Search | Home | FAQ | Links | Site map | Book Store | New | Ask Us | Theory | About |
Interested in sponsoring this site, advertising here or making a donation to keep the site running? |
Do you feel invigorated and refreshed after a visit to a restaurant, You should, for restaurant is French for "restoring". The first of these health-giving establishments was founded in Paris in 1765 by a Monsieur A. Boulanger, a soup vendor who became the first restaurateur. Note the absence of the letter n from that word. The proprietor of a restaurant is a "restorer", not a "restaurant-er". On the face of it, one might assume that an aperitif and an appetizer share a common ancestor, after all they are both consumed at the beginning of a meal and they do sound similar. However, an aperitif is an "opener" (from Latin aperire, "to open") and an appetizer is... a lot more complicated.
Pâté is a perennially popular appetizer. Notice the "tin hat" over the a. The proper name for this accent is a circumflex and when this occurs in French it usually indicates a missing s. Thus, we may deduce that the original form was pasté, meaning "pastry-ed". This is because pâtés were originally cooked in a pastry crust but nowadays this is called a pâté en croûte. Note that the u in croûte also has a circumflex. This means that the original word was crouste. Yes, you've got it - it's the English word crust in disguise. Pasté is the Old French form of the Italian pasta which literally means "dough" or "paste" and ultimately derives from the Greek paste (pronounced past-ay) meaning "barley porridge". So, etymologically speaking, pasta, a pâté and a Cornish pasty are the same thing. We happen to be especially fond of truffle-flavored pâté and,
improbable as it sounds, truffle is Truffles, like almost all expensive foods, are considered to be an aphrodisiac. There is no evidence to support this belief but we've never heard a truffle merchant deny it. For centuries, chocolate shared this dubious reputation. Despite recent speculation regarding its phenethylamine content, its reputation was probably based on its extreme rarity and expense. Back in the 18th century, someone had what they must have considered a stroke of genius and combined these two notorious aphrodisiacs into one irresistible morsel. We can't imagine that the addition of a pungent, garlicky fungus could have improved the flavor of the chocolate but, as ever, expense was the true aphrodisiac here. These days, these delightful confections are still made but, mercifully, without the addition of truffles. We still call them chocolate truffles, though. |
|
|||
From James McCrudden:
For those of you American and other readers who aren't familiar with yonks, it means "a long time." You'd think that Melanie, having been married to Brit Mike for yonks, would have known that! We are curmudgeons so it is about time that we discuss curmudgeon's origins. However, no one knows where it came from! End of discussion? Why, of course not. We have to provide you with some spurious etymologies first. There is a work from 1600, on Livy's History, by Philemon Holland, where the term cornmudgin appears. Etymologists were briefly excited by this because they thought that it suggested "one who hoards or conceals corn", mudgin having come from Middle English muchen "to steal". However, an earlier instance of the word curmudgeon came to light (1577), so the cornmudgin theory was thrown to the dogs. More about dogs later. Another erroneous etymology was provided by Samuel Johnson, logophile extraordinaire. He said that he was told that the word derived from cœur méchant, from méchant cœur "evil or malicious heart", but that explanation has no scientific support whatsoever. Instead, etymologists think that the cur- in curmudgeon might be related to cur "dog", perhaps denoting something similar to cynic, which etymologically is thought to mean "sneering like a dog". |
|||
Read about other words in our bookstore. |
|||
From Punita:
Fix in the sense you employ - "in a tight place" - derives from the verb form, though exactly how is not clear. However, the verb's etymology is known. It comes from the past participle of Latin figere "fasten", which was fixus. Something that is "fixed in place" is "fastened". Perhaps the notion of "being in a fix" was one of being "fastened" in a figurative sense and unable to move, metaphorically. As for fix meaning "repair", this is a broad usage of the "fasten" sense, the meaning progressing from "fasten" to "arrange" to "put in order" to "make tidy" to "rig up" and then "repair". The notion of fixing a meal followed that same line of meaning change. Fix is first recorded in English in the early 15th century as fixeth. |
|||
From Peter Draper:
It is a great word! There's even a silly form of it purposefully misspelled as Hootin' Annie! So what is it, a noisy female goat? Well, strangely enough, it was originally another word for a "thingamajig". In that sense it dates from about 1929 in the U.S. It wasn't until about 1940 that the word was used to refer to "an informal session or concert of folk music and singing". No one has any idea where this word comes from! |
|||
From Steven Steinbock:
All of the cognates in the other Germanic languages mean the same thing, "The spiritual part of man in contrast to the purely physical". So how did that meaning come to apply to a bluesy style of African-American music? Well, since very early on the word soul has also referred to the center of emotions and feelings in man. In the 1940's soul came to be applied to an emotional or spiritual aspect of African-Americans and their culture, embodied especially in music. Then, by the 1950's, the term had come to be applied to the music itself and, originally the term soul music applied to a genre of Gospel-tinged jazz, usually in 6/8 time. (The pianist Bobby Timmons was an outstanding exponent of this style.) The exact style of music to which the label applies has changed over the years, but it is interesting that the term itself remains. |
|||
From Patrick:
This word started life as an eponym, being the name of a cartoon character from the mind of cartoonist H.T. Webster. He created Caspar Milquetoast in 1924, and it was obviously a reference to the bland dish milk-toast which is made by soaking toast in milk and was usually prepared for invalids. By 1938 milquetoast was being used figuratively to describe anyone who was similar to Caspar: timid and shy. We especially like this quotation: "What is it makes a man with brains so milquetoast when he gets away from the blackboard?" [From Kitty Foyle by C. Morley, 1939] By the way, the name of Webster's comic strip, starring Milquetoast, was The Timid Soul. |
|||
|
![]() |
From Jim McCrudden:
From Joshua Daniels:
We have abbreviated both of these rather long letters as we are not at all concerned with matters of theology (well, not in these pages, at least). We just pointed out the meaning of a Greek word and that's about as far as we wish to take it. (No letters, please.) |
From Melanie Shearman:
Fowler says that the plural form is usually fish but that fishes is allowed, but we were taught just as you were. But there is that story of the "loaves and fishes". (No letters, please.) |
From Chuck Miller:
From Tony Swartz Lloyd:
As we said last week, there is considerable regional variation in these terms, so don't expect all Brits to agree on definitions of tea and high tea. The general rule, though, is that meat is served at a high tea. Why high? The word simply indicates the tea is somewhat more important than usual, as in High street and high mass. (No letters, please.) |
From Georg Trimborn:
The steps you suggest comprise one manner of finding the etymology of a word, especially one of obscure origin. It is typical to compare the English word one is researching with the word's equivalent in other languages. However, one has also to find a clear link, in the written record, of the English word's connection to any foreign one. In this case, it is unlikely that many Lithuanian words (or words from neighboring languages, either) were making their way into England in the 14th century. No one has been able to find any evidence of washer's origin, to date, |
From Mel Moyer:
Thanks, Mel. Yes, Mike did have a bit of an accident, requiring for a few days the assistance of some pain pills. He'll soon be back in working order, but he can't be held responsible for anything he's written in the past two weeks! |
From: Harry Coleman:
German?! Where does German come into this? We'll have you know that the first translations of Pali into English were carried out by a Welsh couple - Mr. and Mrs. Rhys Davids. Anyway, as our original column was intended to refute the allegation that English was derived from Sanskrit, Pali was not in the forefront of our minds. But, as you have brought it up, here goes... Pali is classified as a Prakrit language, that is, one of the Indian vernacular languages which evolved from Sanskrit. Since c. 100 B.C. it has been used by some schools of Buddhism (notably the Theravada or southern school) as the language in which some of the Buddhist scriptures are recorded. We can't say that we agree with your analysis of Pali as being "the only language" with this remarkable quality of defining mental states. As you have shown by citing nirvana as an alternative for nibbana, there is at least one other language (Sanskrit) which has very similar terms with the same meanings. Furthermore, it is not Pali which is responsible for this linguistic precision but Buddhism. The Pali language had no special regard for "definitive states of consciousness" but Buddhism did and it just happened to record its teachings in Pali. Try this by way of illustration... If we were to write an essay on the musical ornaments used in traditional Irish piping, we would use terms such as roll, cut, tap and cran. Now, imagine translating that essay into Japanese. We would probably need a page or two to explain each term (maybe a whole chapter for cran). Conversely, in the vocabulary of the average Irishman-in-the-street, a roll is something which comes with ham or cheese. If we were to ignore their use as technical terms within Buddhism, we could very easily translate samadhi, siddhi and nibbana with the English words "trance", "accomplishment" and "extinction". You may object that, in your experience, these words deserve much longer explanations but that is only because you have encountered them in a highly technical context. Let's take nibbana as an example. Gautama Siddhartha (a.k.a. the Buddha) employed this term to describe a state of mind which is free of desire. By the way, Gautama did not speak Pali, he spoke a dialect of Sanskrit called Magadhi and, in Magadhi, the word was nirvana. Literally, nirvana meant "extinction" and was used to describe a fire which had died or a lamp which had gone out. This was merely its literal meaning but it was also used figuratively in a medical sense. When someone was suffering from a fever they were said to be "burning" as if with a fire. Then, when the fever subsided and the "fire" had died, they were said to have achieved nirvana. When the Buddha introduced the notion of nirvana in his first sutra (lecture) at the Deer Park near Benares, he knew that his listeners were familiar with this medical meaning. Later, at the hands of philosophers, nirvana came to imply a lot of things which were beyond the ken of ordinary speakers of Magadhi. By the way, to those of us who have a little Sanskrit, Pali sounds very odd. It is almost as if it were Sanskrit spoken by someone with a speech impediment. How else can one explain why one of the Buddha's disciples is called Maudgalyayana in Sanskrit but Mogallana in Pali? |
Laughing Stock |
English as she are spokeWe are told that this little poem came about as an exercise for multi-national translation personnel at the NATO headquarters in Paris. English wasn't so hard to learn, they found, but English pronunciation is a killer. We haven't had time to check the provenance of this poem, but that really doesn't matter, as the poem is interesting, amusing and insightful despite its origin. We were also told that, after trying the poem, a native French interpreter said he'd prefer to spend six months at hard labor than reading six of the lines loud. English is Tough Stuff Dearest creature in creation Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Ivy, privy, famous; clamor Font, front, wont, want, grand, and
grant, Query does not rhyme with very, Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Petal, panel, and canal, Compare alien with Italian, Face, but preface, not efface. Pronunciation - think of Psyche! Finally, which rhymes with enough - Thanks to Dave Menashe for forwarding this to us |
Comments, additions? Send to
Melanie & Mike: melmike@takeourword.com
Copyright © 1995-2000 mc² creations
Last Updated 09/09/00 10:41 AM