2024: Finns Curse More Jun 30, 2020
According to Juhani Sirén, Finns curse more than other Nordic or Central Europeans, and are only met at that level by Scots and Russians, though of course determining what is and isn't a curse word is both a cultural and also individual matter. While cursing can actually affect Finnish grammar, he attributes this reason to the late adoption of Christianity in Finland, even though this would not as be so cut-and-dry for the other two places mentioned. It makes sense for Finland however due to the nature of the cursing being so paganistic, using words like 'perkele' (a pagan devil-like figure), 'ärräpäät' ('dwarf', in the mythical sense) and other mythological references. That said, much of the younger generation is now using more physiologically related words as well.
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2023: The Odd Grammar of "If Needs Be" Jun 29, 2020
Some verbs can introduce a grammar that only really work for themselves. In one such case, 'need' (or needs) will often take an infinitive verb without the infinitive marker 'to' such as in "if needs be", and in some dialects it can also take a participle: "the car needs fixed". In the former example, "if need(s) be" or "if needs must" both imply compelling by necessity, and are pretty old constructions, relying on grammar and phrasing that was once more common than it is now in Modern English. In the latter example, though more regionally variable, the phrase "the car needs fixed" (as in "...to be fixed") cannot as easily be substituted by related verbs like 'want', but this is still possible nonetheless.
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2022: genie: Disney vs. Arabian Mythology Jun 28, 2020
People might be familiar with the idea of a genies who live in lamps and grant three wishes, and while that is true in certain Arabian folklore, the sources for that are very mixed. In one sense, this draws from the Latin 'genius' used for French translations of "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments" which is a term for a sort of guardian spirit. Now of course 'genius' shifted along the lines of 'a person who can influence others' and hence 'a powerful/creative person'. Really though, this concept is adapted from the pre-Islamic Arabian demons called 'jinni' (singular) who could take human forms, and were adopted into Islam during the period of expansion.
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2021: sydney or sidney Jun 27, 2020
Plenty of places are named for personal names. For instance, there are two cities named Sydney, the more famous being in Australia, named after Thomas Townshend. More accurately, they were named for his title as the 1st Viscount Sydney. This elevation into nobility first came in 1603 with the barony of Robert Sidney, and all of the following barons with this personal name spelt it with an -i-, but the spelling used in the title continued with a -y-.
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2020: mocha Jun 26, 2020
Plenty of homophones are not actually related to one another, like 'stalk' for a plant or for a stealthy pursuer. 'Mocha' is a coffee drink and also a type of sheepskin leather, but these actually are related to each other. The word came to English in the late 18th century from 'Mocha', a Yemeni port out of which the coffee and leather were shipped.
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2019: spa Jun 25, 2020
The modern idea of a spa as a resort started with the town of Belgium, Spa, but it wasn't a building that attracted the early visitors. The waters were thought to have healing properties so many would visit the mineral baths for medicinal reasons. Indeed, still many use the word as a general term for mineral (spring) water, or even drinking fountains in some American dialects.
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2018: moxie Jun 24, 2020
Slogans can be pretty powerful. Obviously, the intended influence of an advertisement is to effect someone to buy something, but sometimes the effects are further reaching. For instance, moxie is a branded soft drink, but the word 'moxie' now means 'determined character; daring'. This is due to intense marketing of the soda company through ads in a variety of media depicting the 'moxie man'.
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2017: Leader of the Opposition Jun 23, 2020
Just because it's not official doesn't mean that people won't use a word. For instance, although British political parties have existed for centuries, the title as leader of the opposition, or "Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition" the head of the largest political party not part of the government) was not official in a technical sense until 1937. Then, it was because the government had to decide how much he should be paid, which in 2019 was £65,181 on top of the regular MP salary.
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2016: Tending Towards Traditionality: onomatopoeic Jun 22, 2020
Onomatopoeias are words that imitate natural sounds, though somewhat ironically the term itself is not the easiest one to pronounce. Moreover, it has two adjectival forms which have varying degrees of acceptance and popularity: 'onomatopoeic' and 'onomatopoetic', though other forms have also existed including ‘onomatopoeial’ and ‘onomatopoeous’. It comes from the Greek 'ὄνομα (ónoma) meaning and related to 'name', and ποιέω (poiéō) meaning 'to make', with the latter element being the exact same root as 'poem' thence 'poetic'. The form without -t- is the older and these days more common one, though that has varied (see image). Likely influences by the word 'poetic', 'onomatopoetic' was once more popular, but people are now tending towards the traditional.
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Imagine from Google Ngram
2015: Cognates: Tzadik and Sadiq Jun 21, 2020
Often, when cognates differ in meaning across languages, there is a connection to be found in the meanings. For instance, the Hebrew צדיק (tzadik) meaning 'righteous (person)', often in a religious context, is a cognate the Arabic word for 'friend' صديق (sadiq). The Hebrew term is naturally older, but the Arabic meaning as an adjective, meaning 'truthful' helps to suggest how the meaning would have shifted over time.
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2014: Mascots, Witches, and Opera Jun 20, 2020
Today, mascots for businesses and sports teams are effectively synonymous with logos, though usually there is an animated component. This idea however has a far more sinister history, wherein animals, children, and people with handicaps and disabilities would be kept around for superstitious beliefs of bringing good luck. Indeed, the term comes to English from the French opera La Mascotte about a woman (a mascot) who brings good luck so long as she remains a virgin. This story involves sorcery, and indeed, the term is just a feminine diminutive of the French 'masco' meaning 'witch', though that word may itself come from Arabic meaning 'mascarade'. In sports, supposed real human good luck charms, and not just characters in costumes, often mentally disabled, were used by teams into the 20th century.
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2013: MLB's Red Sox didn't Evolve from the Boston Red Stockings Jun 19, 2020
In 1871, the baseball teams the Chicago White Stockings and the Boston Redstockings were formed. Major League Baseball teams now include the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, and while one might assume that these simply evolved as a name change, the White Stockings first evolved into the Chicago Cubs and the Red Stockings evolved into the Boston Braves, who are now the Atlanta Braves. The other teams' names as references to their socks (which in the case of the White Sox are no longer white) came later, but was a fairly common practice for the times, such as how the St. Louis Brown Stockings (now St. Louis Cardinals), or even how the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (now L.A. Dodgers) were often just referred to as the Grays in reference to the uniform.
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(Historical logos are not entirely accurate)
2012: Words from Onomatopoeias Jun 18, 2020
When an etymology is given for a certain word, it might trace back to older forms of a language, like Old Chinese or Ancient Greek, but of course the question is answered with another question: where did that come from? Even for certain words for which a root has been reconstructed—which is of course really just a guess—the questions for an origin goes on, except in cases of onomatopoeic words. There are a few obvious ones like animal sounds, the word 'flick', but some are less obviously derived from onomatopoeias, like 'black' or 'mom'. Indeed, this is probably true of lots of words for relatives for two reasons: first the fact that basically every word for mother or father across the whole world are already similar because they're derived from baby noises, but also that names for relatives over time aren't consistent. In Polish, the word for grandfather is 'dziadek' which comes from the Proto-Slavic root, dědъ, related to words for 'uncle' (dė̃dė in Lithuanian), and even 'grandmother' (τήθη (tḗthē) in Ancient Greek).
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2011: Suppletive Roots for 'Good' Jun 17, 2020
Adjectives in English have very little in the way of morphology except perhaps from comparatives and superlatives, like 'fast-fast(er)-fast(est)'. This pattern is kept in some ways with 'good-better-best' but this is clearly more irregular, with suppletion. However, this is far from the only one like it; German has the extremely similar 'gut-besser-besten', and Latin has 'bonus-melior-optimus'. This is a widespread pattern, even when the particular words might be different, so if you know more, leave it in a comment.
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2010: bootleg Jun 16, 2020
The term 'bootleg' these days refers to any type of counterfeited or otherwise illegally distribute materials. The term was popularized in the 1930's during the US prohibition of alcohol, but the actual term can be traced back to the civil war, when the federal troops would keep and traffic flasks of whiskey on their person, in their boot-tops.
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2009: allez hop! Jun 15, 2020
Alley-oop, popularized in the mid-20th century, is a basketball term and is probably most likely associated with that sport, but is actually comes from another sort of sport entirely. In basketball, the term refers to an offensive move in which one player throws the ball near enough to the basket for another player to knock it in. When it originated in the circus however, the French phrase "allez hop" (off you go!) was an announcement that the acrobat was about to jump, and its use in basketball was meant to reflect the manner (and height) that the players would have to jump.
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2008: Loan Words into Latin Jun 14, 2020
For languages which mark for case, that is, showing syntax (for nouns) in the form of an affix, as happens in Latin, Finnish, and many others, it is not always identical how new forms are adopted. For instance, Latin loaned many words from Greek, but the nominative case, that is for the subject of a sentence, would often look similar anyway, such as 'hippodromus' from ἱππόδρομος (hippodromos) for 'race-course'. That was classical Latin though, and African Latin, certainly after the collapse of the empire, would borrow words from other languages' accusative forms.
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2007: Bob's Your Uncle Jun 13, 2020
There are a number of phrases like "I'll be a monkey's uncle" and "Bob's your uncle" that on the surface seem weird—and they are—but at least with the latter example, there is a reason. It is generally understood that the Bob in question was Robert Cecil (of the 19th century) who promoted his nephew AJ Balfour to many key governmental positions. He was underqualified for much of them, and many ascribed it to the fact that "Bob's your uncle", as in "and there you have it".
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2006: Desecration and Flutes in Hebrew Jun 12, 2020
Although Hebrew has some doublets which are not semantically linked, including the root כבש (K-B-Sh) giving way to 'pickle' and 'highway', but in other similar cases, there is a reason that can be derived. For instance, the words for 'to desecrate' לחלל (l'khalal) and 'flute' חליל are related. This is not because flutes are unholy in any way, but that what we translate as 'desecrate' in Hebrew really has a meaning closer to being 'empty'; חלל also means 'space' as in outer-space.
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2005: Extra Connotations in Biblical Terms Jun 11, 2020
Biblical theology expressed in English is necessarily different to how it is in Hebrew, or even Greek. 'Heaven', 'angel', 'Garden of Eden' all have separate English-based connotations beyond the literal meanings. Heaven has been explained here before, and 'angel', comes from the Greek ἄγγελος (angelos) meaning simply 'messenger', as it also means in Hebrew מלאך (malʼākh). This is further true of 'Garden of Eden' (גן־עדן) which is not the name of a garden per se, but as it is translated for Genesis 18, 'Eden' (עדן) means 'pleasure'. This is true of a great many words, and perhaps especially names in the Bible, so leave some more in the comments.
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