Free Republic

It’s been a grueling week. How about we divert our attention for a minute or two away from the COVID-19 pandemic?First, on the etymology (etymology - the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time; derives from the Greek word etumos, meaning true) of a couple of common computer related terms.Don’t even get me started on the etymology of “floppy.”My second offering is unrelated to etymology and only tangentially related to COVID-19 (which btw is correctly typed in upper-case as it is shorthand for CoronaVirus Disease originating in 2019 -...

As with a lot of aspects of typography, the history of the ampersand begins with our triumphant and progressive friends, the Ancient Romans. Roman scribes would write in cursive so as to increase the speed of their transcription, often combining letters into one form to save time while also increasing legibility, where certain characters overlap in a visually discordant manner — this was the birth of the ligature. The ampersand is simply a ligature of the letters E and T (et being the latin word for and). [...] The Etymology Before deconstructing the word ampersand, you must first understand another latin legacy...

The Not-so-Nice Origins and Meanings of the Word "Nice" Msgr. Charles Pope • November 24, 2015 • Words can change meaning over time—sometimes dramatically. For example, "manufactured" originally meant "handmade" (manu (hand) + facere (make)). The word "decimate" used to mean "to reduce by a tenth" (decem = ten); now people usually use it mean "to wipe out completely." The list of examples could go on and on. Yes, words do change meaning over time.One word that has changed meaning dramatically over time is "nice." Today it is an overused word that usually means pleasant, kind, or easygoing. In our...

Previously, we brought you “7 Words You Didn’t Know Had Christian Origins.” But, of course, Christians have contributed far more than just seven words to our language! So here are seven more words you didn’t know had Christian origins. 1) Goodbye “Goodbye” (also “goodby,” “good bye,” or “good-bye”), comes from the older English term “godbwye,” which is a contraction of “God be with ye.” (“God be with ye” = “godbwye”) The French (adieu) and Spanish (adios) words for parting ways are also related to commending the person to God. [There are 6 more at the link]

Schwarzenegger == "black Amish person" This misinterpretation of the meaning of Governator Ah-nald’s name is commonly made by English speakers with a just enough knowledge of German to get into linguistic deep do-do, PC-wise. :) Several theories exist about the etymology of Arnold’s surname, but before I go there, first note that in German, his surname linguistically breaks down to Schwarzen-Egger. The position of the glottal stop makes it completely impossible for the “n” to belong to the back half of the compound word. Apparently, several decades ago, Arnold once told David Letterman that his name meant "black farmer" (I...

Master etymologist Gerald Cohen knows how jazz got its name, why they’re called hot dogs, and much moreOut in the wilds of western Missouri, in Rolla, which is not far from the tornado-devastated town of Joplin, lives a scholar who has made etymology his life’s work. He is Gerald Leonard Cohen, professor in the department of arts, languages, and philosophy at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and grand impresario of American etymologists—as well as the world’s leading corraler of language historians, who often join him in tackling some of the most challenging puzzles of word origins. Cohen does...

Every now and then a word just catches your ear, and several times in a day it jumps out at you and you’re tempted to say: “There it is again!”Yesterday it was the word “consider”, an ordinary, daily word. Or is it? Why did it strike me so? With my knowledge of Latin, it occurred to me that “consider” has something to do with the stars, for the Latin word sidera means “stars” or “heavenly bodies.” How interesting, I have use the word for the better part of 50 years and that had never crossed my mind. But as sometimes...

A fascinating new atlas, featuring cities that are renamed to reflect their etymological origins, is now on sale. Etymologists and wordsmiths will take particular interest in a new set of maps going on sale in time for Christmas. The traditional names for the world's cities, countries, rivers and mountains have been altered on an atlas to reflect their origins and literal meaning. Chicago, for example, is renamed Stink Onion and Cameroon is called the Land of Shrimps. The logic behind each place name is explained on the back of the maps. Cameroon comes from the Portuguese word camaroes, meaning...

Australians add new words to dictionary By Nick Squires In Sydney  Last Updated: 1:20pm GMT 10/01/2008       They gave the world budgie smugglers, sanger, arvo and barbie*, but Australians have shown themselves to be endlessly inventive, with a new collection of words and phrases added to the rich repository of Strine. The country’s biggest online dictionary, Macquarie, has included the 85 words or phrases in its latest online edition and wants Australians to vote for the one they consider most influential or apposite.   Toad juice anyone? They are grouped in 17 categories, from business to travel, and...

Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, scriptologist and Egyptologist amateur, has been able to identify the names of the Hyksos kings like pertaining to the group of languages and proto-Greek or Mycenaean's dialects. The true ethnic origin of the mysterious Hyksos that were able to take control of the power of a considerable part of Old Egypt, during centuries XVII to the XVI before Christ, has been always a true challenge for the Egyptologists. However, the generalized opinion more for a long time has been that the Hyksos would be Semitic towns, fundamentally coastal inhabitants of the strip Syrian-Palestine, that is, Canaanites or proto-Phoenicians....

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Detroit Lions president Matt Millen apologized Monday for using a derogatory term for gays in a heated exchange with Kansas City receiver Johnnie Morton. Millen was talking with Kansas City players and coaches outside their locker room after the Chiefs' 45-17 victory Sunday when he ran into Morton, cut by Millen after the 2001 season. Millen, also the Lions' general manager, said he congratulated Morton but was greeted with an insult from the player. "Unfortunately, I retaliated with a derogatory term directed toward Johnnie," Millen said in a statement. "I apologize if I offended anyone. It...

<p>J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of a brave little fellow called a "hobbit" in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, though patently one of the greatest literary achievements of the 20th century, has been given cavalier treatment by many critics and in many literary circles. Great literature, it seems, must be "serious" and that means it must not be fantasy. It must take place in the "real world," not a world of imagination (though on reflection we must admit that no fiction actually takes place in the "real world" but only in the world as imagined by this or that author). A similar affliction has, in recent years, also applied to films of the science fiction or fantasy genre, which may be allowed (at times) to win awards for "special effects" but are never taken seriously enough to earn "best picture" or "best actor" trophies. A side effect of this is the unfortunate tongue-in-cheek slant delivered to almost all fantasy films, the need to intrude a joking kind of ridiculousness as though the public has to be told "this is not serious stuff and should not be confused with real art." The downgrading of fantasy, in literature or in film, has had its effect not only on Tolkien but on the genre in general, particularly in the past year affecting the marvelous "Harry Potter" stories of J.K. Rowling, which were finally taken off the general best seller list and relegated to "children's stories" lists because they were so popular they were pushing "serious" literature off the list.</p>