1665: Aesthetic Jul 6, 2019

The word 'aesthetic' is an old one, but doesn't have a very old meaning. It used to mean ‘sensation’ until Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten used the term in philosophy in his book "Aesthetica" (1750), it really did not relate to art or beauty. Now, however, the word means “concerned with beauty” in a philosophical sense, and then it also gained the meaning of ‘pleasantly appearing’. It is not typical that a word would shift so suddenly, but given as it opened new avenues in philosophical expression, it was evidently substantial enough. 
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1664: 'Fire' in Movies Jul 5, 2019

It is no surprise to the average film-goer that movies take creative license, on even decidedly historical ones. Nevertheless, this has led to misunderstandings that keep goin on. The military command 'fire!' only relates to, as it happens, firearms, but not archery, and yet this is fairly common for movies that take place during the Middle Ages. This doesn't make much of a difference, but it forgets what 'fire' actually relates to: the spark igniting gunpowder.
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1663: Exonyms and Tzarfat Jul 4, 2019

While there are a number of odd exonyms, i.e. names for places not akin to the native name (particularly with the multitude of names for Germany), usually there at least is some similarity or historical connection. With 'Japan', which in Japanese is Nihon, it comes from the older alternative form 'Nippon' for instance. Some places are not even close to the mark though, such as the Hebrew name for France, 'Tzarfat' (צרפת) which comes from the name of the Phoenician city Sarepta. However, this was a site in what is now Lebanon.

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1662: The -O in Avocado and Tomato Jul 3, 2019

It is well-known that 'avocado' comes from a Nahuatl word for 'testicle', but what is less amusing, but more linguistically interesting, is that both 'avocado' and 'tomato' come from the same language and both end in the name sound there too: '-tl' ('ahuacatl' and 'tomatl' respectively). This '-tl' was one of if not the most common ending in Nahuatl, but the sound represented here by the L, or in IPA: ɬ, does not exist in English or Spanish (link to audio example below). Rather than becoming a [tl] sound though, such that 'tomatl' would rhyme with 'throttle', it became an [o] in both cases, which is totally different. This suggests that the Spanish—who had contact there before the English—did not like such a consonant cluster at the end of words, but they ended with a schwa ('tomate'). The '-o' then comes from an English approximation of a Spanish approximation of a sound neither language contains.

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Wikipedia audio reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_and_alveolar_lateral_fricatives

1661: Congo and Zaire Jul 2, 2019

It is very common to see a nation state named after the people, or nation, who inhabit it, such as with 'England'. This was not always the case in colonies though, which often include many people-groups. Many names have changed over the years, such as Burma to Myanmar to be more inclusive, but other times such as Zaire to (the Democratic Republic of the) Congo, the change is not particularly different. 'Zaire' is simply the Portuguese name for the Congo River, which comes from the native 'nzere' of the Kongo people. For a long time in English, the two names for the river, and even the country, were interchangeable. The name was eventually changed to reflect the largest people-group.

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1660: Old Texts and Referencing Problems Jul 1, 2019

A frequent problem with translating old texts is that of references. For instance, a problem with Roman texts describing the British Isles often do not specify names for bits of land or bodies of water. Sometimes this is a frustration for historians only, but at other points it is historically important, such as how Agricola was said to have crossed a body of water from England to conquer Hibernians. This could be the Irish Sea to get to Ireland or the North Sea to Scotland, both of which had tribes who lived in both areas, such as the Scotii who are the namesake of Scotland but who lived in the North of Ireland too. Ultimately, neither area was successfully conquered, but it would be historically and archeologically significant to know how contact with Ireland was established.

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1659: (Non Terra) Plus Ultra Jun 30, 2019

Spain's national motto is "plus ultra" ('further beyond'). This might seem like a statement about innovation or culture etc., but actually it is about geography...sort of. The original phrase was "Non terrae plus ultra" ("no land further beyond") as a reference to ships passing out of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. When it was discovered that there was land further beyond, i.e. the Americas, the phrase needed to change,  though it took 24 years to do so. It is thought to allude to the Reconquista, and more desired Christian expansion as well. The phrase was originally in French ("plus oultre") but was translated due to hostility with France.
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1658: The Affirmative: 'Right?' Jun 29, 2019

In writing, punctuation helps to clarify breaks in speak, tone, and other things that might be lost without the natural pacing of speech, but that suggests that speech would have a sort of conversational comma, for instance. The most obvious way this happens is with literal pauses, but speech is much sloppier and more convoluted than writing tends to be, so other cues emerge. One of these is the use of certain words, such as 'right?' after a statement, which does a number of tasks, in between two utterances. One is to give the speaker a moment to think without interruption which a normal pause does not necessarily allow, but unlike 'um', which also serves that function, 'right?' draws focus to the first statement, by asking the listener to agree, before making a connection thematically to a following statement, thus lending more weight to the speech. This is a tactic frequently used in political interviews, for instance.

For more on 'um', see here.

1657: History of Letter-Divergence Jun 28, 2019

The history of typography, and specifically what led to the modern English alphabet, is well known, but the history of each letter is often messier. For instance, many of the letters used by the ancient Phoenicians have a one-to-one correspondence with what developed into the letters we use today, but some only became distinct later, such as C and G, which were the same until the Romans adopted the system, similar to how I and J split after the Romans. More strangely perhaps, F shares an ancestor with Y and U, and by extension V and W. This was long enough ago however—far older than even the C-G split—that the sounds they represent have separated greatly. Scholars of Latin will know though that even then there was a great deal of overlap in the pronunciation of U and later V, and there was no difference then in spelling.

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1656: Rhoticity and Women Jun 27, 2019

As a general sociolinguistic rule, when linguistic changes begin to occur, it is women who are leading the change. This was noticed by sociolinguists in the 1970's and 1980's, but evidence of this goes back much further. For instance, British English used to be rhotic—i.e. did not delete R from the ends of words etc.—and while the change was gradual, there is evidence to suggest that women were employing this much more than men. Starting in the 17th century, signs of non-rhoticity began to appear in writing, mostly in personal letters, and of those mostly from women. Rhoticity will be talked about in depth soon, (see more below) but this process can be said about many more changes, even those going on today in many cases.
See more on rhoticity here: /stonewordfacts/2018/10/1412-rhoticitys-relationship-with.html

1655: Hell is Other Words Jun 26, 2019

The word 'Hell' is an old word, related to 'color', and sharing its name with a goddess and place in Norse mythology. Indeed, not only is there a connection to Germanic mythology, many Germanic languages used the older form that became 'Hell' and took on a different meaning. In Old English alone, the word was used in compounds like 'helle-rúne' meaning 'sorcery' which later developed into 'rune' like the writing system, and 'helle-wíte' meaning 'torment' (literally 'understanding Hell') is theorized to be the source of 'witch'.

To read more about a possible Egyptian influence on 'Satan', you can check that out on the Word Facts Patreon here.

1654: horse and carriage Jun 25, 2019

In the old days, automobiles were called 'horseless carriages', but there's some irony to that. The same root that horse has relations to many other words related to running or moving, including 'course', 'chariot', 'hurry', and of course, 'carriage' and 'car'. It also has plenty of cognates in other languages, like the French 'courir' (to run), and the Welsh 'car', meaning 'wagon'. See more about horses, see yesterday's post. 

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1653: mare and march Jun 24, 2019

The word 'mare' dates back to Old English as a feminine word for 'horse'. Today, it means denotes a female horse but Old English had 3 grammatical genders, and 'mere' (mare) was merely the feminine equivalent for 'mearh' (horse). That word has since been usurped by 'horse', which also existed in Old English. Therefore, the Welsh word 'march' meaning 'stallion'—with no female equivalent—is one of its closest cognates, certainly outside of Germanic languages. See more on 'mare' in 'nightmare'.

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1652: Fish with Hellish Names Jun 23, 2019

While there are 'angelfish', in the scientific names of many other seedwellers, there are references to Hell. Indeed, it is known that the ichthyologist (studier of fish) Carl Leavitt Hubbs had a penchant for doing this, such as with the 'blind swamp eel', which bares the scientific name 'Ophisternon infernale', and was originally 'Pluto infernale', both words for Hell in Latin. Moreover, this is even more obvious in the genus for widemouth blindcats, a type of catfish, is 'Satan eurystomus'.

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1651: Productivity of 'pittance' Jun 22, 2019

English has more words than any other language, but no matter what metric you use for that, it could have more. A number of words (and other elements) have lost a great deal of productivity, and while this will often lead to total disappearances, if you look carefully you may find traces. For instance, ‘pittance’, which now only relates to money, or lack thereof, comes from ‘pity’, meaning “something that is pitiful”. If this were to be used outside of the context of money this would not make sense anymore however.

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1650: picnic Jun 21, 2019

The word ‘picnic’ has undergone a number of changes over the centuries, both in what is means, and how it appeared. In early printed works containing this word, it referred not to people eating outside, as it usually does today, but a restaurant meal to which people brought their own wine: a ‘BYOB’ of the 17^th century in some ways. It also was at one time synonymous with what we might call a ‘potluck’ today; many linguists believe that the ‘pic-‘ was in reference to picking things out. It only gained the connotations to the outdoors after the French revolution (then spelt ‘pique-nique), when the once-private public parks became open. The latter used to be believed to come from ‘nique’ meaning ‘unimportant (thing)’, but most now believe it came from ‘niche’ (‘to place’), and changed over time to rhyme with ‘pique’, evidence by the phrase “pique une niche” (“pick a place”).

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1649: Luso- for Portugal Jun 20, 2019

Some combining forms for countries make immediate sense, like 'Austro-' for Austria or 'Franco-' for France, and some are less obvious, like 'Hiberno-' for Ireland. Portugal has another, 'Luso-', which is not immediately obvious; you may know it better from the phrase 'Lusophone (countries)' i.e. Portuguese-speaking. Like with 'Hiberno-', it is different now because it comes from Latin; the Roman province which included modern-day Portugal (as well as some of Spain) was called 'Lusitania'. This was also the namesake of one of the most famous sunken ships.

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1648: Origin of ∞ Jun 19, 20109

The infinity symbol ∞ may appear to have been chosen as it loops, and therefore doesn't have an end, but this wouldn't be the full story. The first time it was published in math was 1655 by John Wallis, though it was used in Christian symbolism long before then. There are a number of theories as to why ∞ came to be, including that it looks like the Greek letter ω—the final letter in the alphabet—and that it looks like the Roman numeral for 1,000 (i.e. many), which is now thought of as an M, but in the medieval period was written curved almost like a sideways Theta θ, or even just CIƆ. In the former case, ω is used for certain sets in set-theory, and many cultures have used big numbers to signify 'countless' (like 'myriad') so both theories are sensible really.

See more about symbols of infinity here.

1647: Upside-down א in Set-Theory Jun 18, 2019

Certain letters, such as X,S,E, and B are horizontally symmetrical, but only in the right font. This may appear true of the Hebrew א, but it isn't, especially in serif-font. This would be a mostly pointless observation were it not the case that early math-books about set-theory included the Aleph—notating cardinal sets of infinity—upside-down for a long time. Some of this might be chalked up to a lack of knowledge from the printers, but also the monotype for א used in printing presses was often created upside down. See another post about א in set-theory posted today (and much more) while supporting Word Facts.

1646: Are Treadmills Mills? Jun 17, 2019

Windmills and watermills create power, and even peppermills create something, but treadmills generally draw power in order to run. In spite of the current discrepancy, they too started as a power-creating mill. In 19th century prisons, treadmills of the time looked more like elliptical machines, with steps on a wheel to be rotated, and these were very effective power-creation tools. Industrial Britain and to a lesser extent America relied on them to generate power with free labor. In those days, they really were mills as we might think of a mill now, both in shape and in function, but they were later outlawed as a cruel form of punishment, and were later remodelled for exercise in the mid-20th century.
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