Weird Word Origin of the Week

We’ve been running our Weird Word Origin of the Week updates for a while now, and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as we have writing them.

WWOW: Taser

Tom Swift's Electric Rifle gives us 'taser', a play on the initials of the sci fi weapon and the acronym 'laser' #WWOW#wordlove

{Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/dWP1hB}

WWOW: Whisky

Whisky — the water of life. Literally, too, if you speak Gaelic, in which it's 'uisge beatha'. Sounds refreshing #WWOW #wordlove

{Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/a7vjHy}

WWOW: Slogan

Have you ever shouted a slogan? 'Slogan' comes from the Gaelic 'sluagh-ghairm' which means 'battle-cry'. Inspiring stuff!#WWOW #wordlove

{Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/7hUoVF}

WWOW: Scruples

The Latin 'scrupulus', literally a small, sharp stone, is the source of 'scruple', a painful, niggling doubt. If you've ever had a rock in your shoe, you'll understand #WWOW #wordlove

{Image Credit: https://flic.kr/p/8MjuKW}

WWOW: Robot

Have you been working like a machine? 'Robot' comes from the Czech 'robota', meaning 'forced labour' or 'servitude.

{Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/6hJ7Vv}

WWOW: Quack

The pejorative term 'quack' comes from the Dutch 'kwakzalver', meaning 'hawker of salves'. I'm not sure I've ever heard a hawk quack.

WWOW: Barbarian

'Barbarian' comes from the Ancient Greek 'barbaroi', a word meant to echo the unintelligible speech of the Greeks' foreign neighbours 

WWOW: Muscle

'Muscle' comes from 'musculus', Latin for 'little mouse', named for the way muscles look moving under the skin

WWOW: Mortgage

Mortgage looking a bit grim? That's hardly surprising. The term derives from the Old French for 'death pledge'.

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/gSuMWB

WWOW: Lobster

The word 'lobster' is a corruption of the Latin 'locusta' (locust) and the Old English 'loppe' (spider). Not so tasty now.

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/dDLyF1

WWOW: Alarm

Ever felt like taking a weapon to your alarm clock? You shouldn't blame yourself — 'alarm' comes from the Old Italian ‘all’alarme’, literally ‘to the arms!’

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/7xow5z

WWOW: Spud

In the 15th century, a 'spud' referred to a shovel and not a potato. It wasn't until 1845 that spuds stopped being spades and started being taters.

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/a3sA1k

Tragedy

Three Billy Goats Tragic? Tragedy comes from the Greek 'tragodia', literally 'goat-song'. That's one sad goat!

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/6pWuak

WWOW: SCUBA

“I wanna go self-contained underwater breathing apparatus-diving.” Better known as SCUBA!

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/9bKoag    

Gargoyle

Do statues get bad breath? The word gargoyle derives from the Old French 'gargole', meaning 'throat' or 'waterspout', and is also the origin of the word 'gargle'!

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/87nCfC

Berserk

Berserk comes from the Old Norse word berserkr, meaning bear-shirt. Sounds itchy. No wonder they were so angry.

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/eahVZA

WWOW: Burger

Burgers, the original takeaway. We ‘took away’ ‘ham’ from ‘burger’. ‘Hamburger’ was a meat named after German city Hamburg. 

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/kBZB1i

WWOW: Salt

I’m a soldier and my salary is sausages.” Soldier, salary and sausages all come from the Latin word ‘sal’ for salt!

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/8NwoXV

WWOW: Bludgeon

Know where the word ‘bludgeon’ comes from? No one does. It pummelled its way into language suddenly. Origin unknown. SPOOKY #WWOW #wordlove

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/5925r

WWOW: Buxom

What do you think when you hear ‘buxom blonde’? A woman who is obedient to God? That’s what ‘buxom’ used to mean.

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/5ZEpE5

WWOW: Chauvinist

The first chauvinist pig: French soldier and political fanatic, Nicolas Chauvin, gave us the word ‘chauvinism’.

Image source: https://flic.kr/p/6YTey1

WWOW: Burglar

What did burglars and editors do while they waited for their verbs, burgle and edit, to catch up? Normally, nouns evolve naturally from their action: a person who could ‘write’ was called a ‘writer’, but sometimes it takes a little backformation to make a living.

Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/4zb5u6

WWOW: Chocoholic

Are you a chocoholic? Would you feel as guilty if we called you a chocolatic? To create the word ‘chocoholic’, we’ve taken ‘-holic’ from ‘alcoholic’, but, grammatically speaking, we should’ve just taken the ‘-ic’. Adding ‘-ic’ to ‘alcohol’ means ‘caused by drunkenness’.

Image: https://flic.kr/p/9AWAKF

WWOW: Dogs

Dogs: the barking linguistic mystery. No one knows why ‘dog’ — from the Old English word, docga: a specific, powerful breed — suddenly replaced the general word ‘hound’. Now the two have swapped; ‘dog’ is the general word and ‘hound’ refers specifically to a hunting dog.

Image: http://flic.kr/p/7sAmqg

WWOW: Mesmerising

“Mr Mesmer, you are mesmerising”. Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician who developed a theory about a mysterious invisible bodily fluid that could hypnotise, and gave us the word ‘mesmerise’.

WWOW: Sweetheart

“Goodnight, sweetard.” Did you know that ‘sweetheart’ is a mutated word? Read more on the blog: http://www.rocksaltcopycreatives.com/blog/goodnight-sweetard

WWOW: Peas

Boy: “Mum, I dropped a pease on the floor.”
Mum: “You mean, ‘pea’.”
Boy: “No, I mean pease.” 

Read more on the blog: http://bit.ly/OBhuRN

WWOW: Goodbye

Food for thought: every time you say “goodbye” to someone, you’re actually saying “God be with you.” How much is our language influenced by religion? 

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/didy_b/9044225263/

WWOW: Laser

Sci-fi geeks will know that “tardis” means “Time And Relative Dimension In Space”. But who knew that “laser” stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”?

As copywriters, we tend to take words pretty seriously; after all, words are at the heart of our industry. We use words to communicate, convert, call attention and call to action, and as we so often remind our clients, words are much more than marks on a page or screen. Words are like people; they are born, live and can certainly die, and many have their own exciting, if sometimes mind-boggling, mysteries, humour and history.

For instance:

• The word ‘clue’ comes to us as a figurative allusion to the ‘clew’, or ball of thread, Theseus used to find his way from the Minotaur’s labyrinth in Greek myth
• In the 16th century, ‘bully’ was an endearing replacement for sweetheart, based on the Dutch boel meaning ‘lover and brother’
• Duct tape was once ‘duck tape’, named for cotton duck, the material from which it was first made.

Maybe we’re exposing just what word-nerds we are — in case you hadn’t noticed, at Rocksalt, we love words —but we believe words aren’t just to be used, but also appreciated, and WWOW is one of the ways we hope to share that passion with you. Another is our #wordlove campaign, and we’ve been very gratified to see we’re not alone in our lust for language.

Whether you’re a hardcore etymologist, a fancier of philology or just looking for some easy dinner-party conversation starters, check us out each Sunday for another Weird Word Origin of the Week.