306: ache Oct 10, 2015

Much like in any other science, be it natural, social, psychological or otherwise, linguistic scientists are constantly correcting past mistakes. The word, 'ache' is spelt the way that is is largely because of Dr. Johnson's mistaken assumption that its derivation is from the Greek 'akhos' meaning ‘pain’. It is now believed that the word comes from the Old English 'æce' as a noun, which was acan as verb.
In Middle English and early modern English the noun was spelled 'atche' and (rhyming with ‘patch’) and the verb was spelled and pronounced as it is today. The noun began to be pronounced like the verb around 1700, near to the time when Dr. Johnson wrote his dictionary.

305: ignoranus Oct 9, 2015

Some plural words from Latin or Greek are not pluralized with an 's', but this is not always the case. The word 'ignoramus' is a singular English noun from Latin, but the plural is 'ignoramuses'. The reason for it being so is that 'ignoramus' comes from a verb, meaning 'we do not know' (and the verb is already in the plural). The English word comes from George Ruggle's play, Ignoramus (1615), a satirical comedy exposing the ignorance lawyers.

304: salt and salary Oct 8, 2015

Salt for many peoples has had many important roles in society. In the Book of Leviticus, the ancient Hebrews were direct,"With all your offerings you shall offer salt". Ancient Germanic tribes were convinced that the gods would be more attentive to prayers if they have been delivered in a salt mine. Roman soldiers were paid a special allowance to purchase salt called a 'salarium' which is where the Modern English word, 'salary' derives.

303: quarantine Oct 7, 2015

Centuries ago when a ship would arrive in a port it was suspected of carrying a contagious disease, and its cargo and crew were obliged to go without all contact with the shore for a period of around forty days. This term came to be known as period of quarantine, from the Italian 'quarantina' meaning 'forty days'.

302: gymnasium Oct 6, 2015

How are the ancient Greek Olympics and gymnasia related‽ The answer is closer than simply the fact that both relate to athleticism. 'Gymnasium' comes from the ultimately from Greek, via the word 'gumnasion', which in turn derives from the word 'gumnos' which means ‘naked’, because all exercising and athletics in Greece were done in the nude.

301: restaurant Oct 5, 2015

'Restaurant' or 'restaurante' is a term with which everyone is familiar. What is less familiar with many people is that it comes from the early 19th century through French, ultimately from the word 'restaurer' which means ‘provide food for’ but more appropriately and more literally it means ‘restore to a former state’, because people just aren't themselves on an empty stomach.

300: rampage and rampant Oct 4, 2015

'Rampage' and 'rampant' are related to the word 'ramp'. A ramp in the modern sense means, "a slope or incline", but it did not always. 'Ramp' comes from the Old French 'ramper' meaning to ‘creep, crawl', and also 'rear up', giving 'rampage' and 'rampant' the sense of being animalistic, not to mention the modern meaning of ramps as something that escalates both physically, and here, in terms of problems.

299: hazard Oct 3, 2015

After the Crusades, Europeans brought back many things, including medicines, weapons, numerals, and also 'hazard'. This term evolved from the Arabic, 'az-zahr' which means ‘chance, luck,’ which comes from the Persian zār or Turkish, which means 'dice'. In Western Europe the term eventually gained the connotation of danger because the games using dice were associated with gambling and con artists.

298: logy and philosophy Oct 2, 2015

Many academic fields have names from Greek, with the ending 'logy'. Something that played an important role in Greek culture and society however, philosophy, does not have this same 'logy' ending. This word ultimately comes from Greek philosophia ‘love of wisdom’, not 'study' of anything in particular.

297: minute Oct 1, 2015

'Minute' as a unit of time, and 'minute' as an adjective mean different things and are pronounced differently. Not only are these words spelled the same, and are both from Latin, but they both derive from the same Latin word. The word ultimately comes from the word 'minutus' meaning ‘lessened’. The difference between unit of time and the epithet is came from the medieval Latin phrase 'pars minuta prima' meaning ‘first minute part.’

296: -'d Contraction for Should, not Could Sep 30, 2015

'Should', 'would' and 'could are all modal verbs, all ending in 'ould'. Still, the common contraction of -'d should only used for 'should' and 'would' (i.e. he'd, they'd) but not for 'could'. For something as colloquial as contractions, there is no rule, except for commonality.

295: enrage versus outrage Sep 29, 2015

Appearances can be deceiving. 'Enrage' was once spelt as 'inrage' but that still doesn't make it the opposite of 'outrage'. Outrage comes from Middle English in the senses ‘lack of moderation’, or even violence based on Latin ultra ‘beyond’. Enrage, on the other hand, comes from 'en-' or 'in-' meaning ‘into’ and 'rage'; the 'en-' was reinforced by Old French.

294: Existential Usage of Sight-observations Sep 28, 2015

Humans rely on sight very heavily and that translates into language. When something seems one way or another, people say that it "appears to be" or "looks as though", both phrases that invoke an idea of sight (appear ultimates derives from Latin 'apparere', which itself is from 'ad-' meaning ‘toward’ and 'parere' "come into view") whether or not anything is seen at all.
This is not restricted to English either, the Lain verb for 'seem', 'videri' comes from 'videre' meaning 'to see'.

293: sunday and day Sep 27, 2015

The modern word 'day' comes from the Old English word, 'dæg', such as the Old English for 'Sunday', 'Sunnandæg'. 'Dæg'is also related to the modern English word 'deity', which is easy to understand, especially when Germanic, Nordic, Roman &c. days of the week were named after gods.

292: kilimanjaro Sep 26, 2015

Language tends to move to greater efficiency. Nevertheless, a few phrases emerge that are redundant. Kilimanjaro, often called Mt. Kilimanjaro, is the tallest mountain in Africa. What many people don't know is that the prefix 'kilima' means 'mountain', so Mt. Kilimanjaro would be as saying "mountain mountain njraro" ('njaro' in kiSwahili means 'impossible').

291: atone Sep 25, 2015

'Atone' derives from the two words, 'at' and 'one', originally denoting unity with G*d. 'At one' doesn't make much sense unless one knows 'one' used to mean 'unite', and 'onement' once meant 'unity'. 'Atonement' was later reinforced by the medieval Latin word 'adunamentum' meaning ‘unity'.

290: Difficult to Spell Sep 24, 2015

English spelling is more complicated and convoluted than the spelling of almost any other written language; it is the hardest European language to learn to read and write. As such, only 17 per cent of native English speakers can spell the following 6 words correctly: height, necessary, business, sincerely, separate, and accommodation.

289: Comparatives Sep 23, 2015

Comparative adjectives are common in English, and there are even determiners and conjunction. Words like 'more' and 'less' can allow for the less common double comparative. 'Lesser' is its own double comparative, but usually a double comparative relies on the fact that 'more' and 'less' compare actions, rather than adjectives, so a sentence like "the more the merrier' can have two comparatives.

288: bro Sep 22, 2015

There are many word for friends, but they are not so different as you may think. The informal, 'bro' is clearly shortened from 'brother' demonstrating closeness; but what about words like 'buddy' or 'pal'. 'Pal' came to English in the late 17th century from Indo-Aryan language, Romany, which means ‘brother, mate,’which was based on the Sanskrit word, 'bhrātṛ' which means ‘brother’. 'Buddy' is a much newer word, and is believed to be an alteration of 'brother'.

287: essay Sep 21, 2015

Essay's have often inspired fear, or nervousness, though the word has denoted different things over time, The rare verb comes from the late 15th century as a verb meaning, "test the quality of" alteration of the word, 'assay', which is related to the Old French word, 'essayer', based on late Latin 'exagium', meaning ‘weighing’, as one might do for options. The noun is from Old French 'essai', meaning ‘trial.’