366: year (and the IE-root) Dec 9, 2015

For exactly one year, there has been a daily Word Facts post. Finding a topic every day was not always simple, especially with school and the occasional trips, but completing a goal every day was fulfilling emotionally and academically. Thank you, everyone, for liking the page, and remember to share.  The word 'year' comes from the Old English word 'gē(a)r'. This word is related to Dutch jaar and German Jahr, but a far more important connection is the Indo-European root that 'year' shares with not only Germanic languages, but many others. It is related to the Greek word 'hōra' meaning ‘season’, the Spanish word 'hora' meaning 'hour' or 'time' and the French 'heure'.

365: good bad and evil Dec 8, 2015

The opposite of 'good' is somewhat vague, often it is 'bad', and sometimes it is 'evil', though this would not have always been the case. 'Good' comes from the word 'god' (see Word Facts May 26, 2015). 'Evil' has not changed meaning over time since its Old English origin, 'yfel'. Bad has changed the most of the three. By Middle English, the sense of the word that we use today had already set, but it derives from the Old English, 'bǣddel' which means ‘hermaphrodite' or 'womanish man', as societal views of what is to be expected of men and women have unfortunately been around for millennia. The derivation of bad is the reason why the Modern German equivalent is 'schelcht' while for 'evil' the equivalent is the quite similar, 'übel'

363: diary and journal Dec 6, 2015

Ever wonder whether it is better to say 'diary' or 'journal'‽ Although many people use the word 'journal' to escape the connotation to femininity, a journal and a diary aren't really different. The word 'journal' comes from late Middle English when it denoted a book containing the appointed times of daily prayers, ultimately from Latin 'diurnalis' which is related to the word 'diurnal'.
Similarly, 'diary' comes from the Latin word 'diarium', which is from the word 'dies' meaning ‘day’.

364: dismember versus remember Dec 7, 2015

To dismember something is to break it apart, either in the sense of dissolving a political state, or the tearing apart of a body (usually removing limbs). To remember something, on the other hand, deals with mental awareness. Even though remembering something is the idea of putting separated pieces (of thought) together, the two words are unrelated etymologically. 'Dismember' comes from the Latin 'dis-' meaning ‘apart’ and 'membrum' meaning ‘limb', while 'remember' ultimately derives from late Latin 'rememorari' meaning ‘call to mind’, which in turn comes from 're-' which expresses intensive force and 'memor' meaning ‘mindful’.

362: barber Dec 5, 2015

Barbers are not necessarily, though very possibly, barbarous. The word barber comes from the Old French for 'barber', 'barbe', which ultimately derives from the Latin word 'barba' meaning ‘beard’. The words 'barber' and 'barbarian' are unrelated except maybe if that barbarian had a beard.

361: Romance Dec 4, 2015

Although some may regard French or Italian to be the "sexiest language", the tie to romance has nothing to do with the fact that the two are Romance languages. Our modern noun, 'romance' originally denoted the vernacular of Latin, as opposed to works. In its early use, the word denoted vernacular verse on the theme of chivalry, and only in the mid 17th century did the sense ‘genre centered on romantic love’ come around.

360: nostalgia and regret Dec 3, 2015

With regard to memory, nostalgia and regret are two sides of the same proverbial coin. 'Nostalgia' came to English in the late 18th century meaning ‘acute homesickness’, from the Greek 'nostos' meaning ‘return home’ (a trope anyone who has read The Odyssey will know) and 'algos' meaning ‘pain’. 'Regret', meanwhile comes from from Old French meaning ‘bewail (the dead),’ perhaps from the Germanic base of greet which is partly from the Old English 'grētan' which means ‘cry out, rage,’ and partly from 'grēotan' which means ‘lament’.

359: vigalante Dec 2, 2015

'Vigilante' was popularized by 20th century pulp. From both Penny Westerns and superhero comic books, the idea of a freelancing avenger arose. The term came about in the American West from Spanish meaning, 'vigilant', as before there was an active police force, there were posse of men who would hang those they saw as law-breakers, without any authority to do so.

358: Wintry and Hibernal Dec 1, 2015

In English there is and for centuries has been an easily identifiable posh-vernacular (as to be distinct from the talk of the layman). It tends to be, even today, that words from Old English and broader Germanic origins are the more accessible words, while those of French, and especially Latin derivation are fancier. 'Winter' is from Old English, and so is 'wintry' (from OE wintrig). The other adjective for winter is 'hibernal', but that is reserved for academia or otherwise deemed snooty.

357: diet Nov 30, 2015

For people who have poor cholesterol levels, a doctor might prescribe a change in diet and exercise, diet in that case being food. 'Diet' come to English through Middle English, through Anglo-French, through Latin and ultimately from the Greek, 'diata', meaning "manner of living", from the word 'diatasthai' meaning "to lead one's life". Over time the connotation moved to food.

356: tradition Nov 29, 2015

Tradition leads to reassuring senses of religious community and nationalism; family traditions create strong bonds between people for generations. Nevertheless this can lead to a slew of social problems. Even in the derivation of the word, there were bad and good aspects; 'tradition' comes from the Latin, 'tradere', meaning 'to hand over', but it also means 'to betray'.

355: columbus Nov 28, 2015

Ordinary words between languages are different; that's part what makes learning new languages difficult. Nevertheless, proper nouns tend to be the same, especially for the names of individual, although there are always exceptions. Columbus in German is similar, Kolumbus, but the genocidal Christopher Columbus–a man after whom cities, a river, a university, and even a country are named–was not born with the name we use in English. In Italian (his given name) was Cristoforo Columbo, while the Spanish was Cristóbal Colón, and in French his name is Christophe Colomb.

354: beef pork mutton and venison Nov 27, 2015

With inspiration drawn from yesterday, here is a short analysis of words for meats. Most words for meats in other languages are the same as the type of animal. In English, 'turkey', 'chicken', 'lamb', and 'fish' are all (in the singular) words for meat. Other words, like 'beef', 'pork' and 'mutton' are all from French, when the only people who had the money for meat were Normans. The word 'venison', however, comes from neither the Norman-French, nor the name of the animal; it comes from from the Latin, 'venari' meaning ‘to hunt.’

353: Thanksgiving Nov 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving. The word 'thanksgiving' in a more atheistic society is thought of as something for which one is thankful, but literally this word is an expression of gratitude to God. Nevertheless, much like how people now eat turkey on this day: not what the pilgrims ate (which was venison), words can be reclaimed and their meanings reassigned.

352: Sistren Nov 25, 2015

'Sistren', unlike 'bretheren' by the middle of the 16th century had fallen out of use. The reason for this is that when the word 'brothers' was beginning to be used in most contexts, 'bretheren' was still the plural form of 'brother' in religious contexts, whereas there was not any need for 'sistren'. There has been a recent revitalization of the word 'sistren' meaning 'fellow women' but this use is not yet well established in standard English.

351: angst Nov 24, 2015

'Angst' has been around as long as humans have, but the word is relatively new. The word comes from German (the language with words for emotions you didn't even know that you had) in the 1920s meaning, ‘fear, anxiety’. The denotation to anxiety about the human condition is more English.

350: pet Nov 23, 2015

Going off of yesterday's post, is the word 'pet'. In the 16th century the word meant a "indulged child". The origins are fairly unclear, though some believe that the word pet is diminutive of the word 'petty' (going along with 'indulged child'), while others believe that the word comes from the Old Irish, 'petta, peta' meaning 'small dog. The verb 'pet' came later.

349: pet peeve Nov 22, 2015

Many people have a pet cat, or a pet dog, but even more people have a pet peeve. The second part of this word, 'peeve', is simply an informal simplification of the word, 'peevish', but why is it a pet‽
Two separate senses of the word 'pet' reinforce the invented nounal form of 'peevish', one, an adjective, is used for denoting a thing about which one feels particularly strongly, and a second definition of 'pet' is "a fit of sulking or ill humor".

348: matrix Nov 21, 2015

The Matrix is a popular movie series, but not everyone knows the meaning of the title. 'Matrix' means 'womb' but more broadly, it is where something develops. The word comes from Latin 'matrix', deriving from 'mater' (mother). In Latin the word meant 'breeding woman'.

347: obvious Nov 20, 2015

The Latin phrase 'obviam eō' means 'I go to meet'. The English word 'obvious' was used in the sense of something that is met frequently. The Latin phrase gives us another word, 'obituary'. The reason for this is that 'obviam eō' was used also to mean 'meet my [one's] death'.