1851: poutine Jan 9, 2020
No one knows where 'poutine' comes from exactly, but there are some theories. A leading theory is that it comes from the word 'pudding', along the lines of other savory puddings. It also sounds quite similar, especially considering the differences between the French and Canadian English accents. It could also come from the Provençal 'poutingo' meaning "bad stew".
For more food related content: check out the new Word Facts Podcast from today.
1850: Math in Right-to-Left Scripts Jan 8, 2020
Just as languages written right-to-left present problems for sheet-music, math presents similar challenges. Indeed, while a great deal of math, including 'algebra' and 'Arabic numerals' were originally often right-to-left, Western dominance (and its own version of those numerals) has changed this. So, these days, many cultures will continue to write numbers and equations etc. left-to-right even if it appears in a right-to-left sentence like in Hebrew, whereas in other cultures, especially with Arabic, Persian etc. which have their own numerals and other symbols, they can do both. Generally however, they will use the Western numerals and work left-to-right.
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1849: wistful Jan 7, 2020
Although today the word 'wistful' relates to emotion, and specifically longing, this has not always been the case. Indeed, the word 'wist'—while generally uncommon today—was originally the past participle of 'wit', meaning knowledge, but another form, 'wistly', meant 'intently'. How it got to the point where it is now, no one knows, but many attribute its form to an association with 'wishful', and its prefered use in poetry.
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1848: dingo Jan 6, 2020
Dingos, in Australia, are known for looking like, and even breeding with, feral dogs, but they are native and not originally feral even. Indeed, while they may act so today, the word derives from 'dharuk din-gu', meaning ‘domesticated dingo/dog’. Moreover, early writings describe these as the only animals domesticated by the Aborigines.
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1847: gauche and wonky Jan 5, 2020
French's 'gauche' may not be a typical Romance derivative for 'left', but it is related to something that might surprise you. Both the English 'wonky' and to a far lesser extent 'wink' are related 'gauche', not because any of them had meant 'left', but because English words meant 'curved' or 'turn aside' and connotated 'awry'.
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1846: gauche and droit Jan 4, 2020
Left has long been associated with negative things. The word sinister comes from the Latin for 'left' (sinister) but the Romance language French has a totally different word for 'left'; they say 'gauche'. However, even that means 'awkward', so while the word is a different one, the meaning, ultimately, is not. Likewise, the French word 'droit' for 'right' is not from the Latin one 'dextrus', but is a doublet of the English 'direct'.
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1845: nefarious Jan 3, 2020
Many words have lost a certain amount of religious significance over time that still are used today. 'Adultery' is one, but also 'nefarious' is in another sense. Unlike 'adultery', 'nefarious' doesn't relate to any biblical law, but instead to all of them, coming from the Latin 'fas' meaning 'divine law; the 'ne-' is a negative suffix i.e. 'against divine law; wrong'. These days, 'nefarious' can denote any kind of wicked or otherwise criminal activity.
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1844: adultery Jan 2, 2020
Although there are plenty of words with both a legal or scientific and colloquial meanings, in the case of ‘adultery’, the legal meaning very much shaped the common one. Now, the word relates to an extramarital affair, and is illegal in many countries, hence the need for a specific definition. However, all marital notions are religious in origin, and therefore ‘adultery’ has had a far broader sense. Biblically speaking, what is thought of as adultery could relate—generally speaking—to anything forbidden sexually, including premarital intercourse, but also perversion and even lewdness.
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1843: secular Jan 1, 2020
The word 'secular' has been around for a long time, but has only been antonymous with 'religious' since the Enlightenment. Before this, it meant 'of generations' and related to the passage of time in a fairly areligious sense. Even after the shift in meaning however, it is often difficult to transfer this term to other, non-western cultures, because many other religions do not hold the natural and supernatural world as dichotomous. This has led to Japan being legislatively both a secular and Shintoist nation.
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1842: Redundancy of כ/ך in Hebrew Dec 31, 2019
Along with the actually redundant letters, Hebrew has a few—like in English—which become redundant in certain contexts. For instance, כ, which also appears as ך at the ends of word can be just a plain [k]. However, it appears a [x]—like the Scottish 'loch'—after any vowel. In this way, the sound is not entirely redundant, but there are two other letters that represent those sounds respectively and exclusively, namely ק and ח. This is not unlike the situation with C, which could be replaced by either S or K in most situations, but also can be affected, sort of, morphologically, such as 'fanatiC' to 'fanatiCism'.
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1841: Emphatic צ in Ancient Hebrew Dec 30, 2019
As with ט and ת, there are some ways that Hebrew writing has become somewhat obsolete. In another case, though less extreme, the letter צ (pronounced 'ts', like the German 'z') used to be emphatic, such that it was aspirated differently (obstructed) before certain other sounds (more details here), such that it would be pronounced like an S, sort of, namely [s^ʕ]. However, there are already two letters that represent [s] without such obstruance, that is, ס and ש. Unlike with ט and ת for [t] however, this differentiation still exists, just without any pharyngealization (think: vocal fry) found in ancient Hebrew. More on the transformation of Hebrew letters tomorrow.
1840: Emphatic ט in Ancient Hebrew Dec 29, 2019
Hebrew orthography has 3 letters that represent silence, sort of, as well as two ways to represent [t], and two ways to represent [s]. However, this was not always so redundant. Of the two ways to represent the sound [t] in Modern Hebrew ט and ת, both have changed over time, but ט has changed more minimally. This letter used to be emphatic, meaning the air was immediately blocked after making the sound. This feature was lost to time however, due to influences from Indo-European languages, just like with Maltese. More on this tomorrow
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1839: Ròu in Chinese Culture Dec 28, 2019
In English, the existence of 'pork' reveals a bit about history and culture, and in its own way the same is true for the Chinese 肉 (ròu) meaning 'meat' or 'flesh'. In China, the most popular meat, by far, is pork, so much so that it is generally taken that when not specified 肉 simply means 'pork'. Other elements are necessary to express other words 牛肉 (niú ròu) is 'beef' and 桃肉 (Táo ròu) is something like 'peach pulp'.
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1838: rule of thumb (myths) Dec 27, 2019
There is a myth that the phrase "rule of thumb" originates from a law concerning the width of stick one could beat his wife with. However, there is no evidence for any such law existing, and indeed, the first connection to a court—via unsubstantiated personal comments from a judge—follows the first recorded use of the phrase as we still use it today by about a century. In that quote, it is also contrasted with "square and rule", which is definitely just a term relating to precise measurements.
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1837: 'Rough' in the Military Dec 26, 2019
The military has given English—just as in many other languages—a lot of terminology, but also a lot of colloquialisms. Both 'rough-and-tumble' and 'rough-and-ready' are originally from the military, though it may be more fair to say that the latter was a general term for a style of free-fighting. Read more about 'rough' here.
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1836: History of "Answer Me, Oh My Love" Dec 25, 2019
One of Nat King Cole’s most famous songs “Answer Me, Oh My Love”, was originally a German one, “Mütterlein”; still, this may not be the most significant way it changed. When the song was written again in English in 1953, it was called “Answer Me, Lord Above”. Originally aired in the UK—not covered by Nat King Cole until the next year—the song was banned from the BBC for containing lyrics considered too religious. You can still hear some traces of the religious language in Cole’s 1954 cover. See the example below.
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Frankie Laine:
“Answer me, Lord above:
Just what sin have I been guilty of?
Tell me how I came to lose my love.
Please answer me, oh, Lord.”
Nat King Cole:
“Answer me, oh my love:
Just what sin have I been guilty of?
Tell me how I came to lose my love.
Please answer me, sweetheart.”
1835: rough, rugged, and ragged Dec 24, 2019
Most people would probably want to see a man look rugged as opposed to ragged, or otherwise rough, but almost indubitably those terms are all related somewhere down the line. Although these words, and others, including just 'rug' and 'rag' meaning 'unkempt' in some sense or another all have old Germanic roots, and cognates in languages like Norwegian and Scotts, they have also changed a great deal over time; they relate to one's character, visage, and even decor (rug originally meant anything woolen and shaggy) but none have totally strayed from the root.
If there's another term that could belong here, write it in a comment. You can also support Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts
1834: sheriff, shire, and sharif Dec 23, 2019
There is a myth among some that the word 'sheriff' either originates from or is somehow otherwise related to 'sharif', as in a Muslim ruler or magistrate. This is not true. Although the meanings are similar enough in some ways, especially including the Scottish use of the word as 'judge', it actually dates back to Old English. Indeed, the word 'scīrgerēfa' is also related to the modern 'shire', from the meaning of 'area of care, concern', and also 'reeve', as in a Medieval local official.
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1833: yenta Dec 22, 2019
Made famous by 'Fiddler on the Roof", there is some confusion about the meaning of 'Yente'. Some people think this is matchmaker—this was only her job in the story—but what simply started as a surname has indeed morphed into a word in English, in some communities, meaning 'gossip'. However, the name itself actually originated as a variant of 'Yentl' (יענטל) from Italian meaning literally 'gentile'. To be clear, this is not to say it meant 'non-Jew', but instead 'noble'.
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1832: alarm and alert Dec 21, 2019
If you’ve ever dreaded your morning alarm, you probably didn’t dread it as much as those who created the word incidentally. The word comes originally as an exclamation, initially from Italian ‘allarme’ and then eventually brought to English from “all’ arme” meaning “to arms” used in the military (and not “all arm!“ though that is not so different). It is not related to ‘alert', from “à l’erte” though the two are connected insofar as they are both compounds, this one meaning “to the watchtower”.
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