2485: Legal Doublets Oct 1, 2021
Legal doublets are phrases, used in legal and common uses, which uses two or more nearly synonymous words, such as "cease and desist", "clear and present danger" or indeed "will and testament". Like other binomials, these are often connected with 'and', and often cannot be said out of order. These are not totally random however, nor purposeless (at least historically), since many started as Latin or French words followed by an English translation, though others originated as near-redundancy. Eventually both parts became English translations, and this phenomenon, which is already especially particular to law, does not exist across languages as much.
2484: Irreversible Binomials Sep 30, 2021
A so-called irreversible binomial is a phrase which exists with separable words that occur in a fixed order, like 'fish and chips', 'fight or flight, 'or 'short and sweet'. These can exists for all types of words, including for those which are no longer productive, like 'kit and caboodle' or 'vim and vigor'. This leads to come pairs like 'time and time again' abbreviated as 'time and again' which would make 'again' sound like a noun and is ungrammatical, but here there is no loss in meaning. Many of these near-idiomatic phrases are also somewhat poetic in their structure, relying on rhymes or alliteration frequently. These nearly always use a conjunction either 'and' or 'or', but in some cases exceptional like 'hoity toity' this is not necessary.
2483: siamese twins Sep 29, 2021
The term 'siamese twins' is becoming less popular compared to 'conjoined twins', because of perceived racial connotations. Indeed, Thailand isn't even called Siam anymore. The term was originally coined after Chang and Eng Bunker, two famous conjoined twins from Thailand living in the former half of the 19th century. They toured the world for many years, especially the USA, becoming quite famous both in the medical community and wider culture. This term 'siamese twins' is even used in astrophysics to describe two galaxies that appear to be close to conjoined, though these days many do not like to use this term
2482: Cleopatra: Not Exactly a Name Sep 28, 2021
Although the name Cleopatra is famous, most of her female relatives and ancestors were Cleopatra, her own full name being Cleopatra VII Philopator (Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ). Later she took on the title Theā́ Philopátōra (Θεᾱ́ Φιλοπάτωρα). Likewise, all her male relatives and ancestors were Ptolemy (Πτολεμαῖος) such as her brother and husband Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator. Many of them therefore had other, secondary names with Cleopatra or Ptolemy acting as family names or even titles, though for women Arsinoe (Ἀρσινόη) or Berenice (Βερενίκη) also were options.
2481: nicotine Sep 27, 2021
Tobacco is native to Central America, hence the word coming to English from Spanish, and likewise there was a Portuguese connection—albeit more convoluted—for 'nicotine'. It is named from the New Latin 'nicotiana', which is the scientific name of the plant, 'nicotiana herba', and that word comes from the name of the French ambassador to Portugal, who brought tobacco back to France in 1560: Jean Nicot. It is unclear where that name originates.
2480: Latin Vowel Length: Different Vowels? Sep 26, 2021
Latin, like many languages but unlike English, distinguished between long- and short-vowels. In some languages, these are merely the same vowels but said for roughly double the amount of time, which affects things like meter and syllable length. In Latin, even with Classical pronunciations, these vowels were qualitatively different. For instance, the letter I would be realized as [iː] (the symbol ː just indicates lengthening) when long like the vowel in 'seat' but long, whereas when short it was realized as [ɪ], like the vowel in 'sit'. Indeed, for all the basic letters vowel AEIOU, only A was qualitatively the same vowel, just lengthened [aː] and [a].
2479: Swedish Tones Sep 25, 2021
While people tend to associate tonal languages which use pitch to distinguish between words otherwise pronounced the same with East Asia, there are languages around the world, such as Swedish (with Norwegian included), which also have some form of this. Swedish has two tones, the acute and grave tones, which are often distinguished by stress, as in English 'a rebel' and 'to rebel' but in Swedish there are genuine, noticeable pitch changes in terms of the individual vowels outside of mere stress. As a result, there are pairs of words differing only by these tones that have totally unrelated meanings, like 'boken' (the book) with acute tone, and 'boken' (spoilt) with a grave tone. In Swedish dialects spoken in Finland, these pitches are virtually nonexistent.
2478: Hebrew Jussive: Not Just the Future Sep 24, 2021
There is a myth that Hebrew has no jussive subjunctive (such as English "let's" or "let there be"), as in most cases this looks to be the imperfect , signifying uncompleted action. For instance, the line in the opening of the Bible:
יהי אור ויהי־אור (yahi ohr vayahi ohr) can be translated as "let there be light, and there was light" or "there will be light, and there was light". In some instances this has led to obvious mistranslations, because the truth is in most contexts, there is no difference in the form of the word between the two. There are some instances where the two would differ however—proving that there is a difference in form—such as: ישם in
ישא יי פניו אליך וְיָשֵׂם לך שלום
pronounced (yasem) for the subjective meaning "may he place" as opposed to יָשִׂים (yasim) "he will place".
2477: Scotch Bonnet Sep 23, 2021
The Scotts are not known particularly for their spicy foods, and yet there is a hot, caribbean pepper named the Scotch bonnet. This is not because it has any particular relation to Scotland, but because of its supposedly similar resemblance to the tam o'shanter hat (also known as toorie bunnet): a round, woolen cap with a pom-pom. This name itself comes from the name of the hero in a poem by Robert Burns, perhaps the most famous writer in Scottish history.
2476: Literacy and the Historical Record Sep 22, 2021
It would be a mistake to assume that in history is always better understood the further ahead in time one looks. For instance, in post-Roman Europe, and most extremely in Britain, literacy rates plummeted within a generation of the collapse of the empire. As a result, while archeological information is just as viable, written records which had provided detail on more particular aspects of life at that time. This was one of many ways in which the society of the Britons in many ways reverted to its pre-Roman state, but it leaves much of the history of the 5th century and onwards shrouded. In general, collapses society that lead to declines in literacy cause blank spots in an otherwise rich historical records as happened same happened with the arrival of the sea peoples at the collapse of bronze age societies around the Mediterranean.
2475: Asyndeton Sep 21, 2021
Asyndeton is a literary device of removing conjunctions between related clauses, such as the famous Latin line 'veni; vidi; vici' (I came; I saw; I conquered). These can be on the level of whole phrases and clauses, as in the example before, or merely a series of adjuncts "softly, carefully, she walked down the stairs" or other sorts of features just so long as the conjuncts have no conjunction. This literary device helps to add emphasis, memorability and a certain smoothness to the language.
2474: Hebrew's (Potential) Accusative Case Sep 20, 2021
Biblical Hebrew uses the suffix -ה (a-) to indicate motion-towards: a common feature of the accusative case, which otherwise is used to mark direct objects. Hebrew already has a direct object marker for definite nouns—את (es)—but no way to mark indefinite nouns. Historically however, it would seem that this suffix -ה (a-) would have, whether or not the noun was definite. This accusative form was mostly lost with this one lingering use and a few potential vestigial forms in vocabulary, but some have even suggested that on top of that an early variety of Hebrew had a nominative */-u/ ending for subjects, and genitive */-i/ ending for possessives, but there is less evidence here.
2473: Cleveland Guardians Sep 19, 2021
Unlike with the Washington Football Team which moved to remove its old name of the Washington Redskins and went with a temporary name (still in use) the Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians in 2021, and at the same time announced their new logo, and mascots. Many had predicted other named, including the Cleveland Spiders, a name used over 110 years ago for a Cleveland baseball team, but in the end it was named for the Guardian of Traffic statues in the city.
2472: lime & limestone Sep 18, 2021
'Lime', as in 'limestone' or just the fruit, don't have anything to do with each other. Regarding the material, this is actually related to the word 'slime', both further related to German 'schleim' (mucus), Latin 'limus' (mud) and Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē) meaning, 'marsh'. This is later developed into words for glue—even now limestone is an ingredient in cement—and then again changed to denote the substance calcium oxide. The fruit on the other hand is from Persian لیمو (līmū). This is turn is likely from the Sanskrit निम्बू (nimbū) originally meaning 'lime' but which also influenced 'lemon'.
2471: lemon & citrus Sep 17, 2021
Around Europe, two different basic terms for 'lemon', or alternatively 'citron' are used, both very likely of Semitic origin though this is not certain. Ultimately, 'lemon', also found in Portuguese 'limão' and Spanish 'limón', along with a number of other Semitic and Nilo-Saharan languages comes from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn), itself from Persian and likely with a connection to the Sanskrit word for 'lime'. 'Citron' on the other hand, as in the French 'citron', German 'Zitron', or Italian 'cedro' is via the Latin 'citrus' from Greek, likely from a Mediterranean, pre-Greek root akin to the Arabic قَطْرَان (qaṭrān), which may have been used to describe the resins and only later the fruit itself. More on how limes fit into the story tomorrow.
2470: Codex & Affix: Why Different Plurals? Sep 16, 2021
The plural of 'index' is 'indices' and likewise with 'codex' to 'codices', but the plural of 'affix' is 'affixes'. This is not in fact inconsistent, but a result of the way in which English borrows words from Latin. In the case of 'codex', this is a Latin word in the 3rd declension which had a Latin plural of 'codices'. Strictly speaking, the plural is simply '-ēs' but the 'x' is assimilated along with the vowel as seen in the rest of the forms including the genitive singular 'cōdicis'. In the case of 'affix', this is formed from the prefix 'ad-' (toward) and 'fixus', which is the participial form of the verb 'figere' meaning 'to fasten', as in 'join together'. Since English generally does not take the 2nd declension '-us-' ending, 'affixus' (the -d- was assimilated) becomes mere 'affix'.
2469: -kin, -tje, and Afrikaans 'oke' Sep 15, 2021
The Dutch diminutive suffix -kin (found in English with the borrowed 'mannequin') is highly productive, and its related form '-tje' morphs into different forms. Depending upon the sound of the word it is affixed onto, it can appear as '-je ' before a fricative, '-etje' before a sonorant, '-tje' before long vowels and diphthongs, '-pje' with stressed vowel or before [m], or '-kje' before '-ng', though then this becomes '-nkje'; some of these can appear as simply '-ie' in slang. Further, in Afrikaans slang, 'ou' (i.e. 'old') took the diminutive form 'outjie' but was reduced as 'oke' in modern slang meaning 'guy; dude; bro'. This is therefore unrelated to 'bloke' of English slang, despite similar sound and meaning.
2468: forest Sep 14, 2021
'Forest' is a word with cognates in both Germanic and Romance languages, but few with meanings like in English. Originally, the phrase was from Late Latin phrase 'forestis silva' (the outside woods) as a term to distinguish the royal forests, also called a 'park' (parcus). The actual Latin word 'silva' was misunderstood and they took 'forestis'. This replaced 'weald' in Old English (related to 'wald' in German), 'scough', originally Old Norse 'skógr', and Middle English 'firth'.
2467: steward, constable, & marshal Sep 13, 2021
'Steward' and 'constable' are not related, but with somewhat convergent meaning from a definitions which would now be virtually unrecognizable that were equally similar in the past. The 'ste-' of 'steward' is from the same root as 'sty' as in 'pigsty' and '-stable of 'constable also became 'stable', as in where livestock live. Therefore, a steward was the ward (i.e. guard) of a sty, and a constable was the guard of a stables. The meaning of 'steward' as general manager of estates or ships etc. came much later, both from natural development and especially from confusion on translation of French terms after the Conquest of 1066. 'Constable' totally synonymous with 'steward' for a time, though eventually these affairs constables oversaw became increasingly, later exclusively legal in nature, hence its meaning as police officer. Likewise, 'marshal' went through a quite similar transformation, from 'mare-shalk' (i.e. 'horse guard') to a general official title related to law enforcement, though this historical change happened from French.
2466: county Sep 12, 2021
Counties are named because they were ruled by counts, but at least in England, not to mention other places, these could have been ruled by other types of people, including earls, lords, dukes, etc.. Before this, the Old English used 'scir', an ancestor of the Modern English 'shire'. Moreover, 'count' comes from Old French which was meant to be a translation of 'earl' (O.E.: 'eorl') but 'count' was primarily used as a term for foreign leaders in particular.