567: potassium (K), iron (Fe), and tungsten (W) Jun 27, 2016

Many, if not most, of the chemical-symbols for elements on the periodic table make sense from an English-background, such as 'O' for 'oxygen' and 'Ti' for 'titanium'. There are a few, however, that share no common letters with the English names. 'K' stands for 'potassium' because of the Latin name, 'kalium', and likewise 'Fe' stands for 'iron' from the Latin 'ferrum' which interestingly was the word for 'iron' but also 'sword'. The 'W' for 'tungsten' does not come from Latin (or Greek), but instead from the German 'Wolfram'. The English name is adopted from the Swedish, literally 'heavy stone', though the German name, more scientific, comes from 'wolframite' where it was discovered, and means 'devourer of tin' because of its chemical properties. 

566: feckless Jun 26, 2016

Although it is true that there is a regional variant of the word 'fuck' in parts of the UK: feck, the word feckless is not the opposite, as such. The word is from the Scots and northern English dialect word 'feck' which is diminutive of 'effeck', which is the word for 'effect' in those dialects, in that someone who is feckless will effect no change. 

565: Declension Jun 25, 2016

The nouns of certain languages change their form depending on the way they function in a sentence, similar to the way as English speakers say 'he' 'his' and 'him'. This process, called 'declining' is seemingly very different from the way people use the word to mean going down or growing smaller. Nevertheless,in grammar, the case of the down was thought to start from the subject, and go down in importance thereafter. So in this way, moral declining and grammatical declining are not so different.

564: blasé Jun 24 2016

French words often find themselves used in English in a bit more of a posh way than those of Germanic origin, as has been addressed in Word Facts a number of times. 'Blasé' the French participle of the verb meaning ‘cloy’ was adopted into English was used to mean 'indifference', but many people believe that French was not the true origin, thinking that the word is ultimately of Germanic origin, perhaps from the German word 'blasiert', and holds a closer meaning to the English word than to the meaning of the French one.

563: eskimo Jun 23, 2016

Although the Old World country whose people came in contact with these Americans the most were the Russians, the word 'Eskimo' came through the French, 'Esquimaux': ultimately a Montagnais word, 'ayas̆kimew' which translates as ‘person who laces a snowshoe’. This is not even the first time that a European power named a Native American group after a shoe: notably 'Ojibwa' (see Word Facts December 28, 2015). The name that some Eskimo tribes call themselves is 'husky', most commonly in Eastern North America, so for a while people were called 'huskies' by English speakers too. After the 19th century, especially with the connection to the Newfoundland-dialect word for 'husky'—'Huskemaw'—which sounds somewhat similar to 'Eskimo', the term 'Eskimo' caught on, even though that was the native term used for dogs. In this was, the meaning of 'husky', now a dog, and 'eskimo', now used for people, switched.

562: onslaught Jun 22, 2016

Most English words that originate from Germanic languages may be related to such as languages as German or Dutch, but originate from Old English. Nonetheless plenty of words are of Germanic origins that were adopted more recently, commonly due to culturally significant events. The word, 'onslaught', which starting in the 17th century spelled 'anslaight', comes from the Middle Dutch, 'aenslag' meaning blow/strike upon'. The change in the spellings of the ending was created from the back-formation of the now obsolete 'slaught', which is an alternative form of 'slaughter'. The turn of the 17th century when the word was adopted was also the time of the start of the Anglo-Dutch wars, when many onslaughts took place, as well as increased contact between speakers of the two languages. 

561: dutch, netherlands, and holland Jun 21, 2016

Someone who is Dutch is from Netherlands, or sometimes called Holland. Though it is true that the country is in the north of Europe, 'Netherlands' comes from, 'nether' which means 'lower', for the reason that it is less mountainous that the interior of central Europe, similar to the naming of Low German and High German (see Word Facts from May 7, 2016). 'Holland', however is only an informal name for the country, as it is the name for a specific region of the Netherlands by the coast, but gained so much recognition that people began to refer to the whole country by the name. As for 'Dutch', the word does not only mean someone from the Netherlands, but also someone from Germany; note the similarity between the words 'Deutsch' and 'Dutch'. Though the word does retain its original meaning, it became more standard over time to use 'Dutch' to mean 'Low German' and then finally the single language we know today.

560: isle of man/wight, inuit Jun 20, 2016

The different British Isles sometimes have their own ancient languages, such as Manx from the Isle of Man. The English name for that island, as well as the Isle of Wight both comes from words meaning the same thing. 'Man' unsurprisingly comes from the Old English for 'human', but 'Wight' also comes from an early Middle English word of the same meaning. This is not uncommon of languages; 'Inuit' comes from the Inuit plural- form of 'inuk' meaning ‘person’.

559: no Jun 19, 2016

It is perhaps strange to think of 'no' having origins, as it is so intrinsically vital to grammar, but it does. Across various Indo-European languages the word is fairly similar: N followed by a usually long vowel sound. More similar perhaps is the root for 'not'. The word 'no' is derived from the Old English words 'ne' meaning 'not' and 'ā' meaning always, which is the root for 'aye' as in 'aye sir'. While, yes, there are a few Romance languages with the same word 'no', the word for 'not' is (or was) more universal, as it is 'ne' in Latin, Old English, Old High German, Greek, and French just to name a few of many. So though of course "no means no", in Proto-Indo-European sublanguages "not always means no". 

558: dress and address Jun 18, 2016

Gowns, locations, and speeches may not have a lot to do with each other, but they do perhaps hold similar sentiments. The word 'address' was a Middle English verb with the meaning ‘guide, direct’, which created the meaning of directions for physical places as well as ‘direct spoken words to’. The word is from the Latin stem, 'directus' via French. The English word 'dress' shares the same Latin origin, though in Old French 'dresser' took on the meaning, ‘arrange, prepare’.

557: partridge Jun 17, 2016

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a peartree". Partridges as game-birds, not really the type to offend anyone. Nonetheless, 'partridge' comes from the Old French 'pertis', through Latin ultimately coming from the Greek 'perdix' from a verb 'meaning 'to fart'. The reason for this is that people thought that the sound of a partridge flapping its wings sounded like a fart.

556: maintain, detain, retain, and contain Jun 16, 2016

What do the words 'maintain', 'detain', 'retain',  and 'contain', all have in common?: a number of things, but they all relate to the idea of keeping things. In addition, all of the words come from compounds of the word 'tenere' which is the Latin word for 'to hold' 'to touch' or 'to take'. Some of that list has retained its original meaning, while others like 'maintain' which comes from 'manu' meaning 'hand' as in "to hold in the hand".

555: five Jun, 15, 2016

This is the 555th Word Facts Post. The word 'five' is from the Old English 'fīf,', and still today closely resembles the words for 5 in various Germanic languages, such as the Dutch 'vijf' and German 'fünf'. Less obvious perhaps is the connection to the Latin 'quinque' and Greek 'pente'. According to Grimm's law (see the post from yesterday) during the first Germanic sound shift, p-sounds became f-sounds (one of many changes), so the relation between the Greek and Germanic is far closer than would appear at first glance.

554: Chiropteran and Feather Jun 14, 2016

What has hands and wings?: perhaps some renderings of dragons, but consistently, bats. The taxonomic order in biology for bats is 'chiropteran' which comes from the parts meaning 'hand' (see Word Facts June 11, 2016) and 'wing'. The Greek word 'pteran' is also related to the English word, 'feather'. The Latin word for 'feather', 'penna' (see Word Facts February 2, 2016) and here, 'pteran' both share the p-sound. That consonant, and many other consonants shifted, for example p changed to in this case f, separating the Romance and Greek languages from the Germanic languages in a systematic manner. For more on other sound-shifts, see Word Facts Mar 6, 2016.

553: status versus standing Jun 13, 2016

What's the difference between one's social-standing and social-status?: Nothing really. The word 'status' was originally used as a term to denote once legal standing, around 300 years ago, but has grown to encompass other meanings as well. The word itself comes from Latin, meaning ‘standing,’ from 'stare' ‘to stand’. 'Stand' is today a broader term from Germanic origin, although etymologically, 'status' and 'standing' are related through the Indo-European root.

552: The Last Straw Jun 12, 2016

Language is a system of communicating ideas, based off of mutual understanding, so as long as both parties involved in the conversation know what the message is, logical or not, it doesn't matter really. The phrase "the last straw" comes from the full phrase "the last straw that breaks the laden camel's back". "The last straw" at one point required understanding from everyone who grew up with references, but then took on a life of its own, so to speak, and can be used to effectively communicate an idea that a second-language speaker of English may not comprehend.

551: chiro...Jun 11, 2016

Words have been created in order to communicate, not only actions, but general concepts. Since a concept can be incredibly broad and overarching, terms for fairly different actions or ideas may be very similar. Words like 'chirography' or 'chiromancy' (palm-reading) are understandably related, as the English literal translation is respectively 'handwriting' and 'hand-divination'. Other terms have similar spellings, but are at first-glance have less to do with hands. 'Chiropractic' comes from 'praktikos' meaning 'practical' as it is a medical practice involving one's hands. Finally, perhaps the least sensible is chironomid as a classification for insects who don't have hands at all. The word means 'one who gestures with his hands' or 'pantomime dancer', from the way the insects move their limbs.

550: matrimony Jun 10, 2016

Words can give insight into what is culturally significant in modern times and from antiquity. What is the intention for marriage? This is difficult to answer, as it is quite philosophical, but etymology may offer some insight. The word 'matrimony' comes from the word 'mater' in Latin meaning 'mother', since ultimately there has long been the tradition of using marriage as a way to guarantee children.

549: ecuador Jun 9, 2016

Today marks a whole year and a half of Word Facts posts. For those who have been reading since the beginning or those who just started recently, 18 months may not be so long in the grand scheme of things, but I thank you for giving my hobby and my passion an outlet. Like how Word Facts is in the middle of its second year, the country, Ecuador is in the middle as well: of the earth that is. The name comes from the Spanish for 'equator'. Though the French version of the name is 'Equateur' which also means 'equator', the English language which is generally more fluid chose to adopt the word as it was.

548: matriarch and patriarch Jun 8, 2016

Matriarch rather logically, comes from the word for mother as she is the head of her household or other group. The word was formed from association with 'patriarch' who is the male head of his household or other group. Semantically there is a connection etymologically there is not. As said before, 'matriarch' comes from 'mater', Latin for 'mother' but patriarch does not come from the word for father. 'Matriarch' was created in the 17th century on a pattern that does not really exist, since 'patriarch' comes from the Greek 'patria' meaning 'family' and 'arkēs' meaning 'ruling'.