1611: arkansas and kansas May 13, 2019
'Kansas' and 'Arkansas' sound different, but look really similar. They are both US states named for the same thing, the Kansas River, but the name ultimately comes from the kká:ze tribe. The French originally controlled this area before the United States did, and much like 'Illinois', or 'Laos', the S in the spelling was not supposed to represent a sound. Indeed, in early Kansas history, it didn't; the original name comes from the river, so in this case it is possessive: the Kansa's River. The extra syllable in Arkansas is thought to come from a variant used by the Quapaw tribe to pronounce the kká:ze tribe's name, and the R was added to reflect the non-rhoticity of the Southern accent.
1610: Navajo Horses and Dogs: Pets and Sh*t Pets | May 12, 2019
1609: The 1st Dictionary Didn't have X | May 11, 2019
Johnson's 1755 dictionary was the first to add definitions, but it did not contain a section for the letter X. His rationale for this was that no English word began with it. In some sense, especially in 1755, that was true. Xylophones did not exist, and x-rays didn't either, but even so, most of the words that have X were, and still are, from Greek, and his dictionary did not include many technical terms; of the 250,000-odd words in English at the time, he only included 42,773. Moreover his dictionary was focused on promoting English, so including foreign words would not have helped in this goal. Read yesterday's post about this dictionary here.
1608: Johnson's Definition of Oats | May 10, 2019
In Johnson's 1755 dictionary, among the nearly 43,000 definitions, he included the famous 'oats': 'a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' Aside from being a sick burn—or in Scotland a 'sick Burns'—at the time, the dictionary also established itself not only as a wordlist but it also included quotes from historical and literary figures to bolster national pride. Many people attribute the snide definition of 'oats' as reminiscent of a Pliny quote which relates the same idea about Germanic peoples.
1607: slavey May 9, 2019
Many names for Native American tribes were decided by other groups. This is called an exonym, and possibly nowhere has as many as Germany, but in the Americas, sometimes tries are named after seemingly random words, as in the case of 'Ojibwe'. However, like what happened with 'Germany' and its many foreign names, the Slavey tribe was named because the Cree often referred to enemy tribes pejoratively as 'slaves', as they would often enslave them. The French first took this Cree name and translated it as 'esclaves', and this was then transferred into English. The Slavey people often call themselves Dene.
1606: blockbuster May 8, 2019
If a movie bombs, that is to say is does poorly, but if a movie is a blockbuster—the name for a type of bomb—it means it had commercial success. The term 'blockbuster' comes from the '40's when the word referred to a bomb powerful enough to demolish a city-block. The first movie known to be called a 'blockbuster' was the 1943 and 1944 the war dramas 'Bombardier', 'Bataan', and 'With the Marines at Tarawa', quite fittingly and probably somewhat of a play on words. However, quickly after the term moved away from war and meant something—usually a film—with a big impact. The relation to the bomb was also strengthened by the national attention on war during WWII, and only survived afterwards by some luck.
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1605: adam's apple May 7, 2019
Adam's apples are more prominent on men than women, so it was deemed fitting to name it after the first man, Adam (אדם). It doesn't look much like an apple, but that's because the biblical imagery doesn't end there. The thyroid cartilage of the larynx is usually referred to as Adam's apple after the idea that a piece of the forbidden fruit, popularly conceived of as an apple was lodged in Adam's throat. For more on why the forbidden fruit is referred to as an apple, see here.
Over the last few days, there have been posts about the larynx, so read all about the larynx here.
1604: How Birds Have Such a Vocal Range: Syrinx | May 6, 2019
Most of the sounds produced by human speech is done through the tongue, lips, nasal tract, larynx, and teeth. Birds have very few of those physical attributes, save tongue, and yet are able to produce an amazing range of notes. This is because, instead of a larynx, they have a syrinx, which is a type of larynx, but rather than being at the top of the esophagus, it is at the bottom. They also have two sets of vocal folds (human have only one) and are able to manipulate them both separately at the same time. This is how they are able to produce much of the range of sounds they can, though their tongue and beaks do play a factor as well.
For even more on 'syrinx', see here.
1603: syringe and syrinx May 5, 2019
As discussed yesterday, 'syrinx' means pipes, both in the context of windpipes and pan pipes from Greek mythology, but it also lead other, less familiar looking words. 'Syringe' for instance also comes from 'syrinx'. This is a different sort of pipe, or in this case chanel, but as a medical term it is not surprising to see something from Greek. Notably, both words in question start with 'sy-', but for a short time, 'syrinx' was also spelt with 'su-'. More will be discussed about this tomorrow.
1602: larynx, pharynx, and syrinx May 4, 2019
Humans are able to make different vibrations, such as in the difference between [s] and [z] using the larynx. The etymology of this word is not totally certain, though it has meant 'upper windpipe' since the days of Latin; what is more certain is that is was influenced by the word 'pharynx', which is also a word for the windpipe, particularly in invertebrates, again from Latin. Still related though is the word 'spirynx', which is a larynx in the lower windpipe that birds have, except rather than just having Latin roots, this word comes from the name of the nymph in the story of Pan. In the story, the pursued nymph asked to be turned into reeds to escape, but Pan turned them into 'pan pipes' to play. The physiology of the syrinx will be discussed this week.
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1601: snipe and sniper May 3, 2019
"Going on a snipe hunt" is another way of saying "fool's errand", or indeed "wild goose chase", and in North America is used as a way to describe a useless task. However, while their speed, size, and irregular flight paths have made them notoriously hard to catch, the snipe also gave rise to the word 'sniper', as people needed to use camouflage and high-precision rifles to get these birds.
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1600: The Most Insulting Bird Name May 2, 2019
1599: wealth and health May 1, 2019
The words 'wealth' and 'health' rhyme, which makes sense even just looking at the spelling, but this was less of a guarantee than it might appear now. 'Health' comes from Old English in which the vowel was 'ǣ'—like the vowel in 'pal'—but the words 'heal' also comes from this, and 'hail' is related, so these vowels have all changed independently over time. Moreover, 'wealth' comes from either 'well' or 'weal', which has a closer meaning but doesn't sound as similar. Either way, the spelling of 'wealth' and not 'wellth' was done so not in spite of but because following the pattern of the spelling for 'health'. Read about the Word Theory concerning this word in practice here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/26458445
1598: Calgary's Rivers: Elbow and Bow Apr 30, 2019
The city of Calgary in Canada is named after a town in Scotland, but its native name comes from the Siksiká word 'Mohkínstsis' meaning 'elbow'. This is true of the name in Nakota and Nehiyaw names as well, referring to the bend of the surrounding rivers, aptly named the Elbow River and Bow River. The former river is named for the same reason, but the Bow Rivers not named for the shape of a bow (or elbow), but because of the reeds that grow around it, which were used to fashion bows for archery.
1596: Territories that are Commonwealths Apr 28, 2019
As discussed yesterday, some US states are also commonwealths, and while this means little in those cases, the two are not synonymous when it comes to the commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Mariana Islands. Unlike with the states, those territories were never British colonies, and so were not under British common law. Instead, here this recalls the definition of 'commonwealth' as in "for the wealth (i.e. wellbeing) of the community"; in other words it is a self-governing community but not an independant one. Because of the multitude of connotations however, using the term 'territories' is probably clearer.
1597: calgary Apr 29, 2019
Like many cities in Canada, and elsewhere in the anglophone world, 'Calgary' is named directly for another city in Britain. While this might be pretty cut-and-dry for Canada, British place names come from many places, usually Celtic, Old Norse, or Old English varieties. In the case of Calgary, the name is actually disputed between these. The town in Scotland was near a Viking settlement, and many believe that the name comes from 'kald' 'gart', meaning 'cold garden'. Alternatively, the name might come from the Gaelic 'Cala ghearraidh' meaning 'beach of the meadow' i.e. a pasture or field. For more on British place-names, click here.
1595: States that are Commonwealths Apr 27, 2019
1594: firm Apr 26, 2019
Word like 'note, 'bill', and as discussed yesterday, 'bank', all existed before the modern understanding of banking was invented; indeed this is true often because of how new the practice is relatively, but also how gradually it started. Often, though not always, related to financing is the noun 'firm', which unexpectedly is related to adjective, but less obviously it is also related to 'farm'. The word comes from Latin meaning 'fixed', but this has less to do with fixed location and more to do with fixed contracts for tax and rent. Eventually, the word came to mean a fixed contract in a more general sense for something with fixed transaction rates. Naturally, this moved from landownership exclusively as society evolved with the word.
1593: bank Apr 25, 2019
One might think of a bank—the institution, not the shore—today as intimidating or large, but this is not quite how it started out. While there has long been the notion of a bank as a place to deposit and keep things, such as in 'food-bank' or indeed sentiment on a riverbank, and this could include money, the word for the bank as an institution comes from the simple benches and tables that merchants, especially Italian ones used to conduct business. Indeed, while the 'riverbank' and the financial 'bank' has separate but related etymologies, the same can be said for 'bank' and 'bench'.
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1592: A Fish That Was Never a Fish: crayfish
Crayfish are not true fish, but their name is not so totally misnomered as it might first appear. 'Crayfish', and the later variant 'crawfish' come from the French 'crevice', originally from a Germanic word related to the modern word 'crab', having the natural relation to another crustacean. It was only later on that the latter syllable of 'crevice' had altered and became understood as 'fish' by association.
Check out the new Word Theory about why the word 'religion' might be so tricky to nail down.