Joy (aka Etymology)

Few things in life please me more than some good etymologies. So I thought I would just post a few interesting ones that have happened onto my plate in one way or another. And for those who are unfamiliar with etymology, let me start by giving the etymology of "etymology."

Etymology - from the Greek etymon and logos meaning "true sense" and "word;" obviously then, etymologies are the true sense of words

So I hope I will be able to inform you of some interesting word origins that you may have been unfamiliar with. Do let me know your thoughts on this sort of post.

Weird - from the Old English wyrd literally meaning "that which comes," though referring specifically to fate and fortune; gained the current meaning after Shakespeare (and society at large) began referring to the Norns (Norse equivalent of the Fates of Greek myth) as the "weird sisters," obviously intended to show their relation to fate, and often depicted them as strange or terrifying in appearance. I find this one particularly interesting because it not only changed meaning but also changed class from a noun to an adjective.

Lord - from Old English hlaford ("master of the house") but earlier hlafweard, "keeper of the bread" (hlaf=bread, loaf ; weard=ward, guardian, keeper). So the lord of the manor was the fellow who watched over the bread. Everything boils down to food (pun intended).

Lady - similar to the origin of "lord,"originally from Old English hlæfdige, "one who kneads bread." So again, everything comes down to food. The lady makes the bread, the lord protects it. I, of course, mean to make no implications toward gender roles in society today. I think it's sad that I even feel it necessary to make that comment, but that's another blog entirely (and perhaps one not far off).

And now to leave the realm of Angle-land, here are a few interesting ones originating in other lands.

Assassin - from Arabic hashishiyyin, "users of hashish;" from a group of Islamic radicals at the time of the Crusades who would often kill rival leaders after doping on hashish. Interesting tradition.

Pedigree - from Old French pied de gru, "foot of a crane;" in the good old days, genealogical charts used a forked symbol to depict lineage, and it just so happened that it looked a lot like a crane's footprint.

Big - know body nose

Dog - again, nobody knows; I find it wonderful that two simple words like "big" and "dog" just showed up and we haven't got a clue where they came from. That's the sort of thing that I lie awake at night thinking about. You should too.

Just three more to go!

Salient - though many, including myself previously, may think this is a reference to salt (sal is Latin for "salt" and turns up in words like salary because Roman soldiers were often paid in salt) and may think "salient points" are points that are salty, as it were, meaningful, noticeable, or important, this is actually not the origin; rather it is from salire, "to leap" in Latin and the salient point refers to the heart of an embryo, which seems to jump (in what manner it leaps, I am unsure, but old people seemed to think it did); so in that sence the salient points are the heart of the matter just as an embryo is the beginning of the larger form of life.

Brussel sprouts - from the Old French for brusselle sproutte meaning "exceedingly evil" or "unworthy of existence;" for this very reason, the fact that their very name denounces them, I refuse to eat them to this day.

Quintessential - many of us could spot the basic elements of this fellow, quint for "five" and essential for "essence," and that is of course true, but how on earth did this come to mean the most perfect embodiment of something? Well, it comes from the ancient and medieval search for the "fifth element" or "ether," the substance other than the four primary elements (earth, wind or air, fire, water....and the oft-neglected heart, of course, for you watchers of Captain Planet) that permeated all things, also later said to be what God was made of. Alchemists were all about finding this covert stuff - it was evidently fruitless, or so it seems. You can think of their quest as equivalent to how the media depicts the search for Sasquatch, though we all know that he is certainly real and lives in the woods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I mean, seriously, everyone knows that except, clearly, the media. But they are always last.

And I guess I'll give you one more since it has just come up.

Sasquatch - from the Native American language of Halkomelem in the Pacific Northwest, sæsq'ec, meaning "Sasquatch"


(A final tribute: "For those of you who don't know, that's Spanish for the niño!" or something like that.)