etymologically speaking

8/10/2019 Etymologically Speaking.

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What follows is list of some curious word origins. Some of these are English, but someare French and German words from which we get some English words. Enjoy, andplease let me knowif you know of any other cool etymologies that I ought to add to the

list!

Hey all, I just started a new site, all about learning Spanish using etymologies-- I'dlove to hear what you think of the si te! This i s how I taught myself Spanish!

Abacus

Comes from the Greek word abax, which means "sand tray."Originally, columns of pebbles were laid out on the sand forpurposes of counting. See calculateand exchequer.

Allegory

From Greek allos meaning "other" and agora meaning gatheringplace (especially the marketplace). In times past, it was common todo one's chatting at the marketplace. Some of the topics discussedwere clandestine in nature and when people spoke about them, forfear of being punished, they would speak indirectly. That is to say,they would speak about one thing in such a way as to intimate theactual information to the listener. Thus, the persons discussingclandestine matters were said to be speaking of "other things" in themarketplace. Eventually the words joined and became associatedwith the act of speaking about one thing while meaning another.

Apple(Eng.)/ Pomme(Fr.) / Manzana(Sp.)These words, which all mean the same thing, should be explainedone at a time, as they come from different sources. In regard toapple, all European languages other than the Romance languages,ie., the great majority of Indo-European languages, including theCeltic tongues, use a word with a root ap, ab, af or av for applesand apple trees: aballo (Celtic), apple(Eng.), Apfel (Germ.), aeppel(Old Eng.), abhal (Irish Gaelic), epli (Icelandic), afal (Welsh),

jabloko (Russian), and jablko (Polish). In regard to pomme, thisFrench term comes from the Latin pomum, which originally

referred to all fruit. Before Christianity was adopted as the officialreligion of the Roman Empire some time in the 4th. Century, theLatin word malum (melon in Greek) meant "apple." After theadoption of Christianity, however, and due to the importantsymbolism of the apple in the bible (ie, the Garden of Eden), thegeneral term pomum, "fruit," was used to describe the apple as "thefruit of fruits." In regard to manzana, this Spanish term comes fromthe Iberian pronunciation of matiana, a Gallo-Roman translation ofthe Latin word matianum, which was a scented, golden apple firstraised by and named after Matius, a friend of Caesar's who was also

a cookbook author ["Apple" Footnote: The French village ofAvallon (in the Yonne area), where there are a lot of apple trees,received its name from the legend of the sacred island of Avalon orAbalon, meaning "Apple Orchard"--incidentally, the "-on" suffix isan "augmentative" and explains the origin of the name of the

mologically Speaking... http://www.westegg.com/etymology/

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Pacific shellfish "Abalone"--that is, "big apple."].

Apricot

This term, which comes from the French abricot--and was aubercotuntil the Fifteenth Century--does not have one simple etymology,but rather a combination of several, involving a considerable

juxtaposition of ideas. On the one hand, we have Portuguesealbricoque, Spanish albaricoque and Italian albicocca, which allstem from the Arabic al barqouq or al birquq, for the IberianPeninsula owed much to the Arab gardeners of Southern Spain(Andalusia). The Arabic word means "early-ripe," and itself derivesfrom the Latin praecox or praecoquum malum (in Greek,praecoxon), meaning "early-ripener" and "early-ripening 'apple,'"respectively (see the etymology of "apple"). This was the namegiven by the Roman legionaries when they first brought the fruitback to Rome, as they were returning from the Near East in the firstcentury. Being easy to eat, it also was called aperitum, "fruit whichopens easily," and there is an association with Greek abros,

"delicate," for it does not travel well and ripens very quickly. Theidea that there was a connection with Latin apricus, "ripe," mayhave given rise to the "p" in English "apricot," which combines withthe French -cot ending. Incidentally, the fruit is Aprikose to theGermans and abrikos to the Russians, but all these roads lead toRome, from where the term--and the fruit--first spread throughoutEurope.

Addict

Slaves given to Roman soldiers to reward them for performance inbattle were known as addicts. Eventually, a person who was a slave

to anything became known as an addict.

Alarm

From the Italian, "All'arme" -- "To arms!"

Alcohol

This word comes from the Arabic al-kuhl, which originally meant avery fine powder of antimony used as eye makeup. It conveyed theidea of something very fine and subtle, and the Arab alchemiststherefore gave the name of al-kuhl to any impalpable powderobtained by sublimation (the direct transformation of a solid into

vapor, or the reverse process), and thus to all compounds obtainedthrough the distillation process.

Algebra

This term, which means "the science of equations" in English--andwhich conjures up fear in the hearts of most fifth and sixthgraders--comes from the title of one of al-Khowarizmi's (see"algorithm") treatises, "Hisab AL-JAHR w'almuqaBAlah"[emphasis added], which means, "Science of Transposition andCancellation.

AlgorithmThis term, which means "rules for computing" in English, comesfrom al-Khowarizmi (Try saying it fast), an Arab mathematicianliving around A.D. 825 who completed the earliest known work in


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arithmetic using Arabic numerals. He was the first to establish rulesfor adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with the newArabic numerals.

Appendix

In Latin it means "the part that hangs." A human appendix hangs atthe end of the large intestine; appendices come at the end of books.

Assassin

From the old Arabic word "hashshshin," which meant, "someonewho is addicted to hash," that is, marijuana. Originally refered to agroup of warriors who would smoke up before battle.

Aaron White adds:You may want to explore the fact that the hashshshins weresomewhat of a voodoo-ized grand conspiracy scapegoat cult (thevery fact of their existence is impossible to confirm). Theysupposedly were a secret society (a la the FreeMasons) which was

influential in every middle eastern court from Persia to Bangladesh.They were supposedly a brotherhood of assasins, devoted to theircaballa and its secrecy, protected by an unlimited number offanatical followers and unlimited material wealth. Assassination wastheir favorite method of instituting their power (see the Zoroastrianlore of the eunich priest Arachmenes and his assistance to Dariusand Xerxes in their rise to/fall from power). Rumor has it that onlythe hashshshins were able to survive the hordes of mongol invadersthat massacred all people, governments, instituions, etc. in its path,and this only because they were able to infiltrate the asian army'sranks as it surged east and threaten the lives of many important

officers and virtually every general (no small feat for anorganization that does not exist from several subjugated countries).Usually their threat of death to anyone who opposed them, nomatter how powerful, was enough to ensure anyone's complicitywith their plans, especially when considering their influence andthus the impunity with which they could act. Also cross-referencethat Persian was a mystical, legendary form of marijuana/hashish,rumored to be of unparalleled quality. It is so powerful as tobecome hallucinogenic and surreal and is said to be on of the waysto attain full-blown buddha-like enlightenment. Even Jerry Garciaand the Grateful Dead had a worhipful reverence/fear for Persian.This substance was used by the hashshshins in their intiation rites asa narcotic to overwhelm and produce complacency in their recruits.Also, having an army of fanatics was even better if they were alladdicted to a potent intoxicant of which you are the only source.

Paul Graham adds:The assassins were a sect of warriors who controlled a number offortified towns in Persia for about 200 years. On 19 Nov 1256 theirleader, Rukn ad-Din, negotiated a surrender with the besiegingMongols. (He was killed soon after.) I know of no evidence that the

Assassins infiltrated the Mongol armies and intimidated thecommanders. In fact it is hard to see how it would work to threatena commander of an army in the field. The Mongols did not stay thatmuch longer in Persia anyway.


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Asthma

From the Latin, "asthma," meaning both "asthma" and"oppression." The Latin was derived from the Greek meaning thesame.

Avocado

From "awa guatl," a South American Indigenous word for testicle.The Spanish took this term and used to to refer to what we now callthe avocado.

Ballot

Italian term for "small ball or pebble." Italian citizens once voted bycasting a small pebble or ball into one of several boxes.

Barbarian

From the Greek "barbaroi," meaning "babblers," used to meannon-Greeks, i.e., people who didn't speak Greek; from the soundthat the Greeks thought they were making: "bar bar bar bar..."

Bead

From the Old English "gebed," meaning, "prayer."

Beserk

Beserk most likely comes from the Old Icelandic "berserkr,"meaning "bear shirt." This refers to Scandinavian warriors whowore, quite literally, bear shirts which they thought would renderthem invincible. I believe the Icelandic term evolves fromScandinavian, "bjorn sherkr," but I am not sure.

Big Apple

"The term, the Big Apple, was first used by in the early '20s bystablehands to refer to the New Orleans race track, then the king ofrace tracks. The name was later borrowed by travelling jazzmusicians to refer to Harlem, then the jazz capital of the world. Thedance, "The Big Apple," was all the rage in Harlem nightclubs inthe '20s and '30s. In 1971, the term "The Big Apple" was revived aspart of a publicity campaign to upgrade New York's image andpromote tourism." (See Sidewalk)

Biscuit

From the mediaeval French 'Bis + cuit' meaning 'cooked twice'

Boat

See Freedom

Boudoir

Literally, "a place to sulk in" from the French "bouder," to pout.

Boulevard(French) Boulevard; and BulwarkFrom the Old Dutch word, "bolwerk," a type of fortification: a"Bulwark." The word changed in French from, "boullewerc" to

"bollewerc" to "boulever" and, ultimately, to "boulevard."

Broke(In the sense of having no money)Many banks in post-Renaissance Europe issued small, porcelain"borrower's tiles" to their creditworthy customers. Like credit cards,


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these tiles were imprinted with the owner's name, his credit limit,and the name of the bank. Each time the customer wanted toborrow money, he had to present the tile to the bank teller, whowould compare the imprinted credit limit with how much thecustomer had already borrowed. If the borrower were past the limit,the teller "broke" the tile on the spot.

Bucolic

From the Greek "boukolos," meaning "herdsman," from "bous,"meaning "ox."

Bulimia

From the Greek "bous" meaning "ox" and "limos," meaning"hunger," presumably because one with Bulimia has the appetite ofan ox.

Butcher; Boucher(French); Beccaio(oldItalian)These terms date from the thirteenth century as a term denoting the

person who prepared and cut up any kind of meat. Previously itmeant a specialist in goat's meat (see bucolic), often salted becauseit was tough--this fact indicates how low the consumption of beefhad been in the Middle Ages. Previously the French word maiselier,masselier or macellier, from the Italian macellaio--a term whichnever entered into English--was used for the person whoslaughtered and cut up creatures of any species as required, andwho often kept a kind of tavern. Around the thirteenth century, asthe term boucher was starting to be used in the more general sense,the term maiselier came to mean only "innkeeper."

Cab(as in, Taxicab)Old Italian term for goat (cabra in Spanish). The first carriages "forpublic hire" bounced so much that they reminded people of goatsromping on a hillside

Calculate

Comes from calculus, the Latin word for pebble. In Ancient Rome,as in Ancient Greece, pebbles were used in the abacus or countingframe in order to carry out basic arithmetic computations (seeabacusand exchequer).

CantelopeFrom "singing wolf." It seems the melon was first grown in a townin Italy called Cantaluppi. The town was once a summer residenceof the popes.

Cantar(Spanish) To SingFrom the Latin "Cantare," meaning, "to sing again and again." TheLatin "Canere" mean just "to sing."

Carnival

Literal meaning: "Flesh, farewell." The "val" ending does not derive

from Latin "vale". Modern Italian "carnevale" comes from OldItalian "carnelevare"; levare = raise, put away, remove. Carnivaloriginally refered to the traditional, pre-Lenten feast (like MardiGras) after which people usually fasted.


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Catharsis

In Early Modern English, used in the sense of "vomiting." Thissense of the word was still used as recently as 1803. Originally fromthe Greek.

Candidate

From the Latin Candidus word meaning, "bright, shining, glisteningwhite." The ancient Roman candidates for office would wear brightwhite togas. This same word also gave rise to "candid," whichcandidates rarely are.

Casarse(Spanish, to marry)From "casa," meaning "house"; thus similar to the Englishexpression, "to shack up."

Cell

Originally meant a monk's living space. It was Robert Hooke, whoinvented the first microscope. His first specimen was a piece of

cork, which was made up of many small rectangular sub-parts. Tohim, the small rectangles were like the small room monks lived in,known as cells. Thus, he called these microscopic building blocks"cells".

Cerveza(Spanish) BeerThis term, which means "beer" in Spanish, originally came from themedieval French word cervoise. For its part, the French termorigianlly stemmed from the Gallo-Roman (that is, ancientFrench-Latin dialect) word cerevisia, which was used in honor ofCeres, the Roman goddess of the harvest. It is interesting to note

that just about the time that the Spanish were adopting the termcerveza (aroung 1482), the French started to drop cervoise in favorof the term biere-- from the Germanic term Bier (from the Latinbiber, "to drink"), which was the term that was more popular innorthern Europe, where the climate was more favorable to theproduction of the grains that were used to make the beverage. [(Afootnote: the reader might be wondering what term was used inSpain before the adoption of cerveza. Before 1482, the inhabitantsof the Iberian Peninsula had used the completely-unrelated ancientIberian word ceria or celia, meaning "fermented wheat.")(Footnote#2: The English term ale comes from the Scandinavian term for

beer, oel. Although oel collectively refers to all types of beer, youbeer purists out there know that the English term ale came to referonly to beer produced using the "top" fermentation process. Beerproduced using the "bottom" fermentation process is called lager.)].

Chapel

From the Italian "Capella," Italian for "Cape," because the theoriginal Chapel was where the cape ("capella") of St. Martin ofTour was kept.

Chaosand Chasm

From the Greek "chainein," meaning, "to yawn"; chaos was thus the"original yawning abyss" outside of the ordered universe we know.

Champion; and Campus


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See Kampf

Charlatan

From the Spanish "charlar," to chat.

Cheers

From the Greek "Kara" for "face," via the Latin "Cara," and OldFrench "Chiere" for the same. So "Be of good cheer," means, "Put

on a happy face."

Chocolate

Comes from the Spanish word of the same name, which itself camefrom the Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) word "tchocoatl."The first Spaniard to encounter substance was Hernan Cortes,shortly after his initial reception (and the only friendly one, I mightadd) at the Court of Moctezuma in the island-city of Tenochtitlan(present-day Mexico City) in 1519. After highly praising thechocolate-based drink and inquiring how it was made, he was told

that one started with "cacahuaquchtl" powder (the origin of theword "cocoa"), which was then boiled in water and combined withchilli, musk and honey (and ground maize if you were going off towar and needed additional calories).

Cider

Comes from the Greek sikera, which came from the ancientHebrew shekar, meaning "any intoxicating drink other than winemade by the fermentation of fruit juice."

Claim

From the Latin "clamor", which was the judicial or communityoutcry that resulted from the discovery of a wrongdoing.

Coffeeand CroissantAccording to legend, coffee beans were first discovered in the townof Kaffa, Ethiopia. As the advancing Arabs had cut off access toEthiopia (known then as Abyssinia) by the Eighth Century A.D., itfirst made its way into Arabic as qahwah. By the thirteenth century,the Kaffa beans were brought into southern Mediterranean Europeas cafe. It would take a failed seige of Vienna in the latter half ofthe Seventeenth Century by the advancing Ottoman Turks to

introduce the term and the beverage into German-speaking Europeas Kaffee. Apparently, the Turks had retreated in such haste(according to Austrians--Turks, of course, describe it as a calculatedwithdrawal) that they left behind, among other things, sacks andsacks of coffee beans; as a result, the Austrians were introduced tocoffee and, incidentally, celebrated the event by enjoying a certainpuffed pastry created especially for the occasion: the "croissant" or"crescent" (to symbolize victory over the Turks whose flags bore acrescent moon)(The term croissant was used instead of the literalGerman translation Halbmond or the German culinary termcurrently in use, Hoernchen, because at the time French was the

language en vogue within aristocratic circles due to the prominenceof the French King Louis XIV.).More (unconfirmed): By Imperial Decree the bakers were allowedto bake a new fangeled piece of pastry, which they called "Kipfel"


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or "Hoernchen", but you did not mention the reason. The Turks gotdesperate after a long siege & tried to get into the city by tunnelingunder the walls at night. The bakers who started their work at 2 AMheard suspicious noises & alarmed the forces & the plot wasdiscovered & so the Turks had to give up and leave

Conejo(Spanish) RabbitThis Spanish term, which means "rabbit," comes from the Latinword cuniculus, which, itself, was copied letter-for-letter from aneven earlier Iberian term--according to Pliny the Elder--referring toboth the animal and its burrow--and, by extension, any undergroundpassage or canal. For its part, the term rabbit is a word of Flemishorigin, and was originally used only young animals. The word thathad been used to refer to the older animal--in both Flemish and OldEnglish--was "cony" or "coney," another derivative of cuniculus.

Coward

From the Old French "coe" meaning "tail." The OED adds, "The

precise reference to tail is uncertain: it may be to an animal `turningtail' in flight, or to the habit in frightened animals of drawing the tailbetween the hinder legs: cf. the Heraldic use in sense B 2. It isnotable that in the Old French version of Reynard the Fox, Coart isthe name of the hare: this may be a descriptive appellation inreference to its timidity; but it is also `bunt', so conspicuous as theanimal makes off, and that the name was thence transferred to`hearts of hare'." A coward is thus, literally, someone who "turns histail and runs."

Companion; Compaero(Spanish); Copain(French) Companion

From the Latin "Companionem," which was, "one with whom youwould eat bread" -- "Con" (with) and "Pan" (bread) -- presumably,your "companion" was someone with whom you would "breakbread." See also Lordand host.

Cravate(French); Krawatte(German); Corbata(Spanish) TieThe term "Krawatte" (German), "cravate" (French) and "corbata"(Spanish), which all mean a man's "tie", first originated in theNapoleonic Wars when French troops were entering the territory ofCrotia, which, at that time, was part of the Holy Roman Empire.Apparently the Croatians were so estatic to be rid of the German

Habsburg yoke that they showered the triumphant French troopswith flowers and ran up to them and tucked squares of red cloth inthe collars of their uniforms as a gesture of goodwill. From them onthe term "Croat" or a variation thereof seems to have stuck in mayparts of Continental Europe.

Cretin

From the French "Crtin," which originally meant "Christian."

Cup

See Kopf

Currant

From raisens of Corinth


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Curfew

From the French "couvrir feu," literally, "Cover Fire."

Daisy

From "Day's Eye." George Eddington writes, "Not special in itself,but Mata Hari also means "Eye of the day," and the lady took thename because she had lived in the Dutch East Indies and heard thenatives so refer to the sun. What would it be like to refer to 'Thatfamous spy of World War I, Daisy?'"

Debonair

French for "of good air." In the Middle Ages, people's health wasjudged partly by how they smelled. A person who gave off "goodair" was presumed healthier and happier.

Deer

From the Old English "deor," meaning "animal."

Demon(Germanand English)From the Greek "Daimon" for a non-human power somewherebetween people and gods, without any negative connotations. Anexample would be the daimon of Socrates. The daimon had awisdom which has nothing to do with our modern conceptions ofgood or evil: it was a force of nature that could offer hints aboutfateful situations and actions.

Denim

The tough cloth used in jeans was originally made in Nimes, France,as well as Genoa, Italy (seejeans). It was called Serge di

Nimes--later shortened to di Nimes, which became denim.

Derive

From the Latin "De Rivus," "From a stream."

Deutsch(Germanfor German)"Deutsch" has its origin in the Old High German word "diutisc"meaning "the language of the people" (as opposed to Latin). Thereare also uncertain alernatives origins of "German" as Celtic "TheNoisy Men" or Old High German "The Greedy Men"!

DexterityFrom the Latin "dexter," for "right" (in the sense of right-left).

Dibbs

It is suggested that this expression derives from a very old children'sgame called dibstones. This game, played with sheep knuckle-bonesor pebbles, dates back at least to the 17th century (well, that's whenthe name first pops up in the written). The object was to captureone's opponent's stones, and when a stone was captured, thevictorious player would call "Dibbs!" with the meaning "I claim [thestone]". It soon came to be used outside the game but with a similar

meaning, and there you have it. Interestingly, that usage outside ofthe game isn't recorded until 1932 in the US. (Lee Quinn)

Dollar

From "thaler" -- a nickname for the silver coins that were minted


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from the ore found in Joachimsthal ("Saint Joachim's Valley" inGerman), Bohemia (part of the current Czech Republic) -- whichgained "currency" (pun not intended) shortly after the lode'sdiscovery in 1516. At that time, Bohemia was part of the HolyRoman Empire and that with the assumption to the throne ofCharles V of Austria (and I of Spain), the territories of the HolyRoman Empire were united with those of Spain (including the

Spanish New World possessions), Burgundy, and the Low Countriesuntil 1556. This fact leads to the second half of the story: theJoachims' "thaler" was one of the major coins in use not only in theOld World but also in the New World as well, at least until themajor silver strike at San Luis de Potosi (Bolivia) and the majorgold strike at Zacatecas (Mexico). Furthermore, throughout the restof the Colonial era, the nickname "thaler" (which eventuallybecame "dolar" in Spanish and "dollar" in English) would remain inuse as the nickname for any silver coin that represented exactly onepiece of eight (By the way that is where the symbol for the dollar"$" came from--it is the number "8" broken up with a slash down

the middle). The term also later made its way into the United Statesin 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson sought to create anational currency to supplant the various state, local and privatecurrencies then in use. At the time the United States had tradedeficits with almost every nation with whom it traded, except forone: Mexico. Due to a sizeable trade surplus with Mexico, theUnited States government found itself with a sizeable quantity ofSpanish Colonial silver "thalers" which it then proceded to use asthe basis for the new currency: the U.S. dollar. The dollar sign camefrom the back of the Spanish Colonial dollar you mention on yourpage: the pillars on the back (representing the Pillars of Hercules,the land beyond to which the Spanish owed their wealth) with abanner that wove around them in an "S" shape.

R. Dickerson adds/corrects: Your site has two different explanationsfor the origin of the dollar sign: the first one wrong, the second onecorrect but incomplete. The proposal that the dollar sign comesfrom drawing a line down the figure "8" to divide it into "pieces ofeight" is totally off base. Instead, Medieval Spaniards were quiteproud of the idea that they sat at the very far end of the civilizedworld, which to them meant the Mediterranean. The narrow straits

leading from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic ocean were flankedby mountains, and these were known as the "Pillars of Hercules"after a story from Greek mythology. The Spanish royal coat of armsof the time had a shield, flanked by two pillars. These pillars haddecorative ribbons around them, wound in opposite directions, withthe legend "Ne Plus" at left and "Ultra" at right. "Ne plus ultra"meant "Nothing beyond". But then Columbus came along andexpanded everybody's world. Spain became even prouder of thefact that they now were the portals to a new world. So the "Ne" wasdropped from the ribbon at the left of the coat of arms, and theinscription read "Plus ultra", or "More beyond". The ribbons were

wound around their pillars just like the "S" in the dollar sign iswound around its uprights. This full royal coat of arms flanked bypillars, whether inscribed "Ne plus ultra" or the later "Plus ultra",was the obverse of the dollar-sized 8 Reales coin, with the king's


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head on the reverse. I was formerly a serious coin collector, and stillhave a couple of examples of these 8 Reals, which served as themodel in size for our dollar coin. The 8 Real coins circulated widelyin Florida and the Caribbean prior to the Revolusion, and wouldhave been familiar to American colonials. It is my feeling that thenew nation elected to pattern its monetary unit after the Spanish 8Reales rather than the British Pound, as a sign of independence

from the mother country. The One-Real piece was a small silvercoin, also called a "bit". That is why our quarter-dollar has come tobe known as "two bits".

Elite

From the Latin elire, meaning "to choose," from which we also getthe modern Spanish word meaning the same, elegir.

Escape

In Latin, escape means "out of cape." The ancient Romans wouldoften avoid capture by throwing off their capes when fleeing.

Essay

The English noun essay comes from the French verb "essayer," totry. Early intellectuals believed their papers to be only a modestattempt to put their I deas on paper.

Exchequer

The Moors introduced the Abacus to Europe so that the Europeanscould multiply, and the monks spread this device throughoutEurope. In Britain, it was used but with their own twist to it: theyused a checkboard and checker-like pieces (rather than the usual

rods and beads) -- and this gave British version gave rise to the"exchequer" in "Chancellor of the Exchequer."

Faro(Spanish) LighthouseAn ancient island off Egypt, the Isle of Pharoah, had a greatlighthouse on it.

Fegato(Italian) LiverThe Latin word for liver is iecur. According to the usual tendenciesin the transformation from Latin to Italian, palatalisation shouldoccur as in Ioannes to Giovanni, iostra to giostra etc. In the case of

fegato a very interesting but not unusual phenonema occurred,discovered during research in Pompeii. (Pompeii is very importantfor historical linguists since it gives the precise date of AD 70 forthe various writings found on walls, thus providing clues to thetendencies in transformation from Latin to Italian). On the wall of acorner buffet in downtown Pompeii there are remains of a menuincluding a favourite dish iecur ficatus (liver with figs). This dishwas so popular that customers simply asked for a portion of ficatus,which gradually came to stand for liver itself.

Feo(Spanish) Ugly

From the Latin "Foedus," for "disgusting."

Forest

From the French meaning the same, Forest originally comes from


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the Latin foris, which means "outside," and captured the idea of aplace forbidden or protected by a barrier. The concept would latersignify the legal barriers around the territories reserved for royalhunts (and the felling of trees). Incidentally, the English wordforeign is of the same derivation, denoting the stranger outside theroyal territory, on the other side of the frontiers.

Fowl

From the Old English "fugol," meaning "bird."

Freedom

This comes from German (literal, modern-day translation,"Freiheit"), but is actually closer in derivation to the German word"Friede", which means "peace" and is a word of pre-Christian,Germanic origin (originally "Frith"). The archaic term was used tosignify the period following the termination of a bloodfeud betweentwo Germanic clans when the softer, feminine qualities of the god"Freda" or "Frita" held sway. To achieve such a peace, some

consideration had to given up on the part of the clan whose memberhad committed the most recent wrong against another clan, such asa certain quantity of meat or animal hides. What was given up wascalled "Bot" (delivered good) or "Botschaft" (literally deliveredshank (of meat), but currently is the modern German word for"message"). It is interesting to note that this is from where we getthe English term "boat" (Apparently, as time went on, the term wasused less to describe what was being delivered and more to describethe deliverer or means of delivery--Hence, the modern Germanwords "Bote" (messenger) and "Boot" (boat--which can bevisualized as a means of delivering something or someone)).

Fromage(French); Formage(Medieval French); Formaggio(Italian)cheese

From the Latin word for the basket or wooden box in whichcompressed curds were molded to make cheese, forma, which itselfcame from the earlier Greek term phormos (This is also where theEnglish word "form" comes from). For their part, the English wordcheese, the Spanish word queso and the German word Kaese allcome from the Latin word caseus, the foodstuff itself.

Gehen(German) To goOriginally meant, "being empty"

Genuine

Originally meant "placed on the knees." In Ancient Rome, a fatherlegally claimed his newborn child by sitting in front of his familyand placing his child on his knee.

Gewissen(German) ConscienceFrom "wissen" (to know), from which we also get the word,"wissenschaft"--science.

GiftFrom the Old English "asgift," meaning, "payment for a wife" in thesingular and meaning "wedding" in the plural. The Middle Dutch"gift," now written as "gif," meant the same, but today means


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"poison." The Old High German "gift" also became "poison." Fromthe root "geb-", from which in English we get "give." There isanother German word, however, which incorporates the word"gift", but which retains the older meaning of "payment for a wife".The word is "Mitgift", which is the modern German word for"dowry".

Gin; Ginebra(Spanish); Genievre(French)The English word "gin" comes from the French word genievre,which means "juniper," the name of the berry which gives gin itsdistinctive, bitter flavor. Incidentally, the term "juniper" comes fromthe Celtic word jenupus, meaning "bitter." One final note: the nameof the western Swiss city of Geneva also stems from the samesource. Apparently, the countryside around Geneva had originallybeen filled with wild juniper plants.

Gorilla

New Latin from Greek Gorillai, for a tribe of hairy women,

perhaps of African origin.

Groggy

Comes from the description of the feeling that many British sailorsexperienced when they would drink too much "grog," a mixture ofrum and water. Grog is said to have taken its name from thenickname of "Old Grog" given to British Admiral Vernon by hissailors; much like Lord Mountbatten later, he was in the habit ofwearing a kind of heavy coat of grogram, a coarse weatherprooffabric (the word comes from the French gros-grain). The sailorsstarted to apply their nickname for him in a rather derisive way to

their rations of rum, after he mandated in 1740 that they be dilutedwith water.

Guapo(Spanish) HandsomeGuapo, and Chulo ("cool"), both originally had the connotation of"scoundrel", coming to mean "good-looking" probably by way of"valiant." The derogatory "Wop" also comes from "guapo", by wayof Italian dialect "guappo".

Gymnasium

Greek for a place where you train naked.

Hablar(Spanish) To SpeakFrom the Latin "Fabulare," meaning, "to tell fables."

Hazard

This term came from the Arabic "al zahr," which means "the dice"and was used by Western Europeans to call each of the variousgames played with dice that they learned while in the Holy Landduring the Crusades. The term eventually took on the connotationof danger because, from very early on, dice games were associatedwith gambling and with con artists using corrupted dice.

Heresy

Greek for "Choice."


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Hierarchy

Originally was a medieval classification of angels into various ranks.Home

From the Old English "hum," which which we also get the suffix-ham, as in Nottingham.

Host, Hospital, Hostel, Hospice, Hospitable, HospitalityFrom the Latin "hospes, hospitis," meaning, "someone who receivesstangers into his home." In English, "Host" also means "theconsecreated bread consumed in Communion"; thus the connectionbetween friendship and bread is once again noteworthy; seeCompanionand Lord.

Humor

We borrowed it from latin, meaning liquid. The ancientphilosophers believed that four liquids entered into the makeup ofour bodies, and that our temperment (temperamentum,"mixture")was determined by the proportions of these four fluids,or humors,

which they listed as blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile. If you had aoverplus of blood, the first humor, you were of the optimistic andsanguine temperament (latin sanguis, blood). A generous portion ofphlegm, on the other hand made you "phlegmatic", or slow andunexciteable. Too much yellow bile and you saw the world througha "bilious" eye , and since the word "bile" is chole in Latin, youwere apt to be choleric and short tempered. The fourth humor, thenon-existent black bile, was a little special invention of the ancientphysiologists. A too heavy proportion of this made you"melancholy," for in latin melancholia meant " the state of havingtoo much black bile." Any imbalance of these humors, therefore

made a person unwell and perhaps eccentric, and, as the years wentby, the word humor took on the meaning of "oddness," and ahumorous man was one that we now call a crank. And finally theword was applied to those who could provoke laughter at theoddities and the incongruities of life. (Wilfred Funk, Word Originsand their romantic stories)

Husband

Comes from the Old German words hus and bunda, which mean"house" and "owner," respectively. The word originally had nothingto do with marital status, except for the fact that home ownershipmade husbands extremely desirable marriage partners.

Idea, Ideal, IdolAll from the Greek "idein," for "to see"; cognates with the Sanskrit"vid" (to know) and Latin "videre" (to see) and the English "wise."The W/V sound from the Indo-European root was lost in ancientGreek.

Incentive

From the Latin "incanere," meaning, "to sing to." The idea is "Ifyou play the music, someone has to = dance."

Jeans

Genoa--called "Gene" by sixteenth-century Europeans--was thefirst city to make denim cloth (see Denim) used for jeans. The pants


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were named after the city.

Kampf(German) StruggleFrom the Latin "campus" -- for their type of fortification, where theRoman soldiers had their military drills -- from which we also drivethe English words, "camp," "campus" and "champion." Thus, whenwe talk about a "college campus," there are subtle militaristicovertones.

Ketchup

The Chinese invented ke-tsiap--a concoction of pickled fish andspices (but no tomatoes)--in the 1690s. By the early 1700s itspopularity had spread to Malaysia, where British explorers firstencountered it. By 1740 the sauce--renamed ketchup--was anEnglish staple, and it was becoming popular in the Americancolonies. Tomato ketchup wasn't invented until the 1790s, whenNew England colonists first mixed tomatoes into the sauce. It tookso long to add tomatoes to the sauce because, for most of the 18th.

Century, people had assumed that they were poisonous, as thetomato is a close relative of the toxic belladonna and nightshadeplants.

Kike-- a vulgar, offensive word for a JewOriginally coined by German Jews to use against Russian Jews.Comes from the "k" sound at the end of many Russian Jewishnames, such as "Lewinsky" or "Lemcoff."

Knave

Descended from the Old English word "cnafa" which just meant,

"youth."

Knight

From the Old English "cniht," which meant "boy, servant."

Kopf(German) HeadFrom Latin "cuppa," meaning "cup"; the Romans used the cup as ametaphor for the upper part of the head. Similarly, another Latinword for "cup," "testa," has now become the French "Tte," for"head," too. Note that both the Germans and the Celts used a"skullcap" "top of the human head") as a drinking vessel; this was

part of the honoring of the enemy ritual. Thus related to "chief" and"capital" (and "testicle" as well).

Languedoc(region in Southern France)This means, literally, the langue d'oc, the "language of oc."Apparently, in the first few centuries after the fall of the RomanEmpire in the West, a basic linguistic separation started to emergebetween the local Latin dialect of northern Gaul (France) and thatof the South. In order to capture that divergence in a single phrase,the inhabitants of those two regions started to refer to each otherand to the two regions as langue d'oc--"[those of the] language [that

uses] "oc" [as the word that means "yes"]"--and langue d'oil--"[those of the] language [that uses] "oil" [as the word that means"yes"--incidentally, this is where the modern French word "oui"comes from]. As the centuries rolled on, two notable changes


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occurred: first, northern France eventually gained predominanceover the South and, therefore, its dialect started to become thelingua franca (no pun intended) or means of official communicationbetween the two regions and, eventually, the national language and,second, the term langue d'oil disappeared from common usage asthe nickname of northern France.

Lemon(Eng.); Limn(Sp.); Citron(Fr.); Zitrone(Germ.); Cytryna(Pol.); Citrom(Hung.)

The English and the Spanish term both stem from the Arabic limum, which itself came from the Chinese term limung. Originallyfrom the foothills of Kashmir, the lemon did not reach China untilaround 1900 B.C. Shortly thereafter, it made its way to Persia andthe Middle East, and was eventually brought by the Arabs toGreece via Constantinople and to the Iberian Peninsula via theNorth African Maghrib and Fezzan (modern-day Algeria andMorocco, respectively) around the Tenth Century A.D. A derivativeof the Arabic term was eventually adopted by both the English and

the Spanish, whereas the French, the Germans, the Poles and theHungarians all used a form of the Old Latin term citron, whichreferred to a, then extinct, bitter cousin of the orange that waspopular in the Roman Empire [Footnote: The "lime" was introducedto Europe by the Spanish in the Sixteenth Century, who discoveredit in Peru and phonetically spelled it from its Quechuan word(Quechuan--the language of the Incas) as "lima"--Incidentally, thecapital city of modern-day Peru, Lima, was founded by theSpaniards, who named it after the fruit. The Incan name for thatpart of the coastal strip is often translated as "malarial swamp."].

Lettuce; and Leche(Spanish) MilkLettuce in Latin was "lactuca sativa," which means "milky sap";thus it is related to the Spanish "leche" for milk and "lactic" andother such derivations.

Liberty

The Latin words "Liber," "Libera," and "Liberum" -- with a Long I-- came from the root meaning, "to pour." From this, we get theword "Liberty" (hence pronounced with a short I), from thefreedom we feel when we get drunk. See Library(unrelated).

LibraryFrom the Latin word, Liber -- with a long I -- meaning, "to peel,"which would refer to the inner bark of a tree. Early manuscriptswere writen on these bark, and from this bark we get the modernword "Library." See Liberty(unrelated).

Liebe(German) LoveFrom the Latin for "Libido," which comes from the Latin "Libere"(free, as in "Liberty").

Light; and Licht(German) LightRelated to the Latin "Luna," meaning, "moon." "Moonlight" istherefore something like a tautology.

Lindo(Spanish) Beautiful


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Related to "limpid" and "legitimate."

Lobster

From the Latin "locusta," meaning, "locust." The OED adds, "TheLatin word orig. denotes a lobster or some similar crustacean, theapplication to the locust being suggested by the resemblance inshape."

Lord

From the Anglo-Saxon "hlaford," which was composed of "hlaf"and "weard," and meant, "loaf-ward"; similarly, "Lady" is from theAnglo-Saxon "hlaefdige," or "loaf-maid." See also companionandhost.

Lucifer

Lucifer is Latin for "Light Bringer". The Hebrew for the same,Haleal, means "adversary." The passage in Isaiah (the only place inthe Old Testament that mentions Lucifer) uses the Hebrew term for

the Morning Star (ie, the planet Venus). The passage refers to theKing of Babylon sarcastically, saying that he considered himself tobe like God, just as the Morning Star is a bright light in the sky, butpales in comparison to the sun.

Lukewarm

A tautology; "luke" means warm or lukewarm [from ME lew, lewe,luke, lewk and OE hleow and ON hlyr = lukewarm]

Madera(Spanish) WoodFrom the Latin materia, from the PIE *mater-, meaning "mother"

Malaria

From the medieval Italian "mal'" (bad) and "aria" (air), describingthe miasma from the swamps around Rome in the summer months,believed to be the cause of fevers.

Mayonnaise

The -aise suffix is French for "native to" or "originating in."Mahonnaise was supposedly created to celebrate a 1756 Frenchbattle victory over the British on the Spanish isle of Port Mahon.

Marcher(French) To WalkThe OED says, "The etymology of Fr. marcher is obscure; theprevailing view is that the oldest recorded sense `to trample' wasdeveloped from a sense `to hammer', and that the word represents aGaulish Latin *marcare, f. L. marcus hammer."

Mark(German) The German unit of currency (pre-Euro)Originally meant "Borderland," from the ancient German towns onthe frontier -- hence the English word "Mark," as in, "to mark aboundary." Hence, the German place names, Finmark, Dnemark,Ostmark, etc. From the German Mark, we also get the French

"marche" and Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Catalan, "marca."

Mistress

From the French "Matresse," which originally meant "bride."


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Money

From the Latin word "moneta" which originally meaning,"warning."

Mound; and Monde(French), Mundo(Spanish) WorldFrom the pre-Christian, Germanic term "mund" or protection, suchas that offered by a clan or tribal leader to the members of thegroup. This was also the name of the small hills of dirt or"protection" that was used to bury deceased members of the tribe.It is interesting to note that this term was brought with theGermanic tribes (ie., Goths, Visigoths, Vandals, Alemani, Suevi)who invaded the Western half of the Roman Empire towards theend of the Fifth century A.D. and is from where we get the term "lemonde" (French) and "el mundo" (Spanish) which mean "theworld" (literally, the "earthen mound").

Muscle

From the Latin mus(mouse) plus cul(dim.) - the little mouse that

runs beneath the skin when you flex.

Museum, Mosaic

Both from the Greek Muse (museum is Latin for "Place inhabitedby the Muses"; mosaic is from the Greek mouseios, "related to theMuses")

Mustard(Eng.) / Moutarde(Fr.)/ Mostrich(N. Germ. dialect)/Mostarda(It.)/ Mostaza(Sp.)

As a condiment, mustard has been enjoyed for thousands of years.It is made from the crushed seeds of a member of the Cruciferae

plant family known as Sinapis. Originally, the crushed seeds weremixed with vinegar--much as we enjoy it today--but the vinegar waseventually replaced for a time in the Middle Ages with grape "must"(a byproduct of the winemaking process). Hence, the name"must"ard. The botanical name Sinapis gave rise to the Frenchname for the actual plant, seneve, as well as the German word formustard, Senf.

Nacht(German) NightOriginally meant, "Day," since the ancient Germans, like theancient Jews, measured each day from sundown to sundown. See

also Tag.

Nauseau, Navigate

Both from the Proto-Indo-European *nau, meaning "boat"

Nemesis

From the Greek of the same, originally meant, "the act ofdistributing or apportioning" and later became, "(divine) wrath andretribution, righteous indignation at the breach of rules."Nemesis was a deity who restores a balance. Were a bunch ofshipmakers to launch a vessel without saluting the gods, for

instance, this act of hubris might call forth a counter-reaction, as wesaw with the Titanic. There was no judgmentalism or divinepunishment involved, simply a response from the other world tolapses occurring in this one.


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Nice

From the Latin "nescius," for "ignorant," and, at various timesbefore the current definition became established meant "foolish"then "foolishly precise" then "pedantically precise" then "precise ina good way" and then our current definition.

Noon

Derived from the Latin word for ninth. The word "noon" originallymeant the ninth hour after sunrise, or 3:00 p.m.--generally thehottest part of the day and the time when most people in the RomanEmpire would break for lunch.

Nostril

From the Old English "nosthryl," which comes from the OE words"nosu" (meaning "nose") and "thryl" (meaning "hole").

Occasion

From the Latin Occasion, meaning, "accident, or a grave event."

October

From the Latin octu(m), meaning "eight," and imber, meaning"rain." Same "imber" in September.

Office

Originally meant, "Church serivce." (Note the secularization of theterm.)

Ojal(Spanish) "I hope [that...]"This term, which in Spanish means "I wish that" or "May Godgrant" stems from the older Arabic phrase "In Sh Allah," whichmeans "May Allah grant." It is one of the biggest ironies that apeople, who for hundreds of years were staunch, frontline Catholicsbattling to reconquer the Iberian Peninsula from the Islamic Moors,still to this day beseach Allah each time that they express anemphatic desire.

Old; and Alt(German) Old"Alt" originally meant, "Grown up"; the participle of "growing";related to "Alan," which meant, "to grow" but no longer exists inmodern German. In Old English, the word "Alan" was also used in

this same sense of growing or nourishing. Related to the Latin "alt"meaning "high."

Omlette

Coming to English via the French word meaning the same, thisword is thought to derive ultimately from the Latin word lamella, a"thin plate," referring to the long, flat shape of the omlette, and torepresent a gradual corruption of allumelle first to allumelette, thento alomelette (Le cuisiner francois of 1651 has aumelette). Themodern term "omelette" appears for the first time in Cuisinebourgeoise of 1784.

Opportunity

From the Latin Ob-, meaning "towards," andportu(m), meaning"port."


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Orange(Eng.); Orange(Fr.); Naranja(Sp.); Arancia(It.)Interestingly, none of these terms come from the Latin word fororange, citrus aurentium; instead, they all come from the ancientSanskrit naga ranga, which literally means "fatal indigestion forelephants." In certain traditions the orange, not the apple, is thefruit responsible for original sin. There was an ancient Malayfable--which made its way into the Sanskrit tongue around the

Seventh or Eighth Centuries B.C.--that links the orange to the sin ofgluttony and has an elephant as the culprit. Apparently, one day anelephant was passing through the forest, when he found a treeunknown to him in a clearing, bowed downward by its weight ofbeautiful, tempting oranges; as a result, the elephant ate so manythat he burst. Many years later a man stumbled upon the scene andnoticed the fossilized remains of the elephant with many orangetrees growing from what had been its stomach. The man thenexclaimed, "Amazing! What a naga ranga (fatal indigestion forelephants)!"

Ostracize"Ostron" is a Greek word for pottery. Periodically the Greeks wouldhold an election to determine if someone was a danger to theircommunity. Everyone would write their votes on broken pieces ofpottery ("ostron") and if the vote was successful, the person wasbanished or "ostracized."

Pagan

From the Latinpaganu(m), for "someone who is not from the city,rather from the country." In late Latin, this turned intopagensis,"one who is from the country," and this utimately became the

Frenchpaysand the Spanish Pas, both meaning "nation."

Palaver

From the Spanish, "palabra," meaning, "word."

Parlement(French) ParliamentFrom the French, "Parler," meaning, "to speak." Thus, we can notcomplain when our politicians do little other than "speak."

Parler(French) To SpeakFrom the Latin "Parabolare," meaning, "to tell parables."

Pavilion

Pavillion comes from the Latin "papilion-em," meaning, "butterfly."Pavillion meant a tent and the allusion is to butterfly wings.

Pay

Pay goes back ultimately to Latin, "pax" peace, by way of ,appease, pacify. So "pay" originally meant "pay off," to keep thepeace.

Pedigree

From the French "Ped de gru," which means or meant, "Crane'sfoot," the /|\ symbol "used to denote succession in a genealogicaltable."


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Peach

When the peach first made its way to the Roman Empire fromPersia, it was called malum persicum, "Persian apple." Thepersicum then became pessicum, pessica and pesca (In modernRussian, it is still piersika.). The Italians have retained the termpesca, and it has become "peach" in English, peche in French, andPfirsich in German. The Spanish differ from the rest of Europe in

calling it melocoton, literally "cotton-skinned apple"--from melum,"apple," and cotonium, meaning "quince" in Latin.

Pecuniary

From the latin "pecunia," which originally meant, "wealth fromlivestock."

Pearl

From from the Latin leg, because the bi-valve that produces pearlslooks like a leg-of-mutton.

Pineapple(Eng.); Pia(Sp.); Nana(Fr.); Ananas(Germ.)When Columbus landed in Guadeloupe in 1493, he foundpineapples, which probably had originally come from Brazil. AsFather de Acosta observed as early as 1589, the Spanish thoughtthis new fruit resembled a pine cone; hence, the Spanish name ofpinya, and the English name of "pineapple" (the fruit was often justcalled a "pine" when it was first introduced into Britain). The wordnanais a portion of the Brazilian Guarani word that means"perfumed" and was retained in both French and German.

Pedestrian

Originally meant a follower (originally of Aristotle).

Planet

From the Greek "Planasthai" for "to wander."

Porcelain(French) PorcelaineFrench porcelaine, from Old French pourcelaine, from Italianporcellana "of a sow," hence cowry shell, hence porcelain (from theresemblance of the cowry shell to the vulva of a sow), fromporcella, diminutive of porca, sow, from Latin, feminine of porcus,swine.

Potato(Eng.); Patata(Castilian Sp.); Papa(S. American Sp.); Cartoufle(16th.-cent. Fr.); Kartoffel(Germ.); Kartopfel(Russian; Pomme deterre(modern Fr.--"Earth apple"); Erdaepfel(Aust. Germ.--"Earthapple")

The South American Spanish term comes directly from the Incanword papa or bappa, which means "sweet potato." Apparently, thesoldiers of the various Spanish expeditionary forces to the Americasconfused the potato with the sweet potato, as they began to use firstthe term bappa, then bappata (with the Spanish augmentative suffix-ata), to refer to the entire potato family (more than 100 different

types if you ask any Peruvian). It didn't take very long for bappatato become patata, which subsequently made its way into English as"potato." For their part, the French, German and Russian wordsstem from an error made by the Pope's botanist in 1588. In that


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year, Pedro Cieca, an adjutant of Pizarro (the Spanish conquerorPeru), sent some potato tubers to the Spanish monarchs in 1588.They then gave them to the Pope, who had them examined by hisbotanist Clusius. Clusius planted the stems in a plot near the Vatican(the first potatoes planted in European soil). Not knowing whatLatin name to give his potatoes after they grew, he incorrectlycategorized them as taratuflis, "little truffles." The Italian Pope,

who had poor eyesight, then proceeded to read the word astartufoli, which is the source from which the word for potato inmany European languages originated.

Prom

From "promenade"

Propina(Spanish; Tip)From the Greek Propinein, which means "to drink to the health ofsomeone else." This evolved into Propinafrom the ancient customof buying a drink, toasting to someone's health, drinking half of the

cup -- and then giving the other half to him (the person to whosehealth you are drinking) to drink. Curiously, the German word forTip, Trinkgeldliterally means, "money to drink" and the Frenchword for Tip,pourboire, literally means, "to drink," and thePortuguese word for Tip, Gorjeta, comes from the Old Portugueseword gorja, which was a drink to improve the throat or money tobuy a drink. The Danish word for Tip also means "money fordrinking" and the Russian word for it means "money for tea."

Pseudo-

From the Greek "Pseudos," meaning, "false."

Queen

From the Gothic German "qino" then the Old English word "cwene"which was their common word for "woman." This gave rise to theearly Middle English word "quean" which meant "woman," but wasused as a "term of disparagement or abuse... a hussy, harlot" andused sometimes today to mean a male homosexual. Related to themodern Swedish word "kvinna," for woman.

Quintessential

From the medieval Latin, "Quinta Essentia," or "the Fifth Essence"

-- what we would now call, "The Fifth Element." That which isquintessential is of the fifth element that would come after the fourclassical elements (earth, wind, rain, fire). The OED summarizesthis original sense best, "The `fifth essence' of ancient and medievalphilosophy, supposed to be the substance of which the heavenlybodies were composed, and to be actually latent in all things, theextraction of it by distillation or other methods being one of thegreat objects of alchemy.""Quintessential" began life as an alchemical term, the QuintaEssentia, the fifth that arises from the four elements you mention inyour etymology. The Fifth was thought to be the fabledPhilosopher's Stone which the alchemists sought, a Stone that couldcure illness, extend life, and turn base metals into gold and silver.How to combine the four elements to make the Fifth was the greatproblem of alchemy (from the Arabic "al-kimiya").


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Regret

From the French "regretter," which originally meant, "lament overthe dead."

Reise(German) TravelRelated to, "rise."

Rich

In Old French, "riche" meant "powerful"; it came to mean wealthyonly by semantic extension. Originally from the German, Reich.

Right

From the pre-Christian, Germanic term "riht", which was the senseof justice or balance that tribal elders attempted to achieve whendetermining the size of the "Bot." This is not to be confused withpeace or "Friede," which could be achieved with differing amountsof "Bot" and was merely the cessation of fighting. "Riht" was thatperfect amount of "Bot" that restored order within the universe and

ensured the most long-lasting peace. (See the etymology of "Bot" atthe end of the entry of freedom.)

Robot

Robot comes from the Czech word "robot," which means "worker."In 1923, Karl Capek, a well-known, Czech, science-fiction writer atthe time, wrote a futuristic thriller about a nightmarish scenario inwhich the machines have taken over (a la, the "Terminator") andimplanted circuitry in humans to make them into mindless zombieswilling to serve them as workers or "robots."

RodentThe word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning tognaw (and "roedor" (rodent in spanish) is an animal who "roe"(gnaws) )

Romance

The sense of "love" comes from the middle ages, when Latin wasthe language of the intellectuals but the languages of the people --i.e., the Romance languages -- was the vulgar language love storieswere written in.

Rum"Sugar wine" was not called rum until after 1688, and the wordseems to have been an abbreviation of "rumbullion" or"rumbustion." The word may have been a term from the new pidginEnglish of Barbados and possibly derived from the distortion of aterm in the Spanish dialect of Seville, combining Low Latin rheu,"stem," and bullion or bouillon, "boiling" (Similarly, "rhubarb" is aplant with edible stems originating from somewhere foreign--inother words, it is a "barbarous stem.").

Saffron

The English word "saffron" comes from the Spanish word azafran,as it is in Spain where most of the world's highest quality crocusflowers (the plant whose stamens are the source of all saffron) arefound. Azafran comes from the Arabic za'faran, meaning "yellow."


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Scruples

From the Latin "Scrupulus," meaning "pebble."

Search; CircusFrom "Circus," which is from the Greek "Krikos" or "Kirkos,"which was a hawk or falcon which flies in circles, and later just acircle or ring.

Senator

From the Latin "senex," meaning "old"; thus related to "senile."

Second

The OED says: Fr. seconde, ad. med.L. secunda, fem. of L.secundus second a., used ellipt. for secunda minuta, lit. `secondminute', i.e. the result of the second operation of sexagesimaldivision; the result of the first such operation (now called `minute'simply) being the `first' or `prime minute' or `prime'.

Silly

From 1550 to 1675 was "very extensively" used in the sense ofdeserving of pity and compassion, helpless. It is a derivative of theMiddle English "seely," from the German "selig," meaning happy,blissful, blessed, as well as punctual, observant of season.

Sinister

From the Latin "sinister" for "left." Hence, left is evil.

Sherry; and Jerez(Spanish)The word "sherry" is named after "Jerez" in Spain, but the way thename was pronounced in 1600. "X" was used in Spanish and is stillused in Catalan, to represent an "sh" sound. When the "sh" soundchanged to an aspirate "h" sound the Spanish Academy changed thespellings to "j"--but today the "j" is pronounced more gutterally (the"archaic 'j'" (x) vs. the 'modern 'j'" (j)). So we continue to spell it"Mexico" while the Spaniards (but not the Mexicans) spell it"Mejico." This shift had occurred by the time Cervantes wroteDonQuixote de La Mancha. It is interesting to note that at one timealmost every Spanish word that you can think of which contains theletter "j" used "x" in place of "j" (ie., "Xerez", "Xuan", "Ximena","Mexico", "Quixote", "trouxemos" and "baixo" became "Jerez",

"Juan", "Jimena", "Mejico", "trajimos" (we are bringing) and "bajo"(low; short; beneath), with "Quixote" remaining unchanged as it is aproper noun.).

Slave

After large parts of Slavonia (the current Yugoslavian Federationprovince of Serbia, as well as portions of surrounding countries)were subjugated by the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, aSlav became synonymous with someone who lived in servitude.Eventually Slav became slave.

SleazyThe Eastern European region of Silesia was known for its fine cloth.Eventually, so many low-quality imitations wound up on the marketthat Silesian turned into sleazy.


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Slogan

from 2 Celtic words: "slaugh" and "gheun" which mean,respectively, "battle" and "cry".

Soleil(French) and Solell(Catalan) SunFrom the Latin "Soliculus", meaning, "a little sun"; "sol" meant just"sun."

Soup; Soupe(French); Sopa(Spanish); Zuppa(Italian)From the Old Low Latin term suppa, meaning "soaked [in water orsome other liquid]." The original sense of this word survives in onlyDutch (soppen, "to soak") and English (sop, as in "sopping wet").The Old Low Latin for "soaked" originally came into use todescribe a popular dish, which consisted of a piece of bread soakedin water or some other liquid and then flavored with whatever washandy.

Starve

From the Old English "steorfan," meaning "die." Related to theGerman for "die," "sterben."

Spill

From the Old English "spillan," meaning, "destroy."

Stool

From the Old English "stol," meaning "throne."

Strawberry(Eng.); Fraise(Fr.); Fresa(Sp.)/ Fragola(It.); Erdbeer(Germ.--"earth berry"); Eper(Hung.)

The fruit's name differs in the various European languages, althoughthose names deriving from Latin still suggest the exquisite fragrancethat caused the small, scented berry to be termed fragaria vesca,"fragrant berry," in Latin. The English "strawberry" refers to thelayer of straw placed around the plants to keep the fruit off the soil,a particularly good idea in damp climates, such as that typicallyfound in Great Britain and Ireland.

Suede

Gants de Suede is French for "gloves of Sweden." It was in Swedenthat the first leather was buffed to a fine softness, and the French

bought the gants de Suede. Suede now refers to the buffingprocess--not to any particular kind of leather.

Sugar; Candy; CaramelAll come from the Greek saccharon and the Roman saccharum,which are both distortions of the Sanskrit sarkara. Around the year1000, after conquering a good portion of the southernMediterranean, the Arabs installed the first "industrial" sugarrefinery on the island of Crete, which they renamed Qandi, which inArabic means "crystallized sugar." This is how the word "candy"made its way into English. Shortly thereafter, the Arabs also

invented "caramel," which comes from the Arabic phrase kurat almilh and means "ball of sweet salt."

Sweet


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From the same Indo-European root as the Latin "suavis."

Sycophant

From the Greek "sykon," meaning "fig"; a sycophant was thusoriginally someone who makes figs appear. There are a fewsuggested etymologies: fig smuggling was illegal in ancient Greece,so a sycophant could have been a telltale for a reward; or, it couldbe from the shaking of a fig-tree, which moved the figs from thehidden heights to the ground where all could see it; or, it could befrom "the sign of the fig," which is the gesture of making a fist withthe thumb in-between the index and middle fingers, whichrepresented female genitalia;--this gesture was used to indicate anaccusation of wrong-doing.

Tag(German) DayOriginally meant, "The time during which the sun burns." See also,Nacht.

Tarjeta(Spanish) CardFrom the French "targette," for, "a little shield."

Tennis

"Tennis," a sport which first developed in France, was originally"tenez" (pronounced tuh-nay) which is the French verb "tenir"conjugated at the second person of the plural as a polite imperativeverb (translated in this case by something like "there you go"). Theywere saying "tenez" when they hit the ball so as to say :"there, tryto get this one". But tennis lost popularity in France and gainedpopularity in England at the same time. So, English people were still

using the word "tenez" each time they hit the ball, but saying it withthe English accent which sounded more like tennis, and whicheventually took this new spelling. Then the sport gained popularityworld wide and got picked up by many languages, including French.

Tte(French) HeadSee Kopf

Thermostat

"Therma" (hot) is from the Greek city of Therma, known for its hotsprings.

Third Degree

A "Third Degree," also known as a "Master Mason," is the highestrank within the Free Mason (and has been since 1772). To becomea Third Degree, you must undergo a series of questions.A reader adds: Your definition of "Third Degree" is close, but notexact. There are actually 33 degrees within Freemasonry, of whichthe first 3 are used for initiating a new member.Once the initiate has completed all 3 ceremonies of initiation theyare termed a "Master Mason", yet they may undertake more studyand progress further still with respect to rank and level of degree.

However, no further study is required of a Master Mason, and theymay remain a third degree Master Mason for as long as they please.The first degree is termed the "Apprentice" initiation.The second degree is termed the "Entered Apprentice" initiation.


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And the third degree is correctly termed, as you have mentioned,the "Master Mason".The reason it is such a well coined phrase lies in the fact that theinitiate, whilst enduring the "Third Degree" initiation, undergoes aseries of stressful and unpleasant happenings, much more so thanthe first 2 degrees. I.E. The phrase : "That poor bugger is getting thethird degree."

Thesis

From the Greek of the same, meaning, "to put, place, set." From thesame Indo-European root as do, deed, doom, the -dom of kingdomand serfdom (etc.); fact, facility, the -fy of nullify and rectify (etc.).

Threshold

"Threshold" originated in the middle ages when houses with stonefloors were covered with threshings to keep the floor warm and toprevent it from being slippery. As threshings were added during thewinter, they would be scattered and thinned near the door, so

people added a wooden board to hold the threshings in -- athreshold. The OED defines threshold originally as, "The piece oftimber or stone which lies below the bottom of a door, and has to becrossed in entering a house; the sill of a doorway; hence, theentrance to a house or building.

Tideand TimeSee Zeit

Tilde(The ~ mark in Spanish and Portuguese); TitleFrom the Spanish for the same, an alteration of an obsolete Catalan

title, which was from the Latin "titulus," meaning superscription --from which we also get "title."

Tomato(Eng.); Tomate(Sp.); Pomodoro(It.)The English and Spanish terms both stem from the Nahuatl (thelanguage of the Aztecs) "tomatl," a vegetable (technically, a fruit)first introduced to Europe by the Spanish. For its part, the Italianterm literally means pomo de oro, "golden apple." Incidentally, itwas first introduced into Italy by the Spaniards in the SixteenthCentury via Naples (not the island of Sicily, whose cuisine mostheavily relies on tomato-based sauces). The reason is that Naples

was a Spanish possession during the reign of the Habsburg EmperorCharles V of Spain (I of Germany)(r. 1516-1556).

Trabajar(Spanish); Travailler(French); Trabalhar(Portugues) WorkTravailler, trabajar and trabalhar all mean "to work" in French,Spanish and Portuguese, respectively. They originally came fromthe Latin word "tripullare" which was the three-sectioned whip thatwas used by Roman soldiers to encourage conscripted laborers inthose provinces of the Roman empire (Gaul, Hispania andLusitania) to work harder, and thus was used to mean "to torture."This ocurred during the last two or three centuries of the Empire,

when oftentimes naked aggression was deemed to be necesary toprevent a complete meltdown of control in the West. Before thistime the Latin term "laborar" was used in these provinces, whichsurvives today in Italian as "lavorar" and in English as "to labor."


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Travel

From the French "travail," meaning, "work." Daniel Boorstin hasargued that this came about because, at one time, "traveling"entailedworking: learning the language and local customs, etc.Boorstin contrasts this with "tourism" which does not entail anywork on your (the tourist's) part.

Trivia

The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin for"crossroads": "tri-" + "via", which means three streets. This isbecause in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets inRome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kioskwhere ancillary information was listed. You might be interested init, you might not, hence they were bits of "trivia."

Tsaror CzarThe Russian term "tsar" (or "czar") originally came from the Latinterm "caesar," which was adopted as a tile by Roman Emperors

after the death of Julius Caesar, as a means of underscoring thelegitimacy of their claim to power and of connecting themselves toCaesar's legacy. This term would eventually make its way intoRussian and why it did reveals a very deep insight into howRussians viewed the path of historical development, from the fall ofthe Roman Empire to their independence from 200 years of Mongolrule in the Fifteenth Century. When the Western half of the RomanEmpire collapsed in the wake of barbarian invasions around A.D.479, many of the rulers of the former Eastern half of the RomanEmpire (which became the Byzantine Empire) regarded themselvesas the torchbearers of the legacy of Rome and of Ancient Greece.

However, their rule would also come to an end almost 1,000 yearslater, when in 1453 they were conquered by a nomadic band ofwarriors from the Steppes of Russia, the Turks. The Byzantineswould leave their mark, however, for in prededing 1,000-yearperiod, their influence had spread over most of the surrounding area(mostly undone in the Middle East after the rise of Islam in theSeventh Century A.D.), most notably in Russia (the Cyrillicalphabet is based on the Greek alphabet and the Russian OrthodoxChurch was based on the Greek Orthodox Church, intiallyestablished by the Byzantines). As a result, when the ByzantineEmpire itself fell, the Russians themselves as the secondtorchbearer and, due to the religious significance of the number"three" (Rome, Constantinople, Moscow), the Muscovite rulersregarded themselves as the final torchbearers of civilization beforethe second coming of Christ. In order to capture this feeling in asingle title, they expropriated the title "caesar." Note that theGerman "Kaiser" comes from the same.

Tyranny

From the Greek "tyrannos," for "usurper," without a necessarynegative implication.

Umpire

From French 'non partiere' (impartial, neutral). The original wordwas nunpire, but morphed from "a nunpire" to "an umpire". Or soI've heard.


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Usted(Spanish) You (formal)As any second-level Spanish student knows, this is the politeversion of the second-person, singular pronoun which means "You;"however, although it is a second-person pronoun, verbs associatedwith it are conjugated in the third person (ie, "He," "She," "It"). Thereason is that "Usted" is actually a contraction of "Vuestra Merced,"which means "Your Grace" (which turned into "usted" via

"vuested" then "vsted" then finally "usted"). Apparently, by the lateSeventeenth Century the Spanish Crown was so desparate forcash--as it was off fighting wars in the Netherlands and Central andSouthern Europe--that it started selling titles of nobility, especiallyin the New World Colonies; as a result, the pre-existing nobilitybecame increasingly "incensed" at the prospect of being addressedas "Vos"--the previous polite form of address--that they felt thatthey needed a newer, more elevated form of address to differentiatethem from the "pretenders" of noble status. They, therefore, cameup with "Vuestra Merced" ("Your Grace") as the more refinedalternative as did not DIRECTLY refer to the person in question,

but rather INDIRECTLY to the person's state of grace. It isnoteworthy that "vos" is still used in Argentine Spanish today.

Utopia

Greek for "no where."

Viande(French) Meat; and Vivir(Spanish) To LiveViande is from the Late Latin "vivanda," meaning, "that which isliving." Thus related to Vivre (French) and Vivir (Spanish).

Victim

From the Latin "victima," meaning, "an animal destined to besacrified."

Villain

From "Villaneus," meaning, "inhabitant of a villa," i.e., a "peasant."

Vinegar

Comes from the Latin vin aigre, meaning "sour wine."

Walk

In Old English, "wealcan" meant "to roll"; by Middle English meant

"to move about, travel"; and only in Modern English came to mean"walk" as we know it.

Wedding

From the pre-Christian, Germanic term "wed" or pledge.

Weird

From the Proto-Indo-European *wer, meaning "to turn." From thissame root, we also get the English words: -ward (toward, inward),worth (from the Old German *werthaz, meaning "opposite," thus"equivalent"), pervert, extro/introvert, divert, controversy, invert,

verse, versatile, revert, tergiversation, malversation, anniversary,vertex, vertigo, vertebra; wreath, wrath; worry (from the OldEnglish wyrgan, to strangle), wrong (from the Old Scandanavian*vrang, for "crooked"); verge, converge, diverge; wry, wriggle,


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Zero

The centerpiece of the Hindu-Arabic numerical system was theinvention of zero--sunya as the Indians called it, and and cifr as itbecame in Arabic. The term has come down to us in English ascipher, which means "empty" and refers to the zero column in theabacus or counting frame (see "abacus")(The term has also comedown to us as "decipher," which means "to determine the meaning

of anything obscure"). The Arabic term survives even in Russian,where it appears as tsifra, which is the word for number.

Sources used include, The Oxford English Dictionary; leDictionnaire tymologique et Historiquede la Langue Franaise(par Emmanule Baumgartner et Philippe Mnard); [email protected] listserv; the assiduous German research of Matthias Erdbeer. Specialthanks to Rebecca Tanner, Hugh Sainty, George Eddington, Arend Rietkerk, Philippe Cartier, JayHuyling, Christopher R. Chagnon, Suzy Nylund ; Alexander and Nicholas Humas (Alpha to Omega:The Life & Times of the Greek Alphabet); Rebecca Posner (The Romance Languages: A Linguistic

Introduction);

Links

Alain Pechon

Questions? Suggestions? E-mail Morgan at [email protected]


etymologically speaking

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