Terminalcoffee discussion

I'm an etymology nerd.

From wikipedia, since I don't have the Bryson book I was reading last night with me, on the origin of the word "dixie":

The word "'Dixie'" refers to privately issued currency from banks in Louisiana.[1:] These banks issued ten-dollar notes,[2:] labeled "Dix", French for "ten", on the reverse side. These notes are now highly sought-after for their numismatic value. The notes were known as "Dixies" by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the Cajun-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as "Dixieland". Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Southern States.

This site is kind of cool, too:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a

Anyone else? Cool origins of words?

We named my first dog Dixie. I picked the name myself, though afterward I had no idea why, and my mother had to come up reasonable explanations.

As for cool origins of words, how about sinister, from the Latin for left hand?

shoot, i thought this thread was about bugs

We covered etymology in my semantics class. I looooved when we had to do presentations on the etymology of our names - some interesting stories. We also had to research the etymology of a random word. I picked gypsy. Interestingly enough, these assignments were given before the advent of internet, so I had to do my research at the library. Needless to say, I enjoyed both assignments.

Doesn't the word gypsy come from the fact that they were believed to come from Egypt?

Kevin, must you make that "joke" every time we talk about this? It is either you or Larry, without fail. Always. And it usually freaks me out and sends me running to dictionary.com


*tousles Kevin's naked head*

Essentially yes, Dave. Cool website, by the way, RA! Thanks for sharing. Posted on the website:

Gypsy 1600, alteration of gypcian, a worn-down M.E. dial. form of egypcien "Egyptian," from the supposed origin of these people. Cognate with Sp. Gitano and close in sense to Turk. and Arabic Kipti "gypsy," lit. "Coptic;" but in M.Fr. they were Bohémien (see bohemian), and in Sp. also Flamenco "from Flanders." "The gipsies seem doomed to be associated with countries with which they have nothing to do" [Weekley:]. Zingari, the It. and Ger. name, is of unknown origin. Romany is from the people's own language, a pl. adj. form of rom "man." Gipsy is the prefered spelling in England.

I love that Philip Pullman uses etymology to create parallels/familiarity/recognizeable language overlaps in his parallel universes in the His Dark Materials series... specifically, amused at his use of "Gyptians" as the name of nomad tribe. It became a bit of a fun sidegame for me to trace his use of ideas/words in his fictitional world to our everyday concepts - examples: The Magesterium, Metatron, the Chevalier Tialys, the Gallevespian spies, Cittàgazze, even the concept of daemons... The only three that I could never really figure out were "the cliff ghasts" (I thought "ghosts," duh... until it was mentioned that they devour/live off of/enprison other creatures... then I thought maybe they were more like the Indian Wendigo or maybe even vampires) and the "spectres" (I think they were supposed to be zombies; possibly even a metaphor for drug use/loss of innocence - because they are only visible/able to attack the souls of people who are adolescent age or older and thusly kill their victims) and "the Mulefa" (who, as far as I could tell from his descriptions, reminded me of JarJar Binks).

sally, i got 3 jokes and i wait patiently to use them

as for word origins, i really like knowing the origins but have no real background in it. i never took any latin or greek but as i read the current book i am working through i find lots of greek words that i can get the current word from

Well, as long as you stick to the format, then. Carry on, friend.

RA, are you reading Mother Tongue? That's a personal favorite of mine.

I'm an etymology geek myself. I could waste hours at the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Natalie! No, I don't think it's Mother Tongue...it's Made in America...it's still fun:)

What fun! I sent the link for the dictionary to my Mom who is a true linguist at heart. Thanks RA!

Cool, Sherrie!

Now, if you're like me, in scenarios like this, you immediately want to look up words such as:

snot
O.E. gesnot "nasal mucus," from P.Gmc. *snuttan (cf. O.Fris. snotta, M.L.G., M.Du. snotte, M.L.G. snute), from the same base as snout. O.E. also had a verb snite "wipe or pick one's nose." Meaning "despicable person" is from 1809. Snotty "impudent, curt, conceited" first recorded 1870; snotnose "upstart" is from 1941.

*waits patiently for Kevin to make "cunning linguist" joke.*

See, my imagination is lack when it comes to these things, but I love seeing them. I'll have to wrack my brain to come up with some appropro words to look up.

i even like the word appropro

Courtesy http://www.merriam-webster.com/ :
ap·ro·pos
Pronunciation: \ˌa-prə-ˈpō, ˈa-prə-ˌ\
Function: adverb
Etymology: French à propos, literally, to the purpose
Date: 1668
1 : at an opportune time : seasonably 2 : by way of interjection or further comment : with regard to the present topic

;)

thank you Seizure. my personal fav is: Je ne sais quoi

i love when people use it wrong thinking it means like classy, unique or something like that. what they are saying is they don't know what they mean

I am pleased to note that http://www.etymonline.com/ is listing 'irregardless' as "an erroneous word" as opposed to the wussified "nonstandard" that some sources are using. If I can't rely on a dictionary to draw the line in such matters, the terrorists have already won.

Oh, the small joys in life! :D

A chiropractor friend asked Sweeter and me the other day if "irregardless" was a real word. Apparently he has a coworker who uses it frequently in conversations with patients.

At times I fear for the future of a literate society.

I would think even a quick look at "irregardless" would tell you that it's wrong. If irregular means "not regular", then irregardless would mean "not regardless" -- the opposite of the usage it has acquired.

Makes sense to us word freaks, but I think some people don't even "take a quick look" at words. It just isn't even a possibility for them to think about language in that way.

Former President Bush created a new word in one of his last speeches. He accused the White House press corps of "misunderestimating" him. I don't think it is what he meant, but it seems possible that the press did, in fact, not underestimate the man accurately... he probably was not underestimated enough.

Former President Bush created a lot of words.

"I could care less" always throws me off, too. If you could care less, then doesn't that mean you care at least a little?

And welcome to TC, B...

Damn. I never thought about it that way.

Right, welcome! I'm sorry, GW and his lazy speech patterns just still get me all riled up. I was just thinking again this morning about my crush on the new president and his articulateness. He actually knows not only how to pronounce most words, but he knows when to use which one in order to convey the most precise meaning possible.


(Clearly I do not, this is why I'm not president.)

You misunderestimate yourself, Sally!

Randomanthony wrote: "You misunderestimate yourself, Sally!"

ZING......

Sally wrote: "I was just thinking again this morning about my crush on the new president and his articulateness. "

I think W would be the first to tell you, the word is "articulosity".

Ha!

*googles articulosity*

Please don't tell me it's in there.

Not technically. But there was a saddening number of links to sites where writers have included the "word" in their prose.

I think back to an argument my parents were having one day (I hated such days). This disagreement stemmed, I now know, from their combined lack of vocabulary and their low "articulosity."

Anyway, I recall my Mom asking, "Well what do you mean?" Dad replied, "What do you mean what do I mean?"

Despite my hatred for those screaming matches (NEVER any physical violence), that exchange still cracks me up -- and is a prime example of how hard it can be to communicate with people when you don't know a lot of words.

Articuloony.

In my reading I come across "specificity" a lot. I mean tons. So of course it has crept into the assignments I write and hand out, and then have to read aloud to the class as we go over what they have to do.
Specificity is very hard to say on the first try. Some of my students are momentarily jarred out of their robot stares when I say it. They think I'm illiterate, but really, they've just not read enough media theory.

irregardless of all of this...

*lights self on fire*

this reminds me of the usage of flammable and inflammable

*pulls fire alarm*

I hate the phrase "in sum", too.

Well, RA, bottom line is ....

"in sum" just makes me crave "dim sum"

I can handle "bottom line" for some reason, Larry.

My friend Dan hates "At this point in time".

I don't like hearing the word "snack" as a verb, either.

I don't know why. I just don't like it.

I hate it, HATE IT, when people say "as I've said" in conversation. It makes me want to punch them in the face.

And "you're more than welcome to..." never sounds very welcoming.

"it is what it is" bugs me

my partner at work says "irregardless" and "nevertheless" which means he is going to tell you something anyway whether it is relevant or not