|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
At the second site, I ran into a new word: fossicker
In Australia or New Zealand especially, one who informally searches for gold by "reworking" abandoned piles of earth which may have already been depleted of the mineral. To ferret out; to rummage for something of value with a goal of making a profit.
A fossicker is also a bothersome person, one who busies about and creates trouble.
Fossicking is quite an enjoyable hobby in Australia and New Zealand, parts of the world that are home to a wide range of fossils and minerals.
Origin is unknown.
So in hijacking words from tsuwm? wwftd, I have been fossicking. Sound a bit naughty.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
In another thread, "salt cellars" were mentioned. I did not realize that this is a tautology.
Furthermore, those who were wealthy enough to have saltcellars [small dishes used for holding and dispensing salt] just as recently as 300 years ago were deemed to have "status," and they were looked highly upon and esteemed by their "underlings"! Contrary to frequent belief, a saltcellar is not a location for storing salt but rather it is merely a "compound redundancy," that is, tautology, for the word "salt":
Cellar (as in saltcellar) comes from the Anglo-Norman saler [and later seler], another word for saltcellar, a word derived from the Latin sal and the corresponding verb, salere, to add salt to.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
"thy micturations are to me, As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee."
As consuelo has already noted, the indicated word requies its own color.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
work these days takes up more time.. i have much, much longer commute -- there is this distraction about town. and now i don't even have a simple dictionary about.. and connections are iffy, and i keep getting dumped..
i look up when i can.. my two favorite words..for etymology kaliedoscope. which breaks out pretty easy into its roots..
and seat/chair/see (as in the Holy See).. very interesting.. a round robin collection.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Related to this is the etymology of "steward" from stig = [pig]sty and wearden = watch, keep. A steward therefore was originally the guardian of the pigs.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
WORD HISTORY: Hard-riding marshals of the Wild West in pursuit of criminals reemphasize the relationship of the word marshal with horses. The Germanic ancestor of our word marshal is a compound made up of *marhaz, “horse” (related to the source of our word mare), and *skalkaz, “servant,” meaning as a whole literally “horse servant,” hence “groom.” The Frankish descendant of this Germanic word, *marahskalk, came to designate a high royal official and also a high military commander—not surprising given the importance of the horse in medieval warfare. Along with many other Frankish words, *marahskalk was borrowed into Old French by about 800; some centuries later, when the Normans established a French-speaking official class in England, the Old French word came with them. In English, marshal is first recorded in 1218, as a surname (still surviving in the spelling Marshall); its first appearance as a common noun was in 1258, in the sense “high officer of the royal court.” The word was also applied to this high royal official's deputies, who were officers of courts of law, and it continued to designate various officials involved with courts of law and law enforcement, including the horseback-riding marshals we are familiar with in the United States.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
I love it -- more bread etymology! Bakers unite! Dyslexics untie!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
That's our roll in life, Alex. I sometimes think we have created a new social science on this board - I would like to christen it Eatermology ![](/board/images/icons/wink.gif)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,368
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
715
guests, and
0
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|