Kirsten's musings...

Etymology corner

At one point in the movie "Legally Blonde", the token ultra-feminist character argues that the university has a huge bias against women, and that she's lobbying to have the term 'semester' changed to 'ovester'.  This of course led me to wonder where the word 'semester' came from.

semester
 
–noun
1. (in many educational institutions) a division constituting half of the regular academic year, lasting typically from 15 to 18 weeks.
2. (in German universities) a session, lasting about six months and including periods of recess.

1820–30; < German < Latin sēmē ( n ) stris  of six months duration < *sex-mēnstris,  equivalent to sex  six + mēns ( is ) month + -tris  adj.suffix (perhaps representing an earlier *mens ( i ) -teros )

So what she was seeing (I assume) was a link to the word "semen", a decidedly masculine trait, when in fact the word is more closely related to "menstrual", which is obviously associated with women.

For completeness' sake, the origin of 'semen':

semen

–noun
the viscid, whitish fluid produced in the male reproductive organs, containing spermatozoa.

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin sēmen  seed; akin to serere  to sow.

Etymology corner

There's a giant white board in our lunch room that has become a place for co-workers to write puzzles for others to try and figure out. Recently someone put up a list of "Expressions" that were to be decoded.  For example one would be:

3=P for a FG in F _____________________

The answer is Points for a Field Goal in Football.  One of these expressions sparked an interesting conversation.  The expression:

500=S of P in a R  ____________________

The answer to this one is Sheets of Paper in a Ream.  One of our Swedish colleagues was confused by the term 'ream', as he hadn't heard it before.  He asked what a ream was, and we said, "Well, it's 500 sheets of paper."  We decided that it must come from some old word and is just used in common English, so of course I had to look it up:

ream(n)
1. A quantity of paper, formerly 480 sheets, now 500 sheets or, in a printer's ream, 516 sheets.
2. A very large amount. Often used in the plural: reams of work to do.

[Middle English reme, from Old French reime, from Old Spanish resma, from Arabic rizma, bundle, from razama, to bundle; see rzm in Semitic roots.]

So it does have some old roots, originally meaning 'bundle.'  Then I realized there's another meaning for "ream", a much more violent meaning.  If you come home and say you got "reamed" by someone, it's not good.  You probably just got yelled at, but the literal meaning is to make a hole in something.

ream(v)
1. To form, shape, taper, or enlarge (a hole or bore, for example) with or as if with a reamer.
2. To remove (material) by this process.
3. To squeeze the juice out of (fruit) with a reamer.


[Possibly from Middle English remen, to make room, variant of rimen, from Old English rman; see reu- in Indo-European roots.]

Interesting.  Two words, spelled and sound the same, but have very different meanings and origins.

Etymology corner

The 'Etymology corner' has received a request!  How exciting, our first fan mail!  Our reader is asking about the origin of the word "skeptic".  Let's take a look:

skeptic
A person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.

Origin:
1565–75; < Late Latin scepticus  thoughtful, inquiring (in plural Sceptici  the Skeptics) < Greek skeptikós, 
equivalent to sképt ( esthai ) to consider, examine (akin to skopeîn  to look; see -scope) + -ikos  -ic

Very interesting to see that "skeptic" and "scope" are related, both meaning "to look at", although obviously "skeptic" can have a slightly negative connotation.

Etymology corner

I was watching 'Pop-Up Videos' the other day, and one of the videos featured was Pat Benetar's "Love Is A Battlefield".  There's one scene that shows Pat climbing some stairs, and it's so dark you can barely tell that it's her.  The pop-up notes that a "gaffer" is a person who is responsible for lighting in a video production, leaving you to make the connection to the word "gaffe", which is a mistake.  Time to take a look at these two seemingly related words:

gaffe:
A clumsy social error, a faux pas.

From the Old French, gaff, meaning hook. 

Looking further into the word gaff, it also has a slang meaning of swindling someone by rigging a game.  Probably by using a hook to alter a target.

gaffer:
Al electrician in charge of lighting on a movie or television set.

Probably an alteration of grandfather/godfather.

Absolutely no relation whatsoever.  So it goes...

Etymology corner

Now that my company has been acquired by a truly international company we have people working here from other countries, especially Sweden, which is where our engineering team is located.  Occasionally I'll use a word in conversation that they aren't familiar with, and it's amazing how difficult they can be to define, which is a strange feeling.

Yesterday a group of us were playing cribbage and I made a comment that I was doing well, catching up to my opponent, and followed that up by saying that I probably just jinxed myself.  One of my Swedish co-workers asked what 'jinx' meant, and I fumbled through a definition saying that it's when you say something positive that ends up causing something bad to happen.  This morning I thought I'd get a better definition from the Internet.

jinx
 
–noun
1. a person, thing, or influence supposed to bring bad luck.

–verb (used with object)
2. to bring bad luck to; place a jinx on: The strike has jinxed my plans to go to Milwaukee for the weekend.
3. to destroy the point of: His sudden laugh jinxed the host's joke.

Origin:
1910–15, Americanism ; perh. < L jynx  wryneck (bird used in divination and magic) < Gk íynx

Interesting origin - I wondered briefly if it was related to hijinks, but apparently not.

I then went on to explain the idea of "Jinx, you owe me a Coke!" but the others at the table didn't know that game.  I think it may be a predominantly "girl" thing, although one of the men at the table talked about hitting one another when "jinxed" (saying the same thing at the same time), so maybe that was the "boy" version.

Etymology corner

This is a combination etymology/physics corner entry, because this is just a very cool bit of knowledge IMO.  I was reading the 'Isaac Asimov Super Quiz - Aviation Glossary' in the paper today and came across this question:

Term for the ratio between aircraft speed and speed of sound.

I had to admit I had no idea what this might be, so I checked out the answers to find out it's "Mach".  It never really occurred to me to wonder what "Mach" was, so I did a little checking.  Here's what I found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number

The Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure, and is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. 

I have to say I'm thrilled with this new piece of information.

Etymology corner

One of the cable channels is going to be showing the movie Juno this weekend according to all of the promos that I've been seeing.  I thought the movie was okay, but it contains one of my top five favorite lines:

"Nah... I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?"

Shenanigans is such a great word, it just sounds like trouble.  Wonder where it came from:

shenanigans 
mischief; prankishness

Origin:
1850–55, Americanism ;  of obscure orig.

Well that's no fun.  Scrolling a little further down the page I find:

shenanigan
1855, of uncertain origin. Earliest records of it are in San Francisco and Sacramento, California, U.S. Suggestions include Sp. chanada , a shortened form of charranada  "trick, deceit;" or, less likely, Ger. Schenigelei , peddler's argot for "work, craft," or the related Ger. slang verb schinäglen . Another guess centers on Ir. sionnach  "fox."

Better, but not great.  I'll keep digging to see if anything else turns up.  You may see this word again.

 

Etymology corner

Sorry it's been a while for an Etymology Corner post!  Here we go...

Recently our local State Representative Marko Liias hosted a kick-off event for his re-election campaign.  He's a good guy, and has always been a good friend to the Get Your Guts in Gear ride and its related charities so we want to help him in any way we can.  We weren't able to make it to the gathering but we did want to support him financially, so we sent him a check to add to his coffers.  Hmmm...I've used that word several times but never stopped to think about its origin.  Let's see what we can find:

coffers
a treasury; funds: The coffers of the organization were rapidly filled by the contributions.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME cofre  < OF ≪ L cophinus  basket; see coffin

One of those cases where two words sound alike and they really are related.  I suppose it makes sense to hide money in a coffin - I certainly wouldn't want to look there.
  

Etymology corner

It's been a while...

I was reading an article today that mentioned that someone was "on the lam", and it got me to thinking about the origin of the word 'lam'.  Off to the Internets I go!

lam₍₁₎
-verb
to beat; thrash

What?  That doesn't make any sense.  Checking out the etymology:

Origin:
1590–1600; < ON 'lamdi', past tense of 'lemja' to beat; akin to lame.

Okay, still confused.  Looking up the origin of the idion "on the lam"

lam₍₂₎
-noun
a hasty escape; flight

Okay that fits, but how are the two related?

Origin:
1885–90; special use of lam₍₁₎. Compare beat it! be off!

So back in the late 1800's people basically used the phrase "beat it" to mean "get out of here"?  I always assumed that was a mid-20th century saying.  Apparently the connection is that the sound of footsteps provided a "beat" for the situation.  Crazy, and now my head hurts.

Etymology corner

One of my favorite songs on Gary Allan's CD "Living Hard" is called "Wrecking Ball".  It's not really a great song, but it has some wonderfully descriptive lyrics, like the chorus:

"She blows into town,
loves me up and down,
just to watch me fall

She picks me up and then
knocks me down again.
I'm a wreck y'all,
she's a wrecking ball"

Anyway, at one point he comapres her to a bulldozer, which got me wondering about the origin of that word.

bulldozer
bulldoze + -er (one who bulldozes)
1876, originally a noun, bulldose "a severe beating or lashing," literally "a dose fit for a bull," a slang word referring to the intimidation beating of black voters (by either blacks or whites) in the chaotic 1876 U.S. presidential election. As a verb, by 1880.

I had no idea that this word had such racial roots.  Definitely one of those words whose meaning has softened over time.  There's a word for this process that I can't remember off the top of my head, must look it up one of these days.