/21 Emmett Stone 4/10/21

2307: druid Apr 10, 2021

Before the word 'magician' there was 'druid'. More accurately, there was the Old English 'dry', which later became 'druid'. Oddly, while 'magician' is ultimately of a Germanic root, 'druid' comes from a Celtic root as a name for the priest of Gaul, the Brittons, and Ireland. Still, the word did not come to English via contact with Celtics, but rather first through Latin. The root is ultimately from '*dru-wid-' meaning effectively 'strong seeing', but actually the root of the first element, '*deru-' means 'tree' or partially 'oak' and *weid- meaning 'to see', probably relating to auguring with plants like mistletoe which grow on those trees. Moreover, the early Germanic settlers to the British Isles had the same word for 'tree' as 'truth': treow. This was eventually replaced in English and now has a mostly historical and cult meaning.

Emmett Stone 4/9/21 Emmett Stone 4/9/21

2306: magic & machine Apr 9, 2021

Although magic and science don't have much to do with each other, 'magic' and 'machine' are etymologically related. Indeed, the Proto-Indo-European root includes not only words directly adjacent to those before like 'mage', 'magi' and 'mechanism', but also 'may' and its derivatives, along with 'might' (both senses). The root '*magh-' is estimated to have had the meaning of 'ability' or 'power'. 'Main' is also among these with this common root. The sense of 'magic' in a purely sorcerous sense really comes from the 14th century, though in the sense of being an illusionist by trade without any actual spiritual component, the early 19th century.

Emmett Stone 4/8/21 Emmett Stone 4/8/21

2305: mumbo-jumbo Apr 8, 2021

It's not entirely clear how the phrase 'mumbo jumbo' originated, it's most likely from the Mandinka people of West Africa. According to that understanding, it is from the word 'maamajomboo', meaning 'masked dancer', a role used in many for supernatural activities of the native culture who would sing and chant in gibberish. Alternatively, it might just be from English, as a somewhat exaggerated and fanciful pronunciation of 'mumble' plus 'jumble'.

Emmett Stone 4/6/21 Emmett Stone 4/6/21

2303: sushi Apr 6, 2021

'Sushi' is the name of a general type of dish usually made with seafood, rice, and seaweed, but only one of these things is the reason for the name. It is actually adopted from the Japanese 寿司すし (sushi) unsurprisingly, but this means specifically "sour rice”, possibly related to 酸すい (sui) meaning “sour; vinegared”. This is because it was originally made by covering fish in fermented rice, which would then just be throw away, but when vinegar was later added to speed up the process, the rice could be edible, and much like pie-crusts, what was once just a gross coating for cooking or storage purposes, it became an integral part of the dish. Seaweed was added only around the 19th century.

Emmett Stone 4/5/21 Emmett Stone 4/5/21

2302: Nigromancy: A Deliberate Misspelling of 'Necromancy' Apr 5, 2021

Necromancy, sorcery surrounding interactions with the dead, is definitely a form of black magic, and that shows in the historical spelling of the name. 'Necro-' as a combining form is from Greek νεκρός (nekrós) meaning 'dead' as also found in 'necropolis' for instance. Nevertheless, in Middle English (nigromancy) and Medieval Latin (nigromantia) the spelling was obviously changed, and made to align more with the Latin 'niger' (black) to due a presumed—but etymologically erroneous—association with 'black magic'. The spelling was eventually changed to align with the Greek origin during the renaissance.

Emmett Stone 4/4/21 Emmett Stone 4/4/21

2301: galvanize Apr 4, 2021

When people talk about galvanizing, it is either in terms of inspiring action, or with covering one metal in a thin layer of another. Really though, the word originated from a name, Luigi Galvani. This French scientist experimented with electricity and is known for his experiment in which he caused frog-legs to twitch. This then got applied to the sense of energizing the spirit of a person.

Emmett Stone 4/1/21 Emmett Stone 4/1/21

2298: piker Apr 1, 2021

Seemingly unrelated to 'pike' would be the word 'piker', as in a miserly person, actually is related, but no one is quite sure how. Some hold that it goes by the sense of 'pike' as in a road, relating to the original sense of 'piker' as 'vagrant', though it has been written that in America at least it comes from the name of a county, Pike, Missouri. That said, the Middle English word 'piker' meant 'thief', in the sense of picking, which would be therefore at least not so directly related.

Emmett Stone 3/31/21 Emmett Stone 3/31/21

2297: turnpike Mar 31, 2021

The word 'pike' by itself refers to the point of a shaft, or often a whole spear, but it also led to 'turnpike'. The earlier, vaguer sense of the word was extended to any beam of wood, including those to make barricades for horses to keep them off certain roads. Eventually, this led to the sense of a toll on road, and the 'turnpike road' was just shortened to 'turnpike'.

Emmett Stone 3/22/21 Emmett Stone 3/22/21

2288: dean & 10 (Expanded)—Mar 22, 2021

There are a lot of words related to 'dom-' like 'don', 'domain', and relating to control, leadership, and in the case of 'don', 'education', and yet 'dean' is not related. Instead, 'dean' is from the Latin 'decanus' meaning 'leader of ten (soldiers)', unsurprisingly . Indeed, the Roman army's arrangements of tens led to multiple words in English including 'decimate'. Quickly however, the meaning took on other settings such as in the Church and eventually, in English, in education. There was actually a similar word in Old English, teoðingealdor, but at any rate 'dean', and the related 'decan' and 'doyan' are here to stay.

Emmett Stone 3/21/21 Emmett Stone 3/21/21

2287: brief & mirth Mar 21, 2021

Not terribly alike in sound nor in meaning, 'brief' and 'merry' are not only related, except of course if brevity effects happiness. These two words are considered doublets, i.e. they diverged from the same word, but they are quite old and show many traces of historical divergences, such as how 'mirth' is how to express 'merry' as a noun, despite appearing fairly different. That said, the relation between [m] and [b] shouldn't stick out too much between 'mirth' and 'brief' since the former is just the nasalized form of the latter (just try saying [m] with a really blocked up nose) and [f] is a common way the TH becomes alters. Semantically however, these two words only eventually diverged after the original meaning of "short; small; or (counterintuitively) slow" when 'merry' began to describe the passage of enjoyable moments passing quickly, without care, and eventually described the emotion behind that. Initially as well 'merry' had the sense of 'fine' or 'pleasant' in a more general sense than it has today.

Emmett Stone 3/20/21 Emmett Stone 3/20/21

2286: wrath + -th = wroth...? Mar 20, 2021

'Wrath' and 'wroth' are obviously related, both in meaning and spelling, but not in the way one might assume upon first glance. Rather than being variants in the way 'swim-swam-swum' or 'raise-rise' are with internal vowel change, the Old English for 'wrath' was 'wrǣþþu', equivalent to 'wroth' plus '-th': the same suffix in 'warm-warmth'. 'Wroth' therefore was originally an adjective (Old English: wrāþ; Middle English: wrað), roughly synonymous with 'cruel'. These two are not immediately related to 'wreath', 'writhe', or 'wry' (each related to the others) though many like to connect the sense of twisting to that of anger, in a similar way to what happened with 'wrong' and 'worry'.

Emmett Stone 3/19/21 Emmett Stone 3/19/21

2285: bias & cutting Mar 19, 2021

The word 'bias' is related to the word 'cut, though clearly none of those sounds are related. The original sense of 'bias' meant something like 'sideways', but the Vulgar Latin ebigassius, originally from Greek, is related via Proto Indo European root *krs-yo, taking from the root *sker-. As discussed earlier, this lead to both 'shear' and 'cut', along with dozens of other terms, some more similar today than others.

Emmett Stone 3/18/21 Emmett Stone 3/18/21

2284: cut, shear, and carve Mar 18, 2021

Now replaced by the word 'cut', the words 'shear' and 'carve' used to have more general meanings. 'Carve' now is restricted to cutting a material into a certain shape, engraving, or cutting meat. In the case of 'shear', this actually comes from the same Indo European root as 'cut', that being *ker-, leading to other words including 'carrion', 'curt', 'skirmish', 'skirt', 'scrap', 'shard', 'scar' and many more. That said, now 'shear' also has a fairly specific, restricted use especially relating to hair and other cuttings of top-layers of things.