2513: I Longum: ꟾ Oct 29, 2021

Latin vowels used to be written with apexes, which looked more like traditional accent mark than the macrons used for writing out long vowels in Latin today. This was the only form of punctuation, if it can even be called that, sine historically Latin had no lower-case, no spaces words or breaks for sentences. The only other variable in this system was 'i longum' or 'long i', written as ꟾ which represented the long vowel but didn't take the accent mark. While it is true that J developed from I, it is more accurate to say that J developed from ꟾ. Moreover, in Latin orthography, if two i's would be written together, the second would be ꟾ to distinguish it from N or even U (V). Likewise, in Dutch, there is a common digraph for the long [iː] sound written as IJ, and often further stylized with a smaller i in front, sometimes written as Y, though the Y was not related historically.

2512: serology and truth serums Oct 28, 2021

Serology is the study of blood, and especially pathogens in blood, but its etymology has nothing to do with that really. In Latin, 'serum'—which also led to the the English word 'serum'—which meant 'whey'. Blood has little to do with milky water, and what's more, this is related to other milky terms like Sanskrit सारण (sāraṇa) for 'buttermilk' and Ancient Greek ὁρός (horós) 'whey; curd'. This makes sense for the English 'serum', as this is a yellowish-liquid that's a component of blood. That said, 'serum' as in 'truth serum', while informal, is still a divergence from the original, presumably by association with injections generally. The association with blood in general is also an extension of the specificity of 'serum'.

2511: Common Words with Etruscan Origins Oct 27, 2021

Just because words are basic and have cognates in other, related languages, does not make the word indigenous, though it would suggest that the term is very old. For instance, 'person', 'populous' and 'military' all came to English, and many other European languages, via Latin, but these are not native Latin words. Instead, these are generally seen as having an Etruscan root, making them pre-Indo-European. 'Persona' in Latin was an actors mask, and likewise that would be in Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu), eventually replacing the native English 'wight'. 'Populus' in Latin, was thought to relate to 'plēbs' (commoner; plebeian) but the root here means 'to fill' and an Etruscan root might make more sense. 'Milēs' has a normal construction for Latin grammar, but the perceived connection to 'mīlia' (thousand) is not a given.

2510: etruscan and tuscany Oct 26, 2021

Often, etymologies for English words list that they are from Latin, and end there, but many Latin words had relatively ancient foreign origins of their own. A number of their words entered from the pre-Roman civilization of Etruscan who spoke a totally unrelated, non-Indo-European language, most obviously name of the region of Tuscany. This is from 'Tuscus', earlier 'Truscus', and even earlier 'Etruscus', but that doesn't exactly give the etymology. Rather, this is uncertain, but some surmise it is related to the Ancient Greek Τυρρηνός (Turrhēnós), from τύρρις (túrrhis) meaning 'tower', which itself is not of Indo-European origin. Alternatively, it has been noted among pre-Indo-European groups that they gave themselves names with -sk-, also seen in 'Basque' and 'Vascones', which is believed to mean 'water' and relate to seafaring peoples. Other explanations have traced to Celtic origins, or even to compare it to 'Troy', but these do not hold up as well. It has even been suggested that this was not the endonym, but rather 𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀 (rasna) was what they called themselves, meaning 'the people'.

2509: No 'Loue' Lost: The Break-Vp of U&V Oct 25, 2021

The distinction of U and V as it is now was neither invented nor random, but even into the 16th century, there was not a clear distinction between V and U. Often, V was used in either case if it would fall at the beginning of a word, and in the middle or end of a word, it would be a U, regardless of sound. This discernment between U and V as a phonetic marker happened starting during the renaissance, since Germanic languages and even modern Romance languages have this sounds distinct, but the process was not immediate. This is also, in part, why many words have a so-called silent E at the end, as it helped with disambiguation when the sound was [v] as in 'love' but not 'low' (or 'lou', especially before W came on the scene).

2508: Ōs & Os: Two Very Different Destinies Oct 24, 2021

Latin differentiates between long and short vowels for distinguishing words, such as 'os' (bone) and 'ōs' (mouth). The other forms of 'ōs', including the genitive 'oris' is where 'oral' or 'orifice' get the R. Conversely, English has many derivatives like 'ossify', 'ossific', 'ossiferous', none of which have R in the root, because there was none present in any Latin form. 'Ōs' has far fewer derivatives outside of these other forms—except the use of 'os' as a medical term in English—including in Romance languages, relatively speaking. Consider too than 'mouth' is 'boca' in Spanish and Portuguese, ​'bocca' in Italian, and 'bouche' in French, all of which come from Latin 'bucca' (cheek) itself likely from a Celtic origin, likely related to 'pouch' of Germanic origin, and possibly related to 'puke'.

2507: Candace: Mistaken for a Biblical Name Oct 23, 2021

Candace is ostensibly a (New Testament) biblical name, but it was not actually a name. Referred to as a queen in the text, the word was written as Κανδάκη (Kandakē) in Greek, from Kdke in the Meroitic language of the Cushites, was a specific title for the sister of a king. This sort of terminology was commonly used around the region, especially around what is now Ethiopia, but later Greek and Roman sources misunderstood this and treated it as her personal name in Acts. This is how it came to be a name in English, despite it not technically being a biblical name, per se.

2506: Thai Months Oct 22, 2021

In modern Thai, months with 30 days end in '-ayon' and months with 31 end in '-akhom'; February (Kumphaphan) ends in '-phan'. Originally in Thai, the months were just numbered, but later these were Thai-modified Sanskrit named introduced by prince Devawongse Varoprakar based on the Zodiac signs, with both endings mentioned above meaning 'arrival'. This makes something like October 'tulakhom' from 'tulā' (balance) meaning 'the arrival of balance' from 'Libra', or April as 'Mesayan' from 'mesa' (ram) from Aries and so on. The different ending for February means 'bound', and the added day of a leap-year is called 'Athikasuratin' meaning 'additional'.

2505: duel & bellum: √; duel and dual: X Oct 21, 2021

The word 'duel' may seem unassuming, but it's actually a preserved version from Archaic Latin, used before the 1st century BC. The word morphed into the Classical Latin 'bellum' (war), but the form was revived in Medieval Latin from its perceived association with 'dualis' (of two) and 'duo' but this is not accurate. The word is from the Proto-Italic *dwellom (to injure; destroy) related to other words like the Ancient Greek δαίω (daíō) meaning 'to burn' or δύη (dúē) for 'pain'. In fact, this 'du-' to 'b' transformation led to 'bis' from 'duis' meaning 'twice', further complicating that medieval folk etymology. This is also seem in Archaic Latin 'duonus' to 'bonus'.

2504: Retracted -S- Across Languages Oct 20, 2021

It is common for languages that don't have the [ʃ] sound (as in 'SHe') to use a retracted [s] as opposed to a laminal [s̻], i.e. it will not be produced using the blades of the tongue (or 'lamina') touching the alveolar ridge at the top of the mouth. Instead, the retracted [s̠] is produced further back in the mouth, and as sounds somewhere in between [s] and [ʃ]. It is rare therefore to see the retracted version exist with the others, but not impossible by any means, as in Modern Greek which has both forms of [s] described above. German used to have a retracted [s̠], but these have shifted to become either [s] and [ʃ], because these are easier to distinguish.

2503: satin Oct 19, 2021

China was famous historically for being the starting point of the Silk Road, but along with carrying satin it was a major means of language transfer. Satin is named for the Chinese city of 泉州 (Quanzhou) which literally means “spring prefecture”, but in Arabic this is زَيْتُون‎ (zaytūn) meaning "olive tree", itself a translation of "Tung Tree City", for the many trees planted by its 10th century prince. The Arabic term was taken into French first before its adoption into English.

2502: Kappa(maki): Sushi from a Sea-Monster Oct 18, 2021

Kappa rolls—sushi rolls filled with cucumber—are named for a sea monster of Japanese folklore. The connection between a humanoid, web-toed, turtle-shelled sea monster might not seem immediately obvious. This is because in that mythology, the creature was thought to like to eat cucumbers, and people would even make offerings involving the vegetable, hence 河童巻 (kappamaki).

2501: -eroo/-eroonie Oct 17, 2021

We usually think of suffixes as being grammatical in function— like how'-ed' makes something past tense or participial; '-(e)s' makes something plural or signals 3rd person present etc.—but this is not necessary. For example, '-eroo' (or its variants including '-eroonie') as in "the old switcheroo" or "We're going on a tripperoonie". This does not add anything grammatically and arguably doesn't even add anything semantically for the individual word, but it does make the overall sentence more colloquial, jovial, or familiar. In this sense, this is like a diminutive which makes things sound affectionate, or literally small, but is not exactly the same.

2500: Bears: How Fear Developed Terminology Oct 16, 2021

The word 'bear' and its many similar Germanic counterparts, along with other very different sounding words of Northern European regions diverge from the Proto-Indo-European '*rtko' as seen in the Latin 'ursus' and Greek αρκτικός (arktikos). The Proto-Germanic '*berô' is related to the word 'brown' (and as a matter of course, 'beaver') meaning 'brown one'. Many people have claimed this is as a euphemistic reference from fear of bears who more prevalently inhabited Northern Europe than around the Mediterranean where they were fewer and smaller. Not only Germanic languages have this phenomenon, as the Russian медведь (medved) means 'honey-eater' and some Celtic references once had similar euphemistic qualities.

2499: hippocampus: Seahorses, Monsters, & the Brain Oct 15, 2021

The hippocampus is a ridge of the base of the brain thought to control emotion and the nervous system, but it's also the name for the genus a seahorse and a mythical monster. This is because the Ancient Greek ἱππόκαμπος (hippókampos) literally means "horse sea-monster", which in Greek mythology consisted of a mermaid style horse-headed-fish-bodied and often winged creature. Little seahorses took this as a Latin name, despite the non-Latin origins. As far as its connection to the brain goes, this was not immediately obvious and the first descriptions go from the idea of a silkworm or ram's horns—even proposing another myth-based name 'Ammonis'—but did later reference its shape to the seahorse which eventually won out.

2498: antarctic Oct 14, 2021

The terms 'arctic' and 'antarctic', while obviously geographic references just references quantity of bears, etymologically speaking. Named for the Ancient Greek ἀνταρκτικός (antarktikós)—the Ancient Greeks not having travelled anywhere near there themselves—literally means 'no bears', from the prefix ἀντ- (ant-) meaning 'against' as in the Latinate 'anti-'. This is not specifically referencing bears as animals, even though this would actually be a true description of both regions, but of the constellation Ursa Major a.k.a. The Great Bear, and the terms originally just referenced the North and South of the world generally, as opposed to the poles specifically. Notably also, the first -c- in 'arctic' stopped being pronounced in French and English until the 15th century when it was brought back, but it wasn't until the 17th century that the first -c- of 'antarctic' was restored.

2497: Antipassive Voice Oct 13, 2021

People might be familiar with the active and passive voice—and fans of Word Facts may remember discussion of the passival [1]—but less likely to be acquainted with the antipassive voice. This doesn't really exist in Indo-European languages, and instead is a feature mostly of ergative-absolutive languages [2]. The reason for this is that while the passive voice deletes the agent and promotes the object to be the subject, the antipassive operates by deleting the object of the sentence, and promoting the agent. This might sound like it would just be a normal active form then—hence the term 'antipassive'—but in ergative-absolutive languages, the subject takes different endings depending upon whether there is an object of the verb. In this way, the antipassive promotes a noun that would take the ergative case to be in the absolutive.

[2] https://www.wordfacts.org/blog/2017/10/1048-no-subjects-in-ergative-languages.html

2496: Basque Demographics for the Future Oct 12, 2021

Basque has survived the Indo-European invasions of Celts and later Romans, Spanish and French empires, but faces certain other problems today. The Spanish government these days is now much more supportive of the language, and now in Basque Autonomous community, the largest percentage of surveyed speakers belong to 16–24 age range at 57.5% of the overall population—likely even higher with those younger—as opposed to the over 65 range, which is only at 25%. This will basically secure the language's vitality for the next generations, and is reflective of the anti-Basque policies of the Franco regime. In French Basque Community however, the largest demographic of speakers is the over-65 range, and of that it is only 32.4%. This is a bad sign in general for any language development, as this is past the age of raising children and thus past the time for native transmission.

2495: Greek-Based Nubian Writing Oct 11, 2021

The Greek alphabet led to the creation of numerous other writing systems around Europe, including Coptic, Gothic, Latin (via Old Italian), Cyrillic (via Glagolitic), Armenian, and Georgian. As impressive as this is, it used to be practiced more broadly and thus adapted more widely, particularly with association to Christianity. Even after the Arab invasions, those kingdoms withstood and remained Christian, maintaining a Greek-based writing system until the collapse of their kingdom to the Mamluks and later Ottomans, by which point most people were illiterate and the writing fell into terminal decline.

2494: sehr & sore Oct 10, 2021

The German 'sehr' (very) sounds somewhat like 'very', and considering they mean the same thing they aren't related; it is related to the English 'sore'. The Old English sār as a noun meant 'ache; wound' or 'grievous' as an adjective, which is not so far from the English today, but so did the Old High German 'sēr'. Indeed, much like 'awful' or 'terrify' are bad and 'awfully' and 'terrific' are merely emphatic, so too is 'sore' negative while 'sorely' is emphatic. Many other languages have related words, but most have stuck with the meaning regarding pain.