From The Spamfiles

Whoo! Another Tuesday! That means more spam!

Local Ladies° is approximately 108.5° Fahrenheit (or 42.5° Celsius).

Lake Stevens, that’s for Greg. He really has to get on top of his unclaimed assets. Because he has a lot of them.

Now, Brazilian women are not Hispanic (they’re Portuguese speaking), but they are indeed Latina. The more you know.

Save money on your home warranty by replaces spaces with underscores!

Once again, spam eliciting me to unsubscribe by writing to a physical address. Because apparently you unsubscribe to spam like we’re in the fifties.

Sigh. I bet all three of those statements are total lies. But presumably you can see the photos.

Spext

I don’t give my phone number out so this was weird.

As you should know, I don’t have a Facebook account. A little while after getting this one, I got another from a completely different fake number. Swell.

Language of Confusion: Whatever The Case May Be, Part VIII

Are we done yet? Oh. No. No we’re not. Maybe next week in what’s the longest etymology series ever. If by now you don’t know that case (like a container) is from the Proto Indo European kap-, to hold/grasp, and isn’t related to case (situation), where the hell have you been?

First this week, catch. This isn’t wholly crazy since catching something is “holding” it, which relates back to kap-. Catch itself showed up in the thirteenth century from the Anglo French or Old North French cachier, to catch animals. It’s from the Vulgar Latin captiare, chase or try to seize, from the classical Latin captare, to catch, and that’s the frequentative of capere, to take or hold and a word that’s appeared many times in this series. Nice how sensible this one is, because I’m sure the rest won’t be.

That chase bit is actually kind of significant because, guess where chase comes from? It showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French chacier (which is actually related to the abovementioned cachier). It’s also from captiare and captare, so nothing new here. I guess this word evolved in the sense of pursuing something to try to catch it.

And there’s also cop. Like you would cop a feel, or like a police officer—they’re from the same place (so yes, the slang copper is related to this, not the metal). Cop actually only showed up in British English in 1704 as a verb, and then not until the noun for police until 1859. It’s origin is actually uncertain, but it’s thought to be from the Middle French caper, seize or take, which is from the Latin capere. Oh, and no, that’s not where caper comes from. Don’t be silly. However I should point out that it’s also possible that cop is from the Dutch word kapen, to take (that also doesn’t seem to be from kap-; weirdly, it’s distantly related to cheap). I guess cops are “takers”.

That’s not the only word in the maybe pile, although this next one makes a lot less sense. Cater showed up in the seventeenth century meaning providing food for, from the Middle English catour, a buyer of provisions. It’s from the Anglo French achatour, buyer, from the Old French achater, to buy. That’s thought to be from the Vulgar Latin accaptare, a mix of the prefix ad- (to) and captare, which we all know by now. I guess a caterer taking food to someone does kind of make sense. But it could also be from the Vulgar Latin accapitare, to add to one’s capital. I guess caterers do that in a way.

Okay, this next one is just weird. Recover. Not like covering something again, which is its own thing. No. Recover, like you would from being sick or something. It’s not related to cover! Like at all! It showed up in the fourteenth century from the Anglo French rekeverer and Old French recovrer, which could mean come back or return, or to get again (like getting something back). It’s from the Medieval Latin recuperare. You know, like the origin word for recuperation, which we talked about a few weeks ago as being related to receive.

Man, I’m not sure what’s going to top this one.

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

University of Texas at Arlington

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

Encyclopaedia Britannica

University of Ottawa, Canada

Fordham University

From The Spamfiles

Time to spam it up.

It’s very confused.

Uh, Lissa, nine videos clearly outweigh nine pictures. You don’t downgrade your offers. Come on. Common sense.

Greg’s been busy again. Also, Elfrieda, Faustino, Leandro… all excellent names.

Okay, a lot to unpack here. The implication is that strippers are somehow not “normal girls” which is… yeah, it’s offensive. The reveal of something named “Stripper Shark”, the ultimate “Stripper Banging System” is both offensive and highly disturbing.

Sometimes spam doesn’t try.

Huh, is the Stripper Shark from Shark Tank too? I mean, I assume it’s not but you know. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it was.

I just… This is a woman named James? Whose one tweet is “I thank god in my life”? …Is that a frigging gun?!?!???!!!

Down

I felt weirdly anxious when Twitter was down the other week and I couldn’t constantly see what was going on.

It’s a vicious circle.

Language of Confusion: Whatever The Case May Be, Part VII

The next installment of our somehow still continuing series about the words descended from the Proto Indo European kap- (to grasp). Yeah, there are a lot of them. You know what a big one is? Have.

Really. Have comes from the Old English habban, which is just to have, and unlike the previous kap- words, comes to us from the Proto Germanic habejanan instead of by a Latin route like most of the other words we’ve looked at have come from. If you grasp something, you have it, I guess. Lots of other words with have in them are also related—haven was haefen in Old English, which meant port or harbor in addition to haven. This one is actually from the Old Norse höfn, haven, but it too is from Proto Germanic, where the word is hafno-, and is thought to also be from kap-. Behave is the third have word we’re looking at, being a mix of be- (which is intensive here) and have. Apparently the sense is that you “have” (or hold) yourself in a particular way.

Next on our oh-my-god-I-can’t-believe-they’re-related list is occupy. It showed up in the mid fourteenth century meaning to take possession of as well as to take up space/time. It was borrowed from the Old French occuper, to hold or occupy a person/place, from the classical Latin occupare, to take over. The o- comes from ob-, which means over, and the rest is from capere, to grasp/seize/catch, and as I’ve mentioned before is from kap-. Take over—occupy.

Also related is forceps, which I have to admit, I can kind of see. It showed up in the midsixteenth century from the classical Latin forceps, which is just forceps (or a pair of tongs). The for- part comes from the word formus, which means hot, and the rest is from capere. See, it was originally something a smith used. So it was something you used to grab hot things.

Back to the words you’d never expect to be related. Did you think prince would show up here? Because it is. It showed up in the thirteenth century as the ruler of a principality, from the Old French prince and the classical Latin princeps, leader. It’s a mix of the word primus, first, and of course capere. To take first is a prince. Or maybe it’s “first taker”.

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

Spam time! It’s been too long.

This widow needs help! Quick! To the Batmobile!

Apparently Greg is a Silver Single. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Okay, I definitely threw up in my mouth this time.

Nu are the beginning and end of all things.

Apparently, this one’s Dutch for “Sore, moldy feet? Spray with this and it will be over in a few days. You can unsubscribe here.” I can’t even begin to tell you what’s wrong with this.

And here’s what happens if I don’t check the spam filter for a few days.

Empty

My brother’s at home staying with my mom for a couple of weeks. This is the kind of stuff that happens.

And you should replace it before someone finds themselves in there without enough toilet paper!!!

Language Of Confusion: Whatever The Case May Be, Part VI

And we’ve still got two or three left of the words that derive from the Proto Indo European kap-, which means to grasp, and is the origin word for a case that contains something. Let’s see what weird words came from it this week.

Anticipate showed up in the sixteenth century, whereas anticipation came around in the late fourteenth century. It comes from the classical Latin anticipationem, which meant something like preconception, and its verb form was anticipare, something like “take care of ahead of time”. The anti- comes from ante, before, and the -cipare is from capere, to take. To anticipate is to take… before. I guess that makes sense?

Participate is similar in that while the verb came in the sixteenth century, the noun participation came in the late fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French participacion and Late Latin participationem, from the classical Latin participare, to participate. Now, we know the second part is to take/grasp/hold, but the first part is from pars, which is Latin for… part. To participate is to take part.

Emancipate is a (relatively) later word, not having shown up in any form until the seventeenth century. It’s from the classical Latin emancipatus, from the verb emancipare, which is just to emancipate, and in Roman law meant like emancipating a minor, a son being “freed” from his father’s control. Or a wife from her husband’s. Obviously, daughters aren’t mentioned here. Anyway, there are three parts to this word: the e- comes from ex-, out or away, the -man- comes from manus, hand, and then capare, to take. To take hand away. Figuratively, obviously, although I wouldn’t mind seeing it literally for a society where wives need emancipation.

Incipient is another late word, having shown up in the mid seventeenth century. Much like the other words, it’s from the classical Latin incipientem, from the verb incipere, to begin. The in- means in, into, or on here, so it’s “to take in/into/on.” Hm… I can kind of see it, although it requires some mind bending.

Finally today, municipal. Yeah, didn’t expect that one to be related to case, did you? All though what is a municipality but a metaphorically contained town? It showed up in the sixteenth century, from the Middle French municipal, and classical Latin municipalis, which is just municipal. This one doesn’t have a verb form, it’s just a mix of -capare and munus, which meant something like a function or service performed for a community. That’s from the Old Latin (that is, Latin from the first to sixth centuries BCE) moenus and Proto Italic (that’s a new one for this blog; it’s the hypothetical origin of Italic languages, including Latin) moini-/moinos-, obligation or task, from the Proto Indo European mei-, to change or grow. So because the Romans had municipalities, so do we.

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 Ottawa, Canada

Rice University

Glosbe

Mid-Year Check In

I don’t even remember what my resolutions were for this year. Probably not a good sign.

Resolutions 2019

1. Figure out some way to keep my yearly resolutions in mind. Maybe I’ll put them at the top of the file I organize my blog posts in.

That’s a really good idea. Why didn’t I do that?

2. Finish the first draft of my new WIP and make my editing plan.

Hey, I did this! Good going.

3. (Hopefully) finish my older WIP, and at the very least keep making progress on it.

Progress, it is happening.

4. Write something new, but not necessarily an entire book. Something smaller.

Still planning on doing this.

5. Start up a new spam blog. I know. It’s the stupidest thing ever. I just think it’s hilarious.

I put it up here now. Don’t you guys miss it? Don’t worry. It’ll be back next week.

6. Arm myself for the upcoming revolution.

Really, all I need is my fists.

7. Be nicer. To the people who are nice. The people who are mean will learn new definitions of pain.

Well, this one’s been a total fail. These days, niceness doesn’t seem to work.

Honestly, I’m not doing bad this year. It just feels like it because the world is a total nightmare.

How are you doing this year? Do you remember what your resolutions were?

Now That’s Funny

I don’t generally get upset when sad things happen on shows, but occasionally something does get to me.

It is different when the characters aren’t so stupid and selfish that they deserve all the misery they bring upon themselves.

Language of Confusion: Whatever The Case May Be, Part V

Happy Fourth of July. It’s part five and, I’m not even kidding, we’re probably only about halfway done. The origin word for container case, the Proto Indo European kap-, has a ridiculous number of descendants.

First, a lot of words with cap in them, which, hey, sounds like kap-. Captive, for example, showed up in the late fourteenth century from the classical Latin captivus, prisoner, from the verb capere, to capture—as we learned last week from the -ceive words. It’s from kap-, which means hold or grasp, which is certainly a good way to capture someone. And that’s how we get capture, captor (Latin for catcher), and captivate, too.

Next, capable, which showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Middle French capable and Late Latin capabilis. That’s from the classical Latin capax, which means capable or capacity, and is from our old friend capere. It’s kind of confusing, but if you have capacity to do something, you’re capable. And speaking of capacity, of course it’s from the same place. It showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning the ability to contain, or just ability. It’s from the sense of the Old French capacité, ability to hold, and classical Latin capacitatem, which just means capacity. I guess if you can mentally grasp something, you have the capacity. While if you don’t, you’re incapable. Fun fact, capacity in the electrical sense is from 1777, with the idea that something can “hold electricity”.

Now things are going to get weird. First, caption. It showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning taking or seizure, from the Old French capcion, capture or arrest, and classical Latin captionem, which meant something like trap or catching. That actually makes sense for coming from capere, to take. But then in the mid seventeenth century it started to come at the head of legal documents involving seizing something—like a “certificate of caption”. From there, people started using it to mean the head of any document, even ones not involving capture, then the heading of a chapter/section, and finally, the description below an illustration. And that morphed into us calling it “closed captioning”.

Recuperate is also related to the above—really, it’s closer to receive, though. Recuperate showed up in the sixteenth century, while recuperation showed up a little earlier, in the fifteenth century. Both are from the classical Latin recuperare, to recover, which is related to recipere, the origin word of receive. That word is re- (back) and capare, take, so it’s to take back. Which is also recovering.

Finally today, cable. Yep, really. It showed up in the thirteenth century as a large, strong chain used on a ship, from the Medieval Latin capulum, lasso or rope used on a cow, and that’s from capere. So because a rope is how you hold a cow, it’s a cable for holding things on a ship, and now a wire used for transmitting. Sure, why not?

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

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

University of Ottawa, Canada

Orbis Latinus

July Goals

We’re on the downswing of the year now. I’d be more excited if we weren’t slowly sliding into a dystopia.

Now I’ve depressed myself.

June Goals

1. Get more beta reads for WIP 1. I still have a lot of questions about what works and what doesn’t.

Could still use more.

2. Distract myself from the above by working on all the notes for the other WIP.

Okay, I totally worked on something else instead, because of course I did. I also spent a lot of time working on one of my goals from, like, May or something. Again, because of course I did.

3. Update etymology page. I don’t want to forget!

All up to date as of the first week in June!

Yaaaay. Anyway, what should I do this month?

July

1. Edit one of the many projects I have in the works. Also start planning for the story I want to write this year.

2. Work on edits from the beta notes I should be getting.

3. Do some posts in advance to get ready for my blogging break next month. That’s right, I plan ahead.

What are you planning to do this month?