David Tickner's Blog, page 2

Angler, Angling

What is the connection between angling and angles?
 
The noun angler, from the mid-15th century, refers to a fisher who uses a hook and line. In the 14th century, Angler was a surname. An angler is someone who goes angling.
 
The verb ‘to angle’ (to fish with a hook), from the mid-15th century, is from Old English angel (angle, hook, fish-hook) and Old English anga (hook), from Proto-Germanic angul and the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root ank (to bend).
 
The use of ‘to angle’ meaning to catch or elicit by artful wiles is from the 1580s. For example, the clever person was able to wile their way unseen into the building; or, a wily person used all their wiles to get a bargain on the used car.
 
The noun angle, from the late 14th century, a space or difference in direction between intersecting lines, is from Old French angle (angle, corner), Latin angulus (angle, corner), and the PIE root ank (to bend).
 
In brief, the word angle in reference to fishing comes to English from Germanic sources whereas the word angle in reference to math comes to English from Latin and French sources. Both sources have their origin in variations of PIE ank.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/

Pluto

What does the Walt Disney cartoon dog Pluto have in common with plutocrats and plutocracy?
 
The word pluto has its origins in Latin ploutos (wealth, riches) and the Proto-Indo-European root pleu (to flow). The Latin god Pluto and the Greek god Plouton are each a god of wealth; perhaps overflowing wealth.
 
The word plutocracy, from the 1650s, meaning government by the wealthy or a class ruling by virtue of wealth, is from Greek ploutokratia (rule or power of the wealthy or of wealth). The term pluto-democracy, from 1895, refers to plutocracy masquerading as democracy.
 
In 1930, an American astronomer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, discovered what he thought at the time was a planet. He named it Pluto.
 
The Walt Disney cartoon dog Pluto first appeared in 1931.
 
The metallic element plutonium was discovered in 1941and named in 1942. Why plutonium? Because, as its discoverers noted, “it follows neptunium in the periodic table of elements as Pluto followed Neptune in the solar system” (Online Etymological Dictionary).
 
So, why was the cartoon dog named Pluto? “Some Disney animators reportedly believed that Disney chose the name Pluto to capitalize on the then-newly-named ninth planet Pluto. However, animation historian John Canemaker states that Disney chose the name simply because he once had a dog named Pluto” (Wikipedia). But no one really knows for sure.
 
But thinking of the cartoon dog Pluto and plutocratic forms of government, I can’t help but thinking there must be a metaphor in there somewhere!
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(Disney)

Handkerchief

Handkerchief. Hankie. What does this word have to do with hands and chiefs? Anything?
 
Hand
 
In brief, the word hand is almost unchanged from its origins in Old English hond, hand and Proto-Germanic handuz.
 
Kerchief
 
The word kerchief (a square piece of fabric folded and worn about the head) is from 13th century English kovrechief and Old French couvrechief (cover head):  from couvrir (to cover) + chief (from Latin caput and the Proto-Indo-European root kaput—both meaning head).
 
By the late 14th century a kerchief referred to a piece of cloth used about the person for purposes other than covering the head.
 
By the early 15th century a kerchief referred to a piece of cloth carried in the hand to wipe the face or head; i.e., a hand + kerchief = handkerchief.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
​

Bog

The word bog is another example of a word that comes to us almost unchanged over centuries.
 
The word bog meaning wet, soft, spongy ground with soil chiefly composed of decaying vegetable matter came to English around 1500 from Gaelic and Irish bogach (bog) and bog (soft, moist). These words in turn are from Proto-Celtic buggo (flexible) and the Proto-Indo-European root bheug (to bend).
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/

Magnificat

The word Magnificat came to English around 1200 from Latin magnus (great) and magnificare (to make great). Latin magnificare is formed from magnus (from the Proto-Indo-European root meg = great) + Latin facere (to make).
 
Magnificat is the name of the Hymn of the Virgin Mary from the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament (Luke 1: 46 – 55). The first line of the hymn, “magnificat anima mea dominum”, has been translated as “my soul doth magnify the Lord”, “my soul reveals the greatness of the Lord”, “my soul glorifies the Lord”, and others.
 
In brief, the Magnificat as spoken by Mary suggests that the greatness of the Lord, the mighty one, God is revealed or magnified in the imperatives to
 
Scatter the proud
 
Pull down the mighty
Send the rich away empty
Exalt the humble
 
Feed the hungry
 
Mary seems to be saying consider what I do and see the greatness of the Lord. Consider what the Lord is saying through me.
 
Sounds to me like a call for social justice. I think of Mary raising her son to embody (and magnify) this message as well.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/

Raven

The word raven has its origins in a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root which imitates the harsh sounds of a raven or crow, the source of Proto-Germanic khrabanaz (raven), the source of words such as Danish ravn, Old High German hraban, German Rabe, and Old English hroc.
 
The English word raven, from before the 12th century, is from Middle English raven, reven, Old English hraefn, Proto-West Germanic hrabn, and Proto-Germanic khrabanaz, hrabnaz.
 
Similarly, related words include Latin crepare (to creak, clatter), cornix (crow), corvus (raven), Greek koraz (raven), Old Church Slavonic kruku (raven) and Lithuanian krauklys (crow).
 
The Oxford English Dictionary defines raven as a “larger species of crow common in Europe and Asia, noted for its lustrous black plumage and raucous voice; the raven is “popularly regarded as a bird of evil omen and mysterious character” (cited in Online Etymological Dictionary).
 
“The Quran connects the raven with Cain's murder of Abel, but in Christianity the bird plays a positive role in the stories of St. Benedict, St. Paul the Hermit, St. Vincent, etc. Poe's poem was published in 1845. It was anciently believed to live to a great age but also to be wanting in parental care. The raven standard was the flag of the Danish vikings. The vikings, like Noah, were said to have used the raven to find land when at sea. "When uncertain of their course they let one loose, and steered the vessel in his track, deeming that the land lay in the direction of his flight; if he returned to the ship, it was supposed to be at a distance" [Charles Swainson, "The Folk Lore and Provincial Names of British Birds," London, 1886]. As an English name for the constellation Corvus by late 14c.”
Online Etymological Dictionary
 
The adjective raven (e.g., black as a raven, lustrously black) is from the 1630s.
 
The collective nouns for a group of common ravens include ‘unkindness’ and ‘conspiracy’.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_raven

Alibi

Is an alibi the same as an excuse?
 
The word alibi has its origins in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) al-(1) (beyond) and Latin alibi (somewhere else, elsewhere).
 
The word alibi came to English in 1743 as a legal term meaning ‘a plea of having been elsewhere when an action took place’. A person would need to provide evidence of being in another place in order to support an alibi.
 
Any proof of innocence that does not involve being ‘elsewhere’ but which can excuse someone from blame for something or which can provide someone with an exemption from something is not an alibi.
 
In brief, an alibi is not an excuse.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/

Checkers or Draughts?

What is the difference between the board game called checkers and the board game called draughts? There is no difference. The game is the same only the name is different. Both games are played on a checkerboard.
 
The noun checkers, from the mid-13th century, meant a “game of chess (or checkers)” (Online Etymological Dictionary). By around 1300, the noun checkers referred to a game board with 64 squares for playing chess or similar games. The noun checkers has its origins in Old French eschequier (chessboard) and Latin scaccarium (chess board).
 
The British game of draughts is from around 1400. Draughts is pronounced ‘drafts’; sort of like how laugh is pronounced ‘laff’.
 
One of the many meanings of the word draught or draft is to drag or pull something (e.g., a draft horse, draft beer). The word draught was used to indicate that game pieces were dragged or moved across the game board.
 
The American game of checkers is from 1712, so called for the board on which the game is played.
 
Both draughts and checkers are played on an 8x8 board with 64 squares of alternating colour and with twelve playing pieces per side. The word checkerboard is from 1779.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/

Hello

The word hello, a greeting between persons when meeting, is from the 1840s in the frontier of the western US. At that time, the terms “Hello” or “Hello, the house” were the usual greetings upon approaching a home.
 
Hello is a version of hallo or holla, a shout first seen in the late 14th century as a way to attract attention. There are at least a dozen forms of ‘hello’ that have appeared over the years (e.g., halloo, hillo, holler, holloa, hullo, and many others).
 
When the telephone was patented in 1876, the question arose, “What do you say when you answer the phone?” Alexander Graham Bell’s suggestion was, “Ahoy!” Thomas Edison is said to have preferred, “Hello”. Other early telephone greetings included, “Do I get you?” and “Are you there?”
 
Needless to say, “Hello” has become the way in which telephones are generally answered. In the 1880s and 90s, the telephone exchange operators were known as ‘hello girls’.
 
Another variation of hello is “Hail” as in “Hall to your grace” or “Hail Caesar.” The word hail is related to words such as hale, health, and whole.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hello

Tragedy

Does the word goat come to mind when you hear the word tragedy?
 
The word tragedy has its origins in Pre-Greek tragein (to gnaw, to browse, to eat) and Greek tragos (goat, buck). The Greek word tragodia referred to a dramatic poem or play which had an unhappy resolution (tragodia = goat song).
 
So, what’s the connection of the word tragedy to goats? One suggestion is that when mischievous or wicked characters were part of a drama the actors or singers would dress in goatskins to represent satyrs. The Oxford Dictionary states that a satyr is “one of a class of lustful, drunken woodland gods. In Greek art they were represented as a man with a horse's ears and tail, but in Roman representations as a man with a goat's ears, tail, legs, and horns.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines satyr as “a sylvan deity in Greek mythology having certain characteristics of a horse or goat and fond of Dionysian revelry and lecherousness.”
 
The word tragedy (a grave or dignified literary work with a calamitous or sorrowful ending) appears in English in the late 14th century from Old French tragedie, Latin tragedia, and Greek tragodia. Tragedy, as a branch of the dramatic arts, is from the early 15th century. Tragedy meaning a fatal event, calamity, or disaster, is from around 1500. Tragedy referring to contemporary stage plays is from the 1530s.
 
The adjective tragic (calamitous, disastrous, fatal) is from the 1540s.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
Oxford University Press: https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/