RANDOM THOUGHTS #106
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself about the curious origins of interesting words:
1. EGIS, which is seen in the Star Fleet Universe by the alternate form Aegis, is the name of the shield carried by Zeus during his battle with the Titans. The shield was made of goatskin, perhaps because Zeus was always rather friendly with goats having been fed goat's milk as a child. Minerva-Athena had armor made of goatskins that was also called by this word. The original Greek word aigis may have been a holdover from an earlier civilization. While the Greeks knew it meant goatskin, they did not use it for that purpose but had another Greek word for those. The word Aegis is used by the US Navy to describe its recent anti-missile radar system.
2. EL DORADO is Spanish for "the golden one" and was used to describe the mythical city of gold (or its king) that resided somewhere in the Americas. There is also a kind of fish named dorado which got the name for its golden color.
3. ELECTRIC is derived from the ancient Greek work for amber, electron. It was known in 700BC that if you rub amber it gains will attract very light substances, although no one really understood that concepts of magnetism of static electricity, which are similar but not the same. When electro-magnetism was discovered by William Gilbert in 1600 (using amber in his experiments), he thought it was all the same thing and named it electricus (the Latin version of the Greek word). From this we get electric and electricity.
4. ELIXIR, a medical fluid or powder, comes from the Arabic words Al Ikser, which translate as the philosopher's stone. When the Arabs conquered large areas in the 600s and 700s, they brought together in Baghdad the wise men from conquered cultures, and this group became the basis of natural and physical sciences including chemistry. But like all other early scientists, they got almost everything wrong. They thought that every known metal was a mixture of sulfur, mercury, and (perhaps in some cases) other things. Since gold (the most valuable metal) was made of the same things as other metals (and none of those mixtures worked), the way to make it must involve some tiny amount of some really wonderful material. Alchemists spent a thousand years looking for this item, calling it the philosopher's stone. Later European alchemists thought that perhaps this stone was a liquid or powder and that ingesting it would improve health and prolong life. Soon, any medicine was an elixir.
5. EMANCIPATION, to grant the full rights of an adult citizen to a minor or a slave, comes from the Latin words manus (hand) and capio (to take). No contract was complete until someone "took in hand" the item involved. (Even in modern contracts for intangible property, there is always a symbolic dollar that changes hands.) When a Roman boy became of age, his father took him to the courthouse to sign the register and ceremonially took him by the hand and released him. As "e" means out, e-manus-capio meant "to release from the hand" and that wandered through French and into English as emancipation.
6. ENCHANT, meaning a magical change in something, comes from the ancient concept (found in almost every culture) that if you chant the right words, phrases, or poems, you can influence the future, or the gods, or fate, or something. The Latin word for singing was "canto" (which produces the word canticle that was used for some guy named Liebowitz) while "in-canto" meant "to sing against" (i.e., to ward off evil or bad luck). Incanto wandered through French into English and produced enchanted, incantation, and related words.
7. ENTHUSIASM, to have inside oneself a spirit of excitement, interest, or commitment to something, started with ancient Greek playwrights and entertainers. One who was very good was sent to be en-theo, to have a god within himself (or perhaps a god-given talent). This became the Italian enthousiazo and by way of France the English enthusiasm.
8. EPICUREAN, which now denotes fine food, began with the Greek philosopher Epicurus, born in 342BC. His theory was that pleasure was not transitory, but could be everlasting if based on pure thoughts and motives. His critics ridiculed this theory as an excuse for debauchery. Much later, those who devoted themselves to fine food adopted the name.
9. ESCAPE comes from the old Latin words ex (out) and cape (cloak) and means to run away leaving behind whatever article of clothing your former captor was holding.
10. ESQUIRE, now meaning a gentleman of means and refinement, once referred to a young man of gentle birth who wanted to be a knight. He served as a servant to a knight, primarily as shield bearer. (The word esquire is from the French and Latin and means "of the shield".) A knight simply walking around society might have light armor and his sword, but shields were heavy, awkward, and not really needed if not actually fighting. Thus, the servant would follow the knight around carrying this bulky object in case the knight suddenly needed it. Even when the shield wasn't brought along, the squire carried whatever else the knight wanted to have with him but didn't want to have to carry. (Imagine a modern-day lawyer having a law student carry his briefcase for him.) In the 18th and 19th centuries, the children of noblemen were often known by this term. Even today, some lawyers add "Esq." to their names on business stationery.
1. EGIS, which is seen in the Star Fleet Universe by the alternate form Aegis, is the name of the shield carried by Zeus during his battle with the Titans. The shield was made of goatskin, perhaps because Zeus was always rather friendly with goats having been fed goat's milk as a child. Minerva-Athena had armor made of goatskins that was also called by this word. The original Greek word aigis may have been a holdover from an earlier civilization. While the Greeks knew it meant goatskin, they did not use it for that purpose but had another Greek word for those. The word Aegis is used by the US Navy to describe its recent anti-missile radar system.
2. EL DORADO is Spanish for "the golden one" and was used to describe the mythical city of gold (or its king) that resided somewhere in the Americas. There is also a kind of fish named dorado which got the name for its golden color.
3. ELECTRIC is derived from the ancient Greek work for amber, electron. It was known in 700BC that if you rub amber it gains will attract very light substances, although no one really understood that concepts of magnetism of static electricity, which are similar but not the same. When electro-magnetism was discovered by William Gilbert in 1600 (using amber in his experiments), he thought it was all the same thing and named it electricus (the Latin version of the Greek word). From this we get electric and electricity.
4. ELIXIR, a medical fluid or powder, comes from the Arabic words Al Ikser, which translate as the philosopher's stone. When the Arabs conquered large areas in the 600s and 700s, they brought together in Baghdad the wise men from conquered cultures, and this group became the basis of natural and physical sciences including chemistry. But like all other early scientists, they got almost everything wrong. They thought that every known metal was a mixture of sulfur, mercury, and (perhaps in some cases) other things. Since gold (the most valuable metal) was made of the same things as other metals (and none of those mixtures worked), the way to make it must involve some tiny amount of some really wonderful material. Alchemists spent a thousand years looking for this item, calling it the philosopher's stone. Later European alchemists thought that perhaps this stone was a liquid or powder and that ingesting it would improve health and prolong life. Soon, any medicine was an elixir.
5. EMANCIPATION, to grant the full rights of an adult citizen to a minor or a slave, comes from the Latin words manus (hand) and capio (to take). No contract was complete until someone "took in hand" the item involved. (Even in modern contracts for intangible property, there is always a symbolic dollar that changes hands.) When a Roman boy became of age, his father took him to the courthouse to sign the register and ceremonially took him by the hand and released him. As "e" means out, e-manus-capio meant "to release from the hand" and that wandered through French and into English as emancipation.
6. ENCHANT, meaning a magical change in something, comes from the ancient concept (found in almost every culture) that if you chant the right words, phrases, or poems, you can influence the future, or the gods, or fate, or something. The Latin word for singing was "canto" (which produces the word canticle that was used for some guy named Liebowitz) while "in-canto" meant "to sing against" (i.e., to ward off evil or bad luck). Incanto wandered through French into English and produced enchanted, incantation, and related words.
7. ENTHUSIASM, to have inside oneself a spirit of excitement, interest, or commitment to something, started with ancient Greek playwrights and entertainers. One who was very good was sent to be en-theo, to have a god within himself (or perhaps a god-given talent). This became the Italian enthousiazo and by way of France the English enthusiasm.
8. EPICUREAN, which now denotes fine food, began with the Greek philosopher Epicurus, born in 342BC. His theory was that pleasure was not transitory, but could be everlasting if based on pure thoughts and motives. His critics ridiculed this theory as an excuse for debauchery. Much later, those who devoted themselves to fine food adopted the name.
9. ESCAPE comes from the old Latin words ex (out) and cape (cloak) and means to run away leaving behind whatever article of clothing your former captor was holding.
10. ESQUIRE, now meaning a gentleman of means and refinement, once referred to a young man of gentle birth who wanted to be a knight. He served as a servant to a knight, primarily as shield bearer. (The word esquire is from the French and Latin and means "of the shield".) A knight simply walking around society might have light armor and his sword, but shields were heavy, awkward, and not really needed if not actually fighting. Thus, the servant would follow the knight around carrying this bulky object in case the knight suddenly needed it. Even when the shield wasn't brought along, the squire carried whatever else the knight wanted to have with him but didn't want to have to carry. (Imagine a modern-day lawyer having a law student carry his briefcase for him.) In the 18th and 19th centuries, the children of noblemen were often known by this term. Even today, some lawyers add "Esq." to their names on business stationery.
posted by Federation Commander at 9:19 PM
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