1911: feast, festival, and theology Mar 9, 2020
Feasts are an old concept, and as is often true of old ideas, there will be a large word-family around it. 'Feast'—originally denoting religious celebration and not just food—is also related to the Latin 'festum' or Modern English 'festival' [1], which makes sense since the two overlap, but the roots goes much deeper. It ultimately is traced back to the Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s which is the same root as the Greek θεός (theós) meaning 'god', and hence the Modern English 'theology'. Indeed, the meaning has always been closely tied to religion, again sharing the root with the Latin 'feriae' (holiday) and 'fanum' (temple).
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1910: fast Mar 8, 2020
We have 'fast-food' and we have 'fast' meaning to abstain from food, but both of these senses come from the same root. By far, 'fast' as an adjective referring to speed is more common, but the verb meaning to voluntarily abstain from food, especially in a religious way, is the older form. Initially, this word, or in Old English 'fæstan', just meant 'to pledge' or even "to make firm"; just consider the word 'steadfast'. Moreover, an early nominal form 'fæsten' denoted a fortress. The adjective connoting speed only came about in the mid-16th century, and ironically, this then led to phrases like fast-living soon or in the '50s 'fast-food', which don't relate to moral steadfastness at all.
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1909: tithe and tenth Mar 7, 2020
The word 'tithe' is related to the word 'tenth', which shouldn't be too surprising since it refers to a tenth of one's annual produce to be given to the clergy. However, it is not that nasal of 'teNth', disappeared in English, but that the root had assimilated already before the days of Old English ('tēoþian'). There is a proposed Proto-Germanic root for this word—*tehunþô, *tehundô—which would link 'tenth' and 'tithe' beyond just the semantic relation.
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1908: gazette Mar 6, 2020
There are several quintessential titles found in newspaper names, including Times, Chronicle, and Gazette. However, for something so ubiquitous, 'gazette' doesn't really mean anything on its own. It actually comes from Venetian Italian "gazeta de la novità" referring to the cost of a newspaper being a ha'penny. In Italian, 'gazeta' was a Venetian coin approximating about a half-penny. This would be as if we referred to dime novels or penny dreadfuls as 'dimes' and 'pennies' respectively.
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1907: consign Mar 5, 2020
In its purest sense, 'consign' simply means to mark or categorize something in a certain way: not too dissimilar form 'sign'. However, its oldest senses were religious, because while the Latin origin 'cōnsignō' just means "furnish with a seal", that seal was a sign of the cross, as with a baptism or confirmation. These days however, it tends to mean 'put in the custody of', as in 'assign'.
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1906: Radio Call Signals Mar 4, 2020
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) lays out the conventions for radio, television, Internet and so on. Included in that are the radio call signs, and though these do vary from country to country, each is granted a set of prefixes for stations and amateurs to use as call signs. America was given AAA–ALZ, K, N, W but stations only use K or W. A rule of thumb is that east of the Mississippi river W is used, and west of it K is used, but this is not always the case, as with KDKA based in Pittsburg, which is in the East.
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1905: surly Mar 3, 2020
The word 'surly' these days means 'ill-tempered' or 'unfriendly', but it comes from something which generally denotes respect. This word came about as an alteration of 'sirly' from 'sir', but unlike the older 'lordly', even from its inception in the mid 16th century this word meant 'arrogant' or 'snobbish'.
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1904: dixie Mar 2, 2020
‘Dixie’, from ‘Dixiecrat’ to ‘Dixieland’ and more, crops up fairly often as an informal term for southern US states. However, no one knows where it comes from for sure. One idea is that it originated with reference to the Mason-Dixon line, where the south is officially separated from the northern states. Another idea, is that it comes from the slang for the historical Louisiana $10 bill when it was a French colony, from the French word 'dix' ('ten'). Support Word Facts on patreon.com/worfacts
1903: Why Cherubs are Mistakenly Painted Like Children Mar 1, 2020
Cherubs are angelic beings, and in art they often depicted as childlike, but in the Bible they are described as having 4 heads, that of an eagle, an ox, a lion, and a man, and 4 wings—one set pointing up, and the other covering the body—each one with hands at the end, and humanoid legs with bronze-looking calf-hooves. Full descriptions can be found in the books of Ezekiel and Daniel, with mentions in many other places throughout the Bible. The difference between the artistic depictions is due entirely to rabbinic folk etymology, mistakenly relating the Hebrew כְּרוּב (keruv) to the Aramaic kĕ-raḇyā meaning 'like a child'. For an alternate term to describe these childlike creatures, it is more accurate to say 'putto', since the iconography actually comes from Greek and Roman mythology.
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1902: democracy sausage Feb 29, 2020
In 2016, 'democracy sausage' was chosen as the word of the year by the Australian National Dictionary Centre. A democracy sausage just is a hotdog served in a slice of bread as opposed to a bun. This term came about in the last decade as many schools or other community centers, acting as polling stations, would host barbecues outside as a fundraiser. The term rose to especial prominence in 2016 however due to the national election that year.
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1901: Right: Legal, Moral, and Directional Feb 28, 2020
Across languages, there is a strong correlation between words for 'straight' or 'right', and moral correctness. Lots of words, like 'strict', 'rule', 'upright', or conversely 'crooked' and idioms like "the straight and narrow" draw a clear comparison winding or bending as bad; even 'correct' and 'direction' also share this in their origins. Moreover, in law, 'right' has similar connotations. In many other languages these trends from law to slang are true as well, in French 'droit', Latin 'rectus', Greek 'dikaios' all can mean 'right' or 'just[ice]' as in law, in its direction, or with moral connotations. If you've know other cognates, leave it in a comment.
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1900: war, victor, and vigor Feb 27, 2020
The older and more fundamental the concept, the more likely that words to define it will have relations elsewhere; this is true obviously just as a matter of chronology, but also that certain connotations will influence lexical development. For instance, there is a shared Proto-Indo-European relation between 'war' and 'victory'. From those two alone in English, this isn't overtly obvious, but from the reconstructed *weik-, many Indo-European languages have words related to strength (consider also 'vigor'), fighting (e.g. Latin 'vincere', or 'to conquer'), or something similar.
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1899: ludwig, lewis, and luigi Feb 26, 2020
King Clovis' name comes from the Germanic root *hluda-wigaz ("famous in war"), but this is by no means the end of that story. Other first names from all parts of Europe including Ludwig and Lewis, or even the non-Germanic Luigi and Louis also derive from this root. Indeed, while it is originally Germanic, many Romance language have equivalents because of the Latinized form 'Ludovicus'. Many names are less obviously related however, including the Florentine 'Alvise' and the Swedish 'Love'. There are many more, so if you find one, leave it in the comments.
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1898: clovis (point) Feb 25, 2020
It's pretty obvious that the idea of a spearhead would be related to war, but in one case these are etymologically related too, entirely accidentally. A clovis, or more specifically a 'clovis point' is a type of spearhead found from the retroactively named Clovis tribe, from where the archeological dig-site was in New Mexico. Moreover, the town itself was named for the Frankish king Chlodovech, or Clovis, in Latin. This is from the root *hluda-wigaz meaning "famous in war". More on that tomorrow.
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1897: minister and master Feb 24, 2020
We probably all think of both 'master' and 'minister' as authoritative roles, but this has not always been the case. Namely with the case of 'minister' this is true, as it originally meant 'servant', sharing a root with the word 'minus'. 'Master' is the opposite of that in some ways, being a doublet with 'magistrate' meaning 'leader' from a Latin root meaning 'more'.
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1896: Man and One: Nouns and Pronouns Feb 23, 2020
Across the Indo-European languages, there is often a relation between words meaning 'man' and words for the pronoun 'one'. This can be seen clearly in the German with 'man' ('one') and 'Mann' ('man'). However, the order of which form derived from the other is not universal across these languages. In German, as in French, the pronoun stemmed from the noun, but in English, 'man' was an indefinite pronoun centuries before it was a noun.
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1895: The Creation of *Nous* Pronouns Feb 22, 2020
Pronouns are considered a closed lexical class, meaning it is particularly difficult to create new ones, and as a result, new meanings tend to come from other pronouns. This process is rare and slow, but in the case of the French 'on' in some informal settings it can be said to be replacing 'nous' as the 1st person plural pronoun. However, this didn't come out of thin air, as it also means 'one', as in the indefinite 3rd person pronoun. That sense didn't come out of nowhere either, and originated from the Latin 'homo' ('person') like the modern 'homme' ('man').
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1894: Hen- and Stag-Do Feb 21, 2020
The formation for 'hen-do/hen-party' and 'stag-do' may seem odd, but they did not come about in a vacuum. Ascribing animals to a gender, and in particular connoting birds as feminine and bulls or stags as masculine has happened in some ways or another for milenia in some ways. Much of this, however, is not semantic, but stems from the fact that 'stag' and its cognates used to refer to any male animal, and including foxes and even dragons, and the same is true of 'hen' referring to any female bird. The use of these animals (including 'bulls') for same-gender gatherings has existed since that's 17th century for women, and at least the 19th century for me, though neither initially only related to prenuptial celebrations.
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1893: Inheritable Surnames Feb 20, 2020
Since a surname indicates familial or even tribal affiliation, it is quite common for them to be patrilineal or regional, but would changing across generations therefore. However, some shifts throughout history changed this, namely with inheritable names. In 1808, Napoleon decreed that all people, including Jews who had never had inheritable names, adopt inheritable family surnames. This was applied across all the European areas he had dominion over, leading to the standardization of names in a fairly rapid period of time. Many people continued to use professional or geographically based names however.
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1892: Nguyen Feb 19, 2020
Up to 40% of people in Vietnam have the last name Nguyen. This is actually originally Chinese, but its commonality is entrenched in Vietnamese history since the 13th century when the usurped Ly dynasty were forced to change their names to Nguyen. Over the next 2 or so centuries, another 2 collapsed dynasties changed their names to Nguyen. Aside from many other nobles who were given the name Nguyen, many criminals took it up to blend in. Other popular names in Vietnam mostly come from old dystic names as well.
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