February 2010
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December 2009
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November 2009
5 posts
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Etymology: Daft
My British friends are always rambling on about being “daft.” I thought the word has the same origins as “daffy” but in fact it does not.
daft O.E. gedæfte “gentle, becoming,” from P.Gmc. *gadaftjaz. Sense progression from “mildness” to “dullness” (14c.) to “foolish” (15c.) to “crazy” (1530s), probably influenced...
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Etymology: Gulag
Huh, who knew that ‘gulag’ was a Russian acronym? It’s Slavic sounding enough as it is….
gulag system of prisons and labor camps, especially for political detainees, in the former Soviet Union; rough acronym from Rus. Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel’no-trudovykh lagerei “Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps,” set up in 1931.
WatchThis video is so Ozay!
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Etymology: Antics and Grotesque
These two words come literally from beneath the ruins of Rome…
grotesque 1561, originally a noun, from M.Fr. crotesque, from It. grottesco, lit. “of a cave,” from grotta (see grotto). Used first of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins (It. pittura grottesca). Originally “fanciful, fantastic,” sense became pejorative after mid-18c. Grotty, slang...
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Etymology: Coney
Wondering where the Coney came from in Coney Island, I got a little surprise,
coney c.1200, from Anglo-Norm. conis, pl. of conil “long-eared rabbit” (Lepus cunicula) from L. cuniculus (cf. Sp. conejo, Port. coelho, It. coneglio), the small, Spanish variant of the It. hare (L. lepus), the word perhaps from Iberian Celtic (classical writers say it is Spanish). Rabbit arose 14c. to mean the young...