387: dogma Dec 30, 2015

A lot of war and fear starts with conflicting dogmas, but it is always important to remember what that means. 'Dogma' was first used in the mid 16th century and it ultimately derives from the Greek, 'dogma' which simply means ‘opinion’ and it comes from, 'dokein' which means ‘seem good'. Just because something seems good does not make it the truth, like some people think.

386: whole Dec 29, 2016

If a meal is wholesome, it is healthy. The word 'whole' comes from the Old English, 'hāl' which is etymologically related to the word hǣlth which means 'health', and 'hæil' which means hail' (as in "hail and hearty" or "ƿæs hæil" The spelling with wh- reflects a dialectical pronunciation with 'w-' first appeared in text around the 15th century.

385: apache, ojibwa, and dakota Dec 28, 2015

Indigenous peoples from the Americas and Oceania did not fare well with colonization. Although probably the least of their concerns, many names of the peoples were misunderstood, or misrepresentative, and then just stuck. 'Apache' comes through Mexican Spanish, probably from the Zuni word 'Apachu', meaning literally ‘enemy.’ Ojibwa comes from the Ojibwa word 'očipwē', meaning ‘puckered,’ as a reference to their style of moccasins. 'Dakota' comes from the name in Dakota, which literally means ‘allies’.

384: cathedral Dec 27, 2015

Words ending with 'al' tend to be adjectives or nouns expressing verbal ideas. 'Cathedral'–it would seem–is an exception, but this is not quite the case. In Middle English the adjective, as part of a phrase, 'cathedral church'. The word comes from Latin, 'cathedra' meaning ‘seat,’ ultimately from the Greek 'kathedra'. The cathedral is called such because within there is the bishop's throne’.

383: blue-corn moon Dec 26, 2015

Anyone familiar with Disney's Pocahontas will have wondered what a "blue corn moon" is, as it is never explained. The phrase "blue corn moon" has no actual meaning in Native American folklore. It was invented by Stephen Schwartz just for the sound of it after being inspired by a Native American love poem with the line, "I will come to you in the moon of green corn".

382: saint nick Dec 25, 2015

Merry Christmas. Last year Word Facts covered the word 'Christmas'–check that out if you haven't seen it already–this year, 'Santa Claus'. 'Santa Claus', often (and nonsensically) called 'Santa' comes from the Dutch, 'Sante Klaas' or 'SinterKlaas' i.e. Saint Klaus. Saint Nicholas was originally from Lycia, but by the time that the cult reached Holland, the first syllable had been forsaken, which is why the two names differ.

381: data Dec 24, 2015

The word 'data' ought to be in the plural, but that isn't just one of those nitpicky parts of grammar on which pedantic teachers enjoy correcting people. 'Data' is the plural of the Latin word 'datum', which means, "it being given", and so the data are the "things being given".

380: aware Dec 23, 2015

'Aware' comes from the Old English 'gewær' which comes from 'waru' meaning ‘commodities,’ and is perhaps the same word as Scots, 'ware' which means ‘cautiousness.’ It and its participle, 'warn' (in Modern English) has the primary sense ‘object of care’. It might seem intuitive, but 'beware' is just a contraction of 'be and 'ware', as a somewhat rare passive imperative.

379: propreantepenult Dec 22, 2015

There are words that denote where the stress is placed. Otherwise when using a writing system without accent marks how would anyone know the difference between (noun) 'rebel' and (verb) 'rebel'. When accentuation is on the last symbol, it is called 'ultima', the second to last, 'penult' and third to last, 'antepenult'. After this, many textbooks simply write 'fourth-to-last', but there is a word, 'preantepenult' or for any other context outside of language, "preantepenultimate". Rarer still is there need for a word to describe accentuation on the fifth-to-last syllable. The word 'propreantepenult' (propreantepenultimate) has been used before, but it is not accepted everywhere. There aren't words for anything after that.

378: Remnants of Gender Dec 21, 2015

For things that can be separated into male or female, English speakers associate gendered pronouns. Nevertheless, 'it' is very commonly used to denote babies and animals. Some scholars believe that this is due to the restrictive qualities of our psychology, i.e. babies and animals don't fall under our mental distinctions of gender, while other scholars believe that it is due to the grammatical gender of animalistic words and words relating to procreation and families. In Old English for example, the word for 'animal', 'dēor' is neuter, and so are the words for child, and 'ćild' and 'pregnant woman', 'ćildiungƿīf' (ćildiungwīf).

377: -gh- Dec 20, 2015

Many words have a silent 'gh' which seems useless. Some people write 'tho' because it seems more natural, but the letters, 'gh' did serve a purpose once. The 'gh' was once written as a 'ch', which as is still the case in German, is pronounced as a glottal 'h'. Soon the h-sound was replaced with nothing more than mere air escaping the lungs, but the 'gh' remained.

376: -ty Dec 19, 2015

Everyone learns the number system in preschool and kindergarten, and in comparison to certain other languages (like French) the number system is relatively easy. After the first nine numbers, the larger units (hundreds, thousands) are counted by simply putting a number in front. Decades, and teens are both irregular and due to Old English forms of ten. Fourteen, for example is four+tīen, and the 'ty', or in Old English, 'tig', is another form used for groups of tens.

375: ex Dec 18, 2015

The prefix 'ex-' is used to turn words denoting relationships into a former member of a relationship. This prefix was once used exclusively for romantic senses, but has now been used for all things former (such as 'ex-boss'). This is directly based on the Latin 'ex' meaning 'from' or 'out of', because one is out from a relationship with an ex.

374: History of English Dec 17, 2016

Over time English has lost some important grammatical features. Though the Normans are the cause of much of the change to English vocabulary and verb conjugation, the Vikings played their part as well. English lost gender when the Vikings invaded. Many people learned both Old Norse and Old English, and because both systems had very different assignments of gender, the English folk gave gender up, almost entirely. Pronouns are gendered the way that they are, with a singular masculine, feminine and neuter form, and and an identical form for all words plural because that is the way that Old English nouns were gendered. Comment if you would like more about the transition to Modern English, or if you would prefer to keep learning etymologies.

373: Vomitorium Dec 16, 2015

For people who have heard the word 'vomitorium', it is thought of as a place where the ancient Romans are supposed to have vomited during feasts to make room for more food. This is a common misconception based on the connection to 'vomit'. A 'vomitorium' is in fact an exit, or one of a series of exits in an ancient Roman amphitheater or theater.

372: pagan Dec 15, 2015

Pagan has changed meaning over time. It comes from the Latin word 'paganus', meaning ‘villager, rustic,’ which ultimately derives from 'pagus' which means, ‘country district.’ 'Paganus' also meant ‘civilian.’ When the word was used in Christian Latin, the meaning changed to ‘heathen’ as it was seen that a civilian was not involved in the Christ's army.

371: pig Dec 14, 2015

As one of those words with a separate word for meat and animal–like 'the cow coming from Old English, 'séo cu' while 'beef' comes from Old French– 'boef', 'pig' comes from Old English. Nevertheless, the word for pig in Old English was 'þæt sƿín' (þæt swín). The word 'pig' comes from 'picbréd' which means 'acorn' or literally 'pig-food.

370: white-rhinoceros Dec 13, 2015

Both black and white rhinoceros are actually gray. Although the word 'black' is a reference to the color, reinforced by the contrast of the two words, the word 'white' is not a reference to this rhinoceros' coloration, but is a misinterpretation of the Dutch word 'wijd' meaning 'wide' as a reference to the size of the lips.

369: Ascending -illion (numbers) Dec 12, 2015

Numbers are naturally infinite, but words are not, i.e. they come from somewhere. Everyone knows, 'million', and 'billion', but not everyone knows–or would like to memorize–numbers that are conceptually difficult. Nevertheless there is a relatively simple rule to figure these cardinal numbers out. After 'million', which comes from the Latin word for 'thousand', 'mille' and then the suffix 'one', we have the next new number, 'billion' from the prefix 'bi' meaning two'. After that, 'trillion' is the third new number from the prefix, 'tri' meaning 'three', and then 'quadrillion' from 'quad' and so on with 'quintillion', 'sextillion' and 'septillion' &c.

368: nickelodeon Dec 11, 2015

Nickelodeon is a cable television channel started in 1977 in Ohio. Unlike its parent channel, Viacom, the word 'nickelodeon' comes from a single word, which has fallen out of fashion. The historical sense of this word is a cinema with a fee of a nickel. The word itself comes from 'nickel' and the Greek word 'odeion', meaning 'roofed-theater', reinforced by the Parisian Odéon Theater.