Word origins

[Bozo Erectus]

Ive always been interested in etymology. Do you have any examples of common, everyday words that have interesting origins? The only one I can remember off the top of my head is 'sincere'. In Roman times, it was common for column makers to cheat their customers by making hollow columns and filling them with wax so theyd be heavy enough to fool them. It became common practice for column sellers to put up signs that said 'Sin cere' which means 'sin' (without) 'cere' (wax).

 

[IglooDame]

I just learned one the other day.

On small (60ft or so and under) sailboats they generally have a huge multicolored parachute-ish sail for running downwind called a spinnaker. Apparently several decades ago in one of the major races around the British Isles a boat named Sphinx hoisted a huge billowing sail on a downwind leg and left the competition in its wake. Sphinx won that one and the sail began to catch on, sailors calling it Sphinx's Acre (referring to the size of the sail). The name gradually got shortened to spinnaker over the years, although if anything the sail itself has increased in relative size.

 

[Steph]

Taiaut (or Tally-Ho), a word for hunters.

It comes from French Taille-Hors, or "Hors Tailli". It means outside of the bush. It was used when the game was forced out of cover by the hounds, and the hunters could attack it.

So Taiaut = intelligence.

I wonder if someone will understand my last joke

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Now I see why they shout TALLY-HO! Its to let the other hunters know that 'the bird has flown the bush'.

Igloo, your post brings to mind the word 'acre'. Anybody know if it has something to do with the ancient city of Acre, or does it have a nautical origin.

Speaking of nautical origins, I learned the origin of the term 'knots' to indicate speed, but the details escape me at the moment. Something to do with knots being tied to a rope in certain intervals. You know that one Igloo?

 

[Verbose]

"Consortium"
Not that frequently used these days. In the Middle Ages, it is latin, in Canonic law (of the Catholic church) it was used for "marriage".
What it originally means is "con sors", with dice. I.e. the Church recognised that in a marriage both the man and the woman (incidentally treated as equally rational individuals) really were making one huge gamble to see if a marriage would work out.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Igloo, your post brings to mind the word 'acre'. Anybody know if it has something to do with the ancient city of Acre, or does it have a nautical origin.

According to my dictionnary, acre is originally an english word designating a anglo-saxon measure. It comes from latin "ager" which means "field". The same "ager" as in "agriculture" I quess.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Oh so maybe the city of Acre had an agricultural origin? Or could be just coincidence I guess.

 

[Pirate]

Speaking of nautical origins, I learned the origin of the term 'knots' to indicate speed, but the details escape me at the moment. Something to do with knots being tied to a rope in certain intervals. You know that one Igloo?

IIRC, they would tie the rope to a log and float the log behind the boat. They let out rope so the log would stay in the same spot as the boat moved away from it at speed. The rope was knotted in intervals, like you said, so they just had to count how many knots they let out in a certain amount of time to know how fast they were going. Not sure how they measured the time, though.

<edit> Here you go:
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0139.shtml

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Pirate, yeah thats it, thanks. From your link, looks like they used an hourglass to see how many knots went by in a certain amount of time.

 

[IglooDame]

IIRC, they would tie the rope to a log and float the log behind the boat. They let out rope so the log would stay in the same spot as the boat moved away from it at speed. The rope was knotted in intervals, like you said, so they just had to count how many knots they let out in a certain amount of time to know how fast they were going. Not sure how they measured the time, though.

<edit> Here you go:
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0139.shtml

Pirate beat me to it.

But a little bonus tidbit - the logbook came from the same concept, recording the speed that the log/knots were indicating.

 

[Cimbri]

Nightmare: a Mare was an evil spirit that would sit on your chest in the night and give you bad dreams. We call it ‘Mareridt’ it means ‘ridden by a mare’.

 

[Masquerouge]

To flirt : it actually comes from the ancient French expression "Conter fleurette", which literally means "talking about flowers". Fleurette was shortened and became flirt (try saying "Fleurette" really fast ), but the meaning remained...
The 100-years war actually had some good sides

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Cimbri, interesting, to me, Mare means ocean or sea from Latin. Does Mare in this case come strictly from Scandinavian languages and folklore?

But a little bonus tidbit - the logbook came from the same concept, recording the speed that the log/knots were indicating.

Seeing as how the sea played such an important role in English history, its not too surprising that modern English has so many common terms that trace their origin to sailing. Their must be tons of others but I cant think of any

 

[Marla_Singer]

To flirt : it actually comes from the ancient French expression "Conter fleurette", which literally means "talking about flowers". Fleurette was shortened and became flirt (try saying "Fleurette" really fast ), but the meaning remained...
The 100-years war actually had some good sides

Well what I've heard is that "conter fleurette" had been shortened into "fleureter" pronounced exactly as "flirter" in modern French.

 

[Vanadorn]

Well:
* to intoxicate is the be 'full of poison'.
* assassin is derived from hashhishyyin - those who would imbimbe the drug and listen to the old man on the mountain to go kill others with poison.
* I can't prove it but 'heresy' and 'here say' are most likely cousins.
* The whole nine yards refers to the lengths of belts of machine gun bullets - and firing the entire length meant you were giving it all (sorry - not a football term)

That's off the top of my head.

My 2 cents.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Ive been trying to resist looking online, but my mind is a complete blank. Heres one of the nautical English words I found:

Groggy

Comes from the description of the feeling that many British sailors experienced when they would drink too much "grog," a mixture of rum and water. Grog is said to have taken its name from the nickname of "Old Grog" given to British Admiral Vernon by his sailors; much like Lord Mountbatten later, he was in the habit of wearing a kind of heavy coat of grogram, a coarse weatherproof fabric (the word comes from the French gros-grain). The sailors started to apply their nickname for him in a rather derisive way to their rations of rum, after he mandated in 1740 that they be diluted with water.

 

[The Last Conformist]

According to my dictionnary, acre is originally an english word designating a anglo-saxon measure. It comes from latin "ager" which means "field". The same "ager" as in "agriculture" I quess.

Well, to be more exact, Latin ager and English "acre" comes from the same Indo-European word.

You're right about "agriculture". The word originally means something like "growing of stuff in fields".

 

[Mapache]

The name Philip comes from "love horses" greek: phil hippos

 

[The Last Conformist]

"Loot", a loan from Sanskrit, is apparently cognate with inherited "leaf".

The Latin cognate of "guest" is hostis, which means "enemy".

 

[Mapache]

The Latin cognate of "guest" is hostis, which means "enemy".

Our host is hostile.


Hotel derives of 'hostel' and hostis.