Language of Confusion: -Cence, Part II

And now the conclusion. Of words that end in -cence but aren’t related to essence. I have to be specific because there are a ton of those and none of them are mentioned here.

Convalescence

Convalescence is one of those words that the N was just kind of thrown in there at some point, which seems to be a recurring theme for these words. It’s from the Middle French convalescence and Late Latin convalescentia, regaining of health. It comes from the classical Latin convalescere, recover, the origin word for convalesce, which we don’t really use that much these days. It’s a mix of the prefix com-, although that’s just an intensifier here, and valescere, grow strong. That word is actually related to valere, to be strong/healthy, which just happens to be the origin word for valiant.

Reminiscence

Reminiscence first showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Middle French reminiscence and Late Latin reminiscentia, remembrance or recollection. That in turn is from the classical Latin reminiscentem, recollecting and reminisci, also recollecting. The word is a mix of re-, again, and menisci, which is from mens, or mind. So it’s to mind again. Or…remind. Man, you don’t often get one that makes total sense no matter how you look at it.

Reticence

Reticence showed up in the early seventeenth century from the Middle French reticence and classical Latin reticentia, reservation or silence. The verb form is reticere, keep silent, a mix of re- (I think it’s just intensive here) and tacere, be silent. Which, you know, is where tacit comes from.

Magnificence

Magnificence showed up in the mid fourteenth century from the Old French magnificence, splendor, nobility, or grandeur, and before that, it was the classical Latin magnificentia, which meant splendor or beautiful (something nice, is what I’m getting at). Magnificentia comes from magnificus, majestic, a word that’s a mix of magnus, great, and facere, do or make. Magnificence is something that was made great.

TL;DR: Still none of these words are related. And every other -cence word is related to essence.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Ottawa, Canada

Orbis Latinus

Posts

You know what you should do when you have a million things on your plate? Take on more work!

No, wait. That’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to do.

Liz and I want to do a series of posts next month about a lot of important topics--basically anything that’s been thrown under the bus by the current people in power, you know, like the arts, healthcare, basic human decency. If anyone wants to contribute on a topic or topics they’re passionate about we’d love for you to join in, just let me know.

Anyway, now I have to go off and write about a million posts.

Ha ha, please help me. Send cake.

The Waiting Room

And people wonder why I hate going to the doctor.

Hey, it could have happened. I had to fast before going in there so I could get my blood drawn. I was ready to bite someone’s head off.

Language of Confusion: -Cence, Part I

There are a ton of words that end in -cense or -cence. Like, this is definitely a two-parter. And we’re not even getting into words like luminescence or iridescence since those are related to essence and a whole other post on their own.

License

License is kind of funny. It showed up in the early fifteenth century as a verb that meant to grant authorization to do something. No big surprises there. But it comes from a noun that’s spelled licence, with two C’s (which, frankly, just accentuates how stupid and redundant C is). Apparently there were tons of spellings for the word in Middle English, including lisence, lissens, and licance, which exemplifies why we had to start formalizing spellings. Anyway, licence is spelled that way because it comes from the Old French licence, liberty, freedom, or permission, which in turn comes from the classical Latin licentia, which means the same thing, in other words, a license. The verb form of it, licere (to allow) can be traced back to the Proto Indo European leik-, to offer or bargain. Which…makes sense, I guess.

Innocence

Innocence showed up in the mid fourteenth century meaning specifically the “freedom from guilt or moral wrong”. It comes from the Old French inocence, innocence, and classical Latin innocentia/innocens, which are just innocence and innocent. When you break up the word and look at its roots, it gets seven better. The in- means not in this case, while the centia/cens part of the word comes from nocere, hurt. That fits since innocence is non-harming, right? Well, nocere comes from the Proto Indo European nek-, which means…death. It’s where necro- comes from!

Incense

Incense first showed up in the late thirteenth century meaning something that gave off a sweet scent when burned. It comes from the Old French encens, from the Late Latin incensum, that which is burnt. That in turn is from the classical Latin incendere, to burn, which might sound an awful lot like incendiary to you. And it should, since that word is from the same place. This time the prefix in- means in while the rest is from candere, shine, glow, or be on fire. And of course that’s where candle comes from. It can also be traced all the way back to the Proto Indo European kand-, glow or shoot out light. So light = fire = stuff burning.

TL;DR: None of these words are related. Like, at all.

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

University of Texas at Arlington

Orbis Latinus

Web Comics I Like

I’m going to post about some of the web comics I’ve been reading lately because I have nothing else to post about and this is more positive than me ranting about how people are ignoring racism.

Sarah’s Scribbles by Sarah Andersen

A woman’s observations on being an awkward introverted worrier. I…identify with her A LOT. Her second book just came out and I’m hoping to pick it up soon.

Poorly Drawn Lines by Reza Farazmand

Various random jokes. The most popular recurring characters are the bear Ernesto and his friend Kevin the bird, as well as Trash Bird, who is just Trash Bird. Look, it’s really hard to explain and totally ridiculous. Just check it out.

floccinaucinihilipilification

Apparently the creator just wanted to use the longest name she could find. In any case, she’s hilarious. Her creature “selfie bee” is a kind of author avatar that reflects her often ridiculous reactions (like promising not to buy more books and then leaving the bookstore later wearing a sash that says “Mayor of Failuretown”). Also, for Harry Potter fans, she does tons of spoofs of the series, especially of Dumbledore being just the worst person to be in charge of children.

Books of Adam by Adam Ellis

Things that happen to Adam totally overdramatized, flamboyant, and hilarious. I think my favorite is the one where the cat is asleep all day, until three a.m. when he’s going totally crazy. It’s very relatable.

The Pigeon Gazette by Jane

Another comic where the typical things that happen to the creator are exaggerated to hilarious levels. I think that might be my favorite type of comic. The best ones to check out is the comics she drew while staying up for thirty two hours in order to fix her sleep schedule. It’s basically a decent into madness.

Anyway, that’s what I read all day. I like comics. What about you?

Deafening

There’s a rat or a mouse or something in the attic right above my bedroom. It likes to chew on wood. Loudly. While I’m trying to sleep.

I’m not sure how I expected her to get the thing. It was three a.m. I was tired. Leave me alone.

And no, I can’t get the other cat to do it. Veronica is fourteen years old and fat. The only thing she can catch is sleep.

Language of Confusion: Where Music And Biology Collide

Organ…it can be something you play, or a part of your body that keeps you alive. Why is that?

Organ is actually a fusion—seriously. The Old English organe and Old French orgene came together to form a stronger, more powerful word than either could be separately. Both words had the same meaning, a musical instrument, and both come from the classical Latin organum, instrument. Latin stole it from Greek, where it’s organon, which means instrument in a very general sense, not just musical. And back then it could be a tool or a body organ, which means that over the years it changed from having several definitions to only meaning musical instruments and then went back to having several definitions, including one very specific musical instrument. I think it’s funny that organon comes from the Proto Indo European werg-ano-, which comes from werg-, to work, because that makes way more sense as an origin for these words.

And it’s not the only word originally music related. Take organic. It showed up in the early sixteenth century meaning serving as a musical instrument, coming from the classical Latin organicus and Greek organikos, and while both mean organic, both also originally had to do with instruments, not what we think of organic as. In fact, it wasn’t until the late eighteenth century that it applied to living beings (although they used “organical” for that before, and tell me that word isn’t funny).

Finally today we’re looking at organize. It showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning construct or establish, which makes it weirder that organized originally specifically meant “furnished with organs”. It came from the Middle French organizer and Medieval Latin organizare, which in turn is from our old friend organum. Okay, I can almost get how it went from construct to put into order, but I have no idea how we’re supposed to get from instrument to construct/establish. Makes. No. Sense.

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

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

University of Ottawa, Canada

More Weird Searches

There is nothing weirder than trying to look something up and have Google autofill something that you’re afraid will get you arrested for looking at it. Seriously, why do people ask these questions?

At first I was laughing, because it’s really easy to stop singing, but then I remembered that there are things like Tourette’s where people can’t help it and I felt like a jerk.

…Maybe the internet isn’t the one you should be asking why you got married. Maybe if you are, your marriage is in serious trouble.

Now, this one we can all laugh at. Also, asparagus.

Your goldfish didn’t die of natural causes. It was murder!

Obviously therealreal is legit. It has two reals in it.

You ever search and wind up stumbling over something funny?

The Important Thing

A couple of years ago, I talked about how there was a blood drive where they gave away Girl Scout cookies to anyone who donated. Obviously I was all over that. And they do it every year, so of course I’ve been there each time. But there was a slight problem this time.

Because honestly, what else matters?

Lost In Translation: July

We’re in the second half of the year now. I wonder what I’ll look at when I’m finally done. Maybe we should add more months because I have no ideas.

July is kind of an easy one since it was named for Julius Caesar because whoop-die-doo, it was the month he was born in. It was actually the fifth month in the Roman calendar, which is why before that it was called Quintilis, which means fifth and honestly is just a way cooler name. I think it’s the Q.

Anyway, it was Iulius in Latin, then Juil/Jule in Old French and Julie in Anglo French before English picked it up. Funnily enough, we in English used to spell it with an I, like in Latin, and pronounce it with the accent on the first syllable, making it something like “YU-lie”. And there is no reason for why it changed other than the Oxford English Dictionary calling it “abnormal and unexplained”, the most accurate description relating to etymology that I’ve come across.

And there’s a little more to the story than that since we had to have a name for the month in Old English before we started using the one passed down by the French. July used to be liða se aefterra, which is something like “later mildness”. I wish I could have found out more about this, but unfortunately it seems like most places are only interested in the Roman origins rather than the English ones. Which seems kind of ironic considering that English is the language we’re supposed to be speaking here.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Fordham University

Encyclopedia Mythica

March Goals

Well, February managed to be surprisingly bad. I was so stressed through most of it that I couldn’t concentrate and didn’t do a very good job on my goals. Also I went to go give blood and they told me I’m anemic and now I have to take iron. That at least explains why I’m tired all the time.

Anyway, goals.

February Goals

1. Another 10K. I will write this or die trying.

Sadly, I failed on both counts. I got 5K done, which isn’t the worst, but I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to die trying for the rest :P.

2. Read some new books.

Well, it wasn’t anything new, just some old favorites. This would probably be easier if I had tons of money to spend on books.

3. Organize all my stick figure comics. This is kind of hard to explain, but because it’s mostly copy and paste, I have tons of different images that I could reuse. If I was able to find them.

I actually managed to do this! It’s a miracle! And wasn’t terribly difficult. I’m hoping it being more organized will make creating those silly comics easier.

Kind of disappointing, but February was exhausting. It is truly the Monday of the months.

March Goals

1. Actually write 10K this time. Or, at the very least, finish last month’s 10K.

2. See if I can by that book I want to read for research. And, you know, read it.

3. Try to think up something fun to do. Because we could all use a little fun right now.

So hopefully, that’s what my March will be like. What do you want to do this month?

New England

I think I have this complaint every year. Well, it’s completely valid.

Language of Confusion: Pants

We’re looking at pant, and also pants, because seriously what the hell is up with that? Am I the only one that wonders why the word for the thing you wear on your legs is related to a word for heavy breathing? I am? Oh well, it’s my blog.

Pant showed up in the mid fifteenth century, believed to be from the Old French pantaisier, which basically means pant. It’s believed to come from the Vulgar Latin pantasiare, to struggle with a nightmare. Uh, you breathe heavily during a bad dream I guess? And that word just happens to be from the Greek phantasioun, imaginary, the origin word for phantasm.

Yes, you read right. Pant and phantasm are related. Man, this post couldn’t get any weirder.

Pants showed up in 1840. That’s about it, because it comes from the ridiculous word pantaloons, which actually does have a history. It showed up in the mid seventeenth century where it just meant a kind of tights. Apparently it’s related to a sixteenth century character in an Italian comedy called Pantaloun who wore tight trousers and whose name actually comes from San Pantaleone, a Christian martyr.

Okay, I spoke too soon earlier because seriously. What. The. Hell.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Encyclopaedia Britannica