Word Origins

Copperfox

Copperfox

Well-known member
The word "worship" was spelled something like "worthschipe" in Middle English. It meant "to acknowledge worthiness in someone." Thus, it was applicable to human-level respect and reverence as well as to adoring God. A famous knight like Sir Lancelot could be said to receive "worship," without this meaning that anyone was blasphemously deifying him.

The word "forest" did not originally mean "a sizeable area of land heavily covered with trees." Instead, it meant "a sizeable area of land that is not being used for human habitation, industry or agriculture." Thus, a "forest" MIGHT be woodland, but also might be grassland or marsh. The meaning that we now attach to "forest," was then covered by the word "wood," singular or plural. Which is why The Hobbit, written with a deliberate feel of antiquity, speaks of "Mirkwood," not "Mirk Forest."

The word "ship" is used nowadays to indicate practically ANYTHING bigger than a single-masted sailboat that travels on water. (It is even sometimes used to refer to a large airplane.) But as recently as two hundred years ago, "vessel" was the generic word. Vessels larger than boats were subdivided into many categories, defined in large part by their mast-and-sail rigging. Ships were only one of the types; there were also sloops, frigates, barks, barkentines, and others.

Knowing the history of words can be very helpful... especially if you like to go to Shakespeare plays, or read the Bible in the King James or Douay Catholic translations.
 
It's not rope unless it's at least 3/4" thick, preferably an inch thick or more. Otherwise it's LINE.

British cities that end in chester and caster (Dorchester, Lancaster) came from the Latin word CASTRUM (Military Camp) and were forts during the Roman Occupation.

Today's English counties were shires, which is why we have Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. Over each shire was placed a Riff (rifleman) one of whom became the shire-riff of Nottingham.

"Hello" was once an exclamation of surprise. Much like, "Wow, it's Carl!" vs. "Hello, it's Carl!" "Good Bye" was a benediction, "God Be With Ye".

"God" originally meant "Someone you call upon" rather than a name. So it's a title, much like calling someone Constable Smith rather than "Mister Smith who works for the police".

And speaking of the cops, Robert Peeler originated the London Police Force, the first modern police constabulary. For a while his men were called "Peelers" as well as "Bobbies", both after his name. One nickname stuck. The acronym for "constable on patrol" became...you guessed it..."Cop".

Walt Disney spent the better part of an afternoon wandering London looking for "Disney Lane" to get his photo made by the street sign. He got the photo. Perhaps he was smiling because he hadn't yet found out the original street name was "Dung Hill Lane".
 
Speaking of ropes: the word "lariat," meaning a cowboy's long rope looped as a lasso, comes from Spanish "la riata."
 
There was a Latin word "PRINCEPS," in which the "C" had a hard sound, like our K rather than S. In one of many cases of the Latin C being switched to the S sound in the transition to French and English, this word of course became our word "PRINCE."

The original word's meaning was not far from our word "PRINCIPAL," when used to refer to the boss of a school. "PRINCEPS" meant literally "the number-one man" -- thus, an actively-reigning ruler. But in our usage, "PRINCE" has for a long time described A SON OF an active ruler, a son who ISN'T YET in charge himself.
 
Pyjamas - from Arabic for a loose-fitting pair of pants.

Gazebo - a phony combination of "Gaze" in English and "ebo" (I do) in Latin.

Phillips 66 - Phillips is the family name of the oil magnate but he died never telling anyone the significance of 66.

Harry S. Truman and Ulysses S. Grant both became a US President, both had the same middle initial, and it stood for the same thing..."S."

Dandelion comes from the French phrase for "Lion's tooth" and refers to the individual yellow florets' appearance when plucked from the flower head.

The Real McCoy - named after the African American inventor of the automatic oiler for locomotives. Don't buy an imitation, buy the real McCoy.

Moxie - Got Moxie? Sure you do! An advertising campaign so successful it outlived the carbonated beverage.

Arm and Hammer Baking Soda - While one of its largest shareholders was indeed Armand Hammer, that's purely a coincidence.

Kodak - Means nothing. George Eastman's mother told him that all successful businesses had a name that radiated sincerity and strength. Eastman thought the letter K did that and he created a word that began and ended in K.

Edsel - Henry Ford did his son Edsel the dubious honour of naming the world's worst car after him.

Fred Sanford - the infamous, opinionated junk dealer of Sanford and Son, was named after John Elroy Sanford's (Redd Foxx) real life brother.

Many nations in Europe end in "ia" such as "Austria" and it means "Land of the" so Land of the Italics is Italia and land of the East (Ost) is Austria. However in Arabic speaking countries the names end in "istan" which also means "Land of the". So the Cossaks live in ... you guessed it ... Kazakhistan, while the Afghans live in Afghanistan.
 
There's more to the Cossacks.

Before the Cossacks as we think of them ever existed, there was already an ETHNIC GROUP called Kazakhs. The H at the end of the Latin-alphabet spelling is not meaningless; it signifies a guttural, throat-clearing sound which is properly expressed by K and H together. During early Tsarist times, what we think of as Cossacks developed as a social class, not a racial group. Because they LIVED LIKE the nomadic Kazakhs, they came to be known by a similar but not strictly identical name.

"Cossack" in Russian is КАЗАК.

"Kazakh" in Russian is КАЗАХ.

Cossacks lived chiefly in Ukraine.
 
So they spoke Spanish, hmm? The Ukraine in Spain lived mainly in the plain. :p

Trust Copperfox, he speaks the language....Russian, that is.

Plumber comes from plumbeus (lead) because in the old days pipes were made of lead, which was very healthful for the pipes but not so healthful for those who used them.

So why do ROADS have all these different types? Well if you remember your old spy movies where the border of a country has a guard house and a long wooden gate with stripes on it and a stop sign, that is a pike. It lifts up when you're cleared to pass. And so toll roads used to have them. Roads like Murfreesboro Pike and the New Jersey Turnpike were (or still are) toll roads. Parkways went through scenic areas. Highways were extended roads that connect important cities and have several lanes. Narrower but still important, avenues connect important places within cities. In United States English there is no difference between road and street except for the odd convention that you are ON the road when journeying but IN the street when you're not. Some big cities like Manhattan name all roads going north/south streets and all east/west roads avenues....or vice versa. Lane...well...that's a street or a road. As is Drive. Circles, however, are residential loops that are named after the street, road, lane or avenue from which they branch. Jury Road may have a small circle of houses to one side served by Jury Circle.
 
catch a cold - Shakespeare came up with it. I've always wondered how we came to have such a strange phrase.

Nemo (either the captain or the clown fish) - comes from the Latin for "no one."

I love this thread! I love word origins, so half the time my roommates find me pacing the apartment muttering to myself "trousers. Who on earth came up with the word trousers. I mean, how do people think up these things?" :p
 
Here's one of my favourite ones. During the American Civil War, in the Confederate prisoner of war camp named Andersonville, prisoners were not allowed to even approach the main wall too closely. Several feet out from the wall there was a clearly marked white line known as the DEAD LINE because any sentry that saw a prisoner cross that line would immediately shoot him for trying to escape whether that was his intent or not.

Hence, "deadline".
 
In modern usage, any headgear meant to protect the head from harm is called a helmet. In the Middle Ages, though, "helmet" was a sort of diminutive of "helm," which was considered the root word. A helm was a heavy covering that gave good protection against enemy weapons; a helm-ET was lighter and covered less of the head. Helm-ETS were worn either by soldiers who couldn't afford a helm, or by soldiers whose function called for them to be less burdened so they could move around faster.
 
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