1931: Discovering 'serendipity' Mar 29, 2020
Ironically 'serendipity', or at least with its current definition, is an invented word, coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole. However, the word did exist in English in some form or another for a long time beforehand, and Walpole used the word to describe the feeling of finding a lost painting by referring to the Persian fairy-tale "The Three Princes of Serendip". 'Serendip' is just an older name of what is now Sri Lanka, though many other languages adopted this Persian name to mean exclusively "a chance discovery".
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1930: virtual vs. virtuous Mar 28, 2020
Computers and the Internet have created a new sort of necessity for the word 'virtual', but its definition as "like something in essence but not actually" has been around since the 15th century or so. However, the word is a doublet with 'virtuous' which clearly has a very different meaning. Both of these come from the Latin 'virtus' meaning 'excellency; efficacy' or literally 'manliness' (i.e. also like a person) which lead to the split for 'virtue'.
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1929: First Telephone and Telegraphed Messages Mar 27, 2020
The first words uttered through Bell's telephone were "Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you", according to the Library of Congress. However, this is a bit less grandiose than the telegraphed message sent by Morse to open first long-distance line, Baltimore-to-DC, reading "what hath God wrought" or:
.-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... -
which comes from the Book of Numbers (Numbers 23:23), suggested by the daughter of the federal patents commissioner.
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1928: Determiners for Places Mar 26, 2020
One of the defining features of pronouns and other determiner phrases is that they don't take a determiner, meaning there isn't possible to have "the you". However, there are some idiomatic phrases which break this rule, as it were. Place-names or personal names, for instance, can take some determiners, even though they are definite (i.e. specific), such that one could possible say “that London is a busy place” or "that Bill is a clever man". There are a few exceptions to this, but for a variety of reasons—generally for emphasis—these do occur. For another area where this occurs despite general understandings of proper nouns, read the rest “Determiners for Natural Features”.
1927: curry: English vs. Indian Mar 25, 2020
While people might think of curries today as being Indian, the oldest England language cookery book is titled "The Forme of Cury" (1390). These two things have nothing to do with each other culinarily. It was written by the the master-cook to king Richard II, and it takes the word 'curry' from the French 'cuire' meaning 'to cook'. Other cookery books had been written at this time and before, but always in Latin or French in that part of the world. Indian 'curry' comes from the Tamil 'kāri' meaning 'sauce' or also 'morsel'.
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1926: Tyburn (slang) Mar 24, 2020
Tyburn is now a part of central London, but its name was once synonymous with execution. From at least 1186 until the 18th century, public executions of those processed from Newgate prison all took place there, but what made it stand out was the 'Tyburn Tree', an early form of the gallows allowing large-scale, and so often political executions to take place with such notoriety that it became essentially like slang.
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1925: philately Mar 23, 2020
No one really likes taxes, especially philatelists. Stamp-collections, or philately may be a hobby, but it comes ultimately from the Greek 'philo-' (loving) and 'ateleia' which means 'not taxed'; 'a-' is Greek is a negating prefix on 'telos' ('tax'). It did not refer to a collection of stamps until recently, but to a postage mark which exempt the payment from taxation. The change in name was not a natural one however, but was coined in the 18th century as a sort of revitalization of the French 'philatélie'.
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1924: oyer and terminer Mar 22, 2020
Many legal terms come from French or Latin, and may cause somewhat of a diglossic barrier even for English speakers. However, there are some terms which come from English, and would still fit into that category. The Anglo-French derived "oyer and terminer" or the Old English-based 'sac and soc' both refer to courts set up to hear and determine, as it would translate, in temporary courts of assizes. In the former case, while neither 'oyer' nor 'terminer' can exist in their own rights, the phrase was partially translated from "oyer et terminer", and neither is likely to change since these are both obsolete.
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1923: penny dreadful Mar 21, 2020
The meaning of 'dreadful' has shifted over time, and this is perhaps clearest in the term 'penny dreadful'. These are cheap thriller novels, the price of which is hinted in the name—as with 'pulp fiction' or 'dime novel'—but the 'dreadful' in them refers to crime; another, though less common term for these was 'penny blood'. Dreadful in that sense wasn't 'bad' in terms of taste (though perhaps in terms of criminality) as it is used today, but actually referring to a deeper, genuine dread.
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1922: Wolverines (Michigan Mascot) Mar 20, 2020
The mascot for the university of Michigan is a Wolverine. While animal mascots as are classic symbols in many cases, this nickname did come from that tradition. Instead, it hearkens back to the so-called Toledo war between Michigan and Ohio. While to call it a war is a bit generous since there was only one non-fatal casualty, the Ohioans did coin the term Wolverines to describe the Michigander militiamen whom they perceived as pesky.
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1921: bruque and brisk Mar 19, 2020
Brisk and brusque are doublets—i.e. they have divergent etymologies— but their differences shed some light on how languages change overall. Both of these come from the Italian adjective 'brusco' meaning 'sharp; rough' but this meaning is lot in 'brisk' mostly, except perhaps with reference to the weather. The more traditional meaning is kept with the more traditional, French form. That said, while no one knows where this word comes from entirely, many link it to other words relating to brooms or heath, so if that is true, then of course all of these words are divergent in their own ways.
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1920: Circuit Courts Mar 18, 2020
Originally, America had 9 circuit courts, and it has 9 Supreme Court justices. It has since added more districts (specifically, 2 regional districts, DC, and federal), but still are usually overseen by a Supreme Court justice. The reasons have changed, but originally the ‘circuit’ referred to the fact that being a Supreme Court justice was a part-time job, and during the warmer months would travel around their districts in an actual circuit to hear cases, generally appellate ones. Other countries, namely in Britain and Ireland, have had similar practices, and still may use this term even though there isn’t a circuit to travel. As it happens, 'circus' also comes from this root, and practice.
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1919 Arameans (Syria) Mar 17, 2020
In the case of Switzerland, or (Confederatio) Helvetica the adoption for some purposes of the classical name is voluntary—done here for linguistic neutrality—but usually this is not so. Lots of places were exonymously named by the Greeks or Romans (including Greece) with those names sticking. This happened more in the past of course, and in the case of Syria, the current inhabitants have basically moved on as even though Arabic is closer related to the earlier Aramaic, the current official name is Sūrīyah (سوريا). However, in ancient times, it was 'Aram' or other slight variants—at least in certain places—for thousands of years.
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1918: Anglicizing Biblical Names With -S Mar 16, 2020
Many anglicizations of Biblical names result in some wild changes but one common feature is the addition of a terminal -s. The reasons are not all the same, but some obvious examples include Yaakov (יעקב) to James, Moshe (משה) to Moses, and even Yeshua (ישוע) to Jesus. In a broad sense, all of these names came to English after being modified in Greek and or Latin, but these questions have been examined elsewhere in time as well. In the case of Moses, Josephus—who also was born just Yosef, without the S—believed the element -esês is from a root meaning 'saved', but this poses its own problems both etymologically and historically. As for the Jesus, this was often, though not exclusively 'jesu' all the way through Middle English even this was changed as a possessive i.e. Jesu's name. In all of these however, and most explicitly in the case of Josephus from Yosef in his own lifetime, this just comes from the nominative form of the name in Latin and Greek ending with those -us or -os endings.
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1917: coronavirus (and other names) Mar 15, 2020
With cases of a recent coronavirus strain occurring worldwide in a short time, there are a lot of terms thrown around. You may see coronavirus, covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, or even just SARS 2, but these are all the same. 'Coronavirus' refers to a group of viruses that—among other attributes—have protein-spikes which resemble a solar corona under a microscope. Covid-19 is simply an abbreviation of this the year 2019 when this strain appeared in humans, while SARS-CoV-2 is a further abbreviation on this with SARS as an acronym for "severe acute respiratory syndrome", which is itself a type of coronavirus.
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1916: butt Mar 14, 2020
There is some uncertainty as to where 'butt' originates, but there are some clues to get to the bottom of this. Basically, one idea is that is comes from a Germanic root meaning 'to strike'. This is supported by Germanic words, but also the verbs and 'butt' and 'bunt', as well as the word 'buttress' from 'boter' meaning 'to hit' or 'thrust'. On the other hand, it could come from the Old English 'buttac' which referred to the end of a small strip of land; 'butt' still hold this meaning in Modern English. Ultimately, it could be both, or they could all stem from an older Proto-Germanic or even Proto-Indo-European root, given that similar words in this pattern exist in many other Indo-European languages today.
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1915: bead Mar 13, 2020
We may associate beads with jewellery or even Mardi Gras, but even in Middle English 'bede' referred to prayer. In Old English 'bede' or more often 'gebed' meant 'to pray' and is related to the word 'bid' which now means 'urge' but back then meant 'to request', like the German 'bitte' [1] as in the exclamation 'please'. The transfer in meaning happened as an association with rosary beads used for prayer. Moreover 'bead' as in a globule of liquid also comes from this word meaning 'ask' but has also Early Modern English referred to the sight on a gun.
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1914: fee, feudalism and cows Mar 12, 2020
Historically, lots of words have related cows to wealth, which really shouldn't be surprising considering how valuable they are even to non-farmers. 'Capital' for instance meant 'head (of cattle)', and 'fee' comes from 'fé', an Old English term for 'cow'. Indeed, the Old English 'feoh' (livestock) and the Latin 'pecu' (cattle) are related to the Latin 'pecunia' meaning 'money'. Cattle and other livestock were not simply connoting trade, but also land, hence the related 'fief' and 'feudalism'.
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1913: Tables and Boardgames Mar 11, 2020
It wouldn't be very useful if every board game had the same name, but for a lot of history this was the case, sort of. A good number of games have the word 'table' in their name, or indeed as the whole of their name, as least in Germanic cultures. Germanic games such as with 'hnefatafl' otherwise known as 'tablut' see names—both, in this case—deriving from 'table'; in the former word, the other element refers to the king, or more literally 'fist'. In Scandinavian languages as well, chess was called 'Skáktafl', and a few others took this pattern as well. In English too, up through the 17th century, 'backgammon' was called 'tables'. All of this is because 'tafl' can mean both 'table' but also 'board', and in the past there would simply have been fewer board games known.
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1912: Rebracketing: popsicles Mar 10, 2020
Popsicles were originally called 'ice pops' or even "the Epsicle ice pop" after the inventor, Epperson. It was actually his children who renamed it as a 'popsicle'. The combining form '-sicle', contained in both of these names, is from 'icicle' meaning 'sicle' has been rebracketed, since the suffix here is 'ice' + 'ickle', not '-sicle'. More to the point, even 'icicle' is, at least historically speaking, redundant, because it comes from combining the word 'ice' with the Old English ġiċel meaning 'icicle' (ġ is pronounced like a Modern English y- as in 'yellow'). In that way, to make 'popsicle' (or 'epsicle') the word was formed in a redundant way, and then broken up in different way. The 'pop' comes from the fact that the original ones were made with actual soda.