346: amen Nov 19, 2015

The word 'amen' was not always solely religious contexts.The word derives from Old English through ecclesiastical Latin. By that time it was accepted as a solemn expression of belief into the translated Old Testament, or more accurately, the Septuagint. Before that time, the Greek amēn, and Hebrew 'āmēn, meaning ‘truth, certainty,’ was used adverbially as expression of agreement.

345: Diomond and adamant Nov 18, 2016

Diamonds are the hardest substance known; some diamonds are even cut by other diamonds. Etymologically speaking, the word 'diamond' is related to the word 'adamant'. 'Adamant' comes from Old English ultimately from the Greek word 'adamas, adamant' which means ‘untamable, invincible’. This word was later used to denote the hardest metal or stone. Marvel comics used this information for the fictional metal, 'adamantium', which in the superhero-universe is the hardest metal.
The phrase "to be adamant" was only used starting in the 1930's but the adjective was used colloquially since the 16th century.

344: Impersonal Pronouns Nov 17, 2015

Pronouns in general are used to take the place of one or more previously identified nouns. There are occasions when pronouns with no conceivable antecedents will exist. The verb in these types of sentences is called 'impersonal'. Much to the same effect that 'there' is used factually and existentially, such as in the sentence, 'there is suffering", pronouns such as 'it' and 'they' can express an action or circumstance that has no subject, such as, "it is raining" or "it's peculiar that cats don't have collar bones".

343: use and usage Nov 16, 2015

The distinction between 'use' and 'usage' is an important one. Although the words are similar in meaning, they are not identical. 'usage' describes something that is habitual, or the intended use, and is the reason that in English we have 'word-usage' and not 'word-use'.

342: sympathy Nov 15, 2015

'Sympathy' comes from the Greek word, 'sum' meaning 'with' or 'together' and 'pathos' which means 'feeling', but more often it related to suffering. Although this word can mean pity at someone else's sorrow or misfortune, it has more to do with shared emotion between people.

341: smitten Nov 14, 2015

'Smitten' means 'be strongly attracted to someone or something' even though it is the past participle of 'smite'. The idea of being smitten with someone is relatively recent; originally the participial definition related more to the verb. In a literary sense, this word means to 'strike with a firm blow', and the archaic connotation to this word is conquer or defeat, relating to military offenses or attack of a disease. If one would want to use the original sense of the word, but avoid the modern confusion, it is sometimes structurally possible to reorder the sentence with 'smote'.

340: Pee and Piss Nov 13, 2015

There are a great number of terms for urine in English. Some are medical, some are technical, and some are informal or slang-terms. One of the most common is the word 'pee', which is fairly recent. It is a euphemistic use of 'piss', simply using the first letter. Acronyms and initialism have not been used in English for a long time, but in this case it was a way for people of the late 18th and early 19th centuries to scoot around the term.

339: while versus awhile Nov 12, 2015

The terms 'a while' and 'awhile' are two different, even though they are often used seemingly interchangeably in colloquial text. The adverb, 'awhile' means "a short period of time" and is easily confused with the noun-phrase, 'a while' which is a period of time. The difference in general is that 'a while' follows a preposition, while 'awhile' does not, so that the sentences "we stopped awhile" and "we stopped for a while' both mean similar things but are structurally different.

338: Italian and Spanish (donkey and butter) Nov 11, 2015

Italian and Spanish are very similar to each other, but this does not mean that they are identical. In Italian, the word 'burro' means 'butter' but in Spanish it means 'donkey'. Both of the words from these two Romance Languages are from Latin, just different Latin words. In Spanish, 'burro' comes from the Latin 'burricus' meaning 'small horse', ultimately from the word 'burrus' which means 'red-brown'. In Italian, 'burro' comes from the Latin word 'būtȳrum', ultimately from Greek the 'boúturon', both meaning 'cow-cheese'. The etymology for the Italian 'burro' is the same etymology for the Old English 'butere' (butter).

337: scene Nov 10, 2015

The word 'scene' ultimately comes from the Greek word, 'skene' meaning 'stage'. Another English word, 'obscene' ('ob' meaning' 'off') has the same origin, even though it means something very different. In Greek theatre, there would be no violence depicted on stage. Violence would be referenced in speeches, but any violent acts were performed off stage, or in Greek 'obscene'.

336: diarrhea Nov 9, 2015

The word 'diarrhea' (alternatively the British 'diarrhoea') is a commonly misspelled word. It ultimately comes from the Greek word 'diarrhoia', which is a contraction of 'dia' meaning ‘through’ and 'rhein' meaning ‘to flow’, for obvious reasons. The double 'r', 'h' combination that usually gives spellers some trouble is typical of English's Greek-borrowed words.

335: pedagogue and pedant Nov 8, 2015

The words 'pedagogue' and 'pedant' are related through etymology, even though the meanings are fairly different. A pedagogue is "a teacher, especially a strict one", while a pedant is a person who is overly concerned with minor details and rules", which are not mutually exclusive.
'Pedant comes from the first element of Latin word 'paedagogus', which comes from the Greek paidagōgos (giving us 'pedagogue') denoting a slave who accompanied a child to school. This Greek word comes from 'pais' meaning 'paid-boy’ and 'agōgos' which means ‘guide’.

334: gothic Nov 7, 2015

Have you ever wondered why it is that Gothic architecture was not made by the Goths‽ 'Gothic' is an interesting word in that it refers to the East Germanic who are know form the earliest recorded Germanic manuscripts, but much like the Greeks referred to all non classical (i.e. not Roman or Greek) people as 'barbarous', in the 17th and 18th century, non classical people, especially of northern Europe were referred to as Gothic. Architecture that was not in classical styles, were therefore Gothic, giving us the meaning of Gothic Architecture.

333: Do Nov 6, 2015

'Do' is unique to English and Welsh. In English, the word is used to form questions, negative statements, and for emphasis in positive statements. In other languages, not only is this word, or some equivalent unnecessary, and it is nonexistent in other living languages, except perhaps in the sense of an action. The word is originally from Cornish which is now dead, and had special words for denoting questions, and separating valences.

332: sophisticated Nov 5, 2015

'Sophisticated' has changed meaning over time. In late Middle English, this word meant ‘adulterated’ (adjectivally) and (verbally) ‘mix with a foreign substance’. In medieval Latin, 'sophisticatus' meant ‘tampered with’. The shift of denotation of the word probably occurred first in the adjective, 'unsophisticated', changing from ‘uncorrupted’ from ‘innocent’ to ‘inexperienced, uncultured’.

331: insult and exult Nov 4, 2015

'Insult' came to English in the mid 16th century meaning ‘exult, act arrogantly’: from the Latin 'insultare', meaning ‘jump or trample on,’ ultimately from 'salire' which means ‘to leap’, much like the French 'saut', Spanish 'saltar' and Italian 'saltare'. 'Exult' has a similar origin, except in this case, the preposition 'ex' meaning 'out' was added to 'salire'.

330: know, ken, and cunnan Nov 3, 2015

The Old English word 'cnāwan' meaning ‘recognize, identify,’ is whence a whole slew of Modern and Old English words originate. This word bore the Old English 'cunnan', which meant 'know’, and later in Middle English, ‘know how to’. 'Cnāwan' is the reason why there is a 'k' in 'know' and gave meaning to the word 'can' and the Scotts 'ken', seeing ability to do something is reliant on knowing how to do it.

329: uncouth Nov 2, 2015

Someone who or something which is uncouth has poor manners. This word comes from the word 'cūth', which is a participle of 'cunnan' meaning 'to know' or 'to be able' in Old English, with the idea that people who don't know things are unsophisticated. The modern term 'couth' was created after the word uncouth' through back-formation. More tomorrow on the word 'cunnan' at 5:30 EST.

328: influence Nov 1, 2015

'Influence' over time has changed meaning. In medieval Latin, the word 'influentia' meant ‘inflow’, and it ultimately comes from the Latin 'influere', meaning 'in' and 'flow'. The word originally had the connotation of ‘an influx', and in certain fields ‘the flowing in of ethereal fluid (affecting human destiny)’ [astrology]. The sense ‘imperceptible or indirect action exerted to cause changes’ was established in Scholastic Latin by the 13th century, but not recorded in English until the late 16th century.

327: halloween Oct 31, 2015

Tomorrow is All Saints Day. Another term for a saint is 'hallow', and as such the evening before a day for hallows is "All Hallows Eve/Evening/Even". In the 18th century, contractions were much more common than they are now, and so 'Halloween' was born.
Happy All Hallows' Even