2222: How 'Issue' Became a *Problem* Jan 14, 2021

The word 'issue' is gradually taking on more negative connotations from simply meaning 'topic of concern' to 'matter of difficulty'. This process is nothing new however, as seen in the word 'problem'. There are still neutral senses of that word such as in 'math problem' (some people may see that as personally negative but that feeling is extralinguistic). Historically, the word meant anything put forth as a matter of discussion, and its constituent elements 'pro-' (forward) '*-blem' (from Greek 'ballein' meaning 'throw') is also related to 'ballet', 'ballistics', and 'symbol'. In a semantic sense, it is also related even to 'promise' insofar as that comes from the same meaning in Latin 'pro-' and 'mittere' (to send; throw) or in other words something that was sent out beforehand.

2221: What 'Waffle' Can Teach about Phonology Jan 13, 2020

The word 'waffles' can actually teach a fair amount about general phonological principles. First off, while it is from a Germanic root meaning 'honeycomb' (cf. German 'Wabe') and ultimately related to 'weave, it is also related to the word 'wafer' and 'goffer': two other dessert foods, directly related. This shows the relation as is often found between [l] and [r], but also [g] and [w], which often shift in Germanic languages, but elsewhere too as seen in the French 'gaufre' (wafer). [g], as a voiced velar consonant, often does assimilate to an approximant (a consonant with certain vocalic qualities like [w]) or to a palatal one like [j] such as in the Old English 'geolu' turning into 'yellow'.

As a side-note, 'waffle' is actually not related to the verb 'waffle', as in "to talk foolish", usually in a frenetic way which is related to the word 'wave' and 'waft', relating to one's hand-gestures.

2220: House of Orange: Not from the Color Jan 12, 2021

The old Dutch Republic flag had an orange stripe, and bred orange carrots to celebrate the House of Orange. In truth, the color, named for the fruit, has nothing to do with this dynasty. Originally beginning in southern France known in Provençal Occitan as 'Aurenja', this group was actually took the name from a settlement named after a Celtic deity, Arausio. Spiritually, this was connected with water, so if anything the color associated with the House of Orange could be blue. That said, even Protestantism is often associated with the color orange because of the support from this Dutch principality in the religious wars of the time.

2219: Finnish Borrowing from Itself—Jan 11, 2021

Finnish is known for taking on lots of loan words, but it has even loaned some of its own, sort of. On the water by Finland’s capital lies Iso Huopalahti (felt bay), which was earlier Haapalaksi, with ‘-laksi’ being an older form of ‘lahti’ and ‘haapa’ means ‘aspen’. Note that both ‘huopa’ (felt) and ‘haapa’ (aspen) both borrow from Germanic roots for those words. While changing a name from Huopalahti to Haapalaksi might not seem so crazy, the reason for this comes from the Swedish name ‘Hoplax’—the area is bilingual—which comes from ‘Haapalaksi’. This means that Huopalahti [Finnish] comes from Hoplax [Swedish, a Germanic language], from Haapalaksi [Finnish] ultimately from another Germanic word, though this last point is not strictly related. This does happen in other languages too, such as the French ‘biftèque’, a direct loan of the English ‘beefsteak’, with ‘beef’ once replacing the (Old) English ‘cū‘ (cow).

2218: neat Jan 10, 2021

The word ‘neat’ today usually refers to something being tidy, orderly, or even efficient, but this is not how it started. It comes from Latin ‘nitidus’ meaning ‘shine’. Indeed, up until the 16th century the word ‘neat’ meant ‘bright’, though that sense is now lost here but still found in the less common adjective ‘nitid’. It is also a doublet of the adjective ‘net’ as in ‘net profit’, both having the sense of ‘pure; distilled; uncluttered’ similar to describing an alcoholic drink without ice. This is also related to the German ‘nett’ meaning ‘nice’,

2217: 'piping' hot Jan 9, 2021

The phrase 'piping hot' is pretty common, but the pipes in question might not be immediately evident. This is probably not how the word would be used today, but the phrase is attested since the 14th century from Chaucer:

He sente hir pyment meeth and spiced ale

And wafres pipyng hoot out of the glede.

[He sent her sweetened mead and well-spiced ale

And waffles piping hot out of the fire]

It is generally understood these days that the 'piping' in question is in reference to a sizzling or boiling sound from cooking likened to musical pipes.

2216: Hebrew Causative Jan 8, 2020

In English, there are intensive adverbs or other adjuncts like 'very', 'well' and in the UK, 'bloody' all merely adding emphasis. In other languages, the intensive usually distinguishes the root meaning of a word, effectively the causative changes the intransitivity. For instance, the phrase הוא בא means "he comes" but in the causative form הוא מביא means "he brings" (i.e. he caused something else to 'come'). Hebrew uses many morphosyntactic systems in order to create meaning in verb stems and other prefixes are added for other tenses/aspects.

2215: Periphrastic Utility Jan 7, 2021

To update slightly the post on periphrasis from 2018, there can be linguistically significant benefits of using seemingly unnecessary words beyond just style. To recap, periphrastic language is when one uses separate words to express a grammatical relationship, such as 'did go' rather than 'went'. These are often, though by no means always with auxiliary verbs, but consider the exception with "I was blamed" with "I received the blame", which affects the grammar beyond simply intensity. Yiddish also uses periphrasis to express speed or urgency such as כאפן א קוק (khop a kuk), literally 'catch a look', or טאן א קוק (ton a kuk), literally 'do a look' meaning 'looked'.

2214: Delexical or 'Light' Verbs Jan 6, 2021

There are plenty of verbs that people use that are at best semantically incomplete, such as 'take' in "to take a bath" or "to take a test". These and many others are known as light verbs, delexical verbs, or vector verbs. These verbs essentially exist as they are used to complement an object, which is usually a noun. 'Do' and 'have' can fit into this category, but this usage should not be thought of as auxiliary, as the function of indicating grammatical aspect is different.

2213: pharaoh Jan 5, 2021

Although we might think of 'pharaoh' as a title that is otherwise sort of meaningless like 'king' or 'earl'—though in truth even though have an etymological reason—natively it made sense. 'Pharaoh' instead comes to English from the Hebrew פרעה‎ (parōh) and even at this point it was basically meaningless, though some connect it with פרע meaning '(to) pay'. In Egyptian, the word was "pr ꜥꜣ" (estimated as 'par-aa') meaning literally 'big palace'. Indeed, the word originally literally referred to the residence, and not the person, but much like if someone were to say "news from the White House" to refer to the president of the USA, this got adopted as the general term for the ruler.

2212: cushy and cushion Jan 4, 2021

'Cushy' and 'cushion', while they look similar, sound similar, and have an obvious overlap in the meaning related to comfort, aren’t related. 'Cushy' comes from Persian 'ḵuš' meaning 'pleasure', and only entered English through the period of British control of India. 'Cushion', meanwhile, comes from the Latin word for 'hip', 'coxa', as a reference to specifically a seat-cushion. Other types of cushions, such as a 'cubital' likewise comes from the name for another part of the body, the elbow', from 'cubitus', also the origin of the measurement 'cubit', i.e. the length of a forearm.

2211: Mythical Explanations behind the Ionian Sea Jan 3, 2021

Ionia is an ancient region of Greek people, and some might assume that the Ionian Sea is connected to this in some way, but this is not necessarily true. The etymology for the name of the sea is actually unclear, especially since the region of Ionia was in modern day Turkey (Anatolia specifically) and other islands in the Aegean Sea, on the opposite side of Greek to the Ionian Sea. Even ancient historians and writers including Aeschylus were unsure about this, and gave mythical explanations including the idea that the mythical figure Io swam across it, or that the Ionians themselves had originally migrated from there, though this is unclear. Another mythical idea is that it is named for Ionius, whose father also has a mythical etymology associated with him (i.e. Adrias and the Adriatic Sea) but this is also not considered true.

2210: Are Raise-Rise & Lay-Lie the Same Word? Jan 2, 2021

Ostensibly, the words 'rise' and 'lie' are very syntactically similar. Rare for most verb in English, they both modify apophonically (i.e. with internal vowel changes) to indicate transitivity (i.e. whether the verb takes an object). For instance, all in the present tense:

I raise something up // I rise (*something) up

I lay something down // I lie (*something) down

the latter forms of each being impossible in English. These 4 forms are often considered different words altogether rather than 2, in part because they conjugate differently, past tense perfect:

raise-raised; rise-rose; lay-lain; lie-lay.

Note also that while the intensive form 'arise' exists, there is no 'araise', nor for that matter intensive 'alay' nor 'alie'). While these are therefore almost certainly separate, apophany indicates multiple functions and not only tense or pluralization, so it is not so clear cut. If there is another word you know that indicates transitivity; there are some.

2209: How 'Caramel' and 'Cannon' are Related through a Semitic Root Jan 1, 2021

The word 'caramel' and 'cane' in English may actually be related through a root found in Biblical Hebrew. Indeed, the list of related words would also include 'canal', 'channel', 'cannon', and 'canon'. This is because while the '-mel' of 'caramel' comes from the Latin word for honey (mel), the 'cara-' most like comes from the Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾱ (kánnā) from a Semitic root also leading to the Hebrew קנה (kanë) which as a verb means 'to take' but as a noun refers to a hollow tube, usually meaning 'reed' or 'windpipe'. This sense of a hollow stick was retained in the English words mentioned above like 'cannon' or 'cane' (e.g. sugarcane) etc.. 'Canon', a more conceptual sort of thing usually denoting cultural or especially literary and artistic collections might seem odd on that list, but the original sense of 'canon' was 'standard' or 'measured' in the literal sense of a measuring stick. The way this transformed into ‘cara-’ is also not immediately obvious, but in Greek the [r] became an [n] and in Latin this ‘cannamellis’ before morphing into ‘calamellus’, where in Spanish the [l] developed into an [r], which are fairly close sounds.

For more on how those sounds morph: see this on kiSwahili.

2208: Brazilian Demonyms with São Dec 31, 2020

While there are some famous exceptions, usually the way to form a demonym—i.e. the term for a people of a certain place—is just to add one of a few suffixes like -er, -(i)an, or -ite. In a number of Brazilian names with São (saint) this is more complicated. For instance, while São Paulo goes to 'Paulistano', São Luís goes to 'Ludovicense', but São Carlos goes to 'Sãocarlense' or 'Carlopolitano'. This is counter to Spanish wherein 'Santa' (saint) usually stays at the beginning and other standard suffixes are added, but in Portuguese this is less consistent with the name of eponymous saint being what is used. That said, official demonyms do not always match up with how people talk, such as how the official one for Massachusetts is 'Bay Stater', but few people would likely say this and opt for 'Massachusettsian'.

2207: nurse and nutrition Dec 30, 2020

'Nurse' and 'nourish' related based off of a common Latin root meaning 'suckle', as discussed yesterday. These words are also related to 'nutrition' and 'natal', though less directly. All of these words are understood to come from the Proto-Indo-European root *sna- meaning 'to swim; flow'. This is the root of 'natant' and 'natal' (in reference to a child in the womb) but also with reference to the flow of milk and hence 'nurs[ing]' and of course its connotations to nourishment. The link between 'nurse' and 'nutrition' are less clear cut than between 'nurse' and 'nourish', though even those come from the Latin root 'nūtriō' and most people would acknowledge the Proto-Indo-European connection.

2206: nurse & nourish Dec 29, 2020

Nurses today have a wide variety of tasks to accomplish, and while there have always been a number of roles associated with the job, the initial meaning was inextricably linked to children. Indeed, the word is related to 'nourish', both from the Latin 'nutrix' (person who nourishes) from an even earlier term 'nūtriō' (suckle). Contrast this with the chiefly historical terms 'wet nurse' and 'dry nurse', the latter referring to someone who looked after a child but did not breastfeed it, and this will become clear. This word is very distantly related to 'nutrition' as will be explained tomorrow.

ב״ה

2205: L or M: What's the Symbol for Lesotho's Currency Dec 28, 2020

Although there are apparent exceptions, many currency-symbols, especially newer ones, will be consistent with the pronounced names of the currency, like euro, €, ruble, ₱, won, ₩ (note that ₱ comes from Cyrillic: рубль). The symbol for the currency the Lesotho is the Lesotho Loti is: M. This isn't from a foreign language as with the pound £ or the dollar $, and comes from a native word meaning 'mountain'. Instead this M comes from the plural 'maloti' and indeed while this is the symbol for the general currency, for reference to 1 loti people will use L, though this isn't worth much so is not so common. In effect therefore this is an abbreviation and not exactly a symbol, though that said the subdivisions 'sente' (plural lisente') would not have their own abbreviation.

2204: -ite Dec 27, 2020

In Biblical translations, it is very common to come across tribal demonyms ending in -ite, such as:

"...Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites..." (Deuteronomy 20:17) but this has little relation to the text itself. Indeed, just compare the modern 'Israeli' and Biblical 'Israelite' and the linguistic discrepancy is perhaps more noticeable. In Hebrew, these are all pluralized with the same ending:

החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי

but this ending is pronounced [i] with no hint of a final [t]. In fact that's a function of Greek and not of Hebrew. Moreover, many place-names around areas with no contact to Greek such as Southeast Asia still take -ite like Bandung-Bandungite (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur-KLite (Malaysia), Kuching-Kuchingite (Malaysia), Vizag-Vizagite (India), and Seoul-Seoulite (Korea). The -ite ending is found from English names for places around the world.

2203: French Revolutionary Calendar: Months Dec 26, 2020

The French Revolution saw a lot of societal change, including an attempted change of the calendar. Everything was decimalized from the number of days of the week to hours in a day etc. but there were still twelve months. These months fell out on different days but roughly followed the seasons. The names are:

In Autumn: Vendémiaire, Brumaire, and Frimaire

In Winter: Nivôse, Pluviôse, and Ventôse

In Spring: Germinal, Floréal, and Prairial

In Summer: Messidor, Thermidor (or Fervidor*), Fructidor

These were all invented words meant to convey a meaning about the time. In order it would be:

vintage, mist, and frost; snow, rain, and wind; germination flowers and meadow; and harvest, summer-heat, and fruit, which would for the most part be recognizable for French speakers. This system had with it associated with produce, animals, minerals (for the winter) in order to counter the Catholic Church who had associated a saint with each day of the year. Likewise, the years and weeks ('décades') had similar systems of associated things meant to celebrate France and French culture.