1624: cuckold and cuckquean May 26, 2019

A number of birds are considered to be brooding parasites, because they lay their eggs in other birds' nests. One such bird is the cuckoo bird, and while its name is imitative, it has lead to more words later on. The term 'cuckold' comes from the relation to the birds laying eggs in another bird's nest, and moreover, cuckoos were common in folklore of the Middle Ages, which helped to popularize the idea. While the term 'cuckold' has around since at least the 13th century, by the 16th century, the term 'cuckquean' was coined as the feminine form.

1623: bridge (for boats) May 25, 2019

In older ships, the captain would stand in in the middle to give orders. However, as ships developed, new platforms needed to be made on the main deck. This all changed with the advent of steam ships and paddle ships, because these interfered with the pilot and the captains field of vision. As such, the bridge over the paddles was built. Today, this is no longer the case, but the term ‘bridge’ is still in use.

1622: pristine and primate May 24, 2019

The Latin 'primus' meaning 'first', has lead to many English words, such as 'prime', which mean 'first' but also 'best'. In the case of 'primate', this is still true, and has to do with the zoological order being considered of the first, highest order. However, this is where 'primitive' comes from because it also meant 'undeveloped'. Moreover, the word 'pristine', which today means 'spotless' or 'unspoilt' also meant 'primitive; undeveloped' or less judgmentally at least 'original' in the past. This was the case since the 16th century, and only changed to what it is now in the 1920s. As a side-note, at the time when 'primate' was coined for animals, bats were considered primates too.

1621: jerk May 23, 2019

While 'to jerk' and 'to pull' are sometimes synonymous, their usage in 'jerk chicken' and 'pulled pork' are not. The reason for this is in the etymology. The verb 'to jerk' can be used to describe an array of sudden, sharp movements, and fittingly it thought to come from the sound of a whip, though over the years it has certainly changed. However, the dish is one of Latin American origins, and has its roots in the South American language Quechua's 'echarqui' meaning ‘dried flesh’, and it entered English via the Spanish Spanish 'charquear'.

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1620: Convergent Evolutions: Corona and Kalilah May 22, 2019

Although it is not always possible to translate the extra connotations a word carries in one language into another, sometimes they developed similarly enough that it isn't a problem. The Latin word 'corona', for instance, meant 'garland', but that then gained other connotations of anything arranged in a circle, including metal crowns (a word also derived from 'corona'). However, it also denoted an assembly of people, usually related to academics. In Aramaic too, the word 'כלילא' ('kalilah') refers to a garland of flowers, and an assembly of teachers. This happens sometimes by accident when there is a natural or in this case a cultural connection between the two ideas is strong; Aramaic and Latin are not related.

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1619: lampoon May 21, 2019

The word 'lampoon' used to describe satirical work comes from French, but no one knows why for sure. The word is believed to have had the meaning in French of 'let us drink'; in the 17th century 'lampons' was a common refrain in drinking-songs. The word itself comes from 'lamper' ('to gulp') which is a form of 'laper' ('liquid') related to the English verb 'lap'. While this is not controversial information, no on is quite sure why this came to denote satire.
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1618: Learn: to Learn and to Teach May 20, 2019

In many ways, English is the odd one out in the Germanic family, but this has also given many lexical differences not present elsewhere. For instance, in English, 'learn' and 'teach' are not interchangeable, though until the 19th century, 'learn' carried both meanings. This is true in German still, where 'lernen' is 'to learn' and 'to teach', though a 'Lerner' is only a learner; 'teacher' is the quite-similar 'Lehrer' though. The word 'teach' is of Germanic origin, but did not catch on the same way in other Germanic languages. It comes from a root meaning 'show' related to 'token' and its German synonym 'Zeichen'.

For a recent Word Theory relating to German's history, click here.

1617: wheelhouse May 19, 2019

For something to be "in your wheelhouse", it is something in which you have knowledge, control, or ease in doing. Going off the obviously compounded name, and it is easy to see how this term could have originated as a nautical term. On a boat, a wheelhouse is the control center, though not the command center, as that's the bridge. Indeed, the term began to denote a simple wooden box used to cover the steering wheel whoever manned it from the elements. Thus, something in the wheelhouse was something easily controlled.
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1615: cockpit May 17, 2019

The word 'cockpit' today is most often used in aviation, but—as with many of those terms—the origins are nautical. The cockpit originated as the term for the seat of the coxswain, who commands the rowing and steering. However, more literally, the term has also been used to describe a pit used for cockfighting in middle English. The term, however has been transferred to all sorts of things, including the lower part of the ships too, so there is not as much consistency as one might expect. It was only in the 1930's that first cars (usually in racing) and then planes also had sections referred to as the cockpit. 
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1614: joe, Cup of | May 16, 2019

The origin of 'joe' as 'coffee' is unclear, but there are a number of quite wide-ranging theories. On one end, some believe it comes from the name of an American coffee merchant at the turn of the last century, Joseph Martinson, and on the other end, some believe it is an alteration of the Indonesian island 'Java'. Neither make total sense chronologically and otherwise, and the former was no doubt influenced by advertising, but there is an explanation to bridge the gap. 'Joe' used to be the term for a Portuguese coin from the name of the king of Portugal in the 1770's, so given Portuguese control of what is now Indonesia, Brazil, and other coffee-growing areas, this could be a source on its own or in conjunction with another.
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1613: The Great Vowel Shift: canaan May 15, 2019

The English pronunciation of 'Canaan' is relatively closer to the Hebrew form כנען (knʿn) where it is derived compared to the later Greek synonym 'Phoenicia', but it is still quite different. First, Semitic languages have their stress later in the word than in Germanic languages usually, but earlier English pronunciations of Canaan used to be closer to the original. During the Great Vowel Shift, which moved English from Middle English to Modern English the [aː] sound—which is the same as in 'hat' in Standard British English became [eɪ] as in the first syllable of 'Canaan', but this is further from the physiologically central [ə] in Hebrew. So, when it was a just loanword from Latin and earlier Greek, the name was closer to how it originally was, as Hebrew and other Semitic languages can replace any unstressed vowel with a [ə] or something close.

1612: canaan and phoenician May 14, 2019

In the Bible, far and away the most used ethnic term to be found is 'Canaan(ite)'. The term 'Canaanite' is from the name given by its own peoples, but some people may be more familiar with the Greek derivative 'Phoenician' or the Latin-based 'Punics' as in the Punic Wars. Even though the names look different, they are are understood to come from words for 'purple', as this seafaring traders were best to some for their dies, such as Tyrian or "Royal" Purple from shell-based inks. Indeed, the Greeks and Romans did have a word for these people resembling the native one 'Χαναάν' (Khanaan) and 'Canaan' respectively, but the calques were more popular.
There will be more on this tomorrow, but you can read more on this people here.

1611: arkansas and kansas May 13, 2019

'Kansas' and 'Arkansas' sound different, but look really similar. They are both US states named for the same thing, the Kansas River, but the name ultimately comes from the kká:ze tribe. The French originally controlled this area before the United States did, and much like 'Illinois', or 'Laos', the S in the spelling was not supposed to represent a sound. Indeed, in early Kansas history, it didn't; the original name comes from the river, so in this case it is possessive: the Kansa's River. The extra syllable in Arkansas is thought to come from a variant used by the Quapaw tribe to pronounce the kká:ze tribe's name, and the R was added to reflect the non-rhoticity of the Southern accent.

1610: Navajo Horses and Dogs: Pets and Sh*t Pets | May 12, 2019

One of the Navajo words for horse used to mean dog; while in general a single word can be translated literally, the other meanings and connotations it carries will not be conveyed. In this case the word łį́į́ʼ (standard quotations omitted to not confuse the spelling) could be translated sometimes 'livestock', but is conveys positive emotions, such as 'pet' would too, so it would often be used for 'dog' as well. This changed when they were introduced to horses, at which point horses became favored, and łį́į́ʼ was used to describe them. After that, dogs were called łééchąąʼí meaning literally 'shit pet'.

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1609: The 1st Dictionary Didn't have X | May 11, 2019

Johnson's 1755 dictionary was the first to add definitions, but it did not contain a section for the letter X. His rationale for this was that no English word began with it. In some sense, especially in 1755, that was true. Xylophones did not exist, and x-rays didn't either, but even so, most of the words that have X were, and still are, from Greek, and his dictionary did not include many technical terms; of the 250,000-odd words in English at the time, he only included 42,773. Moreover his dictionary was focused on promoting English, so including foreign words would not have helped in this goal. Read yesterday's post about this dictionary here.

1608: Johnson's Definition of Oats | May 10, 2019

In Johnson's 1755 dictionary, among the nearly 43,000 definitions, he included the famous 'oats': 'a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' Aside from being a sick burn—or in Scotland a 'sick Burns'—at the time, the dictionary also established itself not only as a wordlist but it also included quotes from historical and literary figures to bolster national pride. Many people attribute the snide definition of 'oats' as reminiscent of a Pliny quote which relates the same idea about Germanic peoples.

1607: slavey May 9, 2019

Many names for Native American tribes were decided by other groups. This is called an exonym, and possibly nowhere has as many as Germany, but in the Americas, sometimes tries are named after seemingly random words, as in the case of 'Ojibwe'. However, like what happened with 'Germany' and its many foreign names, the Slavey tribe was named because the Cree often referred to enemy tribes pejoratively as 'slaves', as they would often enslave them. The French first took this Cree name and translated it as 'esclaves', and this was then transferred into English. The Slavey people often call themselves Dene.

1606: blockbuster May 8, 2019

If a movie bombs, that is to say is does poorly, but if a movie is a blockbuster—the name for a type of bomb—it means it had commercial success. The term 'blockbuster' comes from the '40's when the word referred to a bomb powerful enough to demolish a city-block. The first movie known to be called a 'blockbuster' was the 1943 and 1944 the war dramas 'Bombardier', 'Bataan', and 'With the Marines at Tarawa', quite fittingly and probably somewhat of a play on words. However, quickly after the term moved away from war and meant something—usually a film—with a big impact. The relation to the bomb was also strengthened by the national attention on war during WWII, and only survived afterwards by some luck.

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1605: adam's apple May 7, 2019

Adam's apples are more prominent on men than women, so it was deemed fitting to name it after the first man, Adam (אדם). It doesn't look much like an apple, but that's because the biblical imagery doesn't end there. The thyroid cartilage of the larynx is usually referred to as Adam's apple after the idea that a piece of the forbidden fruit, popularly conceived of as an apple was lodged in Adam's throat. For more on why the forbidden fruit is referred to as an apple, see here.
Over the last few days, there have been posts about the larynx, so read all about the larynx here.

1604: How Birds Have Such a Vocal Range: Syrinx | May 6, 2019

Most of the sounds produced by human speech is done through the tongue, lips, nasal tract, larynx, and teeth. Birds have very few of those physical attributes, save tongue, and yet are able to produce an amazing range of notes. This is because, instead of a larynx, they have a syrinx, which is a type of larynx, but rather than being at the top of the esophagus, it is at the bottom. They also have two sets of vocal folds (human have only one) and are able to manipulate them both separately at the same time. This is how they are able to produce much of the range of sounds they can, though their tongue and beaks do play a factor as well.

For even more on 'syrinx', see here.