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”!
Word of the Week – Knit
About a month ago, a lady at our church volunteered to teach knitting classes. Having been crocheting since she was 9 and then knitting as well when she moved to our area and began working in a yarn store, Ms. Judith knows her stuff! I joined mostly because Xoe has...
Word of the Week – Draw
Last week, Rowyn was reading Amelia Bedelia, who classically misunderstands commands that include words with more than one meaning. Early on in the story, she's working on a list of chores from her employer, who instructs her to "draw the drapes." Naturally, she sits...
Word of the Week – Command/ment
At church this week a slight variation in translations of 2 John made us wonder at the difference between the nouns command and commandment. These different translations were using the words interchangeably, but then...why are there two different words? Both have a...
Word of the Week – Romance
Romance writers are often looked down upon by those who read "serious literature"--and have generally never even picked up anything labeled "romance," yet judge them anyway. And as much as we romance writers rail against that, it's a tale as old as--well, as popular...
Word of the Week – Surf
Back from vacation, but not quite ready to let go. 😉 And so, today's word of the week will bring us a bit of the beach... Surf began its life as a noun meaning "waves coming ashore" in about 1680, though it was quite likely a variation on suffe, from the 1590s....
Word of the Week – Espresso
It's release week for The Lost Heiress! So in honor of Brook, this week's Word of the Week is one of Brook's favorite things: espresso. Now, according to etymonline.com, espresso didn't come into the English vernacular until 1945. But the Italians had created caffe...
Word of the Week – Hat
Yes, hat. Not that there's any surprise in the fact that hat itself has been in the English language since the dawn of the English language. But I was interested in some of the idioms containing it. =) Specifically, today I said something about our right as women to...
Word of the Week – School
Today begins our first day of the 2015-16 school year! Xoe is somehow in 5th grade. I don't know how this happened. Isn't she still 5??? And Rowyn, who I swear was 3 just yesterday, is going into 2nd grade. I made the boy-o groan and the girl-o jump up and down with...
Word of the Week – Booty
Arrr! I occasionally have a pirate in my house--this is to be expected when one has a 7-year-old boy. I never quite know when a rather adorable little figure is going to appear with his sword in hand and demand all my booty. But last time he did, his sister--being so...
Word of the Week – You’re Fired! (or sacked)
No, not in honor of Donald Trump. 😉 The question arose this past week with my hubby and son, as to where "fired" and "sacked" come from. So naturally, I ran out to my computer to answer it. Fire, as in to terminate employment, is an Americanism from about 1885...
Word of the Week – Apple
Yesterday my hubby called our daughter "The apple of my eye," and she looked at us like we were off our rocker. "The apple? How does an eye have an apple?" Good question, my girl. Good question. =) The word apple has been in English as long as there was English to be...
Word of the Week – Skeleton
Not to be gruesome or anything. 😉 I was looking this one up to see when the phrase "skeleton in the closet" came about. Skeleton itself first arrived in English in about 1570, meaning a mummy, dried-up body, or bone remains. The word came from Latin, but the Latin...
Word of the Week – Raptor
My son is 7. Which means he's obsessed with dinosaurs. Which means that he was in 7-year-old heaven when the new Jurassic World movie came out. Given that he has a really great grasp of "it's just a movie using robots and special effect"--we watched behind the scenes...
Word of the Week – Scalawag
Scalawag is one of those words that we think of as being a very old-fashioned insult--and it is...but it's not quite as old as some might think. Meaning "disreputable fellow," scalawag only dates from 1848. It originated in American union jargon, and though where it...
Word of the Week – Aluminum V. Aluminium
One of my husband's favorite shows is Top Gear--the British version. Being a car show, they have cause to say lots of things that are different than how we say it in America. Boot, bonnet...and aluminium instead of aluminum. On one particular show, the presenter is...
Word of the Week – Cheer(s/io)
It's going to be a fun week around Writing Roseanna...so I thought I'd start us off with some fun, happy words. =) I suppose I should start with the root word, cheer. The earliest English reference to word, from about 1200, was from the Anglo-French chere, and meant...
Word of the Week – Grapevine
We've all heard it through the grapevine (and some of us might break into song at the mere mention...), but do you know where the saying comes from? I didn't--but I learned recently so thought I'd share. =) Grapevine, meaning "a rumor" or "information spread in an...
Word of the Week – Fence
So, duh moment. Did you know that the noun fence--like, you know, the thing around your yard--is from defense? Yeah. Duh. I'd never paused to consider that, perhaps because the spelling has ended up different, but there you go! It has been a shortening of defense with...
Word of the Week – Field Trip
My kiddos on a field trip to a one room school house last year Since someone asked me about this over the weekend, I figured, hey--already looked it up, might as well share! 😉 Especially appropriate since this is our last week of school. Oh yeah. Right about now the...
Word of the Week – Duck
So, cute story. Way back when Xoe was just a little miniature thing (as opposed to now, when she's quickly closing the gap between our heights and wearing my shoes!!!!!), I read her the Little Quack books. In one, Little Quack is playing hide and seek with his...
Word of the Week – Fan
Many many moons ago, well before I discovered www.etymonline.com (for that matter, well before my daughter was born...I believe I was in college...) I was writing a story in which the heroine accused the hero of being a fanatic about football. He replied that he was...
Word of the Week – Hi
Since I wrote on the origins of hello last time, my daughter said that I had to look up hi for this week. =) So here we go! Far simpler than hello, LOL. Hi is most assuredly an Americanism, a greeting whose first recorded reference is from 1862. Interestingly, it's...
Word of the Week – Hello
I can't tell you how many times I've looked up the etymology of hello...but for some reason, I've never shared. Obviously time to remedy that! So the life of hello began with Old High German's hala, hola. It was an imperative form of halon, holon, which meant "to...
Word of the week – Planetarium
My not-so-fabulous shot of the earth as seen at FSU's planetarium Last week, we were super excited to get to visit a local university and see the planetarium with our homeschool group. And of course, this being my family, the night before we were talking about the...
Word of the Week – Spunky
Yesterday, my parents were describing a relative, and they said she was "feisty." Naturally, I had to pipe in with where that word came from (click here for that Word of the Week), and how I just haven't been able to use it ever since discovering its origins. So my...
Word of the Week – Normalcy V Normality
This one made me go, "Ha! Take that, everyone who uses the word I don't like!" 😉 See, I was always a normality girl. But more and more often I'd begun hearing normalcy. And it drove me batty. Here, my friends, is why. Normality itself is a relatively new word,...
Word of the Week – Shucks
I say it a lot, just to be cute. Aw, shucks. Every time I type it, I add an imaginary foot shuffle. No doubt inspired from some cartoon. But it never occurred to me to wonder where it came from. When I looked it up, it was kinda a "duh" moment. Appearing in writing in...
Word of the Week – Sniper
Last time I blogged at Colonial Quills, I was talking about George Washington took advantage of the new rifled barrels to scare the wits out of the English, who thought every American to be an expert marksman. And indeed, we changed the rules of warfare by "sniping"...
Word of the Week – Sunday School
I was critiquing a few chapters for a friend of mine last week, and it led me to do some quick research--in which I learned something new, yay! =) Namely, about Sunday school. The phrase Sunday school dates from 1783. However, it wasn't religious instruction. On the...
Word of the Week – Yankee
Another one whose credit goes to my kiddos, who this week asked, "Where did the word Yankee come from?" (We've been reading about the early days of America, you see...) I didn't have the answer to that one off the top of my head, so I popped over to my beloved...
Word of the Week – Conscience
We think of our conscience as part of our spirit or soul...something that operates apart from thought. Our consciences are the little cricket on our shoulder telling us right from wrong. Right? It's something we feel in our gut and have to learn to listen to. Well the...
Word of the Week – Willy-nilly
Willy-nilly. It's a phrase I've heard most of my life, and I knew how to use it. But it wasn't until a few years ago, when I was reading an old book and saw it written a different way, that I had a clue where in the world this word came from. In this book, it was...
Word of the Week – Raise V. Raze
A week or two ago, my best friend sent me one of those hilarious "someecards" photos on Pinterest that totally sums up my outlook on housework. I love this. But I'm also enough of a grammarian that I had to point out the typo, LOL. I was in college, reading all the...
Word of the Week – Biscuit
Last week, I made some truly beautiful southern-style biscuits (click the photo for the recipe). And oh, how delicious they were!! Of course, this being my family, the mere bread itself wasn't the only thing we worked on. My awesome children also had to ask, "So if...
Word of the Week – Brat
Here we are! A new year, and back on schedule for blogging. =) I had a lovely holiday, and I hope you all did too! So today, back to a word I'd looked up for the last section of The Outcast Duchess. I use it because it rhymes with a character's name, but I had to make...
Word of the Week – Limelight – and The Winner!
First of all, the winner of my giveaway is Susan Poll! Congrats! Now on with the word of the week. =) This weekend past was the annual performance of The Nutcracker by the ballet studio my daughter attends, so we were occupied with all things stage and dancing. I...
Word of the Week – Jolly
Well here's one that made me smile. I have to say that most times when I hear the word jolly, I think of Christmas. Jolly old St. Nick, jolly elves, etc. And apparently, that's a good thing to think of! Though the word comes most immediately from Old French jolif,...
Word of the Week – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Thought I'd go Christmasy for December. =) So today's Word of the Week is less a word and more the etymology of a story. Because my kids asked me, after I went through the original St. Nicholas story with them, when Rudolph came about, and I had no clue. As it turns...
Word of the Week – Bucket List
Okay, there's a debate about this in my house. I made the observation a few weeks ago, when someone on TV mentioned their "bucket list," that I was amazed at how quickly this term became a part of our daily vocabulary, when it was pretty much created by the movie. My...
Word of the Week – Scene
I found myself looking up the etymology of crime scene the other day. I had a feeling it was a bit modern...and I was right. The original phrase was actually scene of the crime (makes sense) and was coined by Agatha Christie in 1923. But there were some other...
Word of the Week – Demur & Demure
When words are this close in spelling, I always find myself wondering if they're related. And, yeah, occasionally get the spellings confused too. 😉 This morning I was rereading what I wrote over the weekend and saw a time where I was using the verb, demur, but put...
Word of the Week – Behave
This is one I've wondered about for years but never paused to look up. Behave. As a kid, I would often joke that I was "being have." And I would always wonder what, exactly, "have" was, LOL. Well, I recently said something similar to my kids and decided to look it up....
Word of the Week – Novel
Hard to believe I've never looked this one up before, eh? LOL My daughter has asked me a few times where the word novel comes from. I had some inkling, knowing my roots and the fact that novel can mean both "something new" and the fiction stories I so adore. But this...
Word of the Week – Perk
Today's word comes to us by me literally clicking on a random letter at www.EtymOnline.com and then a random page within said letter and scrolling down until something caught my eye. 😉 The lucky word was perk. The first meaning of perk in English came from Old North...
Word of the Week – Some Movie Words
We've all heard of the stars of the Silver Screen...but last week I found myself wondering about the term. Where did it come from? When did it come from? Obviously after movies came about, but when? A simple answer to find. =) Silver screen was originally in...
Word of the Week – Genes
Good grief, I've been forgetting to blog left and right! Let's hope it's just that my last few weeks have been crazy, and now my brain will settle back into normal patterns. 😉 We can hope... In my last pass of the fantabulous Veiled at Midnight, I came across a...
Word of the Week – Recap
As I'm sitting here blurry-eyed and sore-throated (sure, that's a word) after my trip to the ACFW Conference, I seriously considered skipping my Word of the Week post and doing a recap of the conference. Then, of course, my brain went, "Recap...hmm. I don't think I've...
Word of the Week – Isle & Island
So, my husband made what I deem an incredible etymology discovery this weekend. That isle and island are completely unrelated words, from different roots. Color me baffled. The world island was originally spelled yland, and appeared in 1590...to replace the Old...
Word of the Week – Level
We all know what level means, right? It's to be even, going neither up nor down. It's the state of being so, like the levels of a house. It's the tool that guarantees it. And all the idioms containing it arise from those. Sure. But I was quite surprised to learn that...
Word of the Week – Rumbustious
In case you haven't heard yet, Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland is on sale until September 15! All digital versions are only $0.99, which is a waaaaaaaay lower price than it's usual $8+. If you were waiting for the right time to get this one, it's here. =) Amazon...