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OP
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Quick quiz question for the day:
What is 'spa' short for?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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a WAG- a german (or germanic) word for spray or spritz--something to do with water..
since i think of Baths (as in Bath, england) as being a prime characteristic of a spa. (though now days, its all about manicures, and facials, and personal grooming, not taking a water cure!)
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Despite the appearance, for once this is neither an abbreviation nor an acronym.
"Yourdictionary.com" has that to say:
Regional Note: The word spa, taken from the name of the famous mineral springs in Spa, Belgium, has become a common noun denoting any place with a medicinal or mineral spring. Less well known is its Eastern New England sense, "soda fountain," probably an allusion to the carbonated or "mineral" water that is a staple ingredient of many soda fountain concoctions.
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OP
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Well that's funny, cause that was my first instinct, to assume it was the place Spa - but I was thinking of Hungary not Belgium. I was very surprised therefore to read a number of sources today that stated quite clearly that Spa was a Latin abbreviation for 'Sanus per Aquaum' (health through water).
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Carpal Tunnel
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sanus per aquamI doubt it. It sounds like folk etymology to me. The dictionaries I looked at give the Belgian placename as the origin. Note the earliest spelling spaw(e) in 17th century citations. Maybe it was from sanus per aquam, id est water. 
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
sanus per aquam
I doubt it. It sounds like folk etymology to me. The dictionaries I looked at give the Belgian placename as the origin. Note the earliest spelling spaw(e) in 17th century citations. Maybe it was from sanus per aquam, id est water.
I am sure this has come up before, but are there ANY reliably confirmed acronym-derived etymologies that predate the 20th century? Spa is just the latest in a list that includes, golf, f*ck, posh, etc. I'd love to know if there are any at all that are genuine.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Not in English, however there was once spotted a pre-20th comment about the invalidity of acronymic orign etymologies. Why one would have to comment about something that didn't exist is beyond me. However, they were fairly common in Hebrew pre-20th and we're not talking English here.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Well that's funny, cause that was my first instinct, to assume it was the place Spa - but I was thinking of Hungary not Belgium. I was very surprised therefore to read a number of sources today that stated quite clearly that Spa was a Latin abbreviation for 'Sanus per Aquaum' (health through water).
Not bad.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Not bad.
Now *that's funny.
Quote:
I was very surprised therefore to read a number of sources today that stated quite clearly that Spa was a Latin abbreviation for 'Sanus per Aquaum' (health through water).
Lots of things can be stated quite clearly. Doesn't make them true.
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old hand
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Lots of things can be stated quite clearly. Doesn't make them true. Now, that's water-clear
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