2622: Archipelago & the Aegean Sea Feb 18, 2022
The word 'archipelago' came to English from Greek originally as a proper noun, but even now in Greek it isn't used that way. The word ἀρχιπέλαγος (archepelagos) in Ancient Greek referred to the Aegean Sea, and later denoted the islands within it. The word means 'chief sea', and even though it is ancient, it is less mythical in its source than the current name for the sea. The name, also in Latin 'Archipelago', was still popularly in use around parts of Europe until the modern era.
2621: AD-CE Feb 17, 2022
The system of BCE-CE for dating years as opposed to BC-AD is in some ways older than most people would likely imagine. While the abbreviations themselves are fairly new, the terminology has been found since the 18th century. However, it is exactly the same in everything but name, including quirks like not having a year 0. Since in the religious context this is based off of a fixed event, or at least intends to be, the lack of 0 makes sense with AD.
2620 dungeon Feb 16, 2022
In the popular conception, dungeons are in the basement area, but in medieval times they would have been the top level of a tower. In fact, these were designed to be secure not because they were prisons per se, but as castle keeps, which is how the word meant in Middle English. This is still the case in the less well-known word 'donjon', likely based on the Latin 'dominus' meaning 'master' as it was the lord's tower most of the time; castles, ultimately, were homes.
2619: Greek Name for Mars Feb 15, 2022
English has lots of words with 'pyro-' like 'pyromaniac' from the Greek word for 'fire', but their word for the planet Mars, Pyroeis, which literally 'the fiery' we did not go with. Instead, we took took the Roman name 'Mars', a deity of war, because its red color was associated with blood. The Greek name was for the same reason, though it went in another direction.
2618: Gargoyles vs Grotesques Feb 14, 2022
People will often be confused between the differences of gargoyles and grotesques. A gargoyle is only a type of grotesque, and is a statue for the specific purpose of moving drain water away from walls. Without a statue, such a device would just be a spout. Without the function of moving water, the statues are known as 'grotesques'. These statues, which often depict monsters, take their name from the Latin 'grotto', which is a type of painting style notable for its obscene imagery, painted in caves or in private homes usually. 'Gargoyle' instead comes from the French 'gargouille' (throat) because it moved water as a pipe, and is related to 'gargle'.
2617: Æthelred the Unready Feb 13, 2022
The epithet of Æthelred the Unready, one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, is a mistranslation. First of all, it is from the Old English 'unræd' which means 'poorly advised', from 'ræd' (council), that no longer has any cognates in English but is related to the German 'Rat' (council). Moreover, it is a pun, because Æthelred means 'noble council'. He happened to face lots of treason in his life, but it nevertheless ill-remembered for making lots of concessions to Viking pirates, despite having made lots of provisions in fact.
2616: Mars & marshal Feb 12, 2022
Most words that English adopted from Latin—which is quite a high number—are either native or originally borrowed from Greek. That said, one overlooked source for the Latin words initially was Etruscan, and many of the Roman's words are from them. In the case of Mars, a deity, this is slightly more complicated as the religious elements were largely Greek but the name was Etruscan, with their Mars being a child-god, not a war-god. It is true 'military' is ultimately Etruscan, but as a result of this, so are other war-inspired words like 'marshal' and 'martial'.
2615: Why No W- in 'Holistic'? Feb 11, 2022
Though there is a version 'wholism', far and away the more common and more standard spelling is 'holism', without the W-. Still, when referencing wholeness, as it were, so it might cause someone to wonder why this differentiation around W- was made. This is due to the fact that the term was coined in 1926 attempting to resemble Greek more closely, from ὅλος (holos) meaning 'whole'. That said, the W- is only from a dialect-form from the 15th century, and in Old English the word was hāl without the W-, so really the question could be asked the other way around.
2614: pepe Feb 10, 2022
Usually, we would expect nicknames or pet names to at least vaguely resemble the original version. There are a few exceptions, like 'Dick' from Richard, but at least this did come from the name. In the case of the Spanish nickname Pepe born from José, this may not be so. Perhaps the most popular theory is that this comes from the abbreviation 'P.P.' from 'pater putativus' (putative father) referencing the father of Jesus, but more likely it is just from a doubling of the final syllable of the earlier Josep. It is sometimes found as Cheché and Chepe throughout Latin America. Likewise, the Italian version Peppe is from Giuseppe, and from Portuguese it is Zezé, with many other related forms.
2613: Pagan Origins of Martin, Mark, and Mario Feb 9, 2022
There have been saints and popes named Martin, but it actually has its roots in pagan religion. The name Martinus in Roman culture was fairly popular, and derives from the Roman god of war Mars. Moreover, this is also the origin for the name Marcus, and its derivative like Mark. At the same time as the Roman Martinus, there was also Marius of the same source, which remains as it was in some cultures but also became the Spanish Mario, but not the feminine Maria which is ultimately Semitic.
2612: iris Feb 8, 2022
The word 'iris' is the name for a flower as well as part of the eye. Both of these senses comes from the Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris) meaning 'rainbow', because this part of the eye deals with color, and the flower is named because it resembled the shape of the iris of the eye. More directly though, there is a Greek messenger deity who is both represented by the rainbow and gives certain significance to it, with some references using 'iris' to mean both messenger and rainbow. The root of this word means 'to twist' and is related to the English word 'wire', and the element iridium, which gives off many colors when dissolved.
2611: prune & plum Feb 7, 2022
There are a few cases where dried fruits have completely different names to the normal version, but this is pretty rare. Prunes for instance are dried plums, but this is just because the the Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon) means 'plum', likely borrowed from a native Anatolian language. The word 'plum' does not have a separate origin though, and merely stems from the Latin form 'prunum' which morphed over time into the English form. The Modern Greek word for a plum now is δαμάσκηνο (damaskino) meaning Damascus.
2610: polecats Feb 6, 2022
Polecats and more related to dogs than cats, despite the name. The 'pole-' element at the beginning is not because of their pole-like weasel bodies, nor certainly ethnic poles. Rather, this is from the Middle French 'pole' meaning 'chicken', though it is not entirely clear why. The best theory is that this is what they eat. In Old English, they were known as 'folmart' literally 'foul marten' because of their bad smell. They also used to be known as a 'fitch'.
2609: Axolotls and Don Quixote Feb 5, 2022
The word 'axolotl', the name for a type of Mexican salamander, was adopted into English in the 18th century from the Nahuatl word 'atl' (water) and 'xolotl' (servant). This is fairly strange orthographically, as English tends to take spelling not from Nahuatl but from Spanish, such as in 'coyote' from 'coyotl' or 'chayote'—a type of tropical fruit—from the Nahuatl 'chayotli'. In Spanish, the name for the salamander is 'ajolote', but keep in mind also that Spanish used to use X in its orthography for the sound now represented with J, and 'axolotl' was adopted earlier than the other words. This is also why in English the book character is 'Don Quixote' but in Spanish it is 'Don Quijote'.
2608: Crib (Building) Feb 4, 2022
'Crib' usually refers to a baby's bed, especially one with slatted walls, but as MTV would immortalize, it can also refer to someone's house or crime den. In fact, the criminal sense is older than that of regular domesticity, and seems to have originated with the sense of a basket or pouch for keeping stored, stolen items, and then denoted the hideout. Certainly, other senses of this word relate to storage, like 'corn crib' or in Australia that this can refer to a lunchbox. Further, the sense of 'crib' as 'cheating', like 'crib sheet' probably comes from this.
2607: Golden Horde Feb 3, 2022
There was a reason for the naming of Black-, Red- and White Russia, only one of which survives now, but this is not the same reason for the Golden Horde. That name is disputed, but the English name for the self-titled Ulug Ulus ("Great State") either comes from a calque of the Russian Золотая Орда (Zolotája Orda) which was a reference to the color of the war-time tents of some of their troops, or alternatively was a reference to the tribute that the Slavs needed to pay. That said, the color-inspired names of the White- or Blue Horde as the name for the troops' left wing has been found in many languages and from different sources, with some evidence to believe the Mongols referred to them as well as the Blue Horde.
2606: True Blue Feb 2, 2022
The adjective 'true blue' now refers to a trustworthy and committed person, often with political connotations to national loyalty. This goes all the way back to the Medieval era with associations to both the monarchy and faith of the time. In some places this will have somewhat conservative connotations whereas elsewhere like Australia this phrase often reflects commitment to workers unions. In French, a similar phrase 'pure laine' exists meaning 'pure wool' or effectively 'genuine', but in Quebec this phrase is both politically or in some ways racially charged.
2605: Penguins are not Business Geese Feb 1, 2022
There is a rumor that goes around that the Chinese word for 'penguin' translates as 'business goose', but this is false. The idea is not so far often however, since the second character of this Mandarin word 企鹅 (qǐ'é) would in fact mean 'goose' (鹅). The initial character 企 is found in the word for business, that being 企业 (qǐyè), but that is a sort of compound itself. The first element of the word 企 has more of a meaning of 'upright'. In this way, if the word 企鹅 (qǐ'é) means anything (besides 'penguin' of course) it would be 'upright goose' or even 'tip-toe goose'.
2604: Answering a Negative Question: 3-Form Systems Jan 31, 2022
Now only a historical detail, English used to have a 4-form system for answering questions with 'yes', 'no', 'yea', & 'nay', but this is not the only way to set it up. German has a 3 form system, as do many Germanic languages with normal 'ja' (yes), 'nein' (no), but also the word 'doch' which responds contrarily to a negative question to clarify that is it isn't affirming the negative. For instance:
You didn’t go?
Doch, [in fact, I did]
Without such a feature, to answer 'yes' in English is ambiguous. In addition to Germanic languages, French has this with 'oui' (yes), non (no), and its third form 'si' (yes, contrary to the negative). This shares a root with the Spanish 'sí' (yes), which does not have the same nuance.
2603: Utility of Yea and Nay: 2- & 4-Form Systems Jan 30, 2022
Latin had a somewhat complicated way to answer questions, but English's manner used to be more thorough as well. English is now a 2 form system meaning that is has one affirmative 'yes' and a negative 'no'. It used to be a 4 form system with 'yea' and 'nay' as well. The difference is that 'yea' and 'nay' answer questions that were stated affirmatively (a.k.a. positively), while 'yes' and 'no' were for questions stated negatively
For example:
Did he go?
Yes, he went
Did he not go?
Nay, he did not go
Eventually, these were lost and are now considered to be dated, without common understanding in the difference of the usage.