http://www.westegg.com/etymology/
What follows is list of some curious word origins. Some of these are English, but some are French and German words from which we get some English words. Enjoy, and please let me know if you know of any other cool etymologies that I ought to add to the list! Also, you might like my brand new web site, Smugopedia: Pretend you know better. The sense of humor is a bit intellectual but if you like etymologies, then you are probably nerdy enough to enjoy it, too.
For some of my favorites, see Companion, Kopf, Porcelain, and Tennis.
What follows is list of some curious word origins. Some of these are English, but some are French and German words from which we get some English words. Enjoy, and please let me know if you know of any other cool etymologies that I ought to add to the list! Also, you might like my brand new web site, Smugopedia: Pretend you know better. The sense of humor is a bit intellectual but if you like etymologies, then you are probably nerdy enough to enjoy it, too.
For some of my favorites, see Companion, Kopf, Porcelain, and Tennis.
- Abacus
- Comes from the Greek word abax, which means "sand tray." Originally, columns of pebbles were laid out on the sand for purposes of counting. See calculate and exchequer.
- Allegory
- From Greek allos meaning "other" and agora meaning gathering place (especially the marketplace). In times past, it was common to do one's chatting at the marketplace. Some of the topics discussed were clandestine in nature and when people spoke about them, for fear of being punished, they would speak indirectly. That is to say, they would speak about one thing in such a way as to intimate the actual information to the listener. Thus, the persons discussing clandestine matters were said to be speaking of "other things" in the marketplace. Eventually the words joined and became associated with the act of speaking about one thing while meaning another.
- Apple (Eng.)/ Pomme (Fr.) / Manzana (Sp.)
- These words, which all mean the same thing, should be explained one at a time, as they come from different sources. In regard to apple, all European languages other than the Romance languages, ie., the great majority of Indo-European languages, including the Celtic tongues, use a word with a root ap, ab, af or av for apples and apple trees: aballo (Celtic), apple(Eng.), Apfel (Germ.), aeppel (Old Eng.), abhal (Irish Gaelic), epli (Icelandic), afal (Welsh), jabloko (Russian), and jablko (Polish). In regard to pomme, this French term comes from the Latin pomum, which originally referred to all fruit. Before Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire some time in the 4th. Century, the Latin word malum (melon in Greek) meant "apple." After the adoption of Christianity, however, and due to the important symbolism of the apple in the bible (ie, the Garden of Eden), the general term pomum, "fruit," was used to describe the apple as "the fruit of fruits." In regard to manzana, this Spanish term comes from the Iberian pronunciation of matiana, a Gallo-Roman translation of the Latin word matianum, which was a scented, golden apple first raised by and named after Matius, a friend of Caesar's who was also a cookbook author ["Apple" Footnote: The French village of Avallon (in the Yonne area), where there are a lot of apple trees, received its name from the legend of the sacred island of Avalon or Abalon, meaning "Apple Orchard"--incidentally, the "-on" suffix is an "augmentative" and explains the origin of the name of the Pacific shellfish "Abalone"--that is, "big apple."].
