1923: penny dreadful Mar 21, 2020
The meaning of 'dreadful' has shifted over time, and this is perhaps clearest in the term 'penny dreadful'. These are cheap thriller novels, the price of which is hinted in the name—as with 'pulp fiction' or 'dime novel'—but the 'dreadful' in them refers to crime; another, though less common term for these was 'penny blood'. Dreadful in that sense wasn't 'bad' in terms of taste (though perhaps in terms of criminality) as it is used today, but actually referring to a deeper, genuine dread.
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1922: Wolverines (Michigan Mascot) Mar 20, 2020
The mascot for the university of Michigan is a Wolverine. While animal mascots as are classic symbols in many cases, this nickname did come from that tradition. Instead, it hearkens back to the so-called Toledo war between Michigan and Ohio. While to call it a war is a bit generous since there was only one non-fatal casualty, the Ohioans did coin the term Wolverines to describe the Michigander militiamen whom they perceived as pesky.
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1921: bruque and brisk Mar 19, 2020
Brisk and brusque are doublets—i.e. they have divergent etymologies— but their differences shed some light on how languages change overall. Both of these come from the Italian adjective 'brusco' meaning 'sharp; rough' but this meaning is lot in 'brisk' mostly, except perhaps with reference to the weather. The more traditional meaning is kept with the more traditional, French form. That said, while no one knows where this word comes from entirely, many link it to other words relating to brooms or heath, so if that is true, then of course all of these words are divergent in their own ways.
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1920: Circuit Courts Mar 18, 2020
Originally, America had 9 circuit courts, and it has 9 Supreme Court justices. It has since added more districts (specifically, 2 regional districts, DC, and federal), but still are usually overseen by a Supreme Court justice. The reasons have changed, but originally the ‘circuit’ referred to the fact that being a Supreme Court justice was a part-time job, and during the warmer months would travel around their districts in an actual circuit to hear cases, generally appellate ones. Other countries, namely in Britain and Ireland, have had similar practices, and still may use this term even though there isn’t a circuit to travel. As it happens, 'circus' also comes from this root, and practice.
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1919 Arameans (Syria) Mar 17, 2020
In the case of Switzerland, or (Confederatio) Helvetica the adoption for some purposes of the classical name is voluntary—done here for linguistic neutrality—but usually this is not so. Lots of places were exonymously named by the Greeks or Romans (including Greece) with those names sticking. This happened more in the past of course, and in the case of Syria, the current inhabitants have basically moved on as even though Arabic is closer related to the earlier Aramaic, the current official name is Sūrīyah (سوريا). However, in ancient times, it was 'Aram' or other slight variants—at least in certain places—for thousands of years.
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1918: Anglicizing Biblical Names With -S Mar 16, 2020
Many anglicizations of Biblical names result in some wild changes but one common feature is the addition of a terminal -s. The reasons are not all the same, but some obvious examples include Yaakov (יעקב) to James, Moshe (משה) to Moses, and even Yeshua (ישוע) to Jesus. In a broad sense, all of these names came to English after being modified in Greek and or Latin, but these questions have been examined elsewhere in time as well. In the case of Moses, Josephus—who also was born just Yosef, without the S—believed the element -esês is from a root meaning 'saved', but this poses its own problems both etymologically and historically. As for the Jesus, this was often, though not exclusively 'jesu' all the way through Middle English even this was changed as a possessive i.e. Jesu's name. In all of these however, and most explicitly in the case of Josephus from Yosef in his own lifetime, this just comes from the nominative form of the name in Latin and Greek ending with those -us or -os endings.
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1917: coronavirus (and other names) Mar 15, 2020
With cases of a recent coronavirus strain occurring worldwide in a short time, there are a lot of terms thrown around. You may see coronavirus, covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, or even just SARS 2, but these are all the same. 'Coronavirus' refers to a group of viruses that—among other attributes—have protein-spikes which resemble a solar corona under a microscope. Covid-19 is simply an abbreviation of this the year 2019 when this strain appeared in humans, while SARS-CoV-2 is a further abbreviation on this with SARS as an acronym for "severe acute respiratory syndrome", which is itself a type of coronavirus.
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1916: butt Mar 14, 2020
There is some uncertainty as to where 'butt' originates, but there are some clues to get to the bottom of this. Basically, one idea is that is comes from a Germanic root meaning 'to strike'. This is supported by Germanic words, but also the verbs and 'butt' and 'bunt', as well as the word 'buttress' from 'boter' meaning 'to hit' or 'thrust'. On the other hand, it could come from the Old English 'buttac' which referred to the end of a small strip of land; 'butt' still hold this meaning in Modern English. Ultimately, it could be both, or they could all stem from an older Proto-Germanic or even Proto-Indo-European root, given that similar words in this pattern exist in many other Indo-European languages today.
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1915: bead Mar 13, 2020
We may associate beads with jewellery or even Mardi Gras, but even in Middle English 'bede' referred to prayer. In Old English 'bede' or more often 'gebed' meant 'to pray' and is related to the word 'bid' which now means 'urge' but back then meant 'to request', like the German 'bitte' [1] as in the exclamation 'please'. The transfer in meaning happened as an association with rosary beads used for prayer. Moreover 'bead' as in a globule of liquid also comes from this word meaning 'ask' but has also Early Modern English referred to the sight on a gun.
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1914: fee, feudalism and cows Mar 12, 2020
Historically, lots of words have related cows to wealth, which really shouldn't be surprising considering how valuable they are even to non-farmers. 'Capital' for instance meant 'head (of cattle)', and 'fee' comes from 'fé', an Old English term for 'cow'. Indeed, the Old English 'feoh' (livestock) and the Latin 'pecu' (cattle) are related to the Latin 'pecunia' meaning 'money'. Cattle and other livestock were not simply connoting trade, but also land, hence the related 'fief' and 'feudalism'.
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1913: Tables and Boardgames Mar 11, 2020
It wouldn't be very useful if every board game had the same name, but for a lot of history this was the case, sort of. A good number of games have the word 'table' in their name, or indeed as the whole of their name, as least in Germanic cultures. Germanic games such as with 'hnefatafl' otherwise known as 'tablut' see names—both, in this case—deriving from 'table'; in the former word, the other element refers to the king, or more literally 'fist'. In Scandinavian languages as well, chess was called 'Skáktafl', and a few others took this pattern as well. In English too, up through the 17th century, 'backgammon' was called 'tables'. All of this is because 'tafl' can mean both 'table' but also 'board', and in the past there would simply have been fewer board games known.
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1912: Rebracketing: popsicles Mar 10, 2020
Popsicles were originally called 'ice pops' or even "the Epsicle ice pop" after the inventor, Epperson. It was actually his children who renamed it as a 'popsicle'. The combining form '-sicle', contained in both of these names, is from 'icicle' meaning 'sicle' has been rebracketed, since the suffix here is 'ice' + 'ickle', not '-sicle'. More to the point, even 'icicle' is, at least historically speaking, redundant, because it comes from combining the word 'ice' with the Old English ġiċel meaning 'icicle' (ġ is pronounced like a Modern English y- as in 'yellow'). In that way, to make 'popsicle' (or 'epsicle') the word was formed in a redundant way, and then broken up in different way. The 'pop' comes from the fact that the original ones were made with actual soda.
1911: feast, festival, and theology Mar 9, 2020
Feasts are an old concept, and as is often true of old ideas, there will be a large word-family around it. 'Feast'—originally denoting religious celebration and not just food—is also related to the Latin 'festum' or Modern English 'festival' [1], which makes sense since the two overlap, but the roots goes much deeper. It ultimately is traced back to the Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s which is the same root as the Greek θεός (theós) meaning 'god', and hence the Modern English 'theology'. Indeed, the meaning has always been closely tied to religion, again sharing the root with the Latin 'feriae' (holiday) and 'fanum' (temple).
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1910: fast Mar 8, 2020
We have 'fast-food' and we have 'fast' meaning to abstain from food, but both of these senses come from the same root. By far, 'fast' as an adjective referring to speed is more common, but the verb meaning to voluntarily abstain from food, especially in a religious way, is the older form. Initially, this word, or in Old English 'fæstan', just meant 'to pledge' or even "to make firm"; just consider the word 'steadfast'. Moreover, an early nominal form 'fæsten' denoted a fortress. The adjective connoting speed only came about in the mid-16th century, and ironically, this then led to phrases like fast-living soon or in the '50s 'fast-food', which don't relate to moral steadfastness at all.
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1909: tithe and tenth Mar 7, 2020
The word 'tithe' is related to the word 'tenth', which shouldn't be too surprising since it refers to a tenth of one's annual produce to be given to the clergy. However, it is not that nasal of 'teNth', disappeared in English, but that the root had assimilated already before the days of Old English ('tēoþian'). There is a proposed Proto-Germanic root for this word—*tehunþô, *tehundô—which would link 'tenth' and 'tithe' beyond just the semantic relation.
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1908: gazette Mar 6, 2020
There are several quintessential titles found in newspaper names, including Times, Chronicle, and Gazette. However, for something so ubiquitous, 'gazette' doesn't really mean anything on its own. It actually comes from Venetian Italian "gazeta de la novità" referring to the cost of a newspaper being a ha'penny. In Italian, 'gazeta' was a Venetian coin approximating about a half-penny. This would be as if we referred to dime novels or penny dreadfuls as 'dimes' and 'pennies' respectively.
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1907: consign Mar 5, 2020
In its purest sense, 'consign' simply means to mark or categorize something in a certain way: not too dissimilar form 'sign'. However, its oldest senses were religious, because while the Latin origin 'cōnsignō' just means "furnish with a seal", that seal was a sign of the cross, as with a baptism or confirmation. These days however, it tends to mean 'put in the custody of', as in 'assign'.
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1906: Radio Call Signals Mar 4, 2020
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) lays out the conventions for radio, television, Internet and so on. Included in that are the radio call signs, and though these do vary from country to country, each is granted a set of prefixes for stations and amateurs to use as call signs. America was given AAA–ALZ, K, N, W but stations only use K or W. A rule of thumb is that east of the Mississippi river W is used, and west of it K is used, but this is not always the case, as with KDKA based in Pittsburg, which is in the East.
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1905: surly Mar 3, 2020
The word 'surly' these days means 'ill-tempered' or 'unfriendly', but it comes from something which generally denotes respect. This word came about as an alteration of 'sirly' from 'sir', but unlike the older 'lordly', even from its inception in the mid 16th century this word meant 'arrogant' or 'snobbish'.
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1904: dixie Mar 2, 2020
‘Dixie’, from ‘Dixiecrat’ to ‘Dixieland’ and more, crops up fairly often as an informal term for southern US states. However, no one knows where it comes from for sure. One idea is that it originated with reference to the Mason-Dixon line, where the south is officially separated from the northern states. Another idea, is that it comes from the slang for the historical Louisiana $10 bill when it was a French colony, from the French word 'dix' ('ten'). Support Word Facts on patreon.com/worfacts