2423: Is 'Taurus' (Bull) Semitic? Aug 9, 2021
The Latin 'taurus', Greek ταύρος (tauros) and Lithuanian 'tauras' all could come from the Proto-Indo-European PIE *tau-ro- meaning 'bull', but this could actually be Semitic. The Aramaic for 'bull' is תור (tor), in Hebrew שור (shor), and Arabic ثور (thawr) and so on throughout the whole Semitic family. Meanwhile, many Indo-European languages do not have a word descended from this root, such as in many Indo-Iranian languages, or other related languages spoken further the East. Some notably may have exceptions to this, as in Persian or Avestan with a similar word for horses, or Sanskrit sthura- (thick; standing firm) related to the Old English 'steer'. It could be that those missing cases are simply lacking data, or that this is a wanderwort.
2403: date (palm) Jul 18, 2021
Palm trees are named for palms because of their resemblance to fingers. Less abstractly then, the date fruit may have been named fingers too. The English name is from the Greek δάκτυλος (dáktylos) meaning 'finger' as in 'polydactyl' or 'pterodactyl'. Some say this is from the fruit itself while others say it is also for the palm leaves, like the whole tree itself. Another theory gives this a Semitic root linking it to the same root as the Hebrew דקל (dekel) and that δάκτυλος (dáktylos) was only later associated by folk-etymology.
2389: Eritrea & Eretria Jul 3, 2021
Eritrea is a country, and Eretria is a Greek city. These are not as connected as one might falsely conclude however, even though the country 'Eritrea' gets its name from Greek, specifically Ἐρυθρὰ Θάλασσα (Erythra Thalassa) meaning 'Red Sea'. This name was given over by the Italians who colonized the land in 1890, but even when it was under the British or later Ethiopian control the name was retained. The nation has a number of different linguistic groups with no official language either from which to take another name. The Greek city is named Ερέτρια from the word ἐρέτης, (erétēs) meaning 'rower', giving the city the name translating as 'city of rowers'.
2377: moustache, mandible, & kemp Jun 21, 2021
The word 'mustache' (or 'moustache') has been the word for the hair above the upper-lip since the 16th century, from French but ultimately the Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax) meaning 'upper lip'. This in turn is from the root *mendʰ- (to chew) thereby connecting this word to 'mandible': an animal's jaw bone, as well as the French 'manger' (to eat). Before this, English used the word 'kemp'—itself related to 'chin' and more surprisingly, 'camp'. In Middle English, 'kempe' referred to coarse hairs but is not related to other words like 'comb' or 'unkempt'.
2354: gamut May 29, 2021
'Gamut' referring to the whole range of something originates with music. In fact, this really began as a phrase, from the medieval Latin 'gamma ut' with that being the lowest note on a G scale. This is from the Greek Γ (gamma) originally denoting the last a medieval scale in a hexachord—gamma appears 6th in Greek's alphabet—which was associated with the sound 'ut' in solfège i.e. ut, re, mi, fa.... Eventually this was applied to other scales with more notes and then ranges of anything.
2347: philanthropy vs. philandery May 22, 2021
Both 'philanthropy' and 'philandery' are doublets, coming from the very same Greek root of φίλ- (phil-) for 'love (of)' and while the latter halves may differ, the Greek ἄνθρωπος (anthropos) and ἀνήρ (andros) are understood to be variants cases of the word meaning 'man'. These had fairly similar meanings—certainly compared to today—in the past, but starting in the 18th century the term (or really name) was used for a lover in drama, poetry etc. with the word eventually meaning basically 'a flirt'. In the 20th century, the word gained even more serious way denoting a man with more serious romantic involvement with women than just flirting, with ''philanthropy' retaining its sense of 'charity'.
2345: Digamma: Greek's Ghost Letter May 20, 2021
The letter G effectively replaced the letter Z in the Latin alphabet, but in the Greek alphabet the letter Ζ,ζ was also affected in its order in the alphabeta. The Hebrew and Phoenician letters, zayin, are both 7th and as numerals means (7) as is true in Greek numerals despite it being 6th in order. This is because the letter Ϛ,Ϝ known as Digamma which used to be 6th was used and eventually disfavored, merging with Sigma—namely the Lunate Sigma—creating the only Greek letter with 3 distinct forms (capital, lower case, and word-final). This had originally represented the sound /w/ which no longer exists in Greek.
2326: gymnasium #2 May 1, 2021
The word 'gymnasium' in English is usually refers to a place where exercise is done, and in German it is the name for a type of a lower school usually at a high academic standard, but in Greek γυμνός (gumnós) means 'naked'. Indeed this word belongs to a larger family of European words descended from the Proto-Indo-European root *nogw- meaning 'naked'. In Ancient Greece, it was a standard community feature to have an open-air area for sports, all done in the nude, but eventually this developed into a place of training the body and even the mind, hence the English and German senses.
2324: manna Apr 29, 2021
The Biblical substance known as 'manna' in English is מָן (mon) in Hebrew, and I likewise in Arabic does not have this added [ə] at the end. This was definitely added in by the time of introduction of Greek to the region (which happened long before Arabic even existed) with the Greek μάννα (mánna) using this extra vowel and long [n]. This was probably not from Aramaic nor especially an Aramaic phrase though many early writings have claimed this origin for the word and particularly the added extra syllable from Greek.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
2262: alchemy Feb 24, 2021
No one knows the precise origin of the word 'alchemy', but that doesn't mean we can't learn a lot from it. For one thing, although there is a principle in more modern words for Arabic loan words, this is a case wherein the Arabic (al-) meaning 'the' does not turn into 'au-' in French, even though it was borrowed into English from Old French from an earlier Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء (al-kīmiyā). Beyond that, it is not quite certain. An even earlier in Greek χημεία (khēmeía) refers to a liquid mixture extracted from gold, not creating it, from a root meaning 'to pour', but many think it it originally Egyptian. At that, people aren't sure which word it would be, but the leading candidate seems to be Χημία (Khēmía), a name for Egypt itself literally meaning, 'black earth'. Indeed, as happens in many cases, the answer is likely influence from both sources, especially considering that there was a lot of cross-cultural contact in the Ancient world.
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.
2224: Lunate Sigma Jan 16, 2021
The Greek letter sigma is special in its design in a number of ways. It is the only to have 3 forms: Σ, σ, and ς (the last only found at the end of words), but even these are not the only way it's looked. The Lunate Sigma used in Greek of the Hellenistic period, was written in a C-like shape, now known as the Lunate Sigma (uppercase Ϲ, lowercase ϲ) called as such in reference to the Moon. This should not be confused for the Latin letter C/c. It only has two forms, laking the distinct word-final form that is found today. These days, it is mostly found in religious contexts or other decorative fonts.
2222: How 'Issue' Became a *Problem* Jan 14, 2021
The word 'issue' is gradually taking on more negative connotations from simply meaning 'topic of concern' to 'matter of difficulty'. This process is nothing new however, as seen in the word 'problem'. There are still neutral senses of that word such as in 'math problem' (some people may see that as personally negative but that feeling is extralinguistic). Historically, the word meant anything put forth as a matter of discussion, and its constituent elements 'pro-' (forward) '*-blem' (from Greek 'ballein' meaning 'throw') is also related to 'ballet', 'ballistics', and 'symbol'. In a semantic sense, it is also related even to 'promise' insofar as that comes from the same meaning in Latin 'pro-' and 'mittere' (to send; throw) or in other words something that was sent out beforehand.
2211: Mythical Explanations behind the Ionian Sea Jan 3, 2021
Ionia is an ancient region of Greek people, and some might assume that the Ionian Sea is connected to this in some way, but this is not necessarily true. The etymology for the name of the sea is actually unclear, especially since the region of Ionia was in modern day Turkey (Anatolia specifically) and other islands in the Aegean Sea, on the opposite side of Greek to the Ionian Sea. Even ancient historians and writers including Aeschylus were unsure about this, and gave mythical explanations including the idea that the mythical figure Io swam across it, or that the Ionians themselves had originally migrated from there, though this is unclear. Another mythical idea is that it is named for Ionius, whose father also has a mythical etymology associated with him (i.e. Adrias and the Adriatic Sea) but this is also not considered true.
2209: How 'Caramel' and 'Cannon' are Related through a Semitic Root Jan 1, 2021
The word 'caramel' and 'cane' in English may actually be related through a root found in Biblical Hebrew. Indeed, the list of related words would also include 'canal', 'channel', 'cannon', and 'canon'. This is because while the '-mel' of 'caramel' comes from the Latin word for honey (mel), the 'cara-' most like comes from the Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾱ (kánnā) from a Semitic root also leading to the Hebrew קנה (kanë) which as a verb means 'to take' but as a noun refers to a hollow tube, usually meaning 'reed' or 'windpipe'. This sense of a hollow stick was retained in the English words mentioned above like 'cannon' or 'cane' (e.g. sugarcane) etc.. 'Canon', a more conceptual sort of thing usually denoting cultural or especially literary and artistic collections might seem odd on that list, but the original sense of 'canon' was 'standard' or 'measured' in the literal sense of a measuring stick. The way this transformed into ‘cara-’ is also not immediately obvious, but in Greek the [r] became an [n] and in Latin this ‘cannamellis’ before morphing into ‘calamellus’, where in Spanish the [l] developed into an [r], which are fairly close sounds.
For more on how those sounds morph: see this on kiSwahili.
1576: daemon vs. demon Apr 8, 2019
'Daemon' today may just look like an older way of writing 'demon', and while there is some truth to that, it is much deeper. As with many English words with 'ae' or 'oe' representing only one sound, this word is from Greek. At that time, it could mean anything supernatural from 'deity' to 'lesser spirit', and this reflected somewhat in 'daemon', which still means 'divinity' or 'inner spirit'. The purely negative connotations came later, and are now denoted exclusively in 'demon', despite identical pronunciation. Indeed, 'demon' only became the popular way to write the word in the 19th century.
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