1465: Letter Frequency Dec 15, 2018
The frequency of letters in English starts with E and ends with Q or Z depending upon the count, but when all of these are laid out, the frequency from the most- to least frequent, the chart is logarithmic. This is true, however, of most languages across, regardless of whether or not the spelling is made to match pronunciation to some extent, as with German, and despite writing system. Indeed, this is not just true of alphabets, but even Japanese pictographic characters can be mapped out logarithmically, as shown in the graph below. This is important information for printers, or back in the day, telegraph codes.
1464: okra and Accra Dec 14, 2018
Okra has for a long time been a staple of African American cooking, and its linguistic origin shows this as well. Unlike many other classically American —particularly Southern—foods, okra originates from African tropics. It is believed that the name comes from the word 'nkru'. While this in and of itself it not particularly significant, it shows a similar process that happened to other words like it, such as how the Ghanan city—now capital of Ghana—is natively 'Nkran' but is Anglicized as 'Accra'.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzKhTxYYlal1d1-XhqPh122t6bgaNpI7A
1463: abracadabra Dec 13, 2018
Like any good magician might, the etymology of 'abracadabra' has not revealed itself. There were for a long time a lot of folk etymologies as to where it derived, and in particular that it came from a Semitic root meaning something along the lines of "I create the word", but this has since been many-times debunked. The word is actually from Latin, and was used in incantations starting in the 2nd century, usually for medicinal practices, and likely started from Greek. The word is also found in English later, again to indicate sickness, and only recently did it gain the connotations of any kind of illusion or spell. If you liked this, check out the post about 'hocus-pocus'.
1462: Islamic State vs Islamic Republic Dec 12, 2018
Even though the two may be used somewhat interchangeably in lay conversations, there is an understood difference between an 'Islamic state' and an 'Islamic republic'. The former refers to a country that has Sharia as its constitution in some respect, and includes country like Saudi Arabia. In this way, on a state-level the country is Islamic, and usually this will exclude democratic elections. Meanwhile, an Islamic republic may also involve Islam on a legislative level, but it will also include more elections. Ultimately however, there is a great deal of overlaps, and these are just norms for usage.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzKhTxYYlal1d1-XhqPh122t6bgaNpI7A
1461: Can Language Standardization be Descriptive? Dec 11, 2018
If you saw the most recent Word Facts video, you'll have seen mention of the Dutch Language Union (DLU) or natively Nederlandse Taalunie, which is an organization that standardizes Dutch between Suriname, Belgium, and the Netherlands. However, this should not be conflated completely with something like Académie Française (AF). Even though the DLU and the AF both organizations created to monitor and regulate their respective language, the DLU is far less prescriptive, and mostly tries to maintain a standardization for spelling, as well as descriptively adding new words to the dictionary, instead of attempting to enforce rules onto other people.
1460: proof is in the pudding Dec 10, 2018
The phrase 'the proof is in the pudding' doesn't make a lot of intuitive sense. Even considering how 'proof' has historically meant 'evidence' and that pudding has a variety of meanings, the phrase cannot be understood only semantically because the phrase that is used is not the full phrase. As with "the last straw", only the first half of the phrase "the proof of the pudding...is in the eating" is used. The full phrase has been used in many varieties for nearly 700 years, but has always had the meaning of "the only way to know if something is suitable is to test it".
Check out the Patreon-exclusive video from yesterday here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/origin-of-word-23236976
1459: X Dec 9, 2018
The letter X is used for many different purposes. It has a long history of use in algebra, as well as for abbreviations for 'christ', talked about more following the link here. There is some discussions as to where X as an abbreviation for kisses came from, but generally it is thought to be from the same root of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ as the Greek for Christ, which would be written on the end of letters and then kissed to display an oath. The practice has since moved away from its Christian roots, but the letter—and its general symbolism—remains.
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1458: World Record for Vowels Controversy Dec 8, 2018
1457: Cockney Rhyming Slang pt. 2 Dec 7, 2018
Cockney rhyming slang's structure was covered a bit yesterday, but while it might seem pretty silly, this was a widely used system slang for a very long time and into today, and even if you don't use it intentionally, there is a possibility you picked up a few words here and there. For instance, the expression to "blow a raspberry" usually refers to a derisive sound made by vibrating the tongue against the lips, but it comes from the Cockney "raspberry tart" as a slang for "fart". Another example, though a little more regional, is "berk"—also somewhat distasteful— comes from "Berkeley Hunt" which was slang for 'cunt'. Indeed, there are lots of words and phrases that have made their way into common parlance from Cockney that don't necessarily sound so out of place in Standard English or American speech.
Check out the latest video: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1456: Cockney Rhyming Slang pt. 1 Dec 6, 2018
Check out the latest video: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1455: out of sorts Dec 5, 2018
Folk-etymologies often are very convenient logically but cannot be corroborated historically. For instance, the phrase 'out of sorts' is often attributed to typesetting, but this cannot be the case. As the claim goes, the 'sorts' in question relate to individual metal type, called 'sorts', that are then distributed into compartments for each letter. With this then, to be 'out of sorts' was to run out of certain letters, but this doesn't have an immediate connection to emotional states, but more importantly this phrase was found much before printing was around. Instead, many people believe that the phrase comes from the Latin 'sortem' meaning 'condition'.
1454: Versatility of Writing Systems Dec 4, 2018
As discussed yesterday, writing systems don’t really determine how a language will or will not be expressed. This was, in a certain way, exhibited in English fairly recently with the advent of texting, and therefore texting language. Especially when it was the case that phones could have only 12 buttons and people would have to click several times to select any given letter, people economized on characters and gave the bare essentials, but these essentials were pretty much always consonants, especially when the vowels are in between them. In a certain way this became a bit like an abjad, which marks the consonants and usually only marks vowels at the bookends of words, or for diphthongs, like with Hebrew writing. This is not used as much anymore by necessity, but its use—in any capacity—shows the way in which people can be very flexible about writing systems in general.
Check out the latest video: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1453: Languages and their Writing Systems Dec 3, 2018
When discussing the status of a writing system, it cannot be spoken about only as the system for characters and also has a lot to do with the language used to write it. This can be illustrated by taking a look at the writing of Hebrew. Hebrew is not the only language to utilize the Assyrian writing system, though it may be the most prominent of those today. This writing system is also used for Yiddish, Ladino, and other Jewish languages over the years, except while Hebrew did not represent all of its vowels as also occurs with the Arabic and Ge’ez script, but even using all of the same characters Yiddish and Ladino do. This means that for the former it is an abjad whereas for the latter two the same system of characters is an alphabet. And indeed, when Hebrew is transliterated into Latin characters—while there is no standardization for this—it almost always will be vocalic. In this way, a writing system only really can be assessed as it applies to an individual language. There will be more about this tomorrow.
Check out the latest video: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1452: shekel Dec 2, 2018
As discussed yesterday, terms for money often outlast—at least in an etymological way—economic systems. In addition to 'capital' and 'buck' which both came from terms for animals, 'shekel', the modern currency of Israel and historically other Middle Eastern nations also comes from farming. In this case however, it is from a unit of barley, though 'shekel' comes from the Hebrew 'šeqel' whose root means ‘weigh’. These sorts of agricultural terms do have a specific biological necessity and therefore value, so when moving to coinage and paper money—which does not have a definite value—the notion similar valuation stuck.
Check out the latest video: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1451: capital Dec 1, 2018
Fiat currency is now dominant globally, but barter has left its mark on it. The word 'capital', though not strictly financial, denotes anything that is an asset to an individual. It originally related to cattle however, counted in heads, or in Latin, 'caput'. For a long time in many societies, including some today, wealth was measurable in livestock, so even as many societies moved away from this model, the derivative word remained. The post tomorrow will look at another way farming influenced monetary terminology.
Check out the latest video: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1450: derby Nov 30, 2018
Check out the new video released today: https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0
1449: Directions in Place Names Nov 29, 2018
A lot of places are named for their directions, but this only works when the direction are relative. For instance, the East Indies and the West Indies are named so for their relation relative to India as is fairly clear from the name, but a name like 'Austria' which denotes the south, or its native German name 'Österreich' meaning 'Eastern Empire' is all in relation to the other German states, though there is a (not particularly important) discrepancy here because it is indeed both south or east depending upon which German states are being selected. However, this gets even more thrown off considering The Philippines, which were named in Spanish first as Islas del Poniente (Islands of the West) not because much is very close in that direction except a very large ocean, but because it was sailed to from Spain first from the West, even though it is much closer to Spain from the East. Ultimately, because the Earth is round, directional names like this don't work without counterparts, perhaps best exhibited in 'North Dakota' and 'South Dakota'.
1448: nitpicking: What's a 'nit'? Nov 28, 2018
Chances are, most people don't know the name for a louse-egg, even though this is part of a phrase many might use daily. 'Nitpicking' is the process of being scrupulous about unimportant details, but very few people would know that a 'nit' is a louse-egg, and ridding oneself of these very tiny things—historically by hand—is 'nit-picking'. This just goes to show the way in which compounds like these—even though they have a very sensible summative meaning unlike 'butter-fly'—exist on their own, and not necessarily by mentally combining the elements.