by Roseanna White | Feb 11, 2019 | Word of the Week
In my house, we often ask which words come first–the animals, or the people who share their traits. Like slug/sluggish, sloth/slothful etc.
Well, in the case of slug, the trait definitely came before the critter! It comes from the Scandinavian word slugje, which means “a slow, heavy person.” It’s been in English since the early 15th century. Interestingly, it wasn’t given as a name to a shell-less snail until 1704!
Etymologists aren’t quite sure where the next meaning of slug–a lead bit–came from. Perhaps because of how heavy lead is? No one’s quite sure. But it’s from this secondary meaning that we get the “bullet” meaning. This may have led directly to the meaning of “a hard blow or punch.” The meaning of “swallow” is likely influenced by the Irish slog, which means swallow.
by Roseanna White | Feb 4, 2019 | Word of the Week
We all know the liber words that have to do with “freedom”:
Liberty
Liberate
Liberally
But what about Library? Is it so called because it’s where you can get books for free?
You might think so, but…no, actually. It’s because in Latin, liber had two meanings: “free” and “book.” And it certainly isn’t because books cost nothing back then!
On the contrary, it’s because books–knowledge–education–were considered the means by which a man’s soul became free. Lack of education and illiteracy were considered a sort of bondage, directly tied to the slave class. Much like the word for school is linked to the word for leisure (because only the rich, who lived a life of leisure, could afford to send their kids to school), so too is the very concept of freedom linked to books.
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE THAT!
by Roseanna White | Jan 28, 2019 | Word of the Week
My kids’ vocabulary books have this section at the end of each lesson called “Fun and Fascinating Facts” about the words or roots in that week’s list. This one comes courtesy of Rowyn’s book–and is something I really did find fun and fascinating!
So, puny. I know it as “small, weak.” And that meaning has been around since the 1590s. But before that, puny meant “inferior in rank.” And before that, it was used of underclassman in school situations. Why? Great question. 😉
Puny comes from the Latin phrase puis ne–literally, “born after.” This phrase was applied, in Roman days, to children after the firstborn, who would inherit the estate of his parents. So a second, third, etc. son was puis ne and therefore inferior in rank and considered less powerful in society’s eyes.
Who knew?!
by Roseanna White | Jan 21, 2019 | Word of the Week
This time of year, I do a fair amount of baking–love a little added warmth in the kitchen! And I have to say, one of my favorite things to bake is bread. I love the process of making it–kneading the dough, finding that perfect texture and moisture level, then letting it rise…there’s just something lovely about it. And if there’s anything better than the smell of baking bread, I’ve never discovered it!
But I’d never paused to wonder about the word I use for that–aroma. High time I looked it up!
Aroma entered the English language in the 1200s, and while it did mean something “sweet-smelling,” it also applied specifically to spices. This is because, though the Latin word just means “a pleasant smell,” the Latin is actually borrowed straight from the Greek–in which, it didn’t just mean a fragrance. It did actually mean, specifically, “seasoning; a spice or sweet herb.”
So while today we might use the word for anything that smells–pleasant or not–it has a very particular root! Not just a smell, not just a pleasant smell, but one that comes from spices or seasoning.
What are some of your favorite aromas?
by Roseanna White | Jan 14, 2019 | Word of the Week
So we all know what a companion is…but if you’re anything like me, you’ve never paused to examine where the word came from.
Com is Latin for “with.” Okay…making sense so far. A companion is someone you’re with.
But I’d never stopped to realize that the panion part is from panis–the Latin word for “bread.” So a companion is literally “someone with whom you eat bread.”
Just goes to show that as far back as you care to look, when you live or travel or spend time with someone, food is going to be involved. 😉 Sharing a meal has always been one of the most important aspects of our social bonding. Cool to see that it’s the root even of the words for it!
by Roseanna White | Jan 7, 2019 | Word of the Week
I know, I know, I’m a week late for this one. But on New Year’s, my family asked what in the world this song means, so I figured it would be a great feature for my first Word of the Week post in January!
I’ve never really looked too deeply into this song and the subsequent popularization of the phrase, but the credit for it goes to Robert Burns (he would be the one in the header image), who wrote it in 1788. The words auld lang syne are Scottish dialect, literally meaning “old long since.” Which is more or less, “the good old days” or “days long ago.” The entire poem (set to a melody already known by the time Burns wrote this), is basically saying, “let’s drink a toast to the good old days.”
If you’re like me and have never bothered learning all the words to this one, here’s a side-by-side of the original word including the Scottish phrases, and the English translation:
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.