words and origins

[saliotthomas]

when reading you often find word that sound either familliar or foreign,and wonder about there origin
This one i found in the crusade through the Arabian eye by amin Maalouf

assassin The term 'Assassin' derives from Hashshashin, a militant Ismaili Muslim sect, active in the Middle East from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. This mystic secret society killed members of the Abbasid and Seljuq élite for political and religious reasons.[3]

It is speculated that the assassins were drugged for their murders with hashish and opium; assassin derives either from hasishin, the influence of the drugs, or hassansin, after their leader, Hassan-i-Sabah. Hashishinnya was an offensive term depicting this cult by its Muslim and Mongolian detractors.

The earliest literary use of the "assassination" is in The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605).[4][5]

Hashshashin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

so hashish was the origine of the term,and it also very much of actuality,as this sect was an inspiration fo modern terrorism

do you have words yourself?

 

[Stewart]

Ach, why not. The word ketchup is of Malaysian origin, originally being a fish sauce called kitjap manis. As explorers brought the sauce back from Asia to Europe, it was regulary experimented with, adding all manner of flavours. Of course, now it's biggest association is with tomatoes, as in tomato ketchup.

 

[Libra]

I like this saliotthomas! I was thinking of starting a thread "word of the day"

Rumbuntious

This is another of those irrepressibly energetic words that came out of the US in the first half of the nineteenth century, one that is still around. It’s first recorded in a newspaper report in Boston in 1830: “If they are ‘rumbunctious’ at the prospect, they will be ‘riprorious’ when they get a taste.” (Riproarious was another bright-eyed and bushy-tailed coinage, also first recorded that year, with roughly the same meaning.)

Cautious dictionaries say “of unknown origin”, an open invitation to strange and inventive suggestions. One such holds that it is a compound of ram (to butt or strike) with bust (to thrash or beat), with the implication that rambunctious individuals went around ramming and busting people. Please don’t pass this on.

A little burrowing in the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that it has been borrowed from one or other of two earlier words. One of them is rumbustious, recorded from 1778. The other is robustious, an ancient adjective meaning both “robust” and “boisterous”, of which the OED entry, published in 1909, comments that it was “In common use during the 17th century. In the 18th it becomes rare, and is described by Johnson (1755) as ‘now only used in low language, and in a sense of contempt’. During the 19th it has been considerably revived, especially by archaizing writers.” At the time, the editors of the OED thought that both words came from robust

 

[Sirrah]

Surrender is a French word, before English speaking people (Anglo-Saxons) met the French we didn't have a word for 'giving up without a fight'.

 

[saliotthomas]

Surrender is a French word, before English speaking people (Anglo-Saxons) met the French we didn't have a word for 'giving up without a fight'.

You can surrender after a fight!Or maybe English speaking people never surrender before metting the French?

 

[SFG75]

Surrender is a French word, before English speaking people (Anglo-Saxons) met the French we didn't have a word for 'giving up without a fight'.

Oooooooooooooh!, burrrrrrrrrrrrn!! I'll remain silent, as we owe a debt of gratitude to LaFayette and french fries.

 

[saliotthomas]

Oooooooooooooh!, burrrrrrrrrrrrn!! I'll remain silent, as we owe a debt of gratitude to LaFayette and french fries.

Thanks SFG75 but i think my new "friend" Sirrah would call them Freedom fry!
It is interesting to Know that his deffinition for surrender is 'giving up without a fight' so,i would be worried alone with him in a tight spot.
Nontheless this witty remarque as the smell of the slander campaign that start with the refusal of France to join the war in Irak.As far as i know,and with the following devellopement,it was more lucidity more than cowardice.

A suppose to that their was no dead end street before the french CUL de Sac was adopted and yield was never uttered?

 

[Libra]

Apology

One of the more interesting phenomena of recent years has been the way that governments have begun to publicly express remorse for the actions of their predecessors. Tony Blair implicitly apologised in June 1997 for the British government’s failing of the Irish people during the potato famine of 1845–49, the New Zealand government apologised to the Maori nation in 1995 for land seizures in 1863 and various similar gestures of reconciliation have occurred around the world. The most extraordinary of these has been an article by the Japanese prime minister which appeared in the Sun newspaper in Britain this week expressing his nation’s remorse for its actions during the Second World War.

The meaning of apology has evolved a good deal since its first appearance in the sixteenth century (the first use recorded in the OED is in the title Apologie of Syr Thomas More, Knyght; made by him, after he had geuen ouer the Office of Lord Chancellor of Englande, dated 1533). In this Sir Thomas More was not regretting his actions: he was seeking to justify himself and to defend himself from accusations. Another example is An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber (Comedian) in 1740 by the English actor-manager who was answering his critic Alexander Pope with details of his life’s achievements; here the word is a pun on the older sense and our modern one, it being a fake apology which is actually a justification. A century later, Cardinal Newman wrote “Apologies for various of the great doctrines of the faith” and Samuel Butler coined this little squib in 1912:

Apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
in which apology has this original sense of a defence of one’s opinions or conduct and not an expression of guilt or remorse. All these look odd to us today, though the sense is not yet entirely obsolete.

This meaning comes directly from the Greek apologia, a derivative of a word meaning “to speak in one’s defence”, ultimately from the prefix apo-, “away; off” (which turns up at the start of lots of English words, such as apogee for the point in an orbit furthest from the orbited body, and in the Biblical Apocrypha, which means books “hidden away”) together with logos, “speech” (from which we get our word logic). From this Greek original, it entered English either through French or Latin.

It was quite soon after its first appearance that the meaning of apology began to shift away from self-justification towards implying regret. This change seems to have occurred in two stages. Firstly, it was used to describe the process of excusing oneself from the wrath of a person affected by one’s actions with the explanation that no offence was intended, a sense of modified self-justification which again is still found today. Then the use moved further to acknowledge that some offence had in fact been given and to express regret — exactly our main modern sense. The first example turns up in that unique recorder of Elizabethan English, William Shakespeare (in Richard III).

So much did the sense change that English eventually required a new word to express the original meaning. In the eighteenth century the Latin apologia (/ˌæpəˈləʊdʒɪə/) was borrowed again, though it only gained widespread acceptance after Cardinal Newman used it in 1864 in the title of his famous work Apologia pro Vita Sua, A Defence of His Life, in response to Charles Kingsley’s attacks on his religious convictions.

 

[saliotthomas]

efharistoLibra

shallots comme from the town of Ascalone(spelling?) in middle east where they grew those red sort of onions

 

[Libra]

Parakalo saliotthomas

COP
Half a dozen explanations at least have been put forward for this one, including an acronym from “constable on patrol”, which is reminiscent of the story behind posh and quite certainly just as spurious. It is also said to come from the copper badges carried by New York City’s first police sergeants (patrolmen were alleged to have had brass ones and senior officers silver); it is almost as often said to refer to the supposedly copper buttons of the first London police force of the 1820s. Both these stories seem about equally unlikely.

The most probable explanation is that it comes from the slang verb cop, meaning “to seize”, originally a dialect term of northern England which by the beginning of the nineteenth century was known throughout the country. This can be followed back through the French caper to the Latin capere, “to seize, take”, from which we also get our capture.

The situation is complicated because there are — or have been — a number of other slang meanings for cop, including “to give somebody a blow”, and the phrase cop out, as an escape or retreat. Both of these may come from the Latin capere. But it’s suggested that another sense of cop, “to steal”, could come from the Dutch kapen, “to take or steal”. There’s also “to beware, take care”, an Anglo-Indian term from the Portuguese coprador, and phrases like “you’ll cop it!” (“you’ll be punished, you’ll get into trouble”), which could come from the idea of seizing or catching, but may be a variant of catch.

But the “seize; capture” origin for the police sense seems most plausible. So policemen are just those who catch or apprehend criminals, a worthy occupation. And a copper is someone who seizes, a usage first recorded in Britain in 1846.

 

[silverseason]

Apology

It was quite soon after its first appearance that the meaning of apology began to shift away from self-justification towards implying regret. This change seems to have occurred in two stages. Firstly, it was used to describe the process of excusing oneself from the wrath of a person affected by one’s actions with the explanation that no offence was intended, a sense of modified self-justification which again is still found today. Then the use moved further to acknowledge that some offence had in fact been given and to express regret — exactly our main modern sense. The first example turns up in that unique recorder of Elizabethan English, William Shakespeare (in Richard III).

Thank you, Libra, for your scholarly review (only partly quoted here) of this word. I had understood the word to mean a sincere expression of regret for one's actions. Thus, I was irritated when some battered celebrity offered one of those non-apologies - "I am sorry if anyone was offended". The apologizer was only sorry that you were offended by the very reasonable thing that he/she did!

Now I will be more understanding. The apologizer was merely reverting to an earlier sense of the word.

 

[Libra]

Thank you, Libra, for your scholarly review (only partly quoted here) of this word. I had understood the word to mean a sincere expression of regret for one's actions. Thus, I was irritated when some battered celebrity offered one of those non-apologies - "I am sorry if anyone was offended". The apologizer was only sorry that you were offended by the very reasonable thing that he/she did!

Now I will be more understanding. The apologizer was merely reverting to an earlier sense of the word.

it was not my review, but I love "words" and I read it on a site. I was surprised too, because my translation from greek "apologia" was like "confession" so I learned something also

 

[joderu95]

A lot of you may have heard this already but here it is again just in case.

"Mark Twain" - This comes from the author's days as a riverboat captain. When taking a sounding of the river two knots would slip through his hands before hitting the bottom and he would call out "mark twain" meaning two fathoms of water beneath the boat.

 

[BeerWench13]

Dunce

This word meaning a stupid person is an eponym for John Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308), a leading scholar of philosophy and theology. Scotus was born in Duns, Scotland and his writings formed the philosophical core for a Scholastic sect named after him, the Scotists. In the 16th century, humanists and reformers began attacking the Scotists for splitting hairs and engaging in useless philosophical discussions. In retaliation, the Scotists railed against the new learning of the Renaissance. As a result, Duns’s followers became associated with those who refused to learn.

 

[Sirrah]

Yeah i agree the meaning of an apology has changed a lot, the way i think of it is. There are two types of apology one being a show of remorse the other being an admission of guilt along with as well as regret.

For example:

"Sorry to hear that your Grandmother died"

and

"Sorry i killed your Grandmother"

Australia recently made an apology to the indigenous people of Australia the Aboriginals. But the apology that was made was in my opinion an admission of guilt and regret rather than that of remorse. This has lead to a further push by the Aboriginals to seek compensation (which could turn out to be much more than Australia can afford). But anyone that was at fault for the previous wrong doing is now dead.
So out of curiosity who here thinks that an admittance of guilt should be borne by the previous generations?
As an Australian i feel remorse for what happened but i don't feel at fault. It is possible that I'm just being a selfish bugger but would like to know what others think.

Not trying to change the thread topic the whole apology thing just got me thinking about the recent events.

No insult intended Saliotthomas and my remark wasn't based on any disdain for the French, its just something i found amusing.

 

[Libra]

Sirrah, I think it would be an interesting subject so you should make a new thread
Beerwench13 I really liked that one!

Orange
The name of the fruit was NARANJ in Sanskrit. This language was spoken in ancient India. Indians traded with Arabs, so the word passed into Arabic as NARANJAH. The Spaniards were ruled by north African Arabs who passed the fruit and word into Spanish as NARANJA (pronounced as NARANHA).
This came into English where the fruit was a NARANJ. Words ending in J are not common in English so the spelling quickly changed to a NARANGE.

The initial N moved to the a because of mis-hearing to give an ARANGE (this is called metanalysis).

Over time, the initial A became an O to give an ORANGE

 

[Libra]

Tax

Taxes are as old as civilisation, but our word tax is less old than you might think: it first appeared only in the fourteenth century. In its first meaning, it was nearer the Latin original taxare, which meant to assess or appraise; so taxation was at first about the process of deciding how much you were due to pay rather than the sum of money itself. That sense survives in the taxation officer of the courts who assesses whether the fees charged by barristers are fair and accurate.

Before the word tax was available, the English used the closely related word task, which is recorded in the twelfth century with the same meaning. What seems to have happened is that the Latin taxare turned into taxer in Old French, whose letters then shifted about through a process called metathesis to become the English word task, in much the same way that the Old English brid became bird, and patron turned into pattern.

By the fourteenth century, we had both task and tax in the language, and a useful division had appeared in which the first related to some imposition involving work or labour, the second a payment in money. Both retain these meanings, though task has weakened somewhat to refer to anything which has to be done, not necessarily something involving physical effort. But tax still has its original sense, though it has spawned the common figurative meaning of an intangible imposition — something that is strenuous, wearing, exacting or challenging.

One of the curiosities of the English revenue system is that we’ve been reluctant actually to call a tax a tax. Most of the measures to raise funds for the treasury were named duties. Duty started out with a sense of some mark of respect that was due to a superior, but quickly took on the additional meaning of a mark of respect which was paid in hard cash, of something which you owed to someone else. This reflects its Latin original debere, a compound meaning “to keep in one’s possession something that belongs to somebody else” (it’s also the direct ancestor of our debt).
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