Vacation Cat Pics 1

I’m on vacation! So here are pictures of a cute kitten to occupy your time.

If there’s a container of some sort, then Peaches has to go in it. Laundry baskets, purses, bowls. If it doesn’t have one piece of orange cat hair, then something’s wrong.

Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! I’m out for a week!! Later!!!

Language of Confusion: …And Cold

This is kind of the sequel to last week. Because tomorrow is my birthday and I don’t feel like thinking too hard. Also this is my 1,100th post. Kind of impressive.

Anyway!

Cold

Cold comes from the Old English cald/ceald, which just means having a low temperature. Or, you know, cold. Ceald is also pronounced with the ch sound, believe it or not, so it used to be chald. Put that with how hot used to have a K and we could have been saying things completely differently. Now, before it was chald, it was the Proto Germanic kaldaz, and that’s where things get muddy. It might be from another Proto Germanic word, kal-/kol-, which in turn comes from the Proto Indo European gel-/gol-. Which, for the record, is in fact where gel and gelatin comes from. But then again kaldaz could be from some random word that got lost to history. We don’t really know for sure.

Cool

Cool comes from the Old English col, which is just cool (and evidently is pronounced with a hard K) It comes from the Proto Germanic koluz, which unlike kaldaz is more assuredly from gel-/gol-. Who knows why it’s so definite for one but the other, which seems like it has to be related, is up in the air. Uh…goblins? Yeah, let’s go with goblins.

Chill

Chill comes from the Old English cele, coldness. Once again, while there isn’t an H there, it is in fact pronounced with the ch sound. It’s also from the Proto Germanic kal-, yet while cold switched back to the K sound, chill didn’t. Ugh, languages sometimes.

Freeze

Freeze originally showed up as freese or friese. It comes from the Middle English fresen and Old English freosan. Which means, you know, freeze. Before that it was the Proto Germanic freusan, freeze, and freus. It has a Proto Indo European equivalent in preus, which means that they’re similar, but not necessarily related. Because you don’t want things making too much sense.

TL;DR: Three cold words come from the same word as gel. And then there’s freeze.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

University of Texas at Arlington

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Another Questionnaire

Only three days until my birthday. Man, if you thought last week was phoned in, wait until you see this.

I stumbled across another questionnaire, this one about your personality traits, and figured why not? I sure don’t have any better ideas.

It has a variety of questions, like which picture do you like better, things you want in a relationship, things you prefer. At the end, it tells you what three traits are (supposedly) part of your personality. I got rationality, shyness, and aggression. The first two, yeah, definitely, but I wouldn’t say aggression is a big part of my personality. At least, not compared to the rest of my family. Hell, I’m the nice one.

Of course, I doubt this thing is any more accurate than that color one. Still, it’s interesting when your perception of yourself is challenged. If you took it, what did it tell you? What do you do when something (or someone) tells you something about yourself that you don’t agree with?

Free

Ever had this happen to you?

And don’t blame me for not looking carefully enough! They should put it in big, giant letters! And far, far away from the good-tasting popsicles!

Language of Confusion: Hot…

Today, we’re looking at a bunch of words that mean things for hot. Because I’m still dreaming of my vacation and don’t really want to put much thought into anything.

Just eight days left, people.

Hot

Hot comes from the Old English hat, which is just hot and not something you put on your head. Earlier, it’s the Proto Germanic haita and even earlier the Proto Indo European kai-, heat. And yeah, that’s where heat comes from, too. No word on why we had to get rid of the K, but it’s probably for the best. Can you imagine if hot and cold both started with the same sound? That…actually sounds like something that would happen.

Warm

Warm can be both a verb and an adjective, and although the two are related, they come from slightly different places. The adjective is from the Old English wearm, (same meaning as ours) while the verb is from wyrman (also just warm), and over the years they just turned into the same word. But as to where they came from before, no one knows for sure. It might be from the Proto Indo European gwher-, which means heat or warm and is the source of those words in several other languages, or it could be from the Old Church Slavonic (the ancestor of Slavic languages, like Russian) goriti, which also turned into several different heat related words. Or it could be from something else entirely because sometimes no one knows anything about anything.

Burn

Burn actually has a date on it, having showed up in the twelfth century. Before it was burn, it was the Old English bryne—yes, the r came first! Bryne actually comes from three distinct words, baernan (to kindle) and beornan (on fire) from Old English and the Old Norse brenna, to burn. I guess when you have three words with similar meanings and spellings, you might as well mash them together. All those words actually come from the Proto Germanic brennan/brannjan, which in turn comes from the Proto Indo European ghwer-. So burn comes from the word for heat/warm, but not warm? What the hell…

Anyway, that’s it for today. More etymology next week! I can tell you’re excited.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

From The Spamfiles

Did we just have a visit from the Spamfiles or does it just feel that way? Whatever. I have a week and a half left before my vacation and I am totally checked out already.

Huh, I don’t remember sending this to myself…

The emojis in this one just confused me. The people holding hands and the hearts I get, but what the hell is that last thing? Because the only thing I think it looks like is a bustier which just…seems weird, even for spam.

I honestly, one hundred percent believe that the government is stupid enough to be overrun by flashlights.

Okay, it starts by saying that he’s part of the UN “Inspection Unit”, which doesn’t exist, in an Atlanta Airport, where the UN isn’t located. For crying out loud, do you know how easy it is to google information about the UN? Seriously, we need to find out where these spammers are from so we can start some kind of education program because whatever they have isn’t working.

…I really have no idea what this one is going for and I’m a little scared to find out.

And that’s the best of the spam from this past month! What about you? Come across any stupidly amusing spam?

A Sticky Situation

Using superglue never ends well for me.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad. But you get the idea.

Language of Confusion: Count

Count is a weird word. Wait…I think that’s my beginning for all of these. I mean, it’s true, but damn it’s repetitive.

Count—like you do with numbers—showed up in the mid fourteenth century, while the title count showed up in the early fourteenth century. They aren’t related at all. Number count comes from the Old French conter, add up, and the classical Latin computare, calculate. And yes, that’s where compute is from. The com- means with and putare means think, which mostly makes sense, although I'd like to know what happened to the P. Anyway, the title count is from the Anglo French counte and classical Latin comitem, which is…count. It’s what they called some heads of state back then. And it’s also a combo word—again, the com- is from com and it means with, while the -item comes from ire, to go. No, I don’t get that one at all.

And then there’s counter and counter—yes, two counters. One where you do business, and one that means anti-. The first one showed up in the mid fourteenth century from the Old French contouer/comptoir (so they did have an M there at some point). That comes from the Medieval Latin computatoium, a place of accounts, and that then comes from computare. The other counter showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French/Anglo French countre, which was then taken from the classical Latin contra, or against.

What about other words with count in them? you might ask. Shut up, I said might. County showed up in the early fourteenth century from the Anglo French counte…okay, it’s getting a bit repetitive. But that’s because county comes from count, because apparently a count rules over a county. And country? Is that related? Ha ha, no. Not even a little. It showed up in the mid thirteenth century from the Old French contree. That comes from the Vulgar Latin terra contrata, land opposite of/land before. Oh, and contrata? From contra. So country comes from opposite. Really.

If you see count in pretty much anything else (counterattack, counterpart), it’s from the opposite counter. But there are other number count words. There’s account, which showed up in the early fourteenth century. The a- comes from ad-, to, and the count can be traced back to computare. There’s also constable, which is related to the title count—it’s actually a mix of that word and stable. You know, like for horses. Finally there’s countenance. Which comes from none of these. It’s related to contain.

TL;DR: Nothing but coincidence.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Fordham University

More Weird Searches

It’s that time again! And in all fairness, it’s been awhile since I’ve looked up the weird-ass stuff that people have searched for to the point that it’s one of the top auto-fill-in suggestions.

…How can I keep from singing. Maybe try closing your mouth?

Clearly the bottom ones are from people who are trying to understand what their kids are saying.

Stick your head out the window and look up at the sky. If water is falling down on you, then it’s raining.

Maybe you’re so tired because it keeps you up at night that people are searching for reasons why their poop is green.

I have to wonder if all four of these are related in some way.

AC

Seriously, any other day of the year…

Apparently something got sucked up into the pipe that drains condensation from the air conditioning unit, and if there’s any water in it, it won’t run.

It was most unpleasant.

Language of Confusion: Founded

This is another one of those times where I read a word somewhere and couldn’t stop wondering where it came from. So come share in my obsession.

Found (as in create, not the past tense of find) showed up as a verb in the late thirteenth century. It comes from the Old French fonder, establish, and classical Latin fundare, foundation. So no big surprises. This found is actually related to fund, which showed up in the late seventeenth century meaning the foundation of something…or the bottom of it. Which is of course the foundation. It—and fund, by the way—come from the Modern French fond, which has meanings like background, bottom, and even essence. It also had a meaning of a “merchant’s basic stock or capital”, and since money is the foundation of so many businesses, that kind of makes sense. More so than the rest of this etymology. The French fond comes from the Latin fundus, which meant things like farm as well as bottom and comes from the Proto Indo European bhundh-, bottom. And yes, it’s the origin word for bottom, too.

Find, and the found that’s the past tense of find, has a different story. Found showed up in the late fourteenth century, but find has no definite date on it besides earlier than that. It comes from the Old English findan, find, and before that the Proto Germanic finthan, discover. It gets less and less like found the further back you go. Back in Proto Indo European, it was pent-, to tread or go. So because a lot of English words switched Ps to Fs and Ts to Ds, we have found.

And there are also words with found in them. Confound showed up in the early fourteenth century from the Anglo French confounder. Before that it was the Old French confondre and classical Latin confundere, to confuse. The con- means together, but the fundere comes from the origin of yet another found. See, there’s also a found that means to pour metal into a mold and originally meant just to melt something. I’ve never heard it used, but it comes from fundere (with an e, not an a!), which means pour. So confound is to pour together and has nothing to do with the other founds. I mean really—fundere comes from the Proto Indo European gheu-, to pour. A G!!! And to top things off, confundere is also the origin word for confuse, too!

Dumbfound is just that found plus dumb. Then there’s newfound, which is new put in front of the find found. And finally, there’s profound, which actually has some history to it. It showed up in the early fourteenth century from the Old French profund and classical Latin profundus, deep or bottomless. That fundus is the same as the fund one. The pro prefix means forth, so profound is like saying something is very bottomless. Sure. Why not. That’s one of the less crazy things I’ve heard today.

TL;DR: All the versions of found aren’t related even a little.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

Dictionary.com

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Old English-English Dictionary

Fordham University

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

August Goals

Hey, it’s August already! You know what that means!

It’s my birthday month! So obviously I have to spend the entire time in celebration! There will be cake, people. CAKE.

Oh. Right. I have goals or something to look at.

July Goals

1. See how I’m doing on my yearly resolution, because I’m betting it’s not good.

Actually, it was mostly not bad. Yay I guess.

2. Figure out if I can block off some time once a week or something for me to just write.

I still really don’t. I’m just so tired of the computer by the end of the day that when I do have free time I just want to do anything else. Sigh…hopefully that will change.

3. Write something, anything, without any strings attached (like I have to finish it or it has to have a certain word count).

I did fiddle around with some stuff, so that was fun. : )

And now, for this month…

August Goals

1. Start a new cross-stitching pattern. Hopefully it won’t take as long as the last one did.

2. Write something fun that I enjoy writing!

3. BIRTHDAY BIRTHDAY BIRTHDAY!!!

Good goals, and importantly, attainable. So what are you up to now that it’s August? Any end of summer vacations? Or end of winter ones?