David Tickner's Blog, page 44

Credit

Take a moment and have second look at all those credit cards in your wallet or purse. To have a credit card means that you have a “We trust you” card or a “We believe in you” card or even a “We love you” card. Maybe you could say that a Valentine’s Day card is like a credit card! Well, maybe not.
 
The word credit has its origins in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root kerd (heart) which is also the source of cardio, cardiac, cordial, creed, credential, discord, incredible, and many other words. PIE kerh-dhe means ‘to believe’, literally ‘to put one’s heart’.
 
The Latin word creditum, from PIE kerd, means a loan or thing entrusted to another. The Latin word credere means to trust, entrust, believe. From these sources comes Italian credito, 15th century French crédit (belief, trust), and, in the 1540s, the English word credit (belief, faith).
 
Credit, as the commercial sense of confidence in the ability and intention of a purchaser or borrower to make a payment at some future time, is from the 1570s. Creditor is from the mid-15th century. Credit, meaning a sum of money placed at a person’s disposal by a bank, is from the 1660s.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Stymie

Imagine, if you will, it is 1857. A couple of golfers are playing a Scottish golf course. Both have golf balls onto the green. Jock takes his putter and lines up to make the putt. He looks and looks again. Finally, he straightens up and exclaims, “Good gawd, Mactavish, you’ve got me stymied!”
 
Stymie: a condition in which an opponent’s ball blocks the hole.
 
Other than that, the origins of the word stymie are unknown. There is a Scottish word stymie (a person who sees poorly), perhaps from early 14th century stime (the least bit).
 
The general use of stymie meaning to block, hinder, thwart, is from 1902.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Happy Lammas Day!

Why do we have a holiday at the beginning of August? When I was growing up in Saskatchewan I used to wonder why this holiday was called the ‘August Bank Holiday’. What did this holiday have to do with banks and banking? Today, in British Columbia, the holiday at the beginning of August is simply called ‘BC Day’.
 
But where does this holiday come from?
 
It has its origins in ancient harvest festivals, notably the Lammas Day festival of Anglo-Saxon England (5th to 11th centuries CE). Lammas Day celebrated the first bread made from the wheat harvested each summer season, usually around the beginning of August. The word Lammas comes from Old English hlafmaesse (loaf mass); that is, the mass or worship service at which these first loaves were brought to the local church and blessed in thanksgiving. Later this bread was broken into four parts and placed in the four corners of a granary as a protection for the garnered grain.
 
Lammas Day, like other Christian festivals, comes from a much earlier pre-Christian English harvest festival, the Gule of August, a similar dedication of the first fruits of the harvest.
 
Anyway, enjoy the BC Day (or Lammas Day) long weekend!
 
Image: Lammas loaf owl with salt eyes (Wikipedia)
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas

Focus

Imagine you are walking down a cold winter road in central Gaul late one afternoon during the declining years of the Roman Empire. You’re on your way to visit a friend. Even with a woollen robe over your toga, you’re cold. Maybe you shouldn’t have worn the sandals? You arrive at your friend’s villa and bang on the gate. A moment later your friend opens the gate and says warmly, “Gratam mea! Quaso intrant et sedent focus!”
 
Which is to say, roughly, “Welcome to my home! Please enter. Come and sit by the fireplace!”
 
Which is to say that the word focus comes from the Latin word focus (fireplace, hearth). Beyond this, the origin of the word is unknown. The focus—the source of heat and light in a home—or a classroom for that matter. That’s all you need to know about the word.
 
There are other uses and meanings of the word focus which have come to English. In the 1640s, the word was used to mean ‘point of convergence’. At that time, focus also referred to the burning point of a lens. By 1796, focus was used to mean the centre of activity or energy.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/

Curriculum

Have you ever asked or been asked, “How often does this course run?” or “When will this course run again?” Why do we talk about a course ‘running’?
 
The word course comes from the Proto-Indo-European root kers (to run) which is also the source of the Latin word currere (to run) from which comes the Latin word curriculum (a course of events).
 
The word curriculum is also related to Latin curricle (carriage, chariot) and Latin carrus (a four-wheeled vehicle, from which comes the word car). Perhaps this is why automotive instructors talk about their carriculum. (The Latin word for a carriage or cart maker; i.e., a cartwright, is carpentarius. The Latin word for a carpenter is a lignarius, from lignum = tree. But, I digress.)
 
Today, curriculum means the courses offered by an educational institution or a set of courses constituting an area of specialization. The earliest written record of the word curriculum used in this way is from 1633.
 
The term curriculum vitae was first used in 1902 to name a job search document. Vitae comes from the Latin vita, meaning life, and vitalis, meaning ‘of life’ (not the hair oil). A curriculum vitae is ‘the course of a life’.
 
A curriculum document is the summary of a course of events. Just as when curriculum workers prepare a curriculum vitae they do not include every single event and detail of their life, so also when they prepare a curriculum document they do not need to include every single piece of subject matter content.
 
Oh, by the way, speaking of running and racecourses, did I mention that PIE kers is also the origin of the word horse? Yes, the words course and horse (and curriculum) are distant etymological cousins.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Dancer

The origins of the word dance and dancer are unknown. The Online Etymological Dictionary suggests that perhaps the word comes from Low Frankish dintjan or Old Frisian dintje (tremble, quiver).
 
The modern verb ‘to dance’ comes from 12th century Old French dancier which came to English around 1300 as dauncen (to move the body or feet rhythmically to music). The word dance has spread to many other languages thanks to the influence of the French; e.g., Italian danzare, Spanish danzar, Romanian dansa, Swedish dansa, and German tanzen.
 
The English word dauncen (to dance) replaced the Old English word sealtian (to dance), from Latin saltare (to dance) and salire (to leap). Other Old English words related to dance include tumbian (tumble) and hoppian (to hop). By the way, hoppian is said to be the origin of the English word ‘hope’ (i.e., leaping in expectation?!).
 
Dance, meaning to leap or spring with regular or irregular steps as an expression of some emotion, is from the late 14th century.
 
The noun daunce or dance, also from around 1300, means a succession of steps and movements commonly guided by musical accompaniment. Dance-hall is from 1823. Dance-floor is from 1864. Dance-band is from 1908.
 
The word dancer, someone who dances or takes part in a dance, is from the mid-15th century.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Mind

The word mind has its origins in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root men- (to think). This root can be seen in many familiar words such as, for example, comment, demented, memento, mental, mention, and mentor. Less obviously, this root is the source of many other words, such as, for example, amnesia, amnesty, mania, mantra, monitor, monument, reminiscence, and summon.
 
Words from other languages with this PIE root include Sanskrit manas (mind, spirit), matih (thought), munih (sage, seer); Avestan manah (mind, spirit); Greek memona (I yearn), mania (madness), mantis (one who divines, prophet, seer); Latin mens (mind, understanding, reason), mentio (remembrance); Lithuanian mintis (thought, idea), Old Church Slavonic mineti (to believe, think); Russian pamjat (memory), and Old English gemynd (memory, remembrance, state of being remembered; thought, purpose; intention, conscious mind, intellect).
 
In particular, another word which has its source in this PIE root is mazda, an ancient word of the Avestan language (now Persian Farsi) meaning ‘wise’. In 1931, the name Mazda was chosen as the name of the first vehicle produced by what is now the Mazda automobile company. The company manager at that time, Jujiro Matsuda, chose the name not only because it sounded in Japanese like his last name but more importantly because he and the company wanted a name which would be a symbolic way to acknowledge peaceful interrelationships of eastern and western cultures. https://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/mazda-stories/mazda/behind/
 
The English word mind (that which feels, wills, thinks; the intellect) is from the late 12th century (sometimes known as the ‘century of learning’ as this was a time marked by the development of several major Western European universities—I would add that these universities were to a large extent based on the Islamic universities in neighboring Spain. The caps and gowns used today in university ceremonies are remembrances of the robes worn by the Islamic scholars. But I digress).
 
The English word mind comes from Old English gemynd (see above) from Proto-Germanic ga-mundiz, the source of Gothic muns (thought) and munan (to think), Old Norse minni (mind), and German Minne (love; originally memory, loving memory).
 
Note in these ancient words, the sense that mind is not only about ‘intellect’ or ‘thought’ but is also associated with ‘feeling’ and ‘remembrance’. Memories are ‘remembered’ because of their high levels of affect. We remember and think about things that we feel strongly about.
 
Currently, debate revolves around ‘where’ the mind is located. Clearly the brain is involved. Is the mind ‘in’ the brain? If we dissected someone’s brain, could be find their memory of a recent movie and how they felt about it? Is the mind ‘outside’ the brain and body? Do we participate ‘in mind’? Are thoughts and memories not only prompted by our senses and our experiences of the world, but found or projected into the world? A cursory review of the literature on this subject is ‘mind-boggling’. I will leave the philosophy and psychology and theology and so on regarding this topic to the experts. As my English friends would say, “Mind how you go!”
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Custodian, Janitor

What is the difference between a custodian and a janitor?
 
Custodian comes from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root (s)skeu (to cover, conceal). From this source comes Latin custos, custodis (guardian, keeper, protector) and custodia (guarding, watching, keeping) which lead to mid-15th century English custody (a keeping, watching, safe-keeping, protection, defense). Custody, meaning restraint of liberty or confinement, is from the 1580s.
 
A custodian, someone who has the care or custody of anything, is from 1781. The term ‘janitor’, originally custodian-janitor, is from American English, 1944. The custodian is most often the person with the keys to a building and the one who controls access in the ‘off-hours’.
 
The word janitor comes from the Roman god Janus, the guardian of portals, doors, and gates, and the patron of beginnings and endings. Janus is the source of the word January. The word Janus comes from Latin ianua (door, entrance, gate) and Latin ianus (gate, arched passageway) and perhaps from the PIE root ei (to go). Latin ianitor was a doorkeeper or porter.
 
The word janitor comes to English in the 1580s as an usher in a school. By the 1620s, the word meant a doorkeeper. Janitor meaning the caretaker of a building or a person employed to see that the rooms are kept clean and in order is first seen in 1708. The feminine forms of janitor were janitress (1806) and janitrix (1818), words which have now fallen out of use.
 
In brief, a custodian was originally a guard or watchman over something. A janitor was the guardian of a gate or a doorkeeper or porter. The word janitor gradually came to mean someone responsible for the care and maintenance of a building; however, today, the word more commonly used is custodian as janitor has also now also fallen out of common use.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Experience

Have you ever learned something from experience? The word experience comes from ancient words meaning ‘to try something’ and ‘to take a risk’.
 
In particular, the origins of the word experience are found in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) per (to try, to risk, to press forward). From this root comes Latin peritus (experienced, tested). Latin ex- (out of) + peritus forms experiri (to try, to test). From experiri comes Latin experientum (experienced), experientia (a trial, proof, experiment, knowledge gained by repeated trials), and Old French esperience (experiment, proof, experience). The word experience came to English in the late 14th century and meant ‘observation as the source of knowledge, actual observation, an event which has affected one’.
 
Other words with the PIE per root include empirical, experiment, expert, peril, and pirate(!).
 
To describe someone as unexperienced comes from the 1560s. To describe someone as experienced (having experience, taught by practice, skillful through doing) is from the 1570s. The verb ‘to experience’ (to test, to try, to learn by practical trial or proof; to ‘feel’ something) comes from the 1580s. The word inexperience comes from the 1590s.
 
Learning from experience has a ‘trial and error’ sense; however, not mindless trial and error but rather intentional and systematic trial and error. “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again”; or, “If at first you don’t succeed, try doing it a different way.”
 
The word experiential (knowledge gained by testing or trials), from which comes the term ‘experiential learning’, is from the 1640s. An early and well-known proponent of experiential learning was John Dewey, notably his 1938 book, Experience and Education.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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Criminologist

The words crime and criminal have their origins in words related to sorting, sifting, and discerning what is right and what is wrong. Usually, in countries with languages from which English has evolved, this discernment has been done according to the ‘laws of the state’. However, the etymology also indicates that from time to time, particularly during periods of weak state authority, institutions of religion have also taken on the responsibility for determining what is right and wrong according to the ‘laws of god’.
 
In particular, the words crime, criminal, and later, criminologist, have their origins in the Proto-Indo-European root krei (to sieve; later, to discriminate, distinguish) and Latin cernere (to decide, to sift) and crimen (charge, indictment, accusation; crime, fault, offense). Sifting, or discernment, is needed when weighing up evidence or accusations of wrong-doing in light of law and custom and making appropriate judgements as to innocence or to guilt and punishment.
 
 From these sources come 12th century Old French crimne (crime, mortal sin) and, in the mid-13th century, the English word crime (sinfulness, infraction of the laws of God).
 
The adjective ‘criminal’ (meaning sinful, wicked) comes to English around 1400. By the mid-15th century, the word meant ‘of or pertaining to a legally punishable offense, of the nature of a crime. By the late 15th century, the word also meant ‘guilty of a crime’. The word criminal has its origins in Latin crimen and criminalis (pertaining to crime).
 
The noun ‘criminal’, that is, a person who has committed a punishable offense against public law or a person convicted of a crime by proof or confession, is from the 1620s.
 
A criminologist, one who studies crime, is from 1857. Criminology, the science of crime, is from 1890.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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