2333: flange May 8, 2021
A group of monkeys is traditionally called a 'congress' (in more ways than one) but another word has been growing in popularity. In a British comedy sketch with Rowan Atkinson the word 'flange' was used as a term for a group of baboons and since then the word has stuck. The term is now used both informally but even in academic work it has cropped up as a way to describe groups of monkeys.
2325: nanny goat Apr 30, 2021
The term 'nanny goat' has been used to refer to a child's nurse and a domestic she-goat. It would be reasonable to assume that the term for the occupation existed either first or independently of the goat especially considering there were plenty of other terms from the 17th and 18th century that use 'nanny' in a variable sense but this is not true. The goat was an actual goat who would act as a sort of wet-nurse to a child who didn't have a mother, or whose mother couldn't or wouldn't lactate. When this term mostly replaced 'she-goat', 'billy goat' emerged to mostly replace 'he-goat'.
2313: Star Wars Numeration Apr 16, 2021
Many people have been confused by the fact that the first of the Star Wars released was #4, but this is partly because it's not entirely true. The numeration began in 1981's with the first film's rerelease, and when the next film came out. Granted, that still means that they were called IV and V before there were an episode I or II, riding on the first film's success and quickly planning both sequels and prequels. Thus, Star Wars was only retroactively officially named as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
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.
2311: Mozart's Middle Name Apr 14, 2021
Mozart had many middle names, but Amadeus was never one of them. His full baptismal name is Latinized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart though he went also by other versions of this in his typical German-speaking contexts, reverting 'Wolfgangus' to 'Wolfgang', and Theophilus, which is Greek, he used the translated Gottlieb (lover of G-d). It is from this final name where Amadeus emerges, since this is also the Latin translation but evidence shows that he would have only ever used the Italian 'Amadeo' and French 'Amadè' in those respective contexts; since he used the Greek alongside the other Latinized forms in his names, he would not have actually used Amadeus. It is only in his death records that he is listed as "Wolfgang Amadeus", which variably uses a German and then Latin form.
2310: Beyond MI5 and MI6...Even MI19 Apr 13, 2021
The UK's Directorate of Military Intelligence, beginning in its earliest stages by 1873, the only remnants of which are the MI5 (mostly domestic: counter-terrorism, counter-espionage and military police) and the MI6 (monitoring economic intelligence and arms trafficking). Not only were there at other points MI1-MI4, but all the way up to MI19. Primarily these operated during WWII, and were either completely dissolved (such as MI14 used to monitor Germany through aerial photography and messenger pigeons in WWII), merged into other organizations altogether, or in the case of MI3, MI8, and MI10, merged with MI6 in the 1940's. MI13 was never used.
2300: Rocky Origins of QWERTY Apr 3, 2021
The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, marketed as the Remington No. 1, saw the introduction of the QWERTY keyboard, so named for its arrangement of four rows of keys. in the order we are familiar with now around the globe. It was not until the Remington No. 2 however that this would gain any popularity. For one thing, it only had capital letters, and it was not possible to see what was being written as one wrote, known as a blind writer. It was also expensive and took training to operate, with all of these factors and generally poor marketing leading to a popular lack of enthusiasm. Still, the 1874 design did lay the foundation for its more successful successor, and now ubiquity among the adoption of its keyboard layout, at least with English. Other languages such as French will use different arrangements of keys for the same keyboard; in the case of French it is known as the AZERTY. In both cases, there were competitors who introduced other layouts, but these never caught on.
2278: Mandatory Talmud in Korea Mar 12, 2021
The South Korean constitution guarantees that "religion and state shall be separated" but parts of the Talmud, a Jewish religious texts, is part of the national curriculum, even in primary schools. This isn't for any specific religious reason, but that in the latter half of the 20th century it was brought over and translated by rabbis in Japan where in both countries it was seen as a means of modelling Jews' high academic standards. Tae Zang publishing house originally printed its "5,000 Years of Jewish Wisdom" in 1974 followed by many others in Korean and China, with many Koreans using black-market talmudic translations.
2272: Intro to Hunsurik: Brazil's Own German Mar 6, 2021
The language of Hunsurik, a German language spoken in Brazil, in many ways mirrored the historical process seen in the development of German in the 18th and 19th centuries. In those times, there was no standard German, neither in spelling nor in dialect. Eventually in the early 19th century this started to take place in Germany along with the unification of the country around what is now the standard, but with mass immigration to the Americas, German use in Brazil instead involved the Hunsrück dialect in part due to numerical superiority among the German immigrants. The spelling as well does not resemble that of Standard German, resembling certain aspects of Dutch and Portuguese orthography, but despite having around 3 million speakers and a number of school its writing is not standardized or even completely codified.
2265: Disparity in Yiddish Use between Men and Women Feb 27, 2021
These days, more men speak Yiddish than women. In certain communities of course, everyone speaks Yiddish often monolingually (or along with being able to read Hebrew). Still, for those for whom it is a second language, because much of modern Yeshiva study—exclusively for men—is still taught in Yiddish while women's seminaries generally use Modern Hebrew, there is a notable disparity.
אַ פֿרײליכן פורים
2260: stocks Feb 22, 2021
Stock markets these days might use some of the fastest computers out there, but the initial sense of the word 'stock' is directly related to trees with the Old English 'stoc' meaning 'trunk' or 'block'. Unsurprisingly too, it is related to the word 'stick'. Beyond that however, the connection between foliage and finance is unclear. It could be related to the idea of futures being an outgrowth or a stable foundation, being likened to branches though no one really knows. It could possibly be influenced by tally sticks used throughout the Ancient and Medieval world to keep records for taxes and other deals.
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'.
2232: Nacirema Jan 24, 2021
'Nacirema' is a term used in sociology as a way to describe American or otherwise broadly Western behaviors in a way one might do for other cultures in a somewhat voyeuristic manner. The term was coined in 1956 as a reverse of the spelling of 'American' and was first used in the article "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" as a satirical piece describing mid-50's grooming, pharmaceuticals and basic aspects of history in the way some might describe foreign, tribal cultures. Though initially just published as a one-time event in American Anthropologist, several other papers by other authors came to use this term for similar effect.
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.
2219: Finnish Borrowing from Itself—Jan 11, 2021
Finnish is known for taking on lots of loan words, but it has even loaned some of its own, sort of. On the water by Finland’s capital lies Iso Huopalahti (felt bay), which was earlier Haapalaksi, with ‘-laksi’ being an older form of ‘lahti’ and ‘haapa’ means ‘aspen’. Note that both ‘huopa’ (felt) and ‘haapa’ (aspen) both borrow from Germanic roots for those words. While changing a name from Huopalahti to Haapalaksi might not seem so crazy, the reason for this comes from the Swedish name ‘Hoplax’—the area is bilingual—which comes from ‘Haapalaksi’. This means that Huopalahti [Finnish] comes from Hoplax [Swedish, a Germanic language], from Haapalaksi [Finnish] ultimately from another Germanic word, though this last point is not strictly related. This does happen in other languages too, such as the French ‘biftèque’, a direct loan of the English ‘beefsteak’, with ‘beef’ once replacing the (Old) English ‘cū‘ (cow).
2217: 'piping' hot Jan 9, 2021
The phrase 'piping hot' is pretty common, but the pipes in question might not be immediately evident. This is probably not how the word would be used today, but the phrase is attested since the 14th century from Chaucer:
He sente hir pyment meeth and spiced ale
And wafres pipyng hoot out of the glede.
[He sent her sweetened mead and well-spiced ale
And waffles piping hot out of the fire]
It is generally understood these days that the 'piping' in question is in reference to a sizzling or boiling sound from cooking likened to musical pipes.
2179: cyprian plague Dec 2, 2020
It is very common to name diseases after the places associated therewith, like Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and Ebola. This is not the case with the Cyprian plague per se, a plague which affected the eastern and especially southeastern part of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD. One might it think started in or around the island of Cyprus, but actually the plague is named after St. Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage; it is thought to have actually originated in Ethiopia. He documented the disease at the time, and so it is associated with his name. Be careful also, because ‘cyprian’ on its own means ‘prostitute’, and so the adjective now used is ‘cypriot’.
2174: Why Merchants Prefered Roman Numerals Nov 27, 2020
While Arabic numerals eventually won out (or one out, some might say), for most of European history Roman numerals were used. Part of the reason that a few centuries ago Roman numerals were prefered was that the most common need for writing them was not with mathematics per se but with commerce. Merchants prefered to use Roman numerals because they are not so easy to counterfeit because they fall into a particular order, whereas in Arabic numerals someone could just add more digits. Moreover there were actual anti-counterfeit measures built in, such as how the terminal I (representing 1) would be written as a J for instance: XXIIJ (23) so that no one could just add extra digits.
2157: America's Geographic Easter-Egg—Point Udall Nov 10, 2020
The easternmost and the westernmost in the US are named Point Udall; this is a surname, but it isn't named after the same person. By travel distance in the territorial US, the westernmost part of Guam was named after Arizona congressman, Morris Udall, who was on the House Subcommittee on Insular and International Affairs. Meanwhile in 1968, the easternmost part of the Virgin Island meanwhile is named for his brother Stewart Udall, also a congressman from Arizona. It was explained that the "America's day would begin and end at a Point Udall".
2155: Rhode Island Just Changed its Name Nov 8, 2020
This week has seen much political change in the USA, but what is getting less publicity perhaps is that Rhode Island just changed its official name. Up until now, it was known as "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". During the British colonial period, Rhode Island only referred to one island, now called Aquidneck Island and the Providence Plantation was the remaining land, not ulike how Maine is named for the mainland, since most people lived on the coastal islands there. Back in those times, plantations related to farms, certainly, but was another word for colony and in this case had nothing to do with slavery. The fact is, however, that enough people felt uncomfortable with the word through unfortunate historical connotations that it was changed in the election.