2359: fellow Jun 3, 2021
The word 'fellow' has both casual and general connotations as would 'guy' but can also convey some level of union and equality, not to mention its use for academia and professional endeavors. It is from the original notion of a peer in a union that the other meanings arise. In fact, the original meaning was of a partnership but specifically one of joint properties from the Germanic word 'félag’ via Old Norse. This itself is from 'fé' (livestock) and 'lag' (cohabitation; guild) and these roots also led to 'fee' and 'law' eventually, the latter initially just the plural form of 'lag'.
2348: wright and macIntyre May 23, 2021
Many surnames derive from occupations, even though those terms are not really in use anymore, such as with 'Baxter'. This is so with the name 'Wright', from the Old English 'wryhta' meaning 'worker' specifically regarding wood. Hence this is where names like Shipwright and Cartwright come from as these are just compounds using that. The Norman French 'carpentier' eventually replaced this, but in some parts of Scotland the word is still used for tradesmen and they have a surname 'MacIntyre', literally 'son of a wright' from 'saoir' (carpenter).
2331: narwhal May 6, 2021
The word 'narwhal' unsurprisingly has the root of 'whale', but the spelling comes from Old Norse. The name really originates with the Old Norse 'náhvalr' which likely metathesized from 'nár' meaning 'corpse' in reference to its white-gray skin. This root 'nár' is related to the English 'need' which connotes lacking, and historically meant a severe shortage or extreme poverty. This is related to Old English 'ne; neo' and the Old Irish 'naunae' (famine).
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.
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.
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'.
2280: wrong, wrangle, worry and wring Mar 14, 2021
The suffix -le can signal diminutives but also it is retained as a historic suffix to mark the frequentative form which once expressed repeated action over multiple instances. This is the case in 'wrangle' for instance which comes from Low German 'wrangeln' (to wrangle) but from the root 'wrangen' (to strangle). This led to the split in the English 'wrangle' and 'wring' which likewise lost the W in the German 'rangeln' (wrestle), and related to the Dutch 'vringle' (twist). The sense of twisting of truth also elucidates the connection there with 'wrong'—this being a common Germanic root each time eventually gaining the same moral connotations—and 'worry', which originally meant 'choke'.
2279: wrongness vs. wrength Mar 13, 2021
The traditional nominal form of 'wrong' is 'wrength' as opposed to today's 'wrongness'. It is not, however, entirely clear where that would have come from. Obviously it would not be irregular considering long-length, strong-strength, etc. but the probable Old English *wrengþu is unattested. It could therefore be that the Middle English 'wrength' is backformed from words like 'strength' with that pattern being applied later onto 'wrong' (historically, 'wrang'). Either way, it's all but lost these days.
2276: nonce Mar 10, 2021
A number of modern words are the result of wrong division, i.e. splitting or affixing sounds across multiple words such as in 'napkin' or 'adder' which respectively gained and lost an [n] due to the indefinite article 'an'. This is not the only word for which it has happened though, as can be seen with 'nonce' meaning 'a single occasion' as in "it worked for the nonce". This is connected, unsurprisingly to 'once' but with wrong division from a Middle English word 'þan' (than) as in 'þan anes'. In fact, 'anes' in 'once' and 'nonce' is actually from the genitive form of 'one' (ān) as in "of one". Separately, 'nonce' is also British slang but it has nothing in relation to the other meaning. It couldn’t possibly have been from ‘an’ as with the other words mentioned above as is commonly expected in cases of wrong division, since that has the same root as the ‘one/once’ in ‘nonce’ itself.
2270: Elves in Old English Compounds Mar 4, 2021
Elves have not only had a lasting impression on given-names (conceptually speaking), but historically there was a much greater presence of elf-based compounds. For instance ælfadl (nightmare) literally 'elf-disease' and ælfsogoða (hiccough) or 'elf-heartburn'. Elves, seen as malicious creatures, were thought by many to cause many afflictions. Indeed, the phrase elf-lock is still used today to refer to tangled hair. In a distant sense, this may also be related to the 'Alps' mountain range.
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.
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.
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.
2202: harbor and harbinger Dec 25, 2020
The words 'harbor' and 'harbinger' are related, but the meanings have since changed overtime. While a harbinger today is anyone who acts as a forerunner to something else, and a harbor is a place along the coast to keep boats, the original meaning of both regarded personal lodging. A harbinger was someone who was sent ahead of an army or noble to arrange the lodgings or even could refer to the innkeeper himself. A harbor used to have a more general meaning referring to any sort of shelter but especially that of an army, from the Old English 'here-beorg' (i.e. like 'burg') meaning 'army city'. This is also where the 'g' comes from in 'harbinger', with the 'n' coming on the same pattern as 'message-messenger'.
2196: pure Dec 19, 2020
It is not uncommon for simple, fairly basic, more conceptual terms to have deep historical roots, but this isn't really true of 'pure'. Indeed, this word is found as a surname and as part of a compound before an adjective in its own right. Granted, that compound was 'purlamb' and referred to a lamb without any sort of physical defect. This word is from a Romantic root without much difference in meaning, and indeed the Proto-Indo-European one *peue- doesn't have too many semantically deviant derivatives. This replaced the earlier Old English 'hlutor', 'smǣte', and 'scǣre' which had some of the same sort of moral and genetic connotations etc. but 'pure' did not immediately have these either.
2194: mood Dec 17, 2020
With long winter nights, many people are bound to get moody, but that said 'mood' used to have a much stronger connotation. Indeed, while many of the uses it had are similar to those of today, essentially meaning 'frame of mind', or even more strongly than today 'pride' or 'power' and 'violence', its uses don't end there. The Old English 'mod' meant 'mind; intellect', and would be used as a translation for the Latin 'animus' (spirit) and 'mens' (mind). The senses back then were not only broader but also used in compounds like 'modcræftig' (intelligent). From that now, while 'mood' on its own is fairly neutral, other connotations as in 'moody' or 'to be in a mood' are more negative. Keep in mind also that this was influenced by the use of 'mood' as it is found in grammar or music indicating a class of functions but that that meaning actually comes from an entirely separate etymology.
2185: Words for 'Proud' Dec 8, 2020
The majority of Indo-European languages use the same basic pattern for words for 'proud', with both negative and positive senses. The pattern tends to be a compound with words for 'more' or 'over', and words for 'mood', 'thought' or sometimes 'appearances'. Some examples of this would include the Old English 'ofermodig' (over-moody) and 'heahheort (high-heart), or the Greek υπερήφανος 'hyperephanos' (over-appearing). In certain other cases there is a physical sense of being swollen or inflating such as the Welsh 'balch'.
2177: 'Man' as an Interjection Nov 30, 2020
The path that led to the current uses of 'man' is a long and storied one. In addition to the varied uses it has as a noun, it is also an exclamation because that it used to be a pronoun. That might seem strange, but in Old English it meant what 'one' means now (pronominally) but it was also used generically for humanity, but by the Middle Ages it was used for familiar address, sort of like how 'bro' (or also still 'man') are used today. It is from this sense that it is believed that in the 15th century it started to be used as as interjection to express shock or just emphasis. Since then it has only become more popular.
2164: Collective Plurals Nov 17, 2020
While English has a number of single-syllable collective nouns that have the same plural and singular forms (sheep; fish; folk), this used to be somewhat more systematic. While some of these patterns are still true for certain regions, weights, measures, and units of time did not use -s. This is mostly retained in more traditional dialects, and would look like “4 pound_ of flour,” “the rope was yard_ long”, or “over 3 year_ ago“. This can also be true of strong nouns such as ‘foot’ but in any case overall this process, starting in the Middle Ages, effected nouns to be treated as plurals of count nouns rather than collectives [mass nouns].
2160: lady & lord Nov 13, 2020
These days, ‘lady’ connotes nobility or otherwise upper class, well-mannered, or even just particularly feminine qualities in a woman, but it originally meant ‘bread-kneader’. That said, even if baking bread is not necessarily what would be thought of with a ‘lady’ today, even in Old English ‘hlǣfdīge’ (loaf-kneader) nevertheless denoted a woman to whom homage and fealty was paid, as in the wife of a lord. This word was also strongly associated with the Virgin Mary, and hence many plants and also ‘ladybugs’ are named from this source. The first half of the word ‘hlǣf-‘ is associated with ‘loaf’ and ‘dīge’ while indicating action, is related to ‘dough’ and also ‘dairy’. The reduction now to ‘lady’ is not so odd considering the there was a common assimilation of the suffix ‘-ig’ in Old English to ‘-y’ in Modern English, but the -f- did not drop out until the 14th century, around the time when the word had gained connotations to higher society and chivalry. Indeed, it was not a form of address for a normal woman until the late 19th century. ‘Lord’ comes from ‘hlafweard’ meaning similarly ‘loaf-guard’, related to ‘warden’, though keep in mind this word was not so common until the Middle Ages before which ‘dryhten‘ was prefered. Moreover, tying this all together, the Old English for ‘servant’ was ‘hlafæta’ or literally ‘loaf'-eater’.
