|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
As the topic this week is Latin words and phrases, I would like to share one of my favorite Latin etymologies. The word is "companion." See if you can deduce the etymology if you don't already know. The answer is in white, below. What's your favorite etymology?
The word comes from the Latin for "with" [com] and "bread" [pani], literally, someone with whom you share bread. I learned this from Carol Fields' book "The Italian Baker," which I read when I was working as a baker.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I don't have a favorite etymology, but enjoy learning the etymology of words because doing so often provides mnemonics not only for a given word, but frequently for several others as well. I wish we saw a lot more etymology here.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
stand in the spray from the Pierian spring
Is that anything like pissinginto the wind?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Not an etymology as such, but I've never happened to have occasion to utter it, so it only occurred to me in the shower this morning that the Indonesian for "my nails" (finger or toe) is kuku-kukuku.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
|
OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
here's another favorite word of mine: "pathognomonic "
ADJECTIVE: Characteristic or symptomatic of a particular disease or condition.
ETYMOLOGY: Greek pathognmonikos : patho-, patho- + gnmonikos, able to judge (from gnmn, interpreter; see gn- in Appendix I).
(from http://www.bartleby.com/61/17/P0111700.html )
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
"thy micturations are to me,
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on
a lurgid bee."
© Douglas Adams 1979
I love it, Max. It counterpoints the surrealism of the underlying metaphor. Or something like that.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
http://www.wordorigins.orgLord This word for master derives from the Old English hláford or literally bread (loaf)-ward. Originally, it is a reference to the head of a household; servants in the house would be entitled to be fed by the master. The general sense of master, as opposed to the specific sense of a provider of bread, is well established by c. 950. This site didn't give etymology of "lady" which comes from roots about kneading bread.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
lady This word originally denoted a "kneader of bread" from the OE http://latin.about.com/library/wordstories/bllady.htm HLÆFDIGE, a compound of HLÆF (bread, and hence the word "loaf") and the OE root DIG- (hence, the word "dough"). John Ayto tells us that this word, as "LORD" (see below), is symbolic in medieval lifestyles of the importance that bread played in people's lives. Thus, a "lady" was a "provider of bread" and hence a symbol of authority within a household.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,328
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
844
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
