427: Come, Try, and Go Feb 8, 2016
The ever pedantic writer of Marry Poppins, P. L. Travers, was unhappy about the line, "let's go fly a kite" in the movie. Why‽ A short list of verbs traditionally should be followed by 'and', such as 'come', 'try' and 'go'. This practice can be traced back to Old English, but now it is seen as informal in English, or even informal.
426: response and responsibility Feb 7, 2016
'Response' and 'responsibility' look similar in their spellings and sound similar as well, but their meanings are quite different. Ultimately these words both comes from the Latin, responsum' meaning, ‘answered, offered in return,’ which in turn derives from the verb 'respondere' which means the same as our 'respond' today. The difference between these words is due to the word 'responsible' which came to English via French, which meant to answer' as in "to answer for one's misdoings".
425: Please and Pleas Feb 6, 2016
'Please' is a verb and exclamation, but the closest nounal form is 'plea' which is still a different word. 'Please' comes from Old French 'plaisir' which meant the same as the verb now, which ultimately comes from Latin. 'Plea' on the other hand in Middle English was mostly used to mean ‘lawsuit’, which comes from plait, plaid in Old French meaning ‘agreement, discussion,’ which itself is from the Latin 'placitum' meaning ‘a decree'. That word importantly however comes from the verb 'placere' meaning ‘to please’.
424: Spaghetti Westerns Feb 5, 2016
Spaghetti westerners are quite popular, but rarely include actual spaghetti. The name relates not the food but to something which Americans associate with Italian culture. The producers and directers for this genre were Italians, like Sergio Leone. More importantly, the filming occurred in Italy, and the villains and ensemble were often played by Italians to lower prices, often dubbed over later.
423: opposable (thumbs) Feb 4, 2016
Opposable thumbs are called what they are because the thumb can touch other fingers. Most primates and a few other animals have opposable thumbs, but humans have the most mobility. 'Opposable thumb' does not mean that one has the ability to hate human-thumbs, although we often think of 'oppose' to mean 'act against', and this is true. 'Opposable' in this case is close to the Latin root of, 'opponere', which was influenced by the word, 'oppositus' which means to ‘set or place against’.
422: cynic Feb 3, 2016
Cynicism is the belief that humans are only motivated by their own respective interest. This was not just a school of thought but an actual school, so to speak. 'Cynic' comes from the Greek word, 'kunikos' is thought to be diminutive of 'Kunosarges', which was the name of a gymnasium where Antisthenes, the first cynical philosopher taught. The word commonly meant ‘doglike, churlish,’ and 'kuōn, kun-' which actually means ‘dog’ becoming a nickname for a Cynic.
421: pens versus pencil Feb 2, 2016
Although effectively pens and pencils are not so very different, their etymological distinctions are worth noting. 'Pen' is a Middle English word which originally denoting a feather with a sharpened end, which we might now just call a 'quill'. That word derives from the Latin, 'penna' meaning ‘feather’ and in late Latin the word had come to fit the Modern English definition of ‘pen’. 'Pencil' in Middle English meant a fine paintbrush deriving from the Old French word, 'pincel' which is diminutive of the Latin 'peniculus' meaning ‘brush,’ which is itself diminutive of 'penis' which means ‘tail, penis’.
420: Minor versus Miner Feb 1, 2016
Although the two are easy enough to distinguish, it is important to note the difference between 'minor' and 'miner'. Simply enough, 'miner' comes from Middle English originally from the Old French word 'minour'. The '-er' ending in English is true of many occupations, such as 'banker'. 'Minor', however, comes from Latin, meaning ‘smaller, less’. The term was first used to mean a Franciscan friar, which is suggested with the title, "Fratres Minores" meaning 'Lesser Brethren’.
419: apology Jan 31, 2015
For anyone familiar with Plato or Augustine (who studied Plato's work in great detail), will have come across the term 'apology' in the sense of an argument or piece of rhetoric, which can be somewhat confusing when we think of the way 'apology' is used now. In the early 15th century Middle English, the word meant, 'defense, justification'. This is from ultimately the Greek, 'apologia' which is 'a speech in defense'. The roots of the word are 'apo-' which means 'from, off' and 'logos' which means 'speech'. The modern, not defensive sense is relatively recent.
418: biscuit Jan 30, 2016
The word 'biscuit' comes from 'bis' which is a Latin prefix meaning 'two', and 'cuit,' was first 'coctus,' which means 'cook', together meaning something, in this case, bread, cooked twice, and included many other breads that what we think of as a biscuit. When sugar became more available, there arose more differentiation, cakes, especially. The Dutch word 'koekjes' meant, 'small cake', and this term spread where there where there were Dutch populations. 'Biscuit' remained popular in English, but 'cookie' became the general term for breads, and 'biscuit' only meant the tart-like treat. Those in Scotland continue to use ‘biscuit' as a general term for soft breads.
417: box Jan 29, 2015
Originally 'box' comes from the Greek word 'puxos'. This word meant the tree or the wood thereof only from the box-tree. The wood of this tree is hard and heavy, often used for engraving onto and for making musical instruments, in addition to making boxes. Overtime, the word included the meaning of anything in the shape of a box, such as cardboard boxes, or boxing rings. The transformation from a 'p' to a 'b' occurred in Latin, and was from there adopted into late Old English.
416: In Regard and Regards Jan 28, 2016
Concerning correctness, it is important to know which to say, either, 'in/with regard to" or "in regards to". Although if 'something regards' something else, it can also be said to 'concern' that same something, but the accepted phrase is 'in regard to". The reason is that 'regard' (following in or with) is a noun, and a concept at that; it is not really possible syntactically nor grammatically to have a plural of something of an idea. The phrase is confused both because of the verb by itself, but also the other phrase "as regards", which is another way to introduce an idea, but is a verb.
415: Tho and Thru Jan 27, 2016
Traditional or modern: discussion almost as old as time. Spelling reform in English is often very practical; it makes the language easier to learn, especially for children and non-native speakers, although a little bit of history and culture is inevitably lost. 'Though' and 'through' today make little sense to spell. Especially in informal writing, 'tho' and 'thru' can replace them. Both have a long history of occasional usage as a different spelling with great popularity even in the 19th century and before. spelling reformers advocated for the change, but it did not take with prescriptivists. Although it does allow for a window into the past (see WF Dec. 20, 2015), the spelling for many seems a bit archaic.
414: austral and boreal Jan 26, 2016
Happy Australia Day! What do Australia and the northern lights have in common‽–absolutely 100% nothing. 'Australia' is a 15th century word from the Latin 'australis' meaning south, related to Auster, a god of the south-wind. 'Borealis' as part of aurora borealis comes from late the Latin 'borealis' for 'north', related to the god of the north-wind, Boreas.
413: Phonological Restrictions Jan 25, 2016
The closest to 'merry Christmas' one can get in Hawai'ian is "mele kalikimaka". This is because Hawai'ian has many restrictive rules, sort of like how the ŋ sound (such as in 'ring') can't go at the front of a word in English. In Hawai'ian, there are only 8 consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ‘/ʔ (glottal stop), so the sounds get matched up to their closest counterparts, R to L, and S to K. Also, Hawai'ian and every other language from Polynesia cannot have two vowel sounds together, nor can a word end in a consonant. All of these rules together make the approximation "mele kalikimaka"
412: rats, fishing-bait, and scarlet Jan 24, 2016
What do rats, fishing-bait, and the color scarlet have to do with each other?–the Latin word 'vermis'. The word 'vermin' comes from Middle English when the word denoted reptiles and serpents, and is ultimately based on the Latin 'vermis' which means ‘worm.’ 'Vermilion'–which is a shade of scarlet–ultimately derives from the Latin 'vermiculus', which is diminutive of 'vermis' relating to the earthy color of vermilion. Perhaps surprisingly, 'worm' does not comes from Latin, but instead, the Old English, 'wyrm', though it is related through Indo-European to the Latin 'vermis', which connects the meaning of these words to the ground.
411: piston Jan 23, 2016
Pestles are used for grinding spices and grains, and a piston is part of an engine or other contraption. Because of the relation to the way that a piston pounds, the Italian 'pistone', or 'pestone' meaning ‘large pestle,’ comes from 'pestello' meaning ‘pestle.’ 'Pestle' itself comes from the Latin 'pistillum', which is the participle of the verb, 'pinsere' which means 'pound'.
410: Calques Jan 22, 2016
Yesterday, there were some examples of translations that have been accepted into other languages. That is called a 'calque'. A calque is a verbatim translation, the opposite of borrowing or adopting a word, such as the word 'calque' which is directly from French. An example of a calque is 'Devil's advocate' which is translated from the Latin 'advocātus diabolī', who was a person in the Roman Catholic Church who would verify miracles, among other things.
409: Hyphen Jan 21, 2015
In English and other Germanic languages, it is possible to combine nouns together to make one phrase using a hyphen, such as, 'fish-eye' or 'summer-dress'. This quality is not found in romance languages. As such, the originally French, 'poudre de succession' (powder of succession) is one phrase 'inheritance-powder' in English. Another example of the limitations of romance languages is originally French 'l'esprit de l'escalier' in French for the much shorter 'Treppenwitz' meaning 'staircase-wisdom', to describe the feeling of thinking of something after it is relevant (like coming up with come-backs 15 minutes after an argument).
408: Puma-names Jan 20, 2016
Who would win in a fight, a puma, a cougar, or a mountain lion. The answer is: all, or none; they are all the same animal. This animal holds the record for the most names of any animal in English, with over 40, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (2004). The most popular term is 'puma' in English as well as Spanish.