http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php en dave@wordorigins.org Copyright 2008 2008-05-03T08:05:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/welcome_to_wordoriginsorg/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/welcome_to_wordoriginsorg/#When:08:05:00Z Wordorigins.org is devoted to the origins of words and phrases, or as a linguist would put it, to etymology. Etymology is the study of word origins. (It is not the study of insects; that is entomology.) Where words come from is a fascinating subject, full of folklore and historical lessons. Often, popular tales of a word’s origin arise. Sometimes these are true; more often they are not. While it can be disappointing when a neat little tale turns out to be untrue, almost invariably the true origin is just as interesting. About Wordorigins.org 2008-05-03T08:05:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/word_myths_by_david_wilton/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/word_myths_by_david_wilton/#When:08:01:00Z Wilton, D. (2004). Word myths: debunking linguistic urban legends. New York, Oxford University Press. Did you ever think that Ring Around The Rosie makes reference to the Black Death of the Middle Ages? Or that the whole nine yards refers to the length of a machinegun ammo belt? Or perhaps that Eskimos have 500 words for snow? If so, then you have been taken in by a linguistic urban legend. Like classic urban legends, these linguistic legends are popular and pervasive. Instead of propagating cautionary tales about the dangers of modern life, linguistic urban folklore propagates stories and “facts” about language. About Wordorigins.org, General Language References 2008-05-03T08:01:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/grant_barrett_on_how_to_buy_a_dictionary/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/grant_barrett_on_how_to_buy_a_dictionary/#When:14:14:00Z Grant Barrett, over at The Lexicographer’s Rules has an article on what criteria to use when buying a dictionary. His comment on etymology makes me a bit uncomfortable. Although he’s right that etymology is not an absolute requirement for most everyday uses. If you’re going to invest $30+ for a good dictionary that will last you several years, you should get one with etymologies. Chances are, you will want to look up a word’s origins at some point. And note that his criteria apply equally well to evaluating online dictionaries. The Harmless Drudge 2008-04-30T14:14:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/think_on_my_words/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/think_on_my_words/#When:20:10:00Z Crystal, David. (2008). Think on my words: exploring Shakespeare’s language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Linguist David Crystal provides a thorough overview of Shakespeare’s English in this book aimed at the lay reader. Accessible and easy to read, Think On My Words is suitable for both classroom use and casual reading. In the first chapter, Crystal debunks several common myths about Shakespeare’s contribution to the language, including: whether Shakespearian English is still spoken in some rural, backwoods regions whether or not Shakespeare used an extraordinary number of words whether or not Shakespeare coined an extraordinary number of words whether his works need to be “translated” to be understood by a modern reader whether or not he had a distinctive style. The next chapter addresses the early manuscripts and folios, fundamental to any scholarly understanding of his works and language. Subsequent chapters address Shakespeare’s writing and spelling, punctuation, phonology and pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and conversational styles and meter. Crystal is one of the most prolific writers on linguistics publishing today and his special gift is making the subject easily understandable to the lay reader and beginning student. His research is top-notch and his prose is fun to read. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand the basics of Shakespearian language. General Language References 2008-03-14T20:10:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/oed_march_update/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/oed_march_update/#When:18:05:01Z The Oxford English Dictionary has released its quarterly update for this Spring and it’s different than past updates. To date, the updates for the new, third edition have proceeded alphabetically starting with the letter M. By that schedule, this update should have covered from quits to somewhere in the letter R. But instead, this time around the editors chose to update selected words from throughout the alphabet, plus the words that surround these selections. These selections include American, and, climate, compute, fuck, gay, genetics, and love. The words were selected because they have undergone significant change since they were last revised, with additional meanings and forms, or because they have complex semantic, syntactic, or etymological issues that need new explication. Next quarter will pick up with quits and each subsequent quarter will alternate between an alphabetical range and an updating of select words. This will allow the editors more flexibility in updating those words that are seeing rapid change in modern English and will make the OED a more useful reference. Editor John Simpson’s complete explanation of the update can be found here. The Harmless Drudge 2008-03-14T18:05:01-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/leap_year/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/leap_year/#When:14:49:00Z Today is February 29th, a day that appears on the calendar once every four years (or close enough). 2008 is a leap year. The necessity for adding a day to the calendar every four years is due to the fact that the Earth’s orbit of the sun is not exactly 365 days; it’s closer to 365.25 days. Therefore, about every four years we add one day to the calendar to keep the seasons aligned with the calendar. (For an excellent technical discussion--it’s not this simple--see Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog entries on the subject here and here.) But we’re concerned with the word here. The use of leap to denote calendrical shifts like this dates to Old English, c.993 to be more exact. It appears in AElfric’s De Temporibus Anni. AElfric of Eynsham was a Benedictine monk who is probably the chief prose stylist of the late Old English period. De Temporibus Anni is his attempt to provide monks and priests with a text on astronomy and the calendar that they could use in the education of themselves and the laity and in combating superstition and myth. AElfric wrote in reference to the moon (which needs a leap day added to its orbit of the earth about every 19 years): se dæg is gehâten Saltus lune • þæt is ðæs monan hlyp(the day is called Saltus lune, that is the leap of the moon) The leap comes from the idea that the calendar jumps and does not proceed in an orderly fashion. The term leap year isn’t cited in English until 1387, when it appears in John de Trevisa’s translation of Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden: That tyme Iulius amended the kalender, and fonde the cause of the lepe yere.(That time Julius amended the calendar and established the cause of the leap year.) While the term leap year isn’t recorded until the Middle English period, it probably was in use in Old English. The term hlaup-ár, or leap year, is recorded in Old Norse and most Norse calendrical terms were borrowed from Old English. So it seems likely that Norse acquired this one from Old English too. (Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition) Big List 2008-02-29T14:49:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/2007_ads_word_of_the_year/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/2007_ads_word_of_the_year/#When:06:11:00Z The American Dialect Society has selected subprime as its Word of the Year for 2007. You can see the whole list here. The Harmless Drudge 2008-01-05T06:11:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/cancer/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/cancer/#When:21:05:00Z Cancer, both the disease and the astronomical constellation, derive from the Latin cancer or cancrum, meaning crab. The astrological sign, of course, is said to resemble a crab and the disease was so named by the ancient Greek physician Galen (129-200 A.D.) who noted the similarity between a certain type of tumor with a crab as well—the swollen veins around the tumor resembling the legs of a crab. Old English adopted cancer directly from Latin and used it for a variety of spreading sores and ulcers. From c.1000 in a manuscript called Læce Boc (Leech Book), collected in Oswald Cockayne’s Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Vol. II, 1865: Gemeng wið þam dustum, clæm on ðone cancer.(Mix with the dust, smear on the cancer.) Big List 2008-01-04T21:05:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/2007_words_of_the_year/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/2007_words_of_the_year/#When:17:18:00Z It seems that every dictionary, linguistic web site, and philological organization must have a word of the year. Why should Wordorigins.org be any different? Later this week the American Dialect Society will select its word of the year, so until then here are my suggestions for 2007 words of the year. These are words that are characteristic of broad trends or significant events of the year. The choice is subjective and many other words and phrases are undoubtedly equally deserving. I have not tried to pick a single word as the word of the year; instead, I present a list of representative words in alphabetical order. The Harmless Drudge 2008-01-04T17:18:00-08:00 http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/ale_beer/ http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/ale_beer/#When:22:02:00Z Ale and beer are both words that go back to Old English. Today, we distinguish the two as different beverages, but this distinction did not exist in Old English. Rather, ale was the commonly used word and beer was much rarer, being reserved for poetic language. But even in poetry its use was rare. Chaucer did not use the word, nor did William Langland in his Piers Ploughman. Of the two words, ale is attested to slightly earlier. It appears c.940 in a manuscript called Læce Boc (Leech Book) in a recipe for an emetic, collected in Oswald Cockayne’s Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Vol. II, 1865:: Do healfne bollan ealoð to [...] and gehæte þæt ealu.(Add a half bowl of ale [...] and heat the ale.) The word beer appears c.1000 in a translation of the Gospel of Luke: He ne drincð win ne béor(He drinks neither wine nor beer) In the 15th century, brewers began adding hops to their product and by the 16th century, the word beer was being applied to this new style of brew. The modern distinction between ale and beer arose and the word beer became much more commonly used. (Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition) Big List 2008-01-03T22:02:00-08:00