2339: top-notch May 14, 2021

Origins of phrases are notoriously hard to gauge and are often subject to a number of rival folk-etymologies. The phrase 'top-notch' for instance has been used at least since the mid-19th century but where it comes from is not entirely clear. While the association between 'top' and 'best' is long-established, also seen in 'top-shelf' which may have influenced it, it is not clear what is the notch in question. Some have connected this to mountaineering both in the sense of the mountain itself (more likely) or in the notching to denote the difficulty of the trail (less likely). Others have pointed to phrases like "being knocked down a peg" and other sporting references with the idea that this comes from measuring sticks or even bow-strings, but these have their own problems, especially the archery idea which traced the origin back too far reasonably. While it may have been influenced by lots of factors (probably hiking mostly) phrases and slang is notoriously hard to trace and will be fraught with fiction.

2338: Natural Rights vs. Human Rights May 13, 2021

There has been a decline in the use of the phrase 'natural rights' in favor of the phrase 'human rights'. This switch in preference really only occured around the year 2000 in literature though in common parlance may have been earlier. 'Natural rights' as a concept with slight variance in language occured in Greek and Roman philosophy as something innate and inalienable which all humanity have. This phrasing however has long had a theological understanding with the idea of people having been "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" (US Declaration of Independence). This constitutes one way in which the notion of natural- and human rights differ, though some state the difference with natural rights being negatively defined (things not to be infringed upon) and human rights positively (things requisite to be given freely). In common use this positive-negative distinction is not always made however.

2337: get, nascent, and a word family of birth May 12, 2021

The words 'beget' and 'nascent' both relate to birth (as of course do a great many other words) but these can be proven to be related by a common root. The word 'get' is related to a root *ghend- meaning 'to take; to grab; to hold' is also related to *ǵenh₁- and *gene- both meaning 'to give birth' or 'produce' leading to the Latin gnāscor (hence 'nascent') and 'get' along with 'generate' and all its derivatives, also 'gene', 'genealogy', 'pregnant', ‘beget‘, 'kind', 'naive', 'indigenous', 'gonad', and so many more.

2336: Original Description of Double Negatives May 11, 2021

There is a common understanding of double negatives in Standard English resulting in a positive. This is not nearly as simple as the case in reality, but that's because the initial analysis of the phenomenon is often misunderstood. When Bishop Robert Lowth described this in 1762, he was discussing words to convey one's point of view, such as saying

"I don't disagree" to imply either:

• "I certainly agree"

• "I agree"

• "I sort of agree"

• "I don't understand your point of view" / "I have no opinion"

He called these 'weasel words' because one might weasel out of a situation with this linguistic vaguery around a double negative, but he did not mean this as a rule for the whole language.

2335: Adlam May 10, 2021

While most scripts around the world are quite old, from the Dark Ages if not antiquity, a number from Africa developed in the 20th century are gaining some traction. For instance, the Adlam script was used across the Sahel and in particular the country of Nigeria by around 65 million people had previously been written in both the Latin and Arabic script, but both were insufficient for its expression and thus Adlam was developed by 2 teenagers in the 1980's. Both due to its native phonology that doesn't match the other two previously used writing systems, as well as its diacritics for things like consonant gemination, prenasalized consonants, long vowels and modified consonants, it much more accurately and simply represents the functions of the language. It also has its own numerical system which is written right-to-left, unlike in Arabic where the writing is also right-to-left but the numbers are left-to-right.

2334: Holy Grail May 9, 2021

There are lots of words for types of drinking vessels (cup; mug; glass; clalace; goblet; flute, etc.) but 'grail' really only appears in the context of the Holy Grail. The word 'grail' itself does not have any particular religiously significant etymology, coming from the Medieval Latin 'gradalis' meaning 'dish' and possible related to the word 'crater' though this is less certain. In Middle English the phrase 'Holy Grail' was 'seint gral' or 'sangreal' (same root as 'saint' which just means 'holy') and this is often contrasted with 'sang real' meaning 'royal blood'. This phrase definitely isn't the origin, but certainly could have influenced the word.

2333: flange May 8, 2021

A group of monkeys is traditionally called a 'congress' (in more ways than one) but another word has been growing in popularity. In a British comedy sketch with Rowan Atkinson the word 'flange' was used as a term for a group of baboons and since then the word has stuck. The term is now used both informally but even in academic work it has cropped up as a way to describe groups of monkeys.

2332: Double Negatives for A.I. May 7, 2021

The phrase 'double negative' is pretty vague considering how negatives really operate, and this fact might be increasingly used as a test to see what's a human and what's a computer. For instance, "I ain't got no satisfaction" is a perfectly legitimate, albeit informal phrase which contains two negatives with a negative and emphatic meaning. Moreover, "it's not unusual to be loved by anyone" is also a double negative but with a basically neutral connotation because this is not the same meaning as "it is usual". Indeed it was a description of this structure which led to the understanding of a rule of two negatives in English establishing a positive if vaguer meaning. Likewise, it has been observed that phrases like "there isn't no other way" can be interpreted as either positive or negative depending on tone and other context. This is still and likely will always be difficult for a computer to intuit, and may be used as a tool for discerning man or machine.

2331: narwhal May 6, 2021

The word 'narwhal' unsurprisingly has the root of 'whale', but the spelling comes from Old Norse. The name really originates with the Old Norse 'náhvalr' which likely metathesized from 'nár' meaning 'corpse' in reference to its white-gray skin. This root 'nár' is related to the English 'need' which connotes lacking, and historically meant a severe shortage or extreme poverty. This is related to Old English 'ne; neo' and the Old Irish 'naunae' (famine).

2330: prehensile & get (*ghend-) May 5, 2021

The word 'prehensile' is from the Latin 'prehēnsus' (ultimately from prehendō) meaning 'to grab' denotes something with gripping capabilities such as in the phrase 'prehensile tail'. It is also from the same root that we get 'apprehend' and 'apprehensive' the latter of which lost its physical meaning and now is used only in the mental sense. Further back though, the root *ghend- has led to all sorts of words, including but not limited to these just in English: get; guess; depredation; and enterprize. Moreover, some less obvious ones include: comprehensive; comprise; and reprehend.

2329: Née & Né May 4, 2021

Often for biographical information, previous names, especially ones used before marriage, are listed after 'née'. This is a French participle meaning 'born' and as such takes grammatical gender (here, feminine) that it wouldn't if it were acting as a verb. Rarer, there is also therefore a masculine 'né' which can be used in used in cases where men replace their last-names after marriage such as for Jack White (né Gillis) or sometimes for professional reasons such Sting (né Gordon Sumner). The latter might be more common with legal name changes even when professional, like Teller's mononym those this was once his last name.

2328: Fishing in Arabic (Maghrebi Dialect) May 3, 2021

Although in Arabic retains many similarities to Classical Arabic and and its dialects are usually fairly mutually intelligible, but there are of course certain regional differences. Past the larger phonetic and grammatical variations, as well as effects of various environmental factors, there are some amusing differences in vocabulary. For instance the word for 'to fish' in Arabic is صيد السمك (sayd alsamak) actually meaning 'to hunt fish', while in Maghrebi Arabic the word for fish is حوت (hawt). In Standard Arabic this would mean 'whale' and thus the Maghrebi for 'to fish' صيد الحوت (sayd alhut) or literally 'to hunt whale'.

2327: 'To Pit Against' & 'Cockpit' May 2, 2021

Although in many places cock-fighting is illegal now, in medieval Europe one might find them in any small town even. This had led to a number of phrases in English, including the phrase "to be pitted (up) against", but also the more innocuous term 'cockpit'. This was eventually used for nautical purposes, and later for cars and planes, with the original sense being a tight, enclosed space.

2326: gymnasium #2 May 1, 2021

The word 'gymnasium' in English is usually refers to a place where exercise is done, and in German it is the name for a type of a lower school usually at a high academic standard, but in Greek γυμνός (gumnós) means 'naked'. Indeed this word belongs to a larger family of European words descended from the Proto-Indo-European root *nogw- meaning 'naked'. In Ancient Greece, it was a standard community feature to have an open-air area for sports, all done in the nude, but eventually this developed into a place of training the body and even the mind, hence the English and German senses.

2325: nanny goat Apr 30, 2021

The term 'nanny goat' has been used to refer to a child's nurse and a domestic she-goat. It would be reasonable to assume that the term for the occupation existed either first or independently of the goat especially considering there were plenty of other terms from the 17th and 18th century that use 'nanny' in a variable sense but this is not true. The goat was an actual goat who would act as a sort of wet-nurse to a child who didn't have a mother, or whose mother couldn't or wouldn't lactate. When this term mostly replaced 'she-goat', 'billy goat' emerged to mostly replace 'he-goat'.

2324: manna Apr 29, 2021

The Biblical substance known as 'manna' in English is מָן (mon) in Hebrew, and I likewise in Arabic does not have this added [ə] at the end. This was definitely added in by the time of introduction of Greek to the region (which happened long before Arabic even existed) with the Greek μάννα (mánna) using this extra vowel and long [n]. This was probably not from Aramaic nor especially an Aramaic phrase though many early writings have claimed this origin for the word and particularly the added extra syllable from Greek.

2323: auspice, auspicious, & augur Apr 28, 2021

'Auspice' on its own is a legitimate albeit rare word, but referring to a prophetic object or sign, but in the phrase "under the auspices of..." meaning "with the support and oversight of..." it's fairly common. It is in the first way, unsurprisingly that we see its semantic relation to the word 'auspicious', meaning 'sign of success'. Originally though, rather than the general meaning those have now, this was particular to divination, and is related to the word 'augur' which initially was an actual Roman officer whose job was as a diviner.

2322: coconut Apr 27, 2021

Coconuts have nothing to do with not cocoa etymologically*, but does have to do with skulls. In Spanish and Portuguese, 'coco' means 'grinning face', 'grimacing face', or alternatively 'skull'. This is in reference to the three depressions on the outside of a coconut which were said to resemble the face of a person.

* 'Cocoa' was originally 'cacao' but the spelling was influenced from 'coco-'.

2321: cormorants & corvids Apr 26, 2021

Cormorants are not corvids, and yet the name for this bird comes from the Latin 'corvus marinus' meaning 'sea raven'. 'Corvus' led to the word 'corvid' denoting the family of crows, ravens, jays, and so on, but this is not the only linguistic similarity to taxonomically distant birds. For one thing, 'cormorant' as an adjective is a synonym of 'ravenous' which of course comes from 'raven' as both birds are known for eating a lot, voraciously.

'Corvus' (Latin for 'raven') led to the word 'corvid' denoting the family of crows, ravens, jays, and so on, but is not related to 'crow' directly, despite any semantic and phonetic similarities. That said, it is believed that the names for both crows and ravens are both ultimately from onomatopoeias based off the calls they make.

2321: Drunk-Driving vs. Drink-Driving Apr 25, 2021

In the US, driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol is often referred to as 'drunk-driving' while in the UK and Australia it is 'drink-driving'. While the phrases themselves are somewhat random of course, one theory on the difference is that of different connotations to 'drunk', with consideration to the fact that something can be considered DUI without necessarily being as drunk as one might associate with that word, and could include someone who appears more clear-headed. Either way these are not usual for laws and other official purposes and if the aforementioned theory is true, 'drunk-driving' can't be so easily changed now that has embedded itself in the cultural lexicon.