707: Hindustani Nov 14, 2016

If there is Turkistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan Pakistan, and all of those other place-names ending with the -stan suffix in South Central Asia, should there be a Hindustan for the nearby India?—This is a trick -question, as there already is one: a term used to denote the entire Indian subcontinent, but specifically the northern region thereof. Culturally perhaps, the Middle East and India are quite distinct, but this is less of the case linguistically. Starting with the Mughals who once ruled over parts of India without changing the language too greatly aside from the adoption of a few loan words, a new script was introduced which is still used for Urdu and Persian. Over time, different scholars in this region, which is now Pakistan and India, preferred either the native Devanagari or the Persian script. The Urdu writers chose to include more Arabic and Persian words in their work, rejecting Sanskrit-derived words while Hindi writers would do the opposite, but apart from that, that is the biggest difference between Hindi and Urdu. Conversationally are the same language, even though they are attached to two different cultures.

706: Diglossia Nov 13, 2016

What English-speaker—nonnative or otherwise—wouldn't have cause to complain about it's illogical and inconsistent spelling rules? It's fair to say that the writing system is confusing and has many exceptions for every rule and generalization, but other languages have or have had some writing systems which make far less sense. The East Slavic languages, Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian, are all spoken, and as one would assume, therefore written differently. Nonetheless, at one point, all of the Slavic languages had a common literary-language, Old Church Slavonic, which gave the world the Cyrillic script. As modern Slavic languages diverged from each other, there was a period of time up until the 14th century in which the ancestors of modern day Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians all spoke their own dialects of Old East Slavic, which was a different language than the one used for the writing system. This situation, called "diglossia" meaning 'bilingual' in Greek, happens on occasion when a language changes over time from the standard forms which are still enforced, such as with formal Arabic, based off of the Qur'an, and informal, spoken Arabic.

705: Apostrophe Nov 12, 2016

We didn't always have writing, and even when we did, it wasn't always the same. English only gained the apostrophe which it got from French in the 1500's, and it didn't really catch on for another hundred years. Even then, there was no real consensus on its usage; sometimes it would be used to mark an omitted letter, and sometimes it was used for plural endings, especially for loan-words and words that end with a vowel: "there are 2 apostrophe's". Around 200 years ago was when people began to use it as a genitive marker to show that there was an E removed (see more here). When in the 19th century professionals attempted to standardize these rules, the ways in which apostrophes were being used were so varied and abundant that this became difficult. The rules were also arbitrary, such as having genitive endings for nouns like "boy's" but not pronouns like 'hers', except for "one's". To make this more confusing, British companies omitted the genitive-apostrophe in their names, and this is still the case in the UK on many signs and place-names, according to the Britannica Atlas. There are many causes for disagreements on this subject, such as one's age or country of origin, and so there is no one correct set of rules.

704: arbitrary, arbitrate, and arbiter Nov 11, 2016

There few things as integral to culture as language, and as such, it has the ability to offer great insights into the mindset of a people. An 'arbiter' is someone who settles arguments, or you may go as far as to say, 'arbitrates' fights, and ought to therefore have very good judgement. It may be expected, then that those words come from another meaning ‘judge, supreme ruler’, in Latin. Even in newer words like business jargon which contains the word, 'arbitrage', something that involves a great understanding of different markets in which to sell the same products, comes from this Latin, 'arbitrer'. Consider then that 'arbitrary', also comes from the same Latin word which once had the same connotations as the other, but in late Middle English, the sense changes from its original, 'judgement' to 'dependent on one's will or pleasure' to its modern day meaning of 'random, without reason'. A lack of trusting in the decisions of the governing authority is nothing new. 

703: sodomy and buggery Nov 10, 2016

Those familiar with the Western canon, or otherwise familiar with any one of the three Abrahamic religions would likely be familiar with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. First, from the story in Genesis, the cities were associated with impenitence and sin, but then over time, people began to associate the homosexual tendencies as written in Genesis 19:1-11. Thence, 'sodomy' as we know it today was adopted into English through Latin. This is not the only derogatory term, however, for gay-sex to derive from a place-name. 'Buggery', which people mostly know from the exclamation, 'bugger', has been used as both an insult and in legal contexts in England. This word comes from the Latin, 'Bulgarus' meaning 'Bulgarian', due to association with the Bogomils accused of sodomy.

702: fun, fond, and dupe Nov 9, 2016

In hard times, it is important to try to have fun. Humans—and probably animals too but let's not go there—have a wonderful way of turning stresses into comedy, since otherwise issues would be looming and frightening all of the time. It might not then come as a shock that the root for 'fun', which used to be a verb meaning ‘to cheat or hoax,’ and as a noun, ‘make a fool of’. English also gained the word, 'fond' from this, though both it and 'fun' have changed meanings through the centuries. Closer to the original sense, however, the word, 'dupe' is also related, except here, the word is said to come from the bird, hoopoe, named based off of the sound they make. For more on bird-related terms, click here.

701: vote, devote, and vow Nov 8, 2016

Do you have to be devoted to a candidate to vote for a candidate? Morally no, but I vow to answer as a linguist. 'Vote' comes from the Latin participle, 'vote' meaning 'a vow' or 'a wish', and the verbal form of 'votum', 'vovere' gave English, 'vow'. 'Devote', etymologically speaking, is only a more formal form of the same word. Generally, those words have changed little over time, but still, American politics are based off of Ancient Athens not Rome, supposedly. The Greek for 'vote' is 'psephos' which means 'pebble'. In Ancient Greece, there were a few different ways that votes were cast, including by hand, shouting, or using discs to be more secretive, but early elections were based off of pebbles being used as ballots.

700: Wrong Division Nov 7, 2016

Often on Word Facts words will be tracked over time, but the changes, either from language to language, or within the same one, are not explained. There are a slew of reasons why English takes has so many words that are different from their original Old English, Latin, or whichever language it may be, including accent-differences, and people's unwillingness to speak consistently with the native pronunciation or grammar rules. When words change within a single language, however, it is easier to spot why. "Wrong division" is a term applied to words which have sounds split, most commonly from the indefinite article 'a'. The snake, 'adder', and the drill, 'auger' are both of Germanic origins and both used to have an initial N; in fact 'nave' and 'auger' come from the same word even though they sound nothing alike. This is true also of adopted words, such as 'umpire' which comes from the French, 'nonper' meaning, 'not equal' and for a period in Middle English was, 'noumpere'.
For more on this, see Napkin and Apron and also Nicknames

699: college and ligament Nov 6, 2016

What does higher education have to do with anatomy? It's an odd question but answerable nonetheless, and even without saying "medical school". While college in the United States can refer to any undergraduate program, elsewhere it refers to schools for specific subject training associated with other colleges in a system. The non-American sense is the same as the original Latin, 'collegium' meaning ‘partnership, association,’ ultimately from 'legare' meaning ‘to depute’. This word also gave English 'collegiate', and 'colleague'. This shouldn't be too alarming since the words sound similar and have similar meanings, but 'legare' also gave us 'legate'. 'Legare' is also related to the Latin 'ligare' meaning 'to bind', and gave English 'ligature' and 'ligament'.

698: buck-naked Nov 5, 2016

When one is buck-naked, it is not to say exactly that he is naked as a deer or a dollar bill. 'Buck' started in Old English as 'buc' to mean 'male deer' and over time, this applied to certain other male animals, first from association from other words like 'bucca' for a male goat, and then later on just from convention, as was the case for kangaroos, which has no Old English equivalent. In the last few centuries, the word took on some racist tones with the term being applied to Native Americans and those of African descent in the U.S. No one is entirely sure why people say, 'buck-naked' but while the word has been in use for just a little over a hundred years, 'butt-naked' is even younger, and tends to be preferred.

697: metaphysician and physicist Nov 4, 2016

Someone who studies physics is a physicist, but someone who studies metaphysics is a metaphysician, not a metaphysicist. Even though Aristotle was a terrible physicist, believing that the reason objects move is due to what are essentially spirits he called 'movers', both of those words are based on his studies. 'Metaphysics' means 'after physics' referring to the work that came after the his book which was interpreted concerning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural’. 'Physics' also denotes the work of Aristotle, but in this case, what was written in his actual books. These words, as well as 'physic' which is specific to medicine and has the adjectival form 'physician' all come from 'phusika' meaning ‘natural things’ in Greek. The different adjectival forms would not have always carried specific meanings, but over time the conventional ways became standard.

696: font Nov 3, 2016

When you want to change fonts on a word document, you just melt down metal alloys and shape them into letters, right? Almost certainly wrong, but only because of the era in which this audience lives. For printing presses, all of the keys and fonts had to be created physically out of metal. The word 'font' comes from the French word, 'fondre' meaning 'to melt', as do related the words, 'founder' and 'found' as in molding metal.

695: picture and painting Nov 2, 2016

A person who's good at using paints or words can paint a picture, and with a camera, someone can take a picture, and though one can picture an image of a picture, no one can picture something in order to create a material object. It is a bit of syntax that English doesn't have, though historically it makes sense; both 'picture' and 'paint' come from the French past participle of 'peindre', ultimately from the Latin, 'pingere' meaning 'to paint', although the creation of 'picture' was also affected by the Latin, 'pictura'. Even though the words derive from verbs, their origins as participles, which are not verbs but verbal-adjectives have influenced the way we speak.

694: FSI Levels Nov 1, 2016

Suppose that you're a native English-speaker and you have exactly 575-600 hours on your hands, which would be the best choice of languages to start to learn? The Foreign Service Institute has ranked languages by how difficult it would be to learn from an English-speaking background into 5 levels, level 5 being the hardest. If you continue supposing from before, you'd likely want to learn a Romance language, or a few select North Germanic (e.g. Swedish or Danish) and West Germanic (e.g. Dutch or Afrikaans) because they all have fairly similar grammar and vocabulary, though not German nor Icelandic as even since they're related in many ways, they have complex grammar. This categorization does not take into account certain things like phonetics, but even if it did, the categories are rough estimations, and could not apply to all people with their different brains and experiences.

693: witch Oct 31, 2016

Happy Halloween everyone; with all of the costumes people wear, it can be tricky to remember which witch is which. The word 'witch' comes from the Old English, 'wicche', which gives Modern English, 'witch' and the religion, 'Wicca', but not 'wizard'; that word comes from another word, 'wysard' which is derived from the word for 'wise'. It would probably not be surprising to learn that, 'wicken' in Middle High German, meaning 'bewitch', is related to the root for 'witch', but 'wīh', the Old High German word for 'holy' is thought to be too, counter to the way we might think of witches today. Surprising as well, but the Latin for 'victim' is believed to be related to 'wīh' as well.

692: flavor Oct 30, 2016

A fairly straightforward, albeit superficial, question one might get asked would be, "what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?", though certainly far fewer people would ask, "what is your favorite flavor of flower?". This would not always have been the case; back in Middle English, the word, 'flavor' meant, 'fragrance', or 'aroma', which comes from the Old French 'flaor'. Some have suggested that 'flavor was created as a an alteration of the Latin, 'flatus' meaning ‘blowing’ or as a combination with 'foetor' meaning ‘stench’. Either way, 'flatus' not only gave English, 'flavor' denoting strong scents, but also the word 'flatulent'. Where, I hear you asking, did the V comes from then? It seems to have entered the word by association with the word 'savor' around the time when the word changed, connoting taste instead of olfactory.

691: glaucous, glaucoma, and glaucope Oct 29, 2016

If you wanted to describe something, in a word, as a pale yellow, you could of course just say, 'yellowish', but the more pretentious way is with the word, 'glaucous'. The word comes from the Latin, 'glaucous', which means both 'gleaming' but also 'gray', which is why this word, now predominantly used to denote a yellowy color has also sometimes been used to describe any pale color, especially those of leaves in autumn. Yet, perhaps less pretty is that the root, 'glauc-' has given English the word 'glaucoma', as the condition makes the scope of what one sees, over time, become gray. There are plenty more words, though all fairly obscure that have this root as well, including 'glaucope': someone with blond hair and blue eyes.

690: Profession Oct 28, 2016

If someone were to make a confession, that person would have confessed; if there is a recession, then say, the economy, would recess; but if someone had a profession, what does that person profess? This is not some fluke of English: a few centuries ago 'profession' would have made a lot more sense. Back when the word was used in Middle English, a professional could only be a clergyman, in that 'profession' denoted the oath that one would take to enter a religious order. At the time, these professions would be, quite literally, professed, as not only was this an oath, but also may have been fairly public. Later on, people would be thought of professing that which the were skilled at doing, thus relating to jobs.

689: protocol, colloid, and cholera Oct 27, 2016

As has been illustrated on this blog a number of times, words don't need to have similar meanings, or altogether similar appearances to be related. A protocol may not seem similar a glue, and it wouldn't really have either at any point as an English work, first denoting a record of legal agreement. The word comes ultimately from the Greek, 'prōtokollon' meaning, ‘first page’ from the parts, 'prōtos' which means ‘first’ and can be found in a great many other words such as 'prototype', and 'kolla' which means ‘glue’. The other sense of 'protocol' derives from French, 'protocole', which was etiquette intended for the French head of state, which was later adopted into English in the 19th century. A colloid, though it does not have any politico-legal meaning, is a substance that has qualities of both liquids or solids, originally coming from the Greek—you guessed it—'kolla' and, '-oid' which as a suffix means 'resembling'. Additionally, although 'choler' and 'cholera' come from 'khole' meaning 'bile, its main structural protein, 'collagen', comes from 'kolla' as well.

688: revamp, vamp, and avant-garde Oct 26, 2016

Though the word has certainly changed, 'revamp', quite intuitively, comes from 'vamp' which for cobblers is the upper from part of a shoe, and as a verb means 'to fix a vamp', but in Jazz is a simplistic short passage which is often repeated. Both of these senses come from the Latin, 'avant pie'. You may recognize 'avant' from 'avant garde', which means 'advanced guard' which has come to denote the way that troop under Napoleon dressed: very lavishly and impractically. The whole phrase together, means "before the foot (pie)", which is reasonable for shoemakers, but for musicians, and later in the word, 'revamp', it took on the meaning of improvisation.