2012: Words from Onomatopoeias Jun 18, 2020
When an etymology is given for a certain word, it might trace back to older forms of a language, like Old Chinese or Ancient Greek, but of course the question is answered with another question: where did that come from? Even for certain words for which a root has been reconstructed—which is of course really just a guess—the questions for an origin goes on, except in cases of onomatopoeic words. There are a few obvious ones like animal sounds, the word 'flick', but some are less obviously derived from onomatopoeias, like 'black' or 'mom'. Indeed, this is probably true of lots of words for relatives for two reasons: first the fact that basically every word for mother or father across the whole world are already similar because they're derived from baby noises, but also that names for relatives over time aren't consistent. In Polish, the word for grandfather is 'dziadek' which comes from the Proto-Slavic root, dědъ, related to words for 'uncle' (dė̃dė in Lithuanian), and even 'grandmother' (τήθη (tḗthē) in Ancient Greek).
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2011: Suppletive Roots for 'Good' Jun 17, 2020
Adjectives in English have very little in the way of morphology except perhaps from comparatives and superlatives, like 'fast-fast(er)-fast(est)'. This pattern is kept in some ways with 'good-better-best' but this is clearly more irregular, with suppletion. However, this is far from the only one like it; German has the extremely similar 'gut-besser-besten', and Latin has 'bonus-melior-optimus'. This is a widespread pattern, even when the particular words might be different, so if you know more, leave it in a comment.
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2010: bootleg Jun 16, 2020
The term 'bootleg' these days refers to any type of counterfeited or otherwise illegally distribute materials. The term was popularized in the 1930's during the US prohibition of alcohol, but the actual term can be traced back to the civil war, when the federal troops would keep and traffic flasks of whiskey on their person, in their boot-tops.
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2009: allez hop! Jun 15, 2020
Alley-oop, popularized in the mid-20th century, is a basketball term and is probably most likely associated with that sport, but is actually comes from another sort of sport entirely. In basketball, the term refers to an offensive move in which one player throws the ball near enough to the basket for another player to knock it in. When it originated in the circus however, the French phrase "allez hop" (off you go!) was an announcement that the acrobat was about to jump, and its use in basketball was meant to reflect the manner (and height) that the players would have to jump.
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2008: Loan Words into Latin Jun 14, 2020
For languages which mark for case, that is, showing syntax (for nouns) in the form of an affix, as happens in Latin, Finnish, and many others, it is not always identical how new forms are adopted. For instance, Latin loaned many words from Greek, but the nominative case, that is for the subject of a sentence, would often look similar anyway, such as 'hippodromus' from ἱππόδρομος (hippodromos) for 'race-course'. That was classical Latin though, and African Latin, certainly after the collapse of the empire, would borrow words from other languages' accusative forms.
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2007: Bob's Your Uncle Jun 13, 2020
There are a number of phrases like "I'll be a monkey's uncle" and "Bob's your uncle" that on the surface seem weird—and they are—but at least with the latter example, there is a reason. It is generally understood that the Bob in question was Robert Cecil (of the 19th century) who promoted his nephew AJ Balfour to many key governmental positions. He was underqualified for much of them, and many ascribed it to the fact that "Bob's your uncle", as in "and there you have it".
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2006: Desecration and Flutes in Hebrew Jun 12, 2020
Although Hebrew has some doublets which are not semantically linked, including the root כבש (K-B-Sh) giving way to 'pickle' and 'highway', but in other similar cases, there is a reason that can be derived. For instance, the words for 'to desecrate' לחלל (l'khalal) and 'flute' חליל are related. This is not because flutes are unholy in any way, but that what we translate as 'desecrate' in Hebrew really has a meaning closer to being 'empty'; חלל also means 'space' as in outer-space.
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2005: Extra Connotations in Biblical Terms Jun 11, 2020
Biblical theology expressed in English is necessarily different to how it is in Hebrew, or even Greek. 'Heaven', 'angel', 'Garden of Eden' all have separate English-based connotations beyond the literal meanings. Heaven has been explained here before, and 'angel', comes from the Greek ἄγγελος (angelos) meaning simply 'messenger', as it also means in Hebrew מלאך (malʼākh). This is further true of 'Garden of Eden' (גן־עדן) which is not the name of a garden per se, but as it is translated for Genesis 18, 'Eden' (עדן) means 'pleasure'. This is true of a great many words, and perhaps especially names in the Bible, so leave some more in the comments.
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2004: 24-Letter Typewriters Jun 10, 2020
Printing press, often designed in the Holy Roman Empire, led to the permanent loss of several letters in English, and so did the typewriter, but only temporarily. In early US typewriters, there were only 24 keys for the letters, though of course the alphabet has 26 letters. The way this was done was a doubling up of the letters I and O with the numbers 1 and 0.
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2003: Gender for a 'god' Jun 9, 2020
Although lots of Indo-European languages have separate words for a 'god', in some cases at least there was a shift as Europe Christianized. For instance, while English does not display grammatical gender (except in pronouns), Old English did. In Old English, the gender for the word for 'G-d' was originally neuter when the culture was paganistic (just 'god' in Old English) but changed to the masculine to reflect the change in religion.
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2002: Pluralization of Hair: English vs. German Jun 8, 2020
Although we may think of grammar as being strictly linguistic, but there are a few things that are cultural. For instance, when referring to a collective head of hair in English, one would use the singular with no article: "she has purple hair"; in German however, it is usual to use the plural "Sie hat lila Haare" (lit. "she has purple hairs"). Of course, in general, this is how one would use the plural in English, e.g. "he has purple dogs/clothes/pens".
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2001: Replying After a Sneeze Jun 7, 2020
Sneezing is universal, but what's done after is (s)not. In much of the anglophone world, "G-d bless you" after a sneeze is common, but considering this is not done for other things like coughing, it might just seem like a cultural quirk. It is, however, credited to St. Gregory the Great in the early 7th century, though that said, the non-Christian Romans also had a virtually equivalent phrase, 'absit omen' (evil be gone!); the ancient Greeks had a similar custom.
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2000: A Desert Called Sandy Jun 6, 2020
This is post #2,000. You can now wear, drink, or otherwise stick your excitement with Word Facts merchandise!
A desert in Australia is creatively named the Great Sandy Desert, though this is not even the biggest on the continent. Indeed, this is also not the only Great Sandy Desert, as there is also one in Oregon, USA, though this is often also called High Desert. In the case of Australia, there were other names given as well including Western Desert or Canning Desert, both on account of its location, but as can be discerned from the continued use of the nearby Lake Disappointment, a salt lake with no fresh water, Australia doesn’t mind blunt names.
1999: Why Decreasing ≠ Ironing Jun 5, 2020
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Based off the words ‘increase’ or ‘decrease’, there is an evident stem *‘crease’, but this has no relation to the verb 'crease', as in a fold; if this were true, then decreasing would only be to remove wrinkles through ironing. It is taken to be that ‘crease’ comes from ‘crest’ since both of these are from folding clothing, but even that appears to have a separate relation, as it initially referred to the top part of a helmet. Keep in mind however, that it comes from the Latin ‘crista’ meaning ‘plumage’, still used in zoology, and that the process of creasing cloth was used to crease the sense that these crests were like hair. This is why increase/decrease are so different, those coming from the Latin ‘crescere’ (to grow).
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1998: How to Clarify When Niece Means Granddaughter Jun 4, 2020
As mentioned yesterday, the words for 'granddaughter' and 'niece' (also with the masculine) are the same in many languages [1], historically and in modern times. However, as this can lead to confusion, other words have come around including the Old English broðordoh̩ter (brother's daughter). This is how the words for nephew and niece can be related from languages from Ireland (OI 'necht') to India (Sanskrit 'naptih'), but exist along other synonyms along the way.
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1997: Why 'Niece' and 'Nephew Sound so Different Jun 3, 2020
In a family, nieces and nephews have to be related, but the terms for something quite basic and personal in its meaning look very different to one another. In many forms of Indo-European languages, it is the same word for 'grandson' as it is for 'nephew', basically just denoting a younger non-child relative. There are approximated roots of *néptih for women and *népōts for men; you might notice that looks like 'nepotism' and that would be a correct assumption. Even in Middle English, these words looked more similar, with the masculine 'neve' and the feminine 'nift', and the main difference today is because English went on to adopt the dialectal French 'nevu' (nephew) and 'nece' (niece), which are ultimately from the same Indo-European roots, but in the case of 'niece', the [s] sound assimilated from a [t], as in the German 'Nichte'. While many forms today do indeed look different, that is a fairly common process for older and somewhat culturally specific words to really morph over time.
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1996: cesspool Jun 2, 2020
A cesspool is not a pool of 'cess', though in Irish it is another term for taxes, and no one likes those either. Rather, looking at its older form 'suspiral', which denoted an air vent or water pipe, this is all derived from the Old French 'souspirail' from the Latin 'sub-' (‘from below’) and 'spirare' meaning ‘to breathe’. However, by at least the 17th century, the spelling had changed with association to the word 'pool', and 'cess' took on a meaning of its own, probably related to sewage, as can be seen also in 'cesspit'. Moreover, since it denotes an underground container for sewage, it has lost the relation to air anyway.
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1995: The Missing T in Tyranny Jun 1, 2020
English has a lot of words where an affix will change the original stem, like conservative-conservatism, dropping the terminal-V, or exclude-exclusion, losing the final-D. Nevertheless, this is not the case with tyrant-tyranny, where apparently the final-T is missing. Actually, that T was added in Old French, probably with association with the participial ending -ant, though of course 'tyrant' isn't one. The original Greek τύραννος (tyrannos) does not have one, and would just be rendered 'tyran' in English.
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1994: Latin Sound Shifts in Modern English May 31, 2020
Sound shifts are not always a quick process, but looking back over time the contrasts can be quite stark. Even looking within English, the proof of Latin shifts is apparent; both the term 'corpus' and its collective plural 'corpora' are used in Modern English, and are evidence for a broader shift that happened in Latin that [s] between two vowels because a trilled [r]. Earlier, the term 'corposa' was used instead. This is not the only change that happened in Latin that carried over into English either.
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1993: French Places and Gallic Tribes May 30, 2020
Just 1 week until post #2,000 so stay tuned for a new video and special announcement then.
While we think of the celtic Gauls and the modern (linguistically) romantic French, there are certain ways in which the legacy was continued. Many places in France retain historic tribal names in the place names, such as Gergovie in Auvergne, which at the time of Vercingetorix was the capital for the Gauls, named 'Gergovia', inhabited by the Arverni. This is true for the Turones of modern Tours, the Cadurci from Quercy, the Vellavi from Le Puy-en-Velay, and of course the Senones and the Parisii around modern Paris in the river Seine, and many, many more. Indeed, while the Romans utterly crushed these Gauls (somewhere in the realm of 2-3 million directly killed or displaced, with more indirectly so) but the legacy was not totally removed.
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