2591: mathematics & wiskunde Jan 17, 2022
Most language's words for mathematics around Europe borrow directly from Ancient Greek μαθηματικός (mathēmatikós), except for Dutch which uses 'wiskunde'. This is not so exceptional as it might look at first glance however, since it is not a totally unique word per se but a calque, insofar as it is just translated literally. Before this 'mathematica' was used in Dutch but this purism was introduced in the 16th century. 'Wiskunde' would mean 'known art' or more to the point "art of what is known", & likewise in Ancient Greek μαθηματικός (mathēmatikós) breaks down to mean 'of knowledge'.
2590: vinyl Jan 16, 2022
The material vinyl doesn't have any grape products in it, but it is named for them. The first half of the word is from the Latin 'vinum' (wine) and the ultimate Greek ending '-yl' for υλος (hylos) meaning 'matter', used now for many groups of chemical compounds. The name in particular is from the association with ethyl alcohol, but does not have any particular relation to wine otherwise.
2589: Genes Named from Hedgehogs Jan 15, 2022
In addition to the sonic hedgehog gene, there are a number of others in the same family with other notable naming references. Before 'sonic hedgehog' was named there were the 'desert hedgehog' and 'Indian hedgehog' genes, named after real species of hedgehog. A variant form in some fish is named 'tiggywinkle hedgehog' from Beatrix Potter's character.
2588: Cyclopamine and Sonic Hedgehog Jan 14, 2022
In 1957 farmers in Idaho reported their lambs were born cycloptic. After over a decade, the chemical found corn lily when ingested by the pregnant ewes was shown to cause this, then named 'cyclopamine'. This chemical compound has many more medical effects than cyclopia, and is indeed significant for many cancer treatments. As humorous as the naming of a chemical compound after a Greek mythical monster, it's function in the body is to stop the sonic hedgehog signal during development. This name, as is perhaps more obvious, was named for the videogame character.
2587: felt, filter, anvil, and felon Jan 13, 2022
Filters can be made out of a plethora of materials and are used in all sorts of situations, but historically this would have been felt. This is why the Latin 'filtrium' and the English 'felt' came to be distantly related, but the material of felt has used to have a more generic meaning. The root *pel- meaning 'to beat' references this process of creating felts by crushing and rolling materials, and it is this same root that is found in 'anvil' and 'to fell' fairly sensibly, and 'felon' perhaps more surprisingly. This last word is from the same root but over time took on meanings of wickedness in certain languages like Latin before coming to English.
2586: tycoon Jan 12, 2022
The word 'tycoon' will for many conjure up images of business magnates or other sort of industrial baron, especially of the 19th century. This is not only a Gilded Age term because that's when it was popular, but reflects a highly specific point in history. The word is from the Japanese 大君 (taikun) meaning 'great lord', which was actually a title for the shogun, a particular type of military dictator. This term was applied by outsiders from 1857 when Japan was opened up and outsiders were allowed to trade merchandise, until 1868 when the shogunate ended.
2585: Rhotacism in Latin 'esse' Jan 11, 2022
Rhotacism in Latin, a process in which [s] and [z] in Archaic Latin would develop into [r] in Classical Latin. This was not universal, and some lingering traces existed because of the oppositional phenomenon of zetacism. This led to the Archaic Latin verb 'esō' ('to be') having the 3rd infinitive form of 'esse' in Classical Latin, but the imperfect and future forms of the word all have a root with 'r', such as 3rd person future 'erit'.
2584: Incongruent Spelling of 'Plait' Jan 10, 2022
Sometimes, spelling that doesn't appear congruent with the standard pronunciation never would have been. Sometimes letters are added for historical reasons, as many writers of Middle English wanted to have stronger ties between French or Latin. In the case of 'plait', pronounced [plæt], there actually was an alternative spelling in Middle English of 'plat' but also 'plait' as rhymes with 'plate' in certain regions. The spelling of 'plait' remain but not with its original pronunciation.
2583: Latin -ere Ending Jan 9, 2022
Rhoticism in Archaic Latin did not describe the mere pronunciation of the consonant of [r] in words as that term would be used in English, but rather the process of transforming [s] and [z] into [r]. This didn't happen in every case (1), but perhaps the most notable is in the '-ere' ending, and its derivative forms -āre, -ēre, and -īre. These were originally *-ezi in Proto-Italic, reconstructed as *-esi in Proto-Indo-European.
2582: tectonic, text, and architecture Jan 8, 2022
The word 'tectonic', relating to the structure of the Earth's crust, is probably from the German 'tektonisch' of broadly similar meaning, but that is from Latin tectonicus meaning 'of an architect'. This root, from the Greek τέκτων (téktōn) for 'carpenter' doesn't seem to have much to do with geology nor related English words like 'text' or 'technician', but but its association with buildings and structures, still seen clearly in the German 'architektonisch' and indeed English 'architecture'.
2581: Bougainville Jan 7, 2022
The island of Bougainville, now in a transitory period as it gains independence from Papua New Guinea, has a French name, but was never colonized by the French. It was first a German colony, then after WWI it was handed over to Australia before its invasion by Japan. Throughout this, it retained its French-derived name from the first European explorer there, Louis Antoine de Bougainville. In the native creole, this is Bogenvil, but in 1975 they also tried to gain independence under the name Republic of the North Solomons but yet again, it didn't change.
2580: compost Jan 6, 2022
Compost really should be called decompost. After all, the root 'compose' means 'to assemble; build up' and here it means exactly the opposite, insofar as it's decomposition. What might clarify things is the word 'compote', derived from a complicated arrangement of words and their associated meanings being borrowed back and forth between English and French meaning 'condiment'. In this sense, both related words describe a mixture of things into one, often amorphous creation.
2579: charm & oscine Jan 5, 2022
One might not think so by looking, but 'charm' and 'oscine' are related to each other. 'Oscine', which means 'related to a songbird', and while he prefix 'os-' is a mutation from 'ob-' (towards), the remaining '-cine/-cen' doesn't look that similar either. Both 'charm' [1] and 'obscen', here in its nominal form, are related to the Latin 'carmen' and come from the verb 'canere' (to sing). In Latin, '-cen' is tacked onto the ends of instruments as well to denote players thereof, such as 'lyricen' (lyrist) or 'tubicen' (tubaist; trumpetist).
2578: freelance Jan 4, 2022
'Freelance' now refers to work done across several companies by a person, rather than a fixed position. That said, people nowadays would almost never have any connection to lances, but the original sense denoted mercenaries, who presumably would have. That said, this was not from a medieval word, but is from around the 19th century at least, with many ascribing it to author Sir Walter Scott. The more general sense was taken on soon after.
2577: charm & charisma Jan 3, 2022
The words 'charm' and 'charisma' are not related, though this fact is often confused in particular because of how they are used for certain Biblical translations as it pertains to the Holy Spirit. 'Charisma' is from the Ancient Greek χᾰ́ρῐσμᾰ (khárisma) for 'grace; gift', ultimately from χαίρω (khaírō) meaning 'I am happy'. 'Charm' on the other hand, both as it relates to magic and to personality types comes from the Latin 'carmen' which meant both 'song' and 'incantation', or as it were 'chant' and 'enchant'. Both terms have been used for translating ideas of speaking in tongues or other trance-like experiences.
2576: disk and tisch Jan 2, 2022
Though dishes can be concave and tables usually not, it is the idea of flatness which links the two together. Words like 'disk', but also 'desk', 'dish', and the German 'Tisch' (table) are all from the Greek δίσκος (dískos). In its original form this meant 'disk' as we use it now, and hence the Greek athletic 'discus'. This root was adopted into a Proto-Germanic language via Latin, eventually becoming German 'Tisch', Dutch 'dis' for 'table'—though this last word is far less common than tafel (table) or berd (board)—and the English 'dish'. English took a different root for 'table', but the story is similar.
2575: spanspek Jan 1, 2022
Among the various words for cantaloupe melons, there is 'rockmelon' in New Zealand, 'sweet melon', and in South African 'spanspek'. This word has been subject to some folk etymology, with the story being that it is from the Afrikaans 'spaanse spek' (Spanish bacon) since an early governor of the Cape Colony had bacon with his breakfast and his Spanish wife had melon. This word predated the governor Sir Harry Smith by some time and was originally from another colony: Suriname. There, it was named due to its thick skin and its connection to the Spanish is not from one governess.
2575: cantaloupe Dec 31, 2021
It is normal for things to be named from where they are from, but this is more complicated in the case of the cantaloupe. Cantaloupe melons, which are the same species as honeydew melons, are from the somewhere between South Asia and Africa, but are named for a place in Italy near Rome. Cantalupo is actually the name of a former Papal summer estate, and while it is not where they were first grown, this is where they were first grown when brought to Europe.
2574: honeydew Dec 30, 2021
Though the name 'honeydew' applies to a melon, the term in its generic form is more literal description of an insect-secretion deposited on plants, which is sweet and sticky. This term is due to the supposed dew being believed to have fallen from the sky, and even being likened the Biblical manna or otherwise ambrosia. This was then associated with the flesh of the melon.
2573: chutzpa Dec 29, 2021
The English word 'chutzpah' is from Hebrew via Yiddish meant, 'insolence' or 'audacity', but took on meaning more of 'grit' or 'moxie' as time went on. This is not entirely always negative, but does connote a strong sense of arrogance. Meanwhile, the Arabic cognate حصافة (ḥaṣāfah) means really the exact opposite with 'strong judgement'.