2502: Kappa(maki): Sushi from a Sea-Monster Oct 18, 2021
Kappa rolls—sushi rolls filled with cucumber—are named for a sea monster of Japanese folklore. The connection between a humanoid, web-toed, turtle-shelled sea monster might not seem immediately obvious. This is because in that mythology, the creature was thought to like to eat cucumbers, and people would even make offerings involving the vegetable, hence 河童巻 (kappamaki).
2500: Bears: How Fear Developed Terminology Oct 16, 2021
The word 'bear' and its many similar Germanic counterparts, along with other very different sounding words of Northern European regions diverge from the Proto-Indo-European '*rtko' as seen in the Latin 'ursus' and Greek αρκτικός (arktikos). The Proto-Germanic '*berô' is related to the word 'brown' (and as a matter of course, 'beaver') meaning 'brown one'. Many people have claimed this is as a euphemistic reference from fear of bears who more prevalently inhabited Northern Europe than around the Mediterranean where they were fewer and smaller. Not only Germanic languages have this phenomenon, as the Russian медведь (medved) means 'honey-eater' and some Celtic references once had similar euphemistic qualities.
2499: hippocampus: Seahorses, Monsters, & the Brain Oct 15, 2021
The hippocampus is a ridge of the base of the brain thought to control emotion and the nervous system, but it's also the name for the genus a seahorse and a mythical monster. This is because the Ancient Greek ἱππόκαμπος (hippókampos) literally means "horse sea-monster", which in Greek mythology consisted of a mermaid style horse-headed-fish-bodied and often winged creature. Little seahorses took this as a Latin name, despite the non-Latin origins. As far as its connection to the brain goes, this was not immediately obvious and the first descriptions go from the idea of a silkworm or ram's horns—even proposing another myth-based name 'Ammonis'—but did later reference its shape to the seahorse which eventually won out.
2498: antarctic Oct 14, 2021
The terms 'arctic' and 'antarctic', while obviously geographic references just references quantity of bears, etymologically speaking. Named for the Ancient Greek ἀνταρκτικός (antarktikós)—the Ancient Greeks not having travelled anywhere near there themselves—literally means 'no bears', from the prefix ἀντ- (ant-) meaning 'against' as in the Latinate 'anti-'. This is not specifically referencing bears as animals, even though this would actually be a true description of both regions, but of the constellation Ursa Major a.k.a. The Great Bear, and the terms originally just referenced the North and South of the world generally, as opposed to the poles specifically. Notably also, the first -c- in 'arctic' stopped being pronounced in French and English until the 15th century when it was brought back, but it wasn't until the 17th century that the first -c- of 'antarctic' was restored.
2494: sehr & sore Oct 10, 2021
The German 'sehr' (very) sounds somewhat like 'very', and considering they mean the same thing they aren't related; it is related to the English 'sore'. The Old English sār as a noun meant 'ache; wound' or 'grievous' as an adjective, which is not so far from the English today, but so did the Old High German 'sēr'. Indeed, much like 'awful' or 'terrify' are bad and 'awfully' and 'terrific' are merely emphatic, so too is 'sore' negative while 'sorely' is emphatic. Many other languages have related words, but most have stuck with the meaning regarding pain.
2493: druthers Oct 9, 2021
The word 'druthers' is almost always used in the plural form, though the singular is technically possible, and more common in the past. This is a bit strange, because the word originated in the US as an amalgamation of the phrase "I'd rather". These days, it is usually a noun as well, but it does sometimes appear as it might from the original contraction such as "I druther not", though this verb is more farcical, while the noun can be used in more serious contexts, relatively speaking.
2491: republic Oct 7, 2021
There is a prefix 're-' used either for repetition ('reshape'), negation ('react'), or intensity ('resound'), and while 'public' is a word 'republic' fits none of those above categories. This is because it comes from a Latin phrase, effectively a compound from 'rēpūblicā', the ablative form of 'rēspūblica'—the nominative [subject] form—meaning 'matter/thing of the people'. The loss of -S- is because 'rēspūblica' is two words, which are both being declined separately, and the -S- of 'rēs' (thing) doesn't appear in the form borrowed into other languages.
2477: Scotch Bonnet Sep 23, 2021
The Scotts are not known particularly for their spicy foods, and yet there is a hot, caribbean pepper named the Scotch bonnet. This is not because it has any particular relation to Scotland, but because of its supposedly similar resemblance to the tam o'shanter hat (also known as toorie bunnet): a round, woolen cap with a pom-pom. This name itself comes from the name of the hero in a poem by Robert Burns, perhaps the most famous writer in Scottish history.
2472: lime & limestone Sep 18, 2021
'Lime', as in 'limestone' or just the fruit, don't have anything to do with each other. Regarding the material, this is actually related to the word 'slime', both further related to German 'schleim' (mucus), Latin 'limus' (mud) and Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē) meaning, 'marsh'. This is later developed into words for glue—even now limestone is an ingredient in cement—and then again changed to denote the substance calcium oxide. The fruit on the other hand is from Persian لیمو (līmū). This is turn is likely from the Sanskrit निम्बू (nimbū) originally meaning 'lime' but which also influenced 'lemon'.
2471: lemon & citrus Sep 17, 2021
Around Europe, two different basic terms for 'lemon', or alternatively 'citron' are used, both very likely of Semitic origin though this is not certain. Ultimately, 'lemon', also found in Portuguese 'limão' and Spanish 'limón', along with a number of other Semitic and Nilo-Saharan languages comes from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn), itself from Persian and likely with a connection to the Sanskrit word for 'lime'. 'Citron' on the other hand, as in the French 'citron', German 'Zitron', or Italian 'cedro' is via the Latin 'citrus' from Greek, likely from a Mediterranean, pre-Greek root akin to the Arabic قَطْرَان (qaṭrān), which may have been used to describe the resins and only later the fruit itself. More on how limes fit into the story tomorrow.
2468: forest Sep 14, 2021
'Forest' is a word with cognates in both Germanic and Romance languages, but few with meanings like in English. Originally, the phrase was from Late Latin phrase 'forestis silva' (the outside woods) as a term to distinguish the royal forests, also called a 'park' (parcus). The actual Latin word 'silva' was misunderstood and they took 'forestis'. This replaced 'weald' in Old English (related to 'wald' in German), 'scough', originally Old Norse 'skógr', and Middle English 'firth'.
2467: steward, constable, & marshal Sep 13, 2021
'Steward' and 'constable' are not related, but with somewhat convergent meaning from a definitions which would now be virtually unrecognizable that were equally similar in the past. The 'ste-' of 'steward' is from the same root as 'sty' as in 'pigsty' and '-stable of 'constable also became 'stable', as in where livestock live. Therefore, a steward was the ward (i.e. guard) of a sty, and a constable was the guard of a stables. The meaning of 'steward' as general manager of estates or ships etc. came much later, both from natural development and especially from confusion on translation of French terms after the Conquest of 1066. 'Constable' totally synonymous with 'steward' for a time, though eventually these affairs constables oversaw became increasingly, later exclusively legal in nature, hence its meaning as police officer. Likewise, 'marshal' went through a quite similar transformation, from 'mare-shalk' (i.e. 'horse guard') to a general official title related to law enforcement, though this historical change happened from French.
2466: county Sep 12, 2021
Counties are named because they were ruled by counts, but at least in England, not to mention other places, these could have been ruled by other types of people, including earls, lords, dukes, etc.. Before this, the Old English used 'scir', an ancestor of the Modern English 'shire'. Moreover, 'count' comes from Old French which was meant to be a translation of 'earl' (O.E.: 'eorl') but 'count' was primarily used as a term for foreign leaders in particular.
2465: piano Sep 11,
'Piano' means 'soft' in Italian, and this might seem strange on its own considering the power of the instrument, but it is shortened from 'pianoforte', literally 'soft-loud', named for the fact it could alternate volume more than its predecessors, harpsichords and clavichords. The word for 'piano' was borrowed, but words of that same root had been around for some time before. Both 'plane' and 'plain' are related to each other come from the sense of level, smooth, broad, even etc..
2465: lamb & yean Sep 9, 2021
Old English had the word 'ēanian' (now 'yean') for 'to lamb' as a verb, but 'lamb' is an Old English word anyway too. This disparity comes from two different roots, but the verbal form is related to many Romantic or Slavic nouns like the Latin 'agnus' (lamb) or Serbo-Croatian ја̏гње (jȁgnje). 'Lamb' on the other hand is mostly related to modern Germanic cognates, and even the English 'elk'. These both come from different Proto-Indo-European roots that converged into the same meaning, and in some languages one became dominant. By the Middle Ages, 'lamb' won out in English.
2458: German Cake: Not Named for Germany Sep 4, 2021
The sort of chocolate cake known as 'German cake' is not only invented in America, but wasn't even supposed to be named after the country of Germany. Plenty of foods are named for their supposed region of origin like 'French fries' but in this case it was just named after a man Samuel German who started the Baker's Chocolate Company who named it "Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate".
2455: syphilis Aug 31, 2021
'Syphilis', since its arrival to Europe from the Americas took on a number of euphemisms including 'purple flower', 'great imitator', 'black lion', and so on. It might sound therefore that 'syphilis' is the scientific name is more straightforward, but this too is a sort of euphemism, coming from the name of a character in Girolamo Fracastoro's poem about a boy who insults a Greek deity and is cursed with a harsh disease. The poem actually used the spelling 'Syphilus' but this was changed in common spelling for the disease.
2450: Hebrew סלמון: Overproduced [l] Sound Aug 26, 2021
The Hebrew סלמון [salmon] is directly taken from the English, including the now-not-silent [l]. What makes this even more remarkable is that there was never a point in English the L was pronounced in 'salmon' and in Middle English the word was 'samoun'; before this the Old English 'leax' (related to ‘lox‘) was used. The L was added in association with the original Latin root, but it's unclear where this comes from. This process of adding traditional but unproductive letters from Latin was pretty common, as in 'indict' or 'island'.
2448: bankrupt Aug 24, 2021
'Bankrupt' is a compound word, and yet its latter element, '-rupt' holds no meaning. This on its own isn't rare, but it comes from an Italian figure of speech which itself is not a compound. Admittedly, were it a word '-rupt' could be just be thought of as related to 'rupture' and that would stand, coming from the same root ultimately, but the Italian 'banca rotta' (broken bench) figuratively refers to a bank that has gone out of business, that the bench was smashed. The terms 'bank' and 'bench' are related also in English with the common meaning as a place where things are deposited (including sand of a riverbank) and the benches of a bank were not actually smashed, at least not regularly to indicate business failure.
2444: garbage Aug 20, 2021
The '-age' suffix forms nouns indicating the action of a verb it modifies (i.e. 'leverage' or 'package') or aggregates as in 'mileage' or 'percentage'. That of the word 'garbage' does not fit neatly into one of those categories. It is not entirely clear where this word even comes from, but it is akin to the Old English 'ġearwian' meaning 'to make ready' or 'adorn' leading also to 'gear', and 'garb' as in clothes. This relation, also extended to Old French 'garber' (to refine; to neaten), eventually lead to its sense as kitchen scraps, especially of bits trimmed off meat. It is also probably related to or even influenced by 'garble' which used to only mean 'remove dirt/waste from spices'.