2903: Electricity and Amber Dec 2, 2024
It may sound surprising that the word ‘electricity’, or more specifically ‘electron’ comes from Ancient Greek, given that the ancient Greeks did not understand these concepts. Moreover, it is clear that the come from the source ἤλεκτρον (electrum), but it’s not totally clear why.
Due to its being a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, the name for amber was applied to electricity because rubbing amber causes electrostatic, and possibly the word was reinforced by its color, occurring within two of the most electrically conductive natural materials.
This led to the Persian, (and hence Arabic كهرباء (kahrubā) meaning ‘amber’ but now ‘electricity’. In a somewhat dis case, the Modern Hebrew חשמל (hashmal), which appears in the Bible, notably in Ezekiel's vision, is as a mysterious, radiant spiritual substance, or a type of angel. This is most definitely not amber, but when the Bible was translated into Greek, the word ἤλεκτρον (electrum) was used to translate this Hebrew word.
2902: Carat and Carob Dec 1, 2024
The words "carat" and "karat", both units of weight used in measuring gemstones and gold, actually trace their origins to the humble carob tree. The carob seeds, which were used in the ancient world on account of their fairly consistent weight, were used as a natural standard for measuring small quantities. In fact, the term "carat" is derived from the Greek word κερατωνία (keratonia), meaning "fruit of the carob tree". This is related to ‘keratin’, but not for any specific reason. κεράτιον (keration) means ‘horned’ and is natively Greek, but as it relates to the carob fruit, it was reinforced by a Semitic root, related to the Arabic قَرَظ (qaraz) referring to another type of tree, the acacia.
2901: Bookie Nov 30, 2024
The term bookie, meaning someone who manages bets, originates from bookmaster, a professional responsible for keeping financial records. As gambling gained popularity, book became shorthand for the ledger of bets and odds. This narrowed usage led to bookie, a diminutive reflecting the informal nature of the role. The evolution from bookmaster to bookie highlights how language adapts to societal and functional changes.
2900: Bread, Barley, and Brew Nov 29, 2024
The words bread, barley, and brew all trace back to the Proto-Germanic root braudą, meaning “a piece of food prepared by cooking or fermentation,” which itself derives from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (‘to boil’; ‘bubble’). Initially, this root referred broadly to processes involving fermentation, a vital technique for food and drink preservation. As agricultural societies evolved, this semantic field narrowed and specialized in different directions: bread emerged to denote leavened baked goods, as baking became a dominant use of fermented grains; barley, central to early brewing and baking, derived from the grain itself, which was central to both food and drink production; and brew retained its association with the bubbling process, specifically in preparing fermented beverages like beer. The divergence reflects shifts in cultural priorities and technological advancements that isolated these meanings into distinct but interconnected domains of sustenance.
2899: Folk Etymologies: An Arm and a Leg Nov 28, 2024
The phrase “to cost an arm and a leg” (or conversely to charge etc.) is, like many idioms, difficult to track down. The obvious meaning is that it is expensive in that no one would be quick to remove them for any reason. There is another explanation offered commonly, which is that in the world of portraits, a bust was the cheapest, and the larger amount of one’s body was included in the painting, the more it cost, i.e. one was being charged literally per arm and leg. Again, it is usually very difficult to prove where a phrase comes from compared to the etymology of a single word, but a good way to prove something isn’t the origin, and is instead folk etymology, is with dating.
Oxford English only first records this phrase in the USA in the mid-20th century, and would not have been born out of the era of portraiture. Other explanations, like 18th century British coinage or Roman culture etc.—all of which have been conjectured—are almost certainly wrong, but are more compelling stories than the plain meaning given at the start: they are precious to a person.
Indeed, similar phrases have been seen throughout history. The Biblical line, “if I would forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [itself]” paints a similar picture of value being compared to the utility of a hand.
אם־אשכחך ירושלם תשכח ימיני*
2898: Zombie Nov 27, 2024
The word 'zombie' has its origins in the Haitian Creole word 'zombi', which likely stems from the West African languages of the Kongo and Yoruba. In these languages, words like 'nzambi' (meaning god) and 'zumbi' (meaning fetish or spirit) are believed to be the root forms. The concept of the zombie as an animated corpse, controlled by a sorcerer, was introduced to Western audiences through the Haitian Vodou culture during the early 20th century.The term gained widespread recognition in the English language after being popularized by films such as White Zombie (1932) and George A. Romero's iconic Night of the Living Dead (1968), evolving into its modern association with mindless, reanimated corpses. Over time, the meaning broadened to include various types of mindless, robotic-like individuals or figures in popular culture, moving far beyond its original Vodou context.
2897: Brutalism is not ‘Brutal’ Nov 26, 2024
The term 'brutalism', often associated with a style of architecture marked by raw concrete and angular forms, actually derives from the French word béton brut, meaning ‘raw concrete’. It was coined by the architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s, who used the phrase to describe his own unrefined use of concrete in building design. Contrary to popular belief, the word is not connected to the word ‘brute’ or ‘brutal’, which imply harshness or violence. Instead, it refers to the material’s unpolished, industrial aesthetic. That said, the word was later influenced by ‘brutal’ to give the form it has in English.
2896: Natural Gas: As Opposed to What? Nov 25, 2024
Natural gas is, true to form, natural gas, but this leaves a few awkward questions:
•Why don’t we say natural for plenty of other naturally occurring fuels, like petroleum?
•What is unnatural gas?
•Why isn’t helium, also removed from pockets trapped underground, a “natural gas”?
Basically, it all comes down to the alternative: coal gas. Before the widespread use of natural gas, the gas powered burners of the 19th and early 20th centuries were coal gas, or sometimes wood gas powered, in a process similar to creating coke. This was later included in the term ‘manufactured gas’, referring here to all solids turned to gas for fuel consumption.
The trends in technological innovations and acceptance can be mapped linguistically, as seen on this graph. ‘Coal gas’ became popular in the 1820’s, though it existed in the decade before, where ‘manufactured gas’ only took off in the 1930’s, and by the ‘50’s, it and ‘coal gas’ were certainly on the decline. ‘Natural gas’ only firmly became more popular around 1900 but has since become incredibly dominant in comparison.
2895: Crow and Raven Nov 24, 2024
Crows and ravens are related insofar as both are corvids, but they are different species, but month words share a common root. Both come from the same Proto-Indo-European root *krā-, which is believed to have referred to the sound of the bird’s call. The Old English word for ‘crow’, crāwe, and the Old English word for ‘raven’, hræfn, both evolved from this ancient root, though they developed distinct forms and meanings over time. Interestingly, the shift from the guttural hr- in hræfn to cr- in crāwe mirrors a broader linguistic change where either the [h] morphed into a [k] or dropped entirely. Today, while these birds are distinct species, their etymological roots show how language reflects both the natural world and its evolving interpretations by speakers across generations.
2893: Spice and Species Nov 22, 2024
Spices are not a specific botanical distinction, but come from an earlier sense of “special determining quality”. In fact, ‘spices’, ‘specific/special’, and ‘species’ all come from this root, but none of the same meaning. Rather, the Latin ‘speciēs’ meant “kind; sort”, but in the sense of ‘wares; goods’. Developing into “defining quality” of anything, the word branched off into particular words for quintessential elements of something or other, so the Old French ‘espice’ meant “the quality of food” i.e. flavor, and eventually led to ‘spice’, but also ‘species’ being the essential quality of a type of animal, and so on.
2892: Keyboard Spacing Oddities Nov 21, 2024
English QWERTY keyboards, of course, have 26 letter keys and several others, which are often uniquely sized, partly to address the following problem. Of the 26 letters, they are arranged into rows of 10, 9, and 7 (descending), and above them, the row of numbers is not evenly spaced. Of these four rows, the top two and bottom two have their pairs spaced roughly half a key's length apart, but in the middle of these two pairs, the spacing is different, closer to one-third or one-quarter of a key's length.
This is a vestige of typewriters. Since traditional typewriters used physical keys that stamped an ink-soaked ribbon onto paper, the levers had to be spaced irregularly to prevent jamming. There was no reason, per se, for computer keyboards to maintain this arrangement, and in fact, the daisy wheel of electric typewriters had already rendered this feature obsolete. However, it remained the standard because it was familiar to users, and there was no incentive to change. The only difference between old typewriter keyboards and modern ones, besides the computer-specific commands on the spacebar row or above the numbers, is that keys like Shift and Return are now given specific sizes to fit into a rectangular layout. But again, this practice had already been established by the time of electric typewriters.
2891: Linguine and Linguistics Nov 20, 2024
The diminutive suffix -ini is not really productive in English, but it is found in a few loan words, like ‘zucchini’, ‘fettuccine’ and ‘linguine’ (also spelt ‘linguini’), and clearly understood enough that it has been used to form new words like ‘broccolini’ (a trademark).
In the case of ‘fettuccine’, it is unclear where a “little fetta” came from, though it means “little slice”. Linguine’ is related to ‘linguistics’ etc. coming from ‘lingua’ meaning ‘tongue’. The connection between ‘tongue’ and ‘language’ is common across many tongues, as it were, but not so commonly used in English anymore. In the case of the pasta it is of course related to the shape.
Tortellini means little cake, related to contort and ‘panini’ is unsurprisingly “small bread”. On the fact that all of these are plural, see more here.
2890: Crabs and Circuses: A Vast Web of Words Nov 19, 2024
Follow the path of some etymological mysteries and a wider picture begins to emerge. Cancer likelihood is increased by carcinogens, named after ‘carcinoma’. Both of these words come from the same source, even though they do not look particularly related. All of those cancer-related words come from the Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos) though in the case of ‘cancer’ this was from a Latin calque of the Greek, meaning ‘crab’. This is from the veiny appearance apparently looking like a crab, also seen in the word ‘canker’ and indeed crab. A full explanation of the sound changes and relation to the zodiac can be found here.
The fact that so many words descend from the shape of crabs is interesting, but the story does not end there. Looking even further, ‘curve’, ‘curb’, and words related to ‘circle’, like ‘circus’ and ‘circuit’ etc., and perhaps more surprisingly ‘shrink’ also are all related to those above. This is from an even older root, meaning ‘to turn’ or ‘to bends’.
2889: A History of Serifs Nov 18, 2024
Serifed typefaces are no longer as popular as they once were, but at one point they were a practical necessity. It is not clear, for any writing system, even the quintessential case of Latin, why serifs developed, nor is it clear where the name comes from. One leading theory is that they were used to neaten out the ends of the lines when chiseling into stone. That said, lots of other writing systems, from Greek to Cyrillic, and arguably Hebrew and even very modern ones like the Cherokee syllabary, developed in the early 19th century, have serifs, despite having very different histories.
Part of this may be due to parchment, which does not absorb ink but rather the ink is dragged over and dries as a layer on top of the base. Since the ink does not naturally absorb into the parchment, serifs help to get the ink started with a small scratch, and to finish the line so that the ink does not run.
Of course, they persisted well after the invention of paper, still being used today, as a stylistic choice. For certain purposes, it does not function as well as sans-serif fonts, especially fitting lots of text into a small or narrow space while maintaining legibility, and it comes across as more old fashioned, so particularly in the internet age it has begun to be usurped in those contexts.
2888: Book: Surviving Against the Odds Nov 17, 2024
The word ‘book’ is an old one in English, with roots going back to Proto-Germanic thousands of years ago, and possibly has to do with a common material for carving runes: beech wood. It is rare that over the course of Middle English, it would eclipse another term of the same meaning, especially a foreign one. After the Normans invaded, many scholarly terms shifted from Old English roots to Romantic ones, but in this case, ‘book’ replaced the Old French based term, ‘livret’.
Plenty of Old English terms were replaced by other, also Germanic terms, such as ‘ened’ (related to German ‘ente’’) being replaced by ‘duck’, but in this case ‘book’ was replaced by an Old French term and then went back. What was lost was a number of compounds involving books, like ‘bochus’ (book-house) for ‘library’, a Latin based word.
2886: Burn and Brand Metathesis Nov 15, 2024
A number of words from Old English experienced metathesis wherein the first vowel and the [r] would switch, as in bird from brid and so to with horse. This did not happen uniformly, however. The word ‘burn’ experienced this metathesis, appearing for instance in German as ‘brennen’ despite Old English ‘birnan’, i.e. with the -R- before the vowel, but there are English words where the same feature is present. ‘Brand’ as in to put burn a mark into something used to be the past participle of ‘burn’ in Old English, and semantically narrowed during Middle English—the sense of brand as the essence of a manufacturer or other business is from the 17th century based off of that.
Even earlier than ‘brand’ was ‘brew’, that developed from the same root ultimately, but appeared in Old English as ‘brēowan’, in the sense of burning, then boiling, and potentially related to the word ‘barely’ to lead to the specific meaning it has now.
2885: Rickets is not from Rachitis Nov 14, 2024
The disease known as rickets, a lack of vitamin D leading to soft bones, is known in New Latin as Rachitis, from the Greek ῥαχίτης (rhakhítēs) , but those terms as names for the disease actually come, in part, from English rather than the other way around as one might expect. To be clear, the Ancient Greek ῥαχίτης (rhakhítēs) does exist, and obviously before English, meaning ‘spine’, but this is not the origin of the term rickets.
It is not entirely clear where this term comes from, other than that it was a local term used in Southeastern England after which Daniel Whistler named it in the 17th century. He took the English term, backformed it from a semantically related Greek term, and developed the New Latin word Rachitis, which is also used in some modern languages now like German.
This is also where the term ‘rickety’ comes from, in the sense of having weak structural support.
2884: Godspeed and [secular?] Speed Nov 13, 2024
The phrase ‘Godspeed’ might sound like a strange compound, or as with ‘goodbye’, a clipping from a longer, and more overtly religious phrase. The answer is somewhere in the middle.
Godspeed does literally come from ‘God + speed’ but this was when ‘speed’ meant something else. In Old English, ‘spēd’ meant ‘success’, definitely Germanic but also probably related to the Latin ‘spēs’ meaning ‘hope’. This word overtime experienced semantic narrowing, moving from any type of success, to success in work and travel, to efficient and most importantly fast activity. A similar sort of semantic narrowing occurred in the Russian cognate спеши́ть (speshíty) meaning ‘to hurry’.
The original meaning is retained in ‘Godspeed’ but since most people will be unaware of this earlier meaning, it is somewhat confusing, as an abbreviated phrase for “[may] God give you speed”, what would now be, ‘Godsuccess’.
2883: Clean Eating: Old Food Safety Marketing Nov 12, 2024
Lots of Victorian and Edwardian era foods were either actually poisonous or were so contaminated after heavy industrialization and few regulations as to make them very dangerous. This led to branding around food designed to sound very pure and clean. Hydrox for example was named for “hydrogen and oxygen”, and though to modern ears it might sound like a house cleaning product, it was designed to evoke a sense of high standards in the food. Likewise, this is understood to be the source of the names “Dr. Pepper” and “Pepsi”.
In the latter case, this was from a benefit of unregulated marketing, where it was sold as a cure for dyspepsia otherwise known as indigestion, despite the sugar, caffeine and carbonation doing the opposite. That sort of marketing is now illegal, though the name stuck around, as did the term “digestive biscuit” or “digestives” which is still popular in the UK, but illegal as false advertising in some countries.
2882: Complex Verbal Agreements Nov 11, 2024
In most languages, even ergative-absolutive languages, the verb simply needs to agree with the subject [agent] but does not have any morphosyntactic relationship to the object, or indirect object etc.. Some languages, like Ubykh, once recently spoken in the Caucasus, needs to show agreement with the subject*, direct object, and any indirect object (i.e. also benefaction and ablative objects). With only 2 vowels and over 80 consonants—among the most in the world—this made Ubykh’s highly agglutinative also very nuanced phonetically to most outsider's ears.
Other languages as well, including Basque also require verbs to agree with subject*, direct object, and any indirect objects, but also for agreement with the listener, for instance singular or plural.
*Ubykh and Basque are ergative-absolutive languages so it’s not entirely true to call it a subject