WORD HISTORIES X

From The Mensa Book of Words 

          Dr. Abbie Salny

 

TOXIC

From the Greek for "poisoned arrow"

VAUDELVILLE

A place name given to songs composed by Olivier Basselin in Vau de Vire - Normandy, France in the 15th century

 

VAIN

From the Latin vanus, "empty" 

VERMICELLI

From the Latin - "little worms" 

YACHT

Originating in 14th century Netherlands, from the Dutch meaning "hunt". Originally small, fast vessels they were used by the Navy to hunt pirates and criminals. They quickly became popular among wealthy merchants who used them for celebrations and pleasure cruises.

 

ZEAL 

From the Greek - "to boil"

 

 

 

WORD HISTORIES IX

From The Mensa Book of Words

           Dr. Abbie Salny

 

FORENSIC

The word "forensic" originates from the Latin word "forensis," meaning "of the forum" or "public." In ancient Roman times, the forum was a public space where legal matters were debated and cases presented. Forensic science and forensic debate, while related, are distinct. Forensic science involves the application of scientific methods to legal matters, focusing on the analysis an interpretation of evidence. Forensic debate is a form of competitive speech and debate, often involving argumentation and public speaking skills. The connection probably stems from the public debate over legal matters in the Roman forum.

 

LADY 

Despite the current connotation of gentility attached to the word, it originally meant the dough kneader in the household, or the female in charge of the house. "Lord" originally meant bread guardian. 

LARVA

It comes from the Greek word for "mask" - as the immature form masked the later development. 

MEANDER

From the Greek MAIANDROS, the name of a winding river in what is now Turkey and called the Menderes River

 

MELANCOHOLY

One of the four humors in the ancient theory of temperaments developed by Hippocrates, specifically black bile (melaina chole). When  the humors were out of balance, sickness developed. An excess of black bile was thought to cause sadness, gloom, and a tendency toward depression.

 

PARAPHERNALIA

The original meaning of paraphernalia was the possessions a married woman could claim as her own. Everything else belonged to her husband.

 

SUPERCILIOUS

From the Latin "supercilium" for eyebrow.  "Supercilious" is often associated with the haughty look of raised eyebrows.

 

TABOO 

The people of Polynesia had complex rules relating to who could speak to whom, who could marry whom, the exact relationship of in-laws, and so forth. The word was so convenient and filled an unfilled niche in English so thoroughly that it was immediately adopted as an English word - meaning anything forbidden.

 

TIP

The traditional belief that TIP means "to insure promptness" has been debunked by etymologists, as there is no evidence to support it. (This is also true of COP as "constable on patrol.") In fact, the word "tip" is from the language of thieves - meaning to give someone a useful piece of advice. It has retained its original meaning in such phrases as "tip him off."

 

 

 

WORD HISTORIES VIII

From The Mensa Book of Words

          Dr. Abbie Salny 

ACADEMY

Plato's school in Athens, Greece was called the Academy. It was named after a man named Akademos, the owner of the grove, garden, or location where Plato rented space.

 

AGNOSTIC

No use of this word is known before 1869 when Thomas Henry Huxley (grandfather of Aldous Huxley) coined it to describe his philosophical position on Christianity and Darwin's theory of evolution. 

ANTIMACASSAR

Macassar was very much beloved of the Victorians. It was wonderful hair grease, but it left an oily residue on everything it touched. So the careful housewife of that era knitted, crocheted, tatted, or made from a fabric a nice, usually lacy, covering for the upper part of chairs. Eventually, this craze spread to chair arms and sofa arms as well.

 

BALLOT

A ballot was a small ball used in secret voting. For many years, balloting was done by dropping a small ball into a box - black for no, white for yes. This is the origin of the expression "black ball." 

BEDLAM

This word, now meaning uproar and chaos, derived from the name of a hospital in London - St. Mary of Bethlehem, which was devoted to treating the mentally ill in the 1400's. 

BOYCOTT

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was a cruel land agent in Ireland who charged exorbitant rents and evicted tenants who could not pay. In passive, united, resistance, everyone associated with the land shunned him, refused to pay him, and refused to work the land. Even the shopkeepers would not sell him food or supplies. His own land came to ruin, and he was forced to return to England.

WORD HISTORIES VII

CAPRICE 

When we think of the word caprice, hedgehogs and goats don't immediately come to mind. Yet both animals play a part in its history. Caprice comes from the Italian word capriccio,which meant "fright, a state of being startled." The Italian word combined two words, capo, "head," and riccio, "hedgehog," because in a state of fright one's hair stands on end like the spines of a hedgehog. Over time, part of the word was associated with the word capra, "goat," which it resembled, and possibly because being startled is behavior characteristic of goats. Other goat-like traits then became part of  the meaning of the word, including impulsive behavior - or, as it means today, a sudden/impulsive change of mind. 

WORD HISTORIES VI

SIN

Sin is an archery term from ancient Greek and Hebrew meaning "to miss the mark." That is, to miss the mark of perfection - to fall short of God's full glory.

 

MAUDLIN

The word maudlin is an English development of the second name of Mary Magdalene, the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears. From this evolved the popular legend of Mary Magdalene as a reformed prostitute who became one of Jesus' most devoted and favored female disciples. She was frequently depicted in art as weeping copiously for her sins, and it is this attribute of hers that gave rise to the current sense of the adjective maudlin as "effusively or tearfully sentimental." 

PETREL

Petrels are noted for flying so close to the water that they appear to be walking on it. Their name may have come from this behavior, although the origin of the word is not known for certain. The English explorer and pirate, William Dampier, gave the first recorded version of that explanation: "As they fly ....... they pat the Water alternately with their Feet, as if they walk upon it; tho' still upon the Wing. And from hence the Seamen give them the name of Petrels, in allusion to St. Peter's walking upon the Sea of Galilee."

 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORIES V

Salad days

"Salad days" is a Shakespearean idiom referring to a period of carefree innocence, idealism, and pleasures associated with youth. The expression comes form Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, where Cleopatra says her earlier infatuation with Julius Caesar was foolish: "My salad days when I was green in judgement." "Green" refers to both inexperience and the color of a salad.

Halcyon days

Similar to "salad days", halcyon days refer to a very happy or successful period in the past - usually youth. According to Greek legend, for two weeks every January, Aeolus, father of Alcyone, calms the winds and waves so that Alcyone, in the form of a kingfisher bird, can safely make her nest on the beach and lay her eggs. Hence the term "halcyon days" has come to signify a period of great peace and calm.

Mind Your Ps and Qs

This expression means to mind your manners, watch your language, and in general be on your best behavior. Its origin is unclear. One explanation is that it literally referred to possible confusion of the lower case letters "p" and "q" in school work and typesetting. Based on scholarly research, the OED favors the explanation that "learning his As and Bs and Ps and Qs" (from a 1763 poem by Charles Churchill) has to do with learning the alphabet. Nevertheless, a number of alternative explanations have been considered plausible. One suggests that Ps and Qs is short for "pleases" and "thank-yous [thank-ques]. Another is from the English pubs and taverns of the 17th century. Bartenders would keep watch over the pints and quarts consumed by the patrons, and be careful not to confuse the two units, written as "p" and "q" on the tally slate.

WORD HISTORIES IV

Average 

The word average came to English through Arabic and French as a maritime term meaning "damage to shipping" - or "damaged goods." It referred to any general expenses over the expected costs of shipping freight. These expenses were usually distributed proportionally among the interested parties in the venture. It is from the notion of the distribution of a sum to a number of persons that the idea of a mathematical average - the arithmetic mean - developed, and from this sense of "mean" or "medium" figure that the senses  of the adjective average,"typical' and "usual," are derived.

Curfew

A curfew was originally a medieval regulation requiring that fires be put out or covered at a certain hour at night. The word derives from the French couvrir (cover) and feu (fire). The rule of curfew was probably instituted as a public safety measure to minimize the risk of a general conflagration. A bell was rung at the prescribed hour, and the word curfew has been extended to denote both the bell and the hour in addition to the regulation.

Mob

Every age has its linguistic fads, and occasionally some of them survive and become part of the standard vocabulary. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the abbreviation of long words or phrases to one or two syllables had a vogue that was much deplored by the self-appointed literary watchdogs of the day. Mob is one such abbreviation that caught on. It is short for mobile, which was used in the early 17th century to mean "the masses." In this usage mobile was itself a shortening of the Latin phrase mobile vulgus, "the excitable populace." The note of contempt originally inherent in the word mob is still with us today.

WORD HISTORIES III

Tawdry

The word tawdry is an alteration of the name of Saint Audry, an Anglo-Saxon princess who died of a throat ailment. A fair was held annually in her honor at which cloth neckbands or neckties, called tawdry laces, were sold. These must have been showy but inexpensive souvenirs, because the word tawdry, meaning "gaudy and cheap," became an adjective in its own right.

Prestige

Before it meant influential status and widespread respect, prestige - strangely enough - first meant an illusion, conjuring trick, deception, or imposter. It developed in French to a mean the positive attributes of influence, success, wealth, and renown that were achieved through such deceitful practices. 

Inch and Ounce

Both of these units of measure go back to the Latin word uncia, meaning "a twelfth part." Uncia came into Old English as ynce, denoting a linear measure of one twelfth of a foot. The word remains in modern English as inch. Uncia also developed into Old French unce as a unit of weight equal to one twelfth of a pound. This word was borrowed into Middle English and survives in Modern English as ounce. The system of troy weight, still used for precious metals, is based on a twelve-ounce pound. The more common avoirdupois system uses a sixteen-ounce pound.

Copper

The copper we use for ordinary things like pennies, pots, and wire has a more romantic history, for it has associations with the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. The English word copper comes from the Late Latin word cuprum, derived from Latin Cyprium, "Cyprian." The ancient Romans called copper the "Cyprian metal" because Cyprus was the main source of copper in the ancient world.

WORD HISTORIES II

Aboveboard

This compound word now meaning "without deceit or trickery" once literally meant "above a board," as above a table - in gambling. If the gambler's hands were above the board, or gaming table, then presumably he could not surreptitiously change his cards or indulge in other forms of cheating. Board still harks back to its original sense of "table" in the expressions room and board (board being a table at which food is served) and board of directors (board being a table where a council is held).

Blue chip

Blue chips in poker are usually the chips with the highest value. It is from this usage that blue chip is applied to highly regarded stocks, or other high-quality products.

Clue

Clue and clew were at one time simply two spelling of the same word with the same meaning - "ball," especially a ball of yarn or thread. The meaning of clue as "guide to a solution" developed from the mythological story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus, a great Athenian hero, had the task of killing the Minotaur, a monster half man and half bull who lived in the Labyrinth, King Minos' maze on the island of Crete. Finding and slaying the Minotaur were no problem, but discovering the way out of the Labyrinth would have been impossible if Ariadne, Minos' daughter, had not provided Theseus with a clew - or ball - of string. Theseus unwound the ball as he entered and wound it up as he returned, thus following a sure path out of the maze. The figurative import of this "clew of thread" or "clew to a maze" has gradually been lost, although "clew" as a ball of yarn is still with us (at least in crossword puzzles). Today, "clue" means "guide to a solution," and its history with a ball of twine is all but lost.

Decide

Decide comes from the Latin word meaning to cut, in the sense of settling a dispute or resolving  a controversy in a single stroke. Also, to make up one's mind by cutting to the essence of a question, or cutting away that which is false to reveal the truth.

Salary

Salary, what we are paid for the services we provide, is based on the Latin word for salt (sal). Salt has always been a basic necessity for seasoning and preserving foods, especially meat. Roman soldiers at one time were given rations of salt as part of their pay, leading to our word salary. Other common salt-based words are salad, sauce, salami, and sausage.

 

WORD HISTORIES I

Quarantine

The first quarantine was in Venice, Italy while the bubonic plague was ravaging the mainland. To help curb the spread of infection, visiting ships had to spend 40 days at anchor before entering the city. The word quarantine comes from the Italian phrase quaranta giorni: literally, 40 days.

 

Candidate

In ancient Rome, the color of someone's toga could indicate their social status. Politicians wore gleaming white robes, probably whitened with powdered chalk, to show the purity of their intentions. The white toga was called toga candida, from the Latin candidare (to whiten). From there we get the English word candidate (one seeking political office) and candid (truthful).

 

Barbarian

The ancient Greeks loved their language and looked down on those who spoke a "lesser" tongue.  To Greek ears, anyone speaking in another language sounded as if they were saying bar-bar, the ancient equivalent of blah-blah. This bar-bar babbling led to the word barbaros, meaning foreign and uncouth. Barbarian came to us from there.

 

Disaster  

Since ancient times, astrologers have been hunting for divine messages in the stars. Dis is Latin for asunder and astrum for star. A disaster means that the stars are against you and that ill fortune is close at hand.

 

Haagen-Dazs

Haagen-Dazs is short for ......... absolutely nothing. Reuben Mattus who moved to Brooklyn from Poland, created the ice cream company in 1959. Mattus was Jewish and wanted to give his company a Danish-sounding name in tribute to Denmark's heroic efforts to shelter and save Jews during WWII. He chose Haagen-Dazs - which is basically a nonsense phrase in Danish.

Lego

Lego is a contraction of the Danish phrase leg godt - meaning "play well."

 

WD-40

WD stands for Water Displacement, and the 40 stands the 40th formula tried by the chemist who invented it - after 39 failed attempts.