Thanksgiving Away Post #3

I can’t even count how many times this happened.

What do you mean you’re trying to write? You should always be paying attention to a cat!

Thanksgiving Away Post #2

More cat pictures! Or picture, really.

She never did fit in that box as well as Peaches did.

Thanksgiving Away Post #1

Since I never feel like doing a real post the week of Thanksgiving, I figured I’d post some pictures of my dearly departed Veronica to keep you occupied.

Isn’t she cute?

A Small Favor

This is why I hate doing favors, particularly for my mom.

Anything she asks me to do always turns into a big production. Every. Time.

Language of Confusion: Payment, Part II

Back to this!

Coin showed up in the fourteenth century, but back then it only meant a “wedge-shaped piece used for some purpose”. See, the thing that stamped metal—such as coins—was wedge-shaped, and so in the fourteenth century it evolved to mean something stamped or a stamped piece of metal made into money. That usage was influenced by Old French, which is also the language coin comes from, although there it’s coing. It comes from the classical Latin cuneus, which means wedge (also it can mean “group”, but that’s not really relevant here). Fun fact, there is also a word “quoin” which I hadn’t heard of before but means a cornerstone or the corner of a wall—generally something wedge-shaped. It’s literally just a variant spelling of coin that stuck close to its original meaning.

Currency is relatively recent, having shown  up in the mid seventeenth century meaning… a condition of flowing. Like the current of a river. Yeah, this is another weird stretch of the word. Currency meant a “state of fact flowing from person to person”, you follow? Which evolved to a sense of “continuity in public knowledge” and then the current medium or exchange of money in the eighteenth century. Basically, anything that was currently money was currency. The word comes from the classical Latin currens, current, and its verb form currere, to run, which is descended from the Proto Indo European word kers-, to run. And that’s definitely a word we’ll have to look into sometime.

Capital in terms of money showed up in the early seventeenth century, from the Medieval Latin capitale, stock or property, and classical Latin capitalis, capital, chief, or first. Every other version of capital comes from there, too, although this isn’t too surprising since they all refer to something that’s foremost, whether a capital letter or a capital city. Hell, even capital, the head of a column or a pillar, is related because it’s the head of the column or pillar. I guess people thought of their wealth and property as being the principal thing in their lives. Yeah, I can see it.

Speaking of wealth, it showed up in the mid thirteenth century, where in addition to meaning “prosperity in abundance of possessions or riches”, it meant happiness, another thing I can understand all too well. The word is actually from the Middle English wele, well being, which actually spawned another word I’ve never heard of: weal. That word is wela in Old English, meaning prosperity, from the West Germanic welon-, from the Proto Indo European wel-, to wish or to will. Wealth is related to both will and well, because when you’re doing well and have the things you wish, you’re wealthy.

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

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

From The Spamfiles

It’s Spam Time!

I only date people who use proper spelling and grammar. (Also, this is so stalker-ish)

I love animals! But I am not nor will I ever be someone’s boyfriend.

I actually started getting spam about CBD oil before you couldn’t turn around without tripping over someone shouting at you about it. Spam can be a good predictor in that regard. If there’s a fad brewing, it will absolutely wind up in your spam box before you know it.

You message and you ask. And don’t forget, you enter your credit card info.

I love how there’s a random M and Y capitalized, just so you’re absolutely sure that it’s definitely spam. Or possibly a coded message. But far more likely spam.

“Looks like I’m popular”? That’s a damned lie and you know it.

Huh. Nothing for Greg this week. I hope nothing happened to him.

The Idea Process

This is pretty much how it works.

Of course, that’s one less idea for me.

Language of Confusion: Payment, Part I

Not a big multiparter. I think.

Pay showed up in the thirteenth century from the Old French paier, to pay or pay up. That word is from the classical Latin pacare, to pacify, and I mean, yeah, you can definitely pacify someone by paying them. That pacare actually comes from pax, peace, which is the origin for peace and can be traced to the Proto Indo European pag-, tofasten. Which obviously needs to be looked at closer. But that’s for another post.

Money showed up in the mid thirteenth century as monie, meaning funds or anything that can be converted into money before settling to mean cash. It’s from the classical Latin moneta, money, which is actually from Moneta (with a capital M), a title or surname for the Roman goddess Juno Moneta. See, it just so happened that she had a temple near where money was coined and precious metal stored. That Moneta actually comes from the verb monere, which actually means to warn and is actually related to monitor. So because money was made near Juno’s temple, we have money.

Cash actually didn’t show up until the late sixteenth century, and get this, it first meant a money box, not meaning what we know it as until later (before the eighteenth century, where the new definition was the only one people knew it as). Cash comes from the Middle French caisse, money box, from the Provençal caissa or Italian cassa, cash desk, derived from the classical Latin capsa, box. Oh, and that capsa is from case. Remember all those weeks we spent going over those words? Not really sure why I didn’t mention cash, but there it is. And, to specify, it’s related to the version of case that comes from the Proto Indo European kap-, to grasp.

Finally today, bill. Obviously not like a bill you’d find on a duck. In a shocking moment of sense, that’s not related at all. Bill showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning a written statement before morphing to a formal document or a personal letter, and then a order of payment in the late sixteenth century, and then finally a paper bill in the mid seventeenth century. It comes from the Anglo French bille, from the Anglo Latin billa, a writing or a list, from the Medieval Latin bulla, decree or sealed document. It’s funny because in classical Latin, bulla could mean boss… or bubble. Basically, a bulla was a round knob, like an amulet, which is like a seal, so it was a sealed document, and that starts the crazy convoluted journey to it being a dollar bill.

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

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

Encyclopaedia Britannica

University of Ottawa, Canada

Fordham University

From The Spamfiles

I love posts that I don’t have to think about. These are just so easy.

Compliment of the day! Whoops, I’m sorry. Complement of the day. I guess it balances out the day instead of praising it.

I think these Greg messages are getting lazier.

A butterfly in your stomach? Just one? How vaguely disturbing.

If I didn’t want the subscription, why would I confirm it? I hate it when the spammers don’t logically think things through.

That sounds more like a her problem than a me problem.

Okay, why is the little symbol after Snapcheat a hurricane? What could this possibly be referring to??? Why is this bothering me so much????????

Automatic Vacuum

My mom has had this vacuum cleaner problem recently.

The vacuum’s name is Jasper. He’s about nine months old, so he’s basically a teenage boy eating everything in sight. And he never shuts up. But he’s so handsome.

This picture really doesn’t do justice to his eyes. They’re a dark, vibrant orange. He could be a model.

Language of Confusion: Choices

Here’s a bunch of words that are synonyms and I haven’t etymologized before.

Choice/Choose

Choice showed up in the mid fourteenth century, replacing the Old English word cyre, choice. It comes from the Old French chois, from the verb choisir, to choose, and is thought to be Frankish, or have some other Germanic origin, but it’s not really certain from where. Oh, and while it is related to choose, it’s not that related. Choose comes from the Old English ceosan, choose (and would have been pronounced “che-ozan”). That word is definitely Proto Germanic, coming from keus-, from the Proto Indo European geus-, to taste or to choose. Choice is obviously also from geus-, its origins are just murky.

Opt

Opt showed up fairly recently, in 1877, coming from the French opter, opt, and classical Latin optare, which is also opt. Option is older, having shown up in the seventeenthcentury. Once again the origin is French, where the word is option, and means option (stop me if I’m going too fast for you). The Latin version is optionem, and again, that’s just option and also from optare. It’s origin before there is unknown, although one there is that it’s from the Proto Italic opeje-, choose or grab. I know what you’re thinking. It makes sense, right? Which is why you should be suspicious.

Pick

Pick showed up in the early thirteenth century, except back then, it only had to do with the tool. It wasn’t until the early fourteenth century that it started to mean “to pluck with the fingers”, which by the end of the century turned into picking out something. So because fingers pick at something when choosing, pick became, well, pick. As for its origins, it’s thought to be a mix of the Old English pician, to prick, and the Old Norse pikka, to prick or peck. Both words are thought to be Germanic in origin, although it’s not known exactly where they’re from.

Annnnd I think that’ll be it for today. I know! So brief! Enjoy this rare treat.

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

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Glosbe

November Goals

It’s November! What am I going to do this month? Well, first I need to see what I was supposed to do last month…

October Goals

1. Work on notes and edit WIP-1. I have some rewrites to do, and reorganizing, then I need to get more people to read it. Hint hint.

I did all this! Then I got more notes that made me realize I needed to change a bunch more stuff! Which I didn’t do! It’s never ending.

2. Start an editing plan for WIP-2 and possibly start editing that, depending on how much free time I have.

I did do this, although of course I’m berating myself for not doing MORE.

3. Start writing things like query letters, taglines, and synopses for WIP-1. I can’t believe it’s finally come to this.

I did this as well. Of course, they’re terrible because these are just the worst things ever. I’ll probably need people to give me notes on these as well. Ugh.

It’s not bad, I just wish I hadn’t run out of steam towards the end of the month. I’d open my WIP and just stare at it because I had no energy to work on it, which is a total bummer. I hate it when I go through these low periods.

Anyway, November…

November Goals

1. Finish the rewrites and reorganizing for WIP-1, then hopefully get it out to more beta readers.

2. Edit the synopsis and et al. and get some help looking at that, too.

3. Thanksgiving! So I’ll have to deal with that, too. Hopefully it will provide me with a much needed recharge and not total dread.

Let’s see what the month will hold. What do you guys have planned?

As It Turns Out, Quite Well

There’s nothing Peaches likes more than being in the way.

Except for being cozy and in the way.