Etymologists Nerd Out On Their Favorite Word Origins

English is an incredibly complicated language which pulls many of its words from other languages.

The subject of how words came to mean what they currently do is often a fascinating one.

The study of word origins is called etymology.

Redditor ocddoc asked:

“Etymologists of Reddit, what is the coolest origin of a word?”

Dashboard

“The dashboard is a board on the front of a horse carriage meant to keep mud from kicking up on the passengers when the horse dashes.”

“And over time it came to mean the front part of anything, even a computer interface is sometimes called a dashboard.” -Catsh*t-Dogfart

Ampersand

“Ampersand (&) used to be a letter in the English alphabet. It came after Z in the in alphabet.”

“In the alphabet song, after you finished with Z, kids would sing: ‘and per se and’ which is where the name ampersand comes from. ‘And per se and’ basically means ‘also and as itself’.” -ZES_4

“When I was little we had a blackboard that had the alphabet listed across the top, followed by an ampersand. So when we sang the alphabet song we ended with ‘z and ampersand.’ This would have been in the very late 50’s.” -marsglow

“Also the character itself is the Latin word “et” squished together into a ligature.” -eg_taco

“Similarly, the exclamation mark likely started as the word ‘io’, latin for joy, written at the end of sentences. It eventually shrank to i over o and the o became a dot. The question mark started as the latin ‘questio’ shortened to ‘qo’, then stacked, and the o shrinks to a dot.” -fade_is_timothy_holt

Barbarian

“The word ‘barbarian’ comes from an Ancient Greek word referring to all non-Greek speakers (including Egyptians, Phoenicians, etc.) This was because to the Greeks, all other languages sounded like people saying ‘bar bar bar’. This became the root for the word βάρβαρος (bárbaros), which roughly means ‘babble’ or ‘gibberish’.”

“It was later adopted by the Romans to refer to any culture that did not practice Greek or Roman traditions (even though Latin-speakers were technically classified as barbarians because they didn’t speak Greek). Due to good old xenophobia, it eventually came to mean ‘uncivilized’, and from there it made its way through the centuries into Middle English.” -Redditor

Our Ancestors Were All Scared Of Bears

“The word ‘bear’ in many languages in Europe (including English) just means ‘brown thing’. There used to be a proper name for bear, but it was taboo because saying it was believed to summon a bear, who would then kill everyone. It was so taboo it was eventually forgotten and the euphemism (brown thing) became the name.”

“Ancient people were scared pissless of bears.”

“The Arctic draws its root from arctus, greek for bear. So its the ‘land of bears’.”

“The Antarctic is thus, ‘the land without bears’.” -SolarDubstep

“In eastern slavic languages they were so scared that even the ‘brown thing’ became taboo. The world is still used as a part of ‘bear’s lair’ name, but the animal itself is named as ‘the-one-who-knows-where-is-honey’.” -ofedorov

“Man I’m from slovakia and my initial reaction was ‘what? Nah’ and then I realized it.”

“To clarify, Slovak word for bear is medved’. Med = honey, veď = know/to know”

“You blew my goddamn mind good sir” -heythatsmyarmyounut

Roger That

“Roger is just the modern English equivalent of the Old English and Old Norse name Hrothgar.”

“Additionally, Hrothgar means ‘famous spear’, and is the name of the Danish King in the medieval epic poem Beowulf.” -Redditor

Magnificent Melons

“Melon—not particularly interesting in itself, it came from Ancient Greek, through Latin, to Old French, before finding its way to English. All along the way it referred to various gourds. However, and this is the interesting bit, melons was slang for boobs in Greek, and it retained this slang definition as well as its ‘real’ definition all the way to English. Usually in etymology you keep one definition or the other, and never both, which makes it really interesting. Also boobies.” -KaiF1SCH

Five Elements

“The word ‘quintessential’ has one of my favorite etymologies.”

You can break it down into ‘quint and ‘essential.’ Quint as in ‘five.’ ‘Essential’ as in ‘essence,’ or ‘element.’ To be quintessential is to be the fifth element of something. To be the thing’s spirit.” -Sedu

“Multipass!” -GozerDGozerian

“So ‘The Fifth Element’ is a quintessential movie no matter what anybody says” -Fight_Milk92

“In Aristotelian cosmology ‘The fifth element’, after air, earth, water and fire, was believed to be the essence of everything. It was speculated that when things change they change into this fifth element and then change back to one of the other four elements or a combination of them. This way change becomes possible and the logical inconsistency of creating something out of nothing or vice versa becomes impossible (Parmenides).”

“The fifth element was also believed to be the essence of existence and the place of identity. As a result, essence of things remains unchanged when things undergo changes (Heraclitus). The concept was in fact a metaphysical ploy used by Aristotle to refute both Parmenides and Heraclitus at the same time!”

“Also the original Greek word was Pemptousia (pempto (fifth) + ousies (essence)). The word ‘quintessence’ is only a literal latinate form of the word. Also the word ‘aether’ was an adoption that came about around the sixteenth century and before that time was never used to refer to the Aristotelian fifth element.” -sepantaminu

Tawdry Origins

“The etymology of ‘tawdry’ is a real ride.”

“There was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon saint named Æthelthryth. Now, nobody, not even 7th century Anglo-Saxons, wants to go around trying to pronounce that dense forest of th’s, so she was commonly known as St. Etheldreda, and later, linguistically lazier people called her St. Audrey.”

“St. Audrey was the patron saint of a town called Ely, and the folks of Ely held a fair every year in her name. One of the primary products on offer at these fairs was lace. ‘St. Audrey’s lace’ was said a few too many times, and got slurred down to ‘tawdry lace.’”

“Over time, the lace fell out of favor. It was mainly made by peasant women, and thus viewed as cheap, and the Puritans looked down on lace garments of any kind as ostentatious. ‘Tawdry’ then began to be used to describe other things that were cheap and ostentatious, and the modern definition of the word was born.”

“tl;dr: ‘Tawdry’ comes from the fact that Æthelthryth is really hard to pronounce.” -Rromagar

Truly Terrifying

“Nightmare. The ‘mare’ part of the word ‘nightmare’ comes from Germanic folklore, in which a ‘mare’ is an evil female spirit or goblin that sits upon a sleeper’s chest, suffocating them and/or giving them bad dreams. So basically the word comes from a description of sleep paralysis.” -theonlydidymus

“In German ‘Albtraum’ reflects this folklore as well. ‘Alb’ being an older word for elf, so ‘elf-dream.’ The elf in this case being more like the goblin that sits on your chest rather than what we think of today as elves.” -Zganamne

Misunderstood Sarcasm Can Change Words

“Nimrod was originally a compliment referring to one’s hunting skills (Nimrod being a biblical figure known for his ability to hunt), but the definition changed because people didn’t understand Bugs Bunny was calling Elmer Fudd a Nimrod sarcastically.” -Seevian

“As far as I know that only happened in North America. Apparently ‘Nimrod’ is an insult there or something; to me it’s still a Biblical character.”

“Also the X-men had a very capable and dangerous adversary called ‘Nimrod’ in the 90s no doubt not referencing any incompetence but the biblical character.” -dat_heet_een_vulva

“It is stated Sarcastically, the opposite of the truth. ‘No sh*t, Sherlock’, is another one, when insulting someone’s deductive capabilities. Or ‘Great going, Einstein’ when insulting someone’s intelligence.” -Alis451

“I’d say only a small fraction of people use Nimrod in the same sarcastic way that Bugs Bunny did. For majority of kids who grew up hearing Bigs call Elmer Nimrod, and didn’t understand the reference, nimrod became synonymous with idiot.” -kermi42

English is often jokingly referred to as 3 languages stacked on top of each other in a trench coat, and it’s easy to see why when looking at the origins of its words.

People Share The Best Facts About Language That No One Seems To Know

Language may seem like a pretty boring subject—we all had to study it throughout our school years, after all.

But languages are way weirder—and way cooler—than you might think.

Redditor FamousTeam90 asked:

“What is a fun language fact you know?”

Italian Is Newer And Older Than You Might Think

“The official Italian language is both new and old. It is based on an old dialect that was only adopted by the Italian state after unification in the late 1800’s.”

“It’s based on a literary language spoken by upper class Tuscans in 11th-12th 13th century. Most regions in Italy still speak their own dialect and the official Italian taught in schools.”

“Here’s a brief history for the curious.” –TrevArts

“My mother’s grandparents immigrated to the US from northern Italy around the turn of the 20th century. They apparently didn’t speak standard Italian, they spoke Lombard, which is a funky looking language/dialect. My mom said her grandparents kind of cut off the end of words like the French do.” -SagiTsukiko

“My grandparents originally lived near Napoli and spoke Neapolitan. Compared to standard Italian a lot of the pronunciations are totally different. My mother learned it from her parents and when we went to Italy to visit relatives who didn’t immigrate she got comments from people on how she spoke the old language instead of the new one.” -PrivateVasili

Finnish Has A Lot Of Homophones

“The Finnish phrase ‘kuusi palaa’ can be understood in 9 different ways:

“Six pieces / Six of them return / Six of them are on fire / The number six returns / The number six is on fire / A spruce is on fire / A spruce returns / Your moon is on fire / Your moon returns”

“A piece = pala / (multiple) pieces = palaa / A moon = kuu / Your moon = kuusi / A spruce = kuusi / Six = kuusi / To be on fire = palaa / To return = palata / Return(s) = palaa” -InfamousChibi

“‘How many do you want?’ ‘Kuusi palaa.’ ‘My moon is what?’” –joha130

English Is Changing

“We think of English, particularly American English, as becoming more homogeneous over time (usually attributed to the prevalence of national-level media), but in fact, the fastest vowel shift in the history of the English language is currently underway. It’s called the Northern Cities Shift, and is taking place from Chicago to upstate New York.” -HungryLikeTheWolf99

“The pronunciation of short vowels have shifted from their common sound, for example short o is now pronounced as short a, so the word block sounds more like black. It is happening around the great lakes and linguists aren’t sure why it has happened.” -maryxchristmas

“This short video shows people who demonstrate the accent but were filmed for other reasons (i.e. they were not trying to accentuate the Northern Cities Vowel Shift).”

“Edit: I wanted to add this video as well. It does a good job of actually explaining the phenomenon.” -Cat_Man_Dew

German Elements Can Be A Bit Strange

“Sauerstoffe, the German word for oxygen, literally translates to ‘sour material’.” -PersonWhoExists50306

This isn’t the only weird element name in German.”

“Hydrogen = Wasserstoff = ‘Water stuff’”

“Nitrogen = Stickstoff = ‘Choke stuff’”

“Carbon = Kohlenstoff = ‘Coal stuff’” -GeneralDarian

“‘Oxygen’ means acid forming. Acids taste sour.” –GozerDGozerian

Not All Medical Terms Are Latin

“Many people think that the medical names for organs of the body are derived from Latin, but only the muscles and bones are. For example, ‘gluteus maximus’ is Latin for biggest muscle. But, ‘pulmonary’ is derived from the Greek, since it is not a muscle (i.e. pertaining to the lungs).” -Ex_Nihil

Fruity Confusion

“In French, grape is ‘raisin’ and raisin is ‘raisin sec’ (which roughly translates to ‘dry grape’).”

“F**ked me up as a child.” -_aft3rlif3_

“My parents always interchanged French and English, but would only use raisin for the dry type and I never knew if I was getting grapes or raisins.” -notyetcommitteds2

ASL Is Quite Complex

“American Sign Language (ASL) is one of many signed languages around the world and has very little relation to the English language.”

“Also, when confronted with a proper noun, name or a concept that needs to be clarified because of the lack of a sign, we use fingerspelling. While you might think this is like speaking the letters of a name, signers spell so quickly that you aren’t supposed to catch every letter, just notice the general shape of the word as it’s spelled.”

“Some signs for ‘bank”dog’ and ‘what’ are fingerspelled so hurriedly that you omit a letter or two, leaving a quick motion in place of what would have been B-A-N-K.”

“Fingerspelling in general is bananas. Watch a Deaf person spell their own name (especially something long like Josephine) and you’ll see what I mean. It’s probably the toughest part of the language to learn since it’s nearly all intuitive.” -ICantHearYoo

Why Pineapple?

“Pineapple is some variation of ‘ananas’ in most languages…except English” -yeEEeEeeEeee3eeeeEet

“In Mexican Spanish, pineapple is piña, while in most other varieties it’s anana” -ThePeasantKingM

“It’s ananas in Kannada, a smaller language of a state of India. So weird, considering I doubt that there is any shared roots with other languages.” -Redditor

“Its ananas in Marathi too. I think it is that for PIE [Proto-Indo-European] root languages. Kannada isn’t one but maybe interacting with Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan language probably gave it ananas.” -AdiSoldier245

Arabeezy

“When people type Arabic using Latin letters, they substitute some numbers for letters because they look similar. It’s commonly called “Arabeezy” as a portmanteau of the Arabic word for English, Engleezy, and Arabic. Examples include ew3adni, 2ool, 7abibi, 3li, 6arab. So sometimes you’ll see sentences like, ‘Eh a5bar sho3’lak?’ and wonder if their cat jumped on their keyboard.” -H0use0fpwncakes

“Been learning Arabic for two years and I had no idea the numbers were chosen because they looked like the letter, I just thought it was because English had no equivalent for that Arabic letter so we used numbers. This makes much more sense haha” -laika_pushinka

Don’t Interrupt

“You can’t really interrupt someone who use a language that places the verb at the end of the sentence because you won’t understand what he wants unless he’s finished” -OmarAdelX

“I mean to a certain extent. Japanese is that type of language but some sentences are even made not to be finished.. You don’t need the verb always.” -elrulestheworld

“Sure you can…if you know what they are going to say (context). Source – speak Japanese. People interrupt all the time.” -bless_your-heart-

“I’ve always wondered how translators work with this?”

“Like in German, for example, where you place the verb at the end.”

“For example, ‘I want to run quickly through the green grass.’ is ‘Ich möchte schnell durch das grüne Gras rennen.’”

“If someone was translating that it would seem like they’d hear ‘I want to quickly through the green grass run,’ so how do they know it’s going to be run?” -liamemsa

“Interpreter here, though in Spanish not German, but Spanish works the same way where I have to untangle the sentence to get it to make sense in English. When a client is talking, I usually wait for them to finish the thought before rendering it in the other language. This is called consecutive interpreting, one person talks, stops, and lets me do my thing. The other form, simultaneous, is when one person talks and once I can’t remember any more I start talking too, taking in info while I’m actively interpreting. Most of us don’t work in this mode often, unless you’re interpreting a conference or something. Most interpreter’s working memory is 4 ish sentences, so we know what you said and we just flip it around as we go. We also take notes depending on the type of session. It takes practice and a very high degree of fluency, but I honestly don’t think about the grammar much anymore. I’m trying to find the vocabulary that will get the message across best or remember a medical term.” -GrayGhoast

Language is even more fascinating than a lot of people think. Even if you take your native language for granted, there are probably a whole lot of really cool things you don’t know about it yet.