WordWacky

Whether you’re queen of the parade or too cynical for rainbows, chances are that if you’re queer, you have an opinion on Pride. For some it’s a day of celebration, others mourning and reflection, and still others, a great reason to get out of the city while the tourists invade. I feel all of those ways, and every year one or other of my opinions is center stage.

This year I’m celebrating. Celebrating nearly two years of marriage, recognized or not, to my wife, whom I love more very day. Celebrating my friends and community. Celebrating the fact that every year we gain legitimacy, get closer to being fully recognized citizens of our own country. This year California. Next year, perhaps my own state will wise up.

But why the word pride to indicate our holiday? Isn’t Pride a sin, and one of the worst, at that?

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Word - “Ever since people have been able to communicate verbally with one another we’ve had to have had words, and what we call these little pieces of audible communication has had a common name for a very long time.”

Condom - [Editor's note: definitively NSFW, and comes with musical accompaniment, but quite a thorough history of the condom, if you're interested -- and if you can make it past the no minors warning.]

“A variety of Latin etymologies have been proposed, including condon (receptacle),[55] condamina (house), and cumdum (scabbard or case). It has also been speculated to be from the Italian word guantone, derived from guanto, meaning glove. William E. Kruck wrote an article in 1981 concluding that, ‘As for the word ‘condom’, I need state only that its origin remains completely unknown, and there ends this search for an etymology.’ Modern dictionaries may also list the etymology as ‘unknown’.”

Bee - “Old English beo (before 900, in Alfred’s translation of Bpethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae) earlier bio-wyrt, bee wort, a plant (about 700) and Beo-wulf a personal name (about 725, in Beowulf).”

Dagenham - “In this context dagenham is apparently to be taken as a synonym for ‘insane’, by a rather devious etymological route. Dagenham is a town in Essex, England. On the District Line of the London Underground, Dagenham is three stops beyond the town of Barking (after Barking are Upney, Becontree, Dagenham Heathway, and Dagenham East). To be barking mad is to be crazy; and being dagenham is therefore being three steps beyond barking.”

And finally, in honor of the summer, which has returned to Seattle like a deadbeat dad — everyone’s so happy to see him, we’ve forgotten how mad we were:

Swelter - “Latvian is somewhat close to the original etymology with gurt no swelmes (I took a linguistics class once in college where I learned that Latvian is probably the closest to the original tongue from which all the Indo-European family of languages evolved). However, perhaps the closest to the etymological source of swelter in the list above is the Norwegian smelte, (I think of smelting iron) and just one letter difference from svelte.”

Sex sells. It sells breakfast cereal and sports cars. It sells diets and beer. It sells software. Games. Shoes. Pickles. The City. And now words.

Here’s the etymology of umbrella, from Hot for Words:

[Editor's note: While this is technically not unsafe for work, I wouldn't want to be watching it when my boss came by and looked over my shoulder.]

There’s a new breed of sexy — actually, it’s an old breed, but it’s finally been noticed by the mainstream. But I’m not sure that Marina Orlova, a YouTube champion and Wired’s Sexiest Geek of the Year 2007, qualifies as geek sexy. I’m sure there are many of her devotees out there who care not one whit for philology — or any other ology, for that matter, but will watch and learn as long as there’s enough cleavage involved.

So how about some sex with your Kierkegaard? Why should sex be banished from the intellectual world? There’s not a carbon-based intelligence on the planet that can’t trace its roots back to sex. Are we so taken in by the Judeo-Christian split of the exalted and the base that we shun such unholy minglings? Cheeseburgers are evil. Unhand that jerky, it’s Friday!

Frankly, Marina’s not my type, but the ongoing video etymology series is a great idea, and she’s found a way to get a whole lot of viewers — 70 million YouTube views!

It’s not a question of the ends justifying the means, but more of a marketing coup. Even if I’m not the target audience, I have to respect the results.

Maverick - “Etymology: Samuel A. Maverick died 1870 American pioneer who did not brand his calves.”

Barrow/borrow pits and the Mormon R - “Mormon settlers who came West from Missouri brought with them a dialect that pronounced the letter ‘o’ as ‘a’ if the letter were followed by an ‘r’…”

Linguists call the phenomenon ‘the Mormon R,’ and it used to be commonplace in rural areas of Utah and in eastern Idaho ..

So Fort Hall was pronounced Fart Hall … Orange was arange … And borrow became barrow…”

Israel: “Over the past three thousand years, the name ‘Israel’ has meant in common and religious usage both the Land of Israel and the entire Jewish nation. The name originated from a verse in the Bible (Genesis, 32:2 where Jacob is renamed Israel after successfully wrestling with an angel of God. Commentators differ on the meaning of the name. Some say the name comes from the verb śarar (’to rule, be strong, have authority over’), thereby making the name mean ‘God rules’ or ‘God judges’. Other possible meanings include ‘the prince of God’ (from the King James Version) or ‘El fights/struggles’.”

Immaculate: “The crowding of the cone cells at the back of the eye where the image forms has a consequence that when the eye doctor looks into your eye, the part where the cone cells are most dense looks a little more yellow.

About 150 years ago, or maybe a little longer, physicians gave this yellow spot a name.

They called it yellow spot;

But in the Latin they liked to use that came out as macula lutea.”

Budget: “A bougette was typically used for carrying coins around, so the term became linked with the money which you had available at any one time, hence ‘budget’.”

Hamartia: “Hamartia is an element of greek drama which stands for ‘missing the mark.’ In modern lit, hamartia refers to a character’s “fatal flaw” though some say this is an incorrect use of the term as intended by the Greeks.”

Here are some etymology posts from the past week:

Gringo/folk etymology - “I’m pretty sure the dictionary is right about the word’s etymology. But I had learned a more colorful story: that Mexican-American vaqueros came into contact with Irish-American cowboys after the United States acquired first Texas, and then New Mexico and California. The Irish cowboys were constantly singing the song, “Green Grow the Lilacs.” The first two words of the song were slurred into gringo.”

Crunk - “Traditionally, crunk meant a hoarse, harsh cry. The term is often used as slang to mean intoxicated. Folk etymology suggests the modern usage of crunk originated as a portmanteau of the words ‘crazy’ and ‘drunk’ or having been ‘cranked up’ to a level of excitability at which one becomes ‘crunk’. Rapper Lil Jon defined crunk as a “state of heightened excitement.”

Good/Bad - “Here’s the Oxford English Dictionary’s etymology for good, which turns out to derive historically from ‘fitting, suitable’, not from ‘noble, aristocratic’…

The American Heritage Dictionary joins in relating good to IE ghedh- ‘to unite, join, fit’, also at the root of together and gather….

And here is the OED’s etymology for bad, which turns out to come not from “lower class” but from ‘homosexual’…”

Hocus - “The two-word phrase ‘hocus pocus’ seems to have entered the language a century or so before the word HOCUS as a stand alone. In medieval times, the Latin words spoken by priests in the Eucharist included ‘hoc est corpus meum,’ meaning ‘this is my body.’”

And more politics, for those so inclined:

Counterinsurgency - “The term counterinsurgency gained currency under President John Kennedy in the 1960’s, and referred initially to countering “communist inspired, supported, or directed insurgency, defined as subversive insurgency” by Soviet-aligned guerillas against western colonial nations. (When the US aided indigent forces in the overthrow of unfriendly governments it was called paramilitary operations.) As in the above quote the US involvement in Vietnam was called a counterinsurgency.”

Some favorite etymology posts from recent days:

Alcoholism - “The term “alcoholism” was first used in 1849 by the physician Magnus Huss to describe the systematic adverse effects of alcohol.”

Campaign - “I’d never noticed the similarity between the words campaign and champagne but their connection is indeed etymological, based on the Romans’ influence in France both in the naming of the region and getting wine making going there.”

Suicide Girls - “A Curbed reader points us to Forgotten NY, where, as part of an excellent walking tour of the Bowery, there are great details about the famous (and doomed) 295 Bowery, aka McGurk’s Suicide Hall…”

Kid - “The root of the noun kid – of 12th century Scandinavian origin – does indeed denote the young of a goat, or of a related mammal such as the antelope. But this definition is obviously not what people mean when they use the word to talk about children.”

Immigrant - “The word “immigrant” has nothing at all to do with legal status. It means, simply, to move from one place to another for the purpose of settling down.”

Months and Days - “March - Named for Mars, the Roman god of war. Originally first month in Roman calendar, as January and February did not exist until 153 BCE (the winter was monthless).”

I happened across a plea for the etymology of the word sidle in someone’s blog. Happy to oblige.

[Editor's Note: Did you know that your Seattle Public Library card grants you access to the online OED? Callou callay!]

si·dle

–verb (used without object) 1. to move sideways or obliquely. 
2. to edge along furtively.
–noun 3. a sidling movement.

In the 1300s the word is first seen, in one of those strange Middle English spellings (with some unsupported symbols omitted): “yf any connyng man of o Stande stille, or sidlyng can go”

Obviously the word is related to “side,” first used to mean “either of the two lateral surfaces or parts of the trunk in persons or animals, extending between the shoulders and the hips; the corresponding part in fishes, reptiles, etc.” around 725 AD.

The first known mention in its modern spelling was by Sir John Vanbrugh, way back in 1697: (more…)