Word of the Week
Word history and etymology
Have you ever wondered when certain words started to be used in certain ways? Or how they even came about? If they’re related to other, similar-sounding words?
I wonder these things all the time. And so, for years I’ve been gathering interesting words together, looking at the etymology, and posting them in fun, bite-sized posts called Word of the Week. Here you’ll find everything from which definition of a word pre-dates another, to how certain holiday words came about, to what the original meaning was of something we use a lot today but in a very different way. And of course, the surprising words that we think are new but in fact are pretty ancient, like “wow”!
30 Days of Giveaways! ~ Day 1
Much as I can't believe it, there is only ONE MONTH before the release of Whispers from the Shadows, book 2 in the Culper Ring Series! Man, the last six months have flown by!! And you know what? I still have boxes and boxes of Ring of Secrets sitting here, just...
Word of the Week – Deserts
Allegory of Justice by Gaetano Gandolfi "You'll get your just deserts!" Okay, confession. Because that phrase pronounces the final word as one pronounced the word for the delightful confections that make life worth living, I never once realized it's spelled with one...
Word of the Week – Went
Sir Sumbras at the Ford by JE Millais, 1857 Hello, m'lovelies! I'm back from the beach and back to business. =) And while I was gone, a friend sent me a link to some awesome word etymologies, so I thought I'd share one with you today. So. We all know the word "wend,"...
Word of the Week – Carnival
First, have you grabbed your free copy Fairchild's Lady yet? If not, check out Saturday's post for all the links to your choice of retailers! Now onto the Word of the Week. =) This will be short but sweet. Carnival. I confess that when I see the word, I mostly think...
Word of the Week – Nose
I love these words with a long history. =) To mix things up today, I'm going to present this one as a list. Wanna take a guess as to which one I was looking up for the end of my spy story? LOL Primary use (you know, the part of your face) - Old English Used of any...
Word of the Week – Snap
I'm in a sprint toward the end of Circle of Spies (woo hoo!), and in my marathon writing these last few days have been looking up a lot of words' etymology. This is the first time in a good while I've had a historical character prone to slang, and slang is so tricky!...
Word of the Week – Gander
Gänsefütterung by Alexander Koester, 1890 On the road last week, silly conversation led us to the word gander. And I started to wonder whether the two meanings I knew of--a male goose and to look around--were from the same root, or if it were one of those cases where...
Word of the Week – Scandal
I think we all know what a scandal is, and it's been in the English language pretty much forever. But there's a subtly to it I had never picked up on, and which one of our friends was talking about this weekend. When one goes back to the original Greek skandalizein,...
Word of the Week – Tycoon
In Circle of Spies, my villain is a railroad tycoon. Slightly tricky because I don't want to imply that any of the actual railroad men were anything like him, LOL, but I digress. As I was blasting through the scenes last week, I very nearly had my hero contrasting...
Word of the Week – Debutante
Agnes Melanie Dickson as a debutante, 1890 Anyone who reads historicals, even 20th century historicals...or watches TV...knows what a debutante is. But as I started writing Colonial-set books, I was a bit surprised to learn the word wasn't around in the 1700s. And a...
Word of the Week – Charade
Another one I looked up in the course of writing. =) I knew that charades was a pretty old game, but I was interested in the metaphorical sense. And learned some fun things. Charade entered the English language round about 1776, obviously from French. The interesting...
Word of the Week – Snoop
There's an awful lot of snooping going on in my current manuscript, so as Marietta and Slade go peeking into things Devereaux doesn't want them too, I had to pause to look up the history of the word. =) I discovered that the verb came first, debuting round about 1832....
Word of the Week – File
Very quick one this week, as I'm still on my writing retreat. =) (And have gotten over 20K written in just two days!) In quick research while writing, I learned something interesting about file. I think I was looking to see if a file folder would have been around in...
Word of the Week – Virus
Virus is another word that really surprised me. I guess because I know that viruses are so itsy-bitsy they require a high-powered microscope to see them...I just assumed they were a modern realization. And hence a modern word. Um, no. Virus has been around since the...
Word of the Week – Ooze
Have you entered the giveaway yet for Susie Finkbeiner's Paint Chips and a piece of jewelry of your choice from her Etsy shop? If not, hurry! One more day! This one will be quick, but that's okay. I have galleys of Whispers from the Shadows arriving today, so no time...
Word of the Week – Up
First, I'd just like to say that it's my baby boy's birthday, and he's FIVE! How did that happen? LOL. But anyway. On to the word of the week. =) I chose up not because of its literal meaning, of course, which has been in English forever, but because of some of the...
Word of the Week – Ragtag
Peasants Brawling by Abraham Diepraam(A ragtag collection, to be sure) 😉 I had the pleasure of going over edits on Whispers from the Shadows last week, and my editor and I got to laugh about some of the not-in-use-yet words that slipped through. =) A few were...
Word of the Week – Catalyst
Just for the record, I really hated to post something new today and push my lovely book trailer down the page. 😉 But alas, it is Monday, so time to educate! Today we're delving into the world of science. Lavoisier, considered the father of modern chemistry Though I...
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Word of the Week – Seat
Young Lady Seated at the Virginals by Johannes Vermeer, 1670 I was looking up back seat and saw these entries. And given that they came up in the search backwards (entry 2 before entry 1), I had a moment when I thought seat as in a place of government--like a county...
Word of the Week – Talk Back
Scolding by Jose Ferras de Almeida I have children. Therefore I have uttered the phrase (a time or two--ahem) "Don't talk back." Or perhaps occasionally, "No back-talk." But when I had a character using the same, I ran into a problem. Back-talk, meaning "an...
Word of the Week – Slosh
A Wet Sunday Morning by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1896 Wow, it feels like forever since I've done one of these! LOL. Ah, the holidays. =) But the Twelve Days and Epiphany are over, my tree is down, and it's back to the grindstone completely this week. One of the...
Word of the Week – X-mas
1922 ad in Ladies' Home Journal I remember, as a child, writing stories and assignments for school around this time of year and occasionally using the abbreviation "X-mas" for Christmas. I remember teachers telling me not to use abbreviations in my assignments, and I...
Word of the Week – Park
Estes Park, Colorado, Whyte's Lake by Albert Bierstadt, 1877 Happy December, everyone! I don't know about you, but with small kids in the house, the Christmas spirit has descended around here. Yesterday was spent making salt-dough ornaments, and this coming weekend my...
Word of the Week – Snack
I hope everyone (at least those of you in the U.S.) had a lovely Thanksgiving! Ours was great and led into a wonderful weekend. The best part of which was that I didn't have to cook since Wednesday, what with all the invitations to share leftovers. 😉 L'enfant avec...
Word of the Week – Water
Water as a--ahem--living force 😉 Getting down the basics, aren't I? 😉 I had actually looked up water to determine when "water closet" came to be used for a bathroom, but there were some other interesting entries too. And it starts with the beginning. Did you...
Word of the Week – What
Whistler's Harmony of Pink and Gray - 1881Yes, I chose it because of the year and its prettiness,not because of any other relevance. 😉 I know, right? You're thinking "Her word of the week is what? Seriously? This chick is losing it..." 😉 But hopefully you'll read...
A Word of Prayer
A Prayer for Those at Sea by Frederick Daniel Hardy, 1879 With Election Day being tomorrow and so many already having voted early, I felt the need to spend today's post in a word of prayer rather than a word's etymology. I try to steer clear of politics in my online...
Word of the Week – Card
First of all, I would like to report that I finished up Whispers from the Shadows on Thursday! Woot! It checked in way too long (130,000 words instead of the 116,000 I was to shoot for), but everyone agrees that it's better to have too much than to run out of story...
Word of the Week – Dream
A Dream of a Girl Before Sunrise by Karl Briullov, 1830 This is a word that I had no idea had anything interesting to it so was very shocked to find such a long entry! And at this point, can't even remember why I bothered looking it up, LOL. Dream in the...
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Word of the Week – Nauseous
Christ Healing the Sick by Washington Allston, 1813 Oh yeah, going for controversy this week. 😉 So here's the deal. I've heard from quite a few sources that we moderns are misusing the word nauseous. That it ought not mean "to feel sick or queasy" but that it rather...
Word of the Week – Depression
Lesbia Weeping over a Sparrow by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1866 Depression. Which is what I would be in right now after the failure of my primary coffee pot if I did not have a French press to serve as backup . . . 😉 Naw, seriously, this is another word I had to...
Word of the Week – Network
Palermo: Fishing Net in Mondello by Dedda71 When one is writing a series about a secret espionage organization, one frequently finds oneself using modern words to describe this group. And then one must constantly check oneself and go, "Aw, man! That wasn't around...
Word of the Week – Sketchy
I was actually reading this weekend (oooo...ahhhh), and oh-so-enjoying losing myself in the pages of a fine historical. A fine historical that at one point made me pause when these 1866 characters used the word sketchy. Insert Roseanna narrowing her eyes and...
Word of the Week – Crazy Synonyms
I'm mixing things up today! Don't worry, there'll still be a wee bit of etymology here. But I also want YOUR thoughts. So this past week there were two different times when I wanted an old-fashioned word for crazy. I found one I was looking for, which is: by Giovanni...
Word of the Week – Sit, Twiddle, and Twirl
Idle Hours by Henry Siddons Mowbray Today I'm going to examine the origin of a particular phrase rather than a particular word. 😉 Friday, as I was working on Whispers from the Shadows, my hero was exclaiming something about how it was time to take action...
Word of the Week – Wow
This is a short one, but surprising. I always thought of wow as a modern word. So when I looked it up, I was shocked to see that it's from 1510! Wow is a Scottish interjection, one of those that arise from a natural sound we make when surprised by something. Much like...
Word of the Week – Mean
Mean is one of those words that I knew well would have been around forever, but I looked it up to see about some of the particular uses. And as usual, found a few surprises. =) As a verb, mean has meant "intend, have in mind" even back in the days of Old English. No...
Word of the Week – Zone
The other day I was looking up "war zone," and in so doing came across some interesting tidbits on zone. =) The noun dates to the late fourteenth century, coming directly from the Latin zona, which means "a geographical belt, celestial zone." The Latin in turn comes...
Word of the Week – Doodle
From time immemorial--or at least since the rise of pencil and pen and paper--people have been scribbling nonsensical pictures onto the page when they're thinking. We call it doodling. But apparently we've only been calling it that since 1935. I had no idea it was...
Word of the Week – Grandfather
Well, we just got back from a trip to Texas, and I'm still in get-situated-back-at-home mode, so this will be a short one. =) But last week I had to look up when grandfather clocks came to be called grandfather clocks (can't believe I even thought to question that...
Word of the Week – Appropriate
Last week while in the car, we were trying to figure out why "appropriate" (adj) and "appropriate" (v) are spelled exactly the same, pronounced differently, with what we deemed very different meanings. (Yes, my whole family is apparently word-nerdish, LOL.) A Favor by...
Word of the Week – Sober
Obviously a sober-minded young lady 😉 One of the words my editor said was distracting in Ring of Secrets was "sober." I used it a couple times instead of "serious," which is, of course, valid. Which she knew. But the modern definition... 😉 I decided to look it up...
Word of the Week – Lowlife
Last week I had the pleasure of going over edits of Ring of Secrets with my awesome editor, and she proved her awesomeness by discovering some words I hadn't thought to look up but which were way too new for my 1780-set book. One of the most surprising is lowlife. It...
Word of the Week – Whatnot
Waaaaaaaaay back in 2006 when I started submitting a historical manuscript, I had an editor respond saying that some of words were too modern. Like "whatnot." Now, I won't argue that some of my words were indeed too modern. But that she chose that one as an example...
Word of the Week – Neighborhood
It was a long time ago at this point that my daughter asked me why it was called a neighborhood. At the time, I said something like "Uh . . . well . . . um . . . I don't know. Why do you think?" We came up with a nice, totally fabricated story about the houses all...
Word of the Week – In/flammable
One of my all-time favorite Simpsons moments is when the quack doctor, Dr. Nick Rivera, insists when a flaming ring lands on a tank of laughing gas (I think it is...), "Don't worry. It's inflammable." and is promptly exploded. To which he replies, "Inflammable...
Word of the Week – Reckless
My 4-year-old boy just decided to take the wheel of their little mini John Deere Gator the other day, so you can imagine my inspiration for this week's word. 😉 Reckless is one of those that always confused me as a kid. I mean, why was it reckLESS when you were...
Word of the Week – Company
This weekend we had a great time with our out-of-town visitors, my friend (and fellow WhiteFire author and editor, and critique partner) Dina Sleiman and her husband. So in the spirit of enjoyable company, I thought I'd look at the word. 😉 Sine the mid-12th century,...
Word of the Week – Veteran
Since it's Memorial Day, I thought I'd take a look at some appropriate words. =) I know I did "memorial" last year, though, so today we're going with "veteran." I was a bit surprised by how old this one was for some reason. Since 1500 it has carried the meaning "old...
Word of the Week – Plant
Every time we go to my mom's we see the power plant across the river--and every time, my kids ask, "Why's it called a 'plant'?" And every time, I go, "Uh . . . " At one point I made up an answer--and what do you know, I was right! LOL Plant is from the...