165: interrogate, arrogant, derogatory, surrogate, prerogative May 22, 2015

What do 'interrogate', 'arrogant', 'derogatory', 'surrogate' and 'prerogative' have in common‽ They all derive from the word 'rogare', meaning 'to ask' in Latin. 'Interrogate' should be self evident, but how did the other words come to mean what they do today‽ In short: prefixes. 'Arrogant' comes from 'ad', meaning 'to' and 'rogare', which later became a verb of its own, 'arrogare' which meant, "claiming for oneself". 'Derogatory' comes from 'de-' which means 'about' but later 'derogare'. 'Surogate' came from 'super' meaning 'above' which later became a separate verb 'surrogare' meaning "elect as substitute". 'Prerogative' comes from 'prae' which meant ‘before’ and ‘ask and meant ‘asked first’, originally denoting the class of people who were first asked to vote.

164: doofus May 21, 2015

Even word that are recently created have very old origins. The word 'doofus', which was invented in the 1960's, is perhaps an alteration of 'goofus', which in turn comes from the Scots word 'doof' which means 'dolt'.

163: allure May 20, 2015

Allure has always meant "the quality of being powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating". It comes to English through late Middle English, and meant similarly tempt, entice. That word in turn derives from Old French 'aleurier', and that word comes from 'a-' which is a shortened version of the Latin word 'ad' meaning ‘to’ combined with 'luere' which meant ‘a lure’. Even though it's meaning overtime has not changed, its purpose has; the word 'allure' was originally a falconry term.

162: terrier May 19, 2015

Some dogs are given their names based on the area in which they are bred, such as St. Bernard or Labrador. Other dogs have names based on what they were used for, such as German or Australian Shepards, or the terrier. The terrier was originally used for turning out foxes and other burrowing animals from their lairs and as such was given the name in Old French, 'chien terrier' which means 'earth dog'. 'Terrier' comes from the Latin, 'terra' which means earth.

161: Th (not ð nor θ) May 18, 2015

There are a lot of words in English that have a 'th' that is not pronounced ð nor θ, such as the word 'pothole'. This word derives from Middle English word 'pot' which meant 'pit' and is perhaps of Scandinavian origin, combined with the word 'hole', which as may be expected means 'hole'.

160: Aristocracy, Oligarchy, and Plutocracy May 17, 2015

With the many thousands of words in English, it is important to be able to make distinctions. As such words like aristocracy, oligarchy, and plutocracy are sometimes confused and misused, because they all mean some form of rule by few elite. Aristocracy is rule by a traditional elite, is usually hereditary and these people are held to be made up of 'the best' people socially. Plutocracy is rule by the few very rich. Oligarchy is literally rule by a few, but with no specificity as to wealth or tradition.

159: water and vodka May 16, 2015

The Old English word for water is 'wæter', of Germanic origin, and as is the case with a great many words, especially for basic things, the word 'water' comes from an Indo-European root. This word shared by Latin 'unda', which means ‘wave’, and the Greek hudōr, meaning ‘water’. This root is also shared Russian word 'voda'; compare with 'vodka'. Therefore, so called "Russian water" is actually Russian water.

158: germany May 15, 2015

Why is it that Germany in German is Deutchland, but in English it is called Germany. This is because from Latin word 'Germanus', used to describe peoples of central and northern Europe. This name was perhaps given by Celts to their neighbors; this word is similar to Old Irish 'gair' which means ‘neighbor'. Back then communication between peoples was difficult and slow so corrections could not really have been made.

157: louche May 14, 2015

The word 'louche' comes from the French, and ultimately from Latin, 'luscus' which means 'blind'. This term in French later became 'squinting', at first literally, and then in a more figurative sense, to mean questionable. As this word was adopted into English, the figurative sense was kept, but the literal was not.

156: Lorem Ipsum May 13, 2015

Any of you who do publishing or graphic design, or even made a powerpoint have seen, 'lorem ipsum'. Interestingly, there is no Latin word 'lorem', but neither was Cicero just making up words. This is originally from a passage which seeming to start with, "lorem ipsum dolor sit amet", but there was a piece missing of this fragment: it starts with "neque porro quisquam est qui do-". 'Lorem ipsum' requires 'do-' (i.e.’ dolorum’) and because it requires text, it now is used to show that (or where) the input of text is necessary.

155: two-bit May 12, 2015

The origin of a word is usually pretty old, or with invented words, deriving from preexisting old words; in the case of phrases however, the derivation is usually something that requires a recent story to know. The first definition of 'two-bit' makes its etymology make one say sarcastically, "no, really‽": it is derived from the noun 'two bits.' 'Two bits' interestingly, means "the value of a quarter of a dollar." As we no longer have eighths of dollars, so it required two bits to make a quarter. The now obsolete Spanish dollar was composed of eight reals, or eight bits, so a quarter of the dollar was equal to two bits. This is from where the figurative sense of "something of small worth or importance derives. The phrase 'two bits' carried over into U.S. usage, though there is no bit coin in U.S. currency (unless you consider the online 'bitcoin'). 'Two bits' first appeared in print in English in 1730 as a noun, followed in 1802 by its adjectival relative.Today, hardly anyone uses 'two bit' as a noun.

154: beach May 11, 2015

With summer encroaching, or approaching, however your outlook on life may dictate, thoughts of white sand beach vacations grow evermore tangible, even palpable. The word 'beach' is possibly related to Old English "bæce, bece", but because England is hardly any tropical paradise, the word from which 'beach' may derive means 'brook', and a later sense of this word was "pebbly river valley"; the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes didn't quite have the sense of beaches that we do today, but as worldview changes, so does language.

153: mother May 10, 2015

Happy Mother's Day; the word 'mother' does not have any surprising derivation, it comes from the Old English word 'mōdor', but what is interesting is how many languages have nearly identical words. It is related to Dutch 'moeder', German 'mutter', Spanish 'madre', and Russian 'mat' from an Indo-European root shared by Latin 'mater' and Greek 'mētēr', and Sanskrit 'matru'. This is just a small list of words, but Proto Indo European links a plethora of languages, and something very basic, mother, is shared by many across the globe.

152: etc. and ATM May 9, 2015

It is important not to forget the roots, and that goes for people, as well as abbreviation. Two commonly misused abbreviations include &c., and ATM. Not only is etc. commonly mispronounced as ex cetera–as opposed to et cetera–but in various sentences, people end up saying, "...and etc.", which is redundant. Similarly, people say "ATM machines", however, as the 'M' stands for 'machine', this is not necessary.

151: Co and Com May 8, 2015

There are, in English, many different prefixes; like words, they have origins too. The prefix 'co-' or 'com-' depending on the word it is attached to, meaning "with, together," and "combined" (the word combined comes from this prefix). This prefix is used in such words as 'cooperation', and comes as many prefixes do from a Latin preposition (or adverb), in this case 'cum', which means 'with'.

150: sausage and salsa May 7, 2015

What does sausage and salsa have in common?
Besides both being tasty foods, the words both have the same derivation: the Latin word 'salsus'. This word means 'salty', but more often used in the sense of witty, or snarky. The reason why 'sausage' and 'salsa' sound different is that 'salsa' came to English via Spanish, and 'sausage' came to English via Old Northern French 'saussiche', which in turn came from medieval Latin 'salsicia'.

149: Principal and Principle May 6, 2015

'Principal' and 'principle' are commonly confused words. They are both derived of the same word, 'princeps', meaning 'foundations', but over time they have been morphed and changed, and adopted into different languages enough that the spelling is slightly different but the meanings are somewhat similar. 'Principal' means 'most important' or 'person in charge, and 'principle' means 'rule, basis for conduct'; after all, one's morals should be most important, in other words: one's principles should be principal priorities.

148: Antennae versus Antennas May 5, 2015

Although the most common way to pluralize nouns is ab adding '-(e)s', this is not the only way: some are created by adding '-a', some by adding 'ae', and plenty others. This becomes tricky with words such as 'antenna'. In standard English, American, and Canadian writing, 'antenna' as in the organ of an insect is pluralized, 'antennae', and the mechanical apparatus pluralized is 'antennas'. This rule does not apply to Austral writing, as the spelling is interchangeable.

147: pursue May 4, 2015

The word 'pursue' now means "follow (someone or something) in order to catch or attack it" comes from Anglo-Norman French 'pursuer', which in turn comes from an alteration of Latin word 'prosequi', which means ‘prosecute’. The early senses of this word were closer to 'prosecute', and also included persecution, annoyance, and in legal contexts petition, and prosecution.

146: hangover May 3, 2015

Happy Sunday everyone, feel well on this fine day. The word 'hangover' is a headache brought about by alcohol. Originally this word was used to mean, as it still does, albeit less commonly, "a thing that has survived from the past", and it was with that definition in mind that the headache, what has lasted from drinking earlier, is called 'hangover'.