RANDOM THOUGHTS #110
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself about the curious origins of interesting words:
1. FASCINATE, to attract the interest of someone, comes (by way of the Latin fascianatio) from the Greek baskania, which was their term for "evil eye" (i.e., the ability to do bodily harm, destroy crops, or inflict curses at a glance).
2. FEBRUARY, the second month of our year, was the Roman month of purification. During one of their rituals for the patron god of shepherds, goat skins were cut into strips (februa) which priests (running through the streets) used to strike people (with a blessing that cured women of barrenness, among other things).
3. FIASCO is the Latin word for a small bottle and actors who flubbed their lines would they had "made a bottle." Soon, others used the term to mean "I made a mistake." In later times, the word was used for the worst and most far reaching of these mistakes.
4. FIB, a minor lie, comes from the word fable (a narrative that while telling a lesson is something that didn't actually happen). Fable is, as a word, six centuries old. About four centuries ago, mothers would tell their children they had told a fibble, a term meaning a childish story to avoid blame. That was shortened to fib.
5. FIFE, a small musical wind instrument which produces a sharp tone, originated with the Swiss mercenaries in the 1400s, named pfeiff in German. It became popular with armies because it was easy to carry and require little maintenance. Arriving in England two centuries later, the German word (too hard for the English to say or spell) evolved into fife.
6. FILIBUSTER, a parliamentary maneuver to block a piece of legislation, derives from an old word for pirate. During the 1500s and 1600s, Spain had a lot of New World colonies and forbade them to trade with anyone but Spain, which set the rates at extortionate levels. There was also a lot of gold discovered and sent home to Madrid. The English, Dutch, and French wanted to join the trade (and make a profit by avoiding customs laws) and sent ships to slip into Spanish colonies. These ships were armed for self defense against the Spanish Navy. From there, it was one short and obvious step from simply capturing Spanish merchant ships, which (after all) held everything the English, French, and Dutch smugglers wanted to buy. English pirates were called buccaneers and the French used the term corsair, but the Dutch preferred the term vrijbuiter which meant "free robber" as in someone not sanctioned by the Dutch government. (Plausible deniability is that old, and much older.) The French version of vrijbuiter was fribustier which in Spanish became filibustero. When William Walker and his American adventurers tried to take over the countries of Mexico, then Nicaragua, then Honduras, the locals (who spoke Spanish) called him a filibustero, a term that was copied into American newspapers as filibuster. A few years later, senators who tried to talk a bill to death were called filibusters because they tried to hijack the legislative process.
7. FORK, the table utensil we used to convey food from plate to mouth, comes from the Latin forca, which was a two-tined hay fork used by farmers. It first appeared about 1050 in Vienna, and reached England by 1600.
8. FORTNIGHT, an archaic term for a period of two-weeks, comes form the old English feowertene nihta, or fourteen nights. While the Romans used a seven-day week, the Saxons who conquered England about 500AD thought in terms of fourteen days, or half a month.
9. FOYER, a room by the front door of a business or other large building, is the French word for fireplace. Even as late as 150 years ago, theaters were not heated, and during intermission the audience went to the lobby (where a large fire was burning in a fireplace) to warm up.
10. FRANC, the French unit of currency before the Euro, originated in 1360, when King John II issued new gold coins equal in value to a pound of silver. The coins had an image of him on a horse and were known as "frank au cheval" or Frank on a horse. His successor issued similar coins with himself standing (no horse) and these were known as "franc au pied" or Frank on foot. As the two coins (and later ones) were interchangeable, they were collectively "francs".
1. FASCINATE, to attract the interest of someone, comes (by way of the Latin fascianatio) from the Greek baskania, which was their term for "evil eye" (i.e., the ability to do bodily harm, destroy crops, or inflict curses at a glance).
2. FEBRUARY, the second month of our year, was the Roman month of purification. During one of their rituals for the patron god of shepherds, goat skins were cut into strips (februa) which priests (running through the streets) used to strike people (with a blessing that cured women of barrenness, among other things).
3. FIASCO is the Latin word for a small bottle and actors who flubbed their lines would they had "made a bottle." Soon, others used the term to mean "I made a mistake." In later times, the word was used for the worst and most far reaching of these mistakes.
4. FIB, a minor lie, comes from the word fable (a narrative that while telling a lesson is something that didn't actually happen). Fable is, as a word, six centuries old. About four centuries ago, mothers would tell their children they had told a fibble, a term meaning a childish story to avoid blame. That was shortened to fib.
5. FIFE, a small musical wind instrument which produces a sharp tone, originated with the Swiss mercenaries in the 1400s, named pfeiff in German. It became popular with armies because it was easy to carry and require little maintenance. Arriving in England two centuries later, the German word (too hard for the English to say or spell) evolved into fife.
6. FILIBUSTER, a parliamentary maneuver to block a piece of legislation, derives from an old word for pirate. During the 1500s and 1600s, Spain had a lot of New World colonies and forbade them to trade with anyone but Spain, which set the rates at extortionate levels. There was also a lot of gold discovered and sent home to Madrid. The English, Dutch, and French wanted to join the trade (and make a profit by avoiding customs laws) and sent ships to slip into Spanish colonies. These ships were armed for self defense against the Spanish Navy. From there, it was one short and obvious step from simply capturing Spanish merchant ships, which (after all) held everything the English, French, and Dutch smugglers wanted to buy. English pirates were called buccaneers and the French used the term corsair, but the Dutch preferred the term vrijbuiter which meant "free robber" as in someone not sanctioned by the Dutch government. (Plausible deniability is that old, and much older.) The French version of vrijbuiter was fribustier which in Spanish became filibustero. When William Walker and his American adventurers tried to take over the countries of Mexico, then Nicaragua, then Honduras, the locals (who spoke Spanish) called him a filibustero, a term that was copied into American newspapers as filibuster. A few years later, senators who tried to talk a bill to death were called filibusters because they tried to hijack the legislative process.
7. FORK, the table utensil we used to convey food from plate to mouth, comes from the Latin forca, which was a two-tined hay fork used by farmers. It first appeared about 1050 in Vienna, and reached England by 1600.
8. FORTNIGHT, an archaic term for a period of two-weeks, comes form the old English feowertene nihta, or fourteen nights. While the Romans used a seven-day week, the Saxons who conquered England about 500AD thought in terms of fourteen days, or half a month.
9. FOYER, a room by the front door of a business or other large building, is the French word for fireplace. Even as late as 150 years ago, theaters were not heated, and during intermission the audience went to the lobby (where a large fire was burning in a fireplace) to warm up.
10. FRANC, the French unit of currency before the Euro, originated in 1360, when King John II issued new gold coins equal in value to a pound of silver. The coins had an image of him on a horse and were known as "frank au cheval" or Frank on a horse. His successor issued similar coins with himself standing (no horse) and these were known as "franc au pied" or Frank on foot. As the two coins (and later ones) were interchangeable, they were collectively "francs".
posted by Federation Commander at 2:48 PM
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