1891: Squitter Feb 18, 2020
Although the notions of hyena noises and watery diarrhea seem disparate, there is one word that can describe both: squitter. Although rare in both cases, and archaic in the latter, 'squitter'—also used in radio—refers to random pulses. This therefore described a certain type of radio frequency, bowel movements, and occasionally the method of hyena communication.
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1890: Intensive Forms (Binyanim) Feb 17, 2020
Certainly there are intensive forms for certain words like 'shatter' to 'break', but these sorts of form exist well beyond just the lexicon or phrases, like 'bloody well' in "I bloody well will do that". In Hebrew, there is a distinction in which binyan—essentially which vowel templates get added into the verbs themselves—is used, meaning that all verbs etc. can have a distinction between intensive and causative forms in a way that is only possible, sometimes, through using totally different words in English.
1889: Intensive Forms (Semantics) Feb 16, 2020
There are lots of ways words can come in pairs, but when it comes to intensive forms, these pairs are entirely semantic. For instance, comparing 'shatter' to 'break', and the only similarity—as none exist in the grammar, etymology, phonology etc.—is that the latter is the intensive form of the former, that is 'break' is forceful whereas 'shatter' is not. In some languages, especially semitic languages, these pairs would be more obviously related, but that is not always necessary.
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1888: costard and costermonger Feb 15, 2020
Normally, when people talk about combining forms, they simply refer to endings which add meaning but don't change the classification of the word. This description can be made of '-monger' in words like 'fishmonger' or 'cheesemonger', since '-monger' cannot exist on its own, but in the case of 'costermonger', the root word also changes, albeit not grammatically. A costermonger is an apple-salesman (not the Steve Jobs kind) named for the type of apple 'costard', which itself comes from the '-ard' suffix on a meaningless stem 'cost-'.
1887: Unknown Lexicon in Hungarian Feb 14, 2020
Hungarian was identified as being similar to other Uralic languages like Finnish or Estonian back in the late 17th century, but many things are still mysterious. While much of the vocabulary, about 22% can be identified as Uralic, 30%, the plurality of Hungarian's total lexicon, is considered as being of unknown origin. This, and other influences, especially Turkic influence, is not the only difference between other modern Uralic languages and modern Hungarian, but it certainly is a noticeable one.
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1886: Latin in Hungary Feb 13, 2020
Latin was once spoken across Europe and North Africa; after the collapse of the Roman Empire, some nations clung onto it. However, the Kingdom of Hungary, established in AD 1001 used Latin as the sole official language for over 800 years until 1836. Bear in mind that this is nearly 6 centuries after the fall of Rome, and the Hungarians were never under Roman rule, as their ancestors came to Europe much later.
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1885: Yen, Yuan, and Won Feb 12, 2020
Names for currencies from East Asia, including Yen, Yuan, and Won are all etymologically similar. The Japanese 'yen' is derived from the original Chinese, but they have different meanings; here it's literally 'round'. This is because that, and 'yuan' (silver), come from the phrase 'yínyuán' or literally 'silver round', denoting coins. Both Korean wons also mean 'round' and are cognates.
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1884: złoty and leu Feb 11, 2020
In the case of some currency names like 'dollars', 'shekels' or 'francs', the names are fairly abstract, but for many currencies this isn't the case. The Polish 'złoty' is also slightly odd insofar as it is an adjective meaning 'golden', not a noun, but the name is clearly reasonable. In Romania, the currency is 'leu', or literally 'lion'; these are however subdivided into 100 'bani', which translated directly as 'money'.
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1883: Blood is Thicker than Water Feb 10, 2020
It is generally understood that "blood is thicker than water" refers to the importance of family over others, but a handful of scholars have taken the nearly opposite view over the years. While it should be noted that earliest known records about this phrase take the more commonly understood stance, those are in German. Looking not only at English records, but also Greek and later Arabic sources (replacing 'water' for 'milk'), similar phrases exist approximating "blood of a covenant (or shed in battle) is stronger than water of the womb". Ultimately, this view is not widely accepted, but even among the traditional interpretations, there is some disagreement as to what 'water' refers to as well.
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1882: New Kennings (Maybe) Feb 9, 2020
Kennings are defined by being metaphoric compounds, and while they are generally associated exclusively with Old English or Old Norse, the template for it is still in use in some ways. There are some limitations on how new kenning-like compounds are formed, because in some cases they relied on mythology, or other common metaphoric images, but modern words like 'skyscraper'—which is a metaphoric compound in its own right—are not so different to actual kennings like 'hron-rād' ('whale-road') for a river or 'vindauga' ('wind-eye') for a window.
1881: (Chick)Pea and (Garbanzo) Bean Feb 8, 2020
It is not uncommon that when a word loses meaning over time—or especially is adopted into another language—that meaning will then be added again. 'Chickpea' for instance, is not a variety of pea in the way snow peas or field peas are, and the name comes from the Latin 'cicer' which itself meant 'chickpea', but both the French, "pois chiche", and the English added the otherwise redundant 'pea' (or 'pois'). Moreover, when the Spanish word 'garbanzo' was adopted into English, it was renamed as 'garbanzo bean', again adding a modifier which was neither needed nor wholly accurate.
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1880: Re Feb 7, 2020
Re: the preposition re, it is one which is changing meaning in a way that's generally not so common. Traditionally, it is just a preposition used to mean "concerning the issue of", and is often confused with the word 'regarding' but used at the beginning of a sentence—or even sentence fragment—almost always. This view is changing somewhat, because enough people started using it in the middle of sentence. The difference—practically speaking—between using 're' in the middle of the sentence, compared to 'about' or 'concerning' is that those don't sound as much like unnecessary jargon, and many would still find 're' offputting in this place.
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1879: Ser and Estar Dichotomy Feb 6, 2020
There are lots of dichotomies that English only has semantically, which other languages have lexically. One is 'no' for an exclamation and a determiner, while German has 'nein' and 'kein' respectively. Another is in Spanish with the distinction between 'ser' and 'estar', both translating as 'to be' but with the former relating to permanent, or little-changing descriptions including names and nationalities, and the latter used for more transient things, like actions or personal locations. In some languages or dialects, there is a lack of any verb where 'estar' is used.
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1878: dump and deemster Feb 5, 2020
Following from actual '-ster' words which relate to professions, there are also some which are objects, in this case 'dumpster', that seem to as well, but this is not so simple. 'Dumpster' is a portmanteau for a brand name, from 'dump' and the occupational name 'Dempster', which itself from 'deemster', referring to a judge (i.e. someone who deems). Considering 'deem' is also related to 'doom', it worth noting that this relation to the justice system is still very far removed.
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1877: The New, Informal -ster Feb 4, 2020
The agentive '-ster' suffix, as in 'spinster' is no longer as productive as '-er', but that doesn't mean people have stopped generating new words with it. Other terms like 'hipster', 'bankster', and the proper nouns 'Napster' and 'Blockster' all feature a different, new use of '-ster', clearly separate from the origins as a feminine form of '-er'. This is thought to convey an particularly informal tone, and is increasingly popular for such causal registers.
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1876: Nuance around -ster Feb 3, 2020
The suffix '-ster' is traditionally the feminine equivalent for -er/-or, and many pairs still exist such as 'webster' from 'webber' (i.e. 'weaver') or 'brewster' and 'brewer'; if you have others, leave a comment. The problem with this view is, while it is certainly true for some, this wouldn't really make sense if you look at the rest of the list. Not only 'gangster', but also 'barrister' and others, which up until recently were only men—are often considered to have the '-ster' ending, so it is important to remember that even by the time of Middle English, this was less meaningful. A few are just red herrings too, like 'minister', which has a '-ter' suffix with a similar meaning attached to the same root as 'minus' i.e. lesser leader to a master, which has the same '-ter' suffix. There will be more on this tomorrow.
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1875: pumpkin and melon Feb 2, 2020
'Melon' comes from the 'Greek for 'apple', but so does 'pumpkin'. However, while 'mēlon' in Greek could refer to generic fruit—just as apple used to for English— 'mēlopepon' meant 'gourd-apple', and connoted gourds more than fruits. Hence, the Greek 'pepon' ('gourd') led to the English 'pumpkin'. There is an etymological root as well between 'pepon' and 'peptein', meaning 'to cook' but also 'to ripen', with the idea being that the fruit is cooked, or otherwise prepared by the Sun.
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1874: melon Feb 1, 2020
As mentioned the other day 'melon' comes from words meaning 'apple', though obviously not natively. Like with the English 'apple', the Greek 'mēlopepon' (apple-gourd) effectively uses 'apple' to mean 'fruit'; strictly speaking, 'mēlon' means ‘apples’ on its own, hence 'malic' (e.g. malic acid). For the rest of this topic, and how it relates to early agriculture and lewd slang, visit the patreon.
1873: First UK Political Party Names Jan 31, 2019
The first two political parties in the UK, the Whigs and the Tories are both derived of Celtic pejoratives. In the case of 'Whig', the term comes from 'whiggamore' which was coined for the 'Whiggamore Raid': a march on Edinburgh by the Kirk Party during the 3rd English Civil War. 'Whiggamore' actually means 'mare drivers' though, but was nickname for those who were anti-parliamentarian, and generally protestant.
'Tory' (not the same as the contemporary Conservative and Unionist party, even if the nickname is still used) on the other hand comes from Irish 'toraidhe' meaning 'outlaw' referring to Irish highwaymen or Scottish marauders. This name was then first pejoratively, then officially applied to the political party because of their support of the Catholics, specifically under King James II, a Catholic.
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1872: berry and apple Jan 30, 2020
Apples have been discussed here many times before, but it is not enough to just say it was a generic term for fruit. Almost any kind of produce, with the notable exception of berries, could be called an apple—or at least in compounds—in vegetables like cucumbers or 'earth-apples', actual fruits like bananas, 'apple of paradise', or even some nuts. Etymologically speaking, 'melon' and 'pumpkin' too have appley Indo-European roots (more on this another day). This is why you may see 'berry'—which was also somewhat generic—referred to as "the only native fruit name" other than 'apples', even if other fruits have roots in Old English.
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