From The Spamfiles

Bonus spam day! I hope I don’t run out. The spam well has been surprisingly dry lately.

Where to begin? I suppose the most egregious insult is that there’s an apostrophe before the S in greetings. Though abbreviating attention is also offensive.

If you put “an” before a number beginning with one, you can get the hell out of my house and never come back.

 

An Power Station. They’re doing this to spite me.

I’m sending this to myself. Also, I’m a costumer.

It’s always the posts that are years old that they comment on. On Tumblr commenting on old posts is actually very normal. On literally everything else it’s just suspicious.

Language Of Confusion: Armed, Part IV

Here’s even more words from the Proto Indo European ar-, to fit together, continuing all the order words from last week.
 
First of all, ordain, yes, as in ordaining a priest. It showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French ordener, which meant to place in order or designate, which is from the classical Latin ordinare, to organize (and organize, for the record, has a completely different origin), and that’s from the Proto Italic ordn-, which is from (probably) ar-.
 
Primordial is actually much closer to order. It showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Late Latin primordialis, and before that the classical Latin primordium, the beginning. That’s a combination of primus, first, and ordiri, to begin or be born. That’s from ordn-, which is from ar-. Primordial is the first to be in order.
 
Coordinate showed up in the mid seventeenth century, from the Medieval Latin coordinatus and its verb form coordinare, to set in order. Com- means with or together, and the rest is from ordination, organization. That’s from ordo, order, and thus all the order words. There’s also inordinate, which showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning not ordered, from the classical Latin inordinatus, unorganized. The in- means not or opposite of there, and the rest is ordinare, to organize, so inordinate is unorganized.
 
And similarly, there’s subordinate. It showed up in the mid fifteenth century from the Medieval Latin subordinatus and its verb form subordinare. The sub- means under and the rest is from ordinare, so a subordinate is… organized under? Plus there’s suborn, like suborning perjury (the only time I’ve heard it used). It showed up in the mid sixteenth century from the French suborner and classical Latin subornare, to bribe. We know what sub means, but the ornare means to decorate or equip, so to suborn is to decorate under. Somehow.
 
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
Orbis Latinus

Severe Injury

I really hurt my back… doing absolutely nothing.

The worst part is, this isn’t even the first time this has happened while I’m asleep. What the hell…

Language Of Confusion: Armed, Part III

Still more words that are from the Proto Indo European ar-, to fit together. If you didn’t think last week was weird enough, here’s more for you.
 
First is order of all words. It showed up in the thirteenth century, but back then it referred specifically to a religious order. A century after that, it started to mean a rank in a community, then after another century a regular sequence, and another century after that it meant a command. It didn’t start to mean a food order until 1836, and a business order a year later. Amusingly enough, in order, as in organizing something, is older than most of these, having shown up in the fifteenth century, while out of order showed up a century after that. And we haven’t even looked at the etymology yet! It’s from the classical Latin ordinem, which meant order, but also a row or line or even the row of threads in a loom, and is from ordo, the noun form of order. That’s from the Proto Italic ordn-, which is from ar-, and I guess to fit together makes sense for things placed in rows, but what a journey.
 
Next, ordinary, which showed up in the fifteenth century from the Old French ordinarie. That’s from the classical Latin ordinarius, which, you know, just ordinary, and that’s also from ordo and ar-. I guess rows are ordinary?
 
Ordinance showed up in the fourteenth century, from the Old French ordenance and Medieval Latin ordinantia. That’s from the classical Latin ordinantem, they order, from the verb ordinare, to organize. And that’s from ordo, of course. Now, ordinance always had the meaning we use it as—decree—but in the fourteenth century, it also meant arrangement in rows, or war provisions or equipment. You know, like an ordnance. Ordnance is literally ordinance without the I, and it took on the meaning ordinance lost and then came to mean artillery.
 
Also related? Ornate. It showed up in the fifteenth century from the classical Latin ornatus, decorated. That’s from the verb ornare, to decorate, which is also from ordo. Ornate things are decorated, or “fitted out”. Ornament is actually older, having shown up in the thirteenth century from the Old French ornement and classical Latin ornamentum, which is just ornament and is from ornare.
 
That’s it for this week, but there are so many more ordo words to go.
 
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

From The Spamfiles

It’s spam day!

Yeah, that email address just screams peace of mind.

Soooo. Is this from the AARP or this Explore Life thing? I mean, obviously it’s not really from any of those. I’m just confused at what it’s pretending to be. How do people fall for these scams?

It’s all the emojis that really sell this as being legitimate. Along with the circle R after UPS. It’s totally fake without that.

Well, why don’t you get back to me when iCloud ® succeeds to attempt payment.

Pushy perver. I can’t even.

Language Of Confusion: Armed, Part II

More words that are from the Proto Indo European ar-, to fit together. As usual, they will be weird.
 
It might surprise you that art is from the same place as arm, but it is. It showed up in the early thirteenth century meaning skill, moving on to mean skill in learning or science, then human workmanship, and finally in the seventeenth century creative arts. Yes, it really took that long! It comes from the Old French art and classical Latin artem, which could mean a work of art or a skill. That’s then from the PIE ar-ti, which is from ar-, to fit together. Art… fits together!
 
Obviously artist is from there, though with a slightly different origin. It showed up in the late sixteenth century from the French artiste and Italian artista, which is from the Latin ars, from ar-. There’s also artisan (though very specifically not artesian) which showed up in the mid sixteenth century meaning a craftsman, coming from the Italian artigiano, and Vulgar Latin artitianus. That’s from the classical Latin artitus, from the verb artire, also from ar.
 
Article is pretty old, having shown up in the thirteenth century, meaning the separate parts of anything written, then the grammar usage in the sixteenth century, and finally a composition in a journal in the eighteenth century. It comes from the Old French article, and classical Latin articulus, which meant article but also a joint, and that’s from ar. Then we have articulate, which showed up in the late sixteenth century meaning speech divided into parts, then clear and distinct. And that just happens to also be from articulus, too.
 
Artifact is fairly recent, having shown up in 1821 meaning something modified by human art. It’s from the Italian artefatto, which is a mix of the Latin arte, by art, and factum, done. An artifact is done by art, and then in 1885 people started to use it in archeology, and now we have that. Artificial stayed closer to the original meaning, and it’s older too, having shown up in the late fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French artificial, classical Latin artificialis, which can be traced to ars and ar-.

The takeaway here is that artifact and artificial are closely related, and artisan and artesian are absolutely 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
Encyclopaedia Britannica

What Fresh Hell

Should have known they’d try to inflict AI on me.

Getting rid of it was ridiculous. You have to go into the registry.

Language Of Confusion: Armed, Part I

Yep, going right into another multiparter. So many words are connected! Usually in stupid ways!
 
The words we’re looking at this time are all descended from the Proto Indo European ar-, to fit together. Some of these might make sense, but I assure you, most will leave you scratching your head. The first we’re looking at is actually arm, which I believe I’ve gone over before years ago, but am too lazy to check. There are two versions, the limb as well as a weapon, and both are ultimately from the same place. Your limb comes from the Middle English arm, Old English arm, Proto Germanic armaz, and finally ar-. The weapon has a slightly different origin, being from the Old French armes and its verb form armer, which are from the classical Latin armare, to arm, which is also from ar-. In other words, arm started out as the same word, traveled through two separate languages, and came back together in English.
 
Many other arm- words are also from the same place. Army showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French armée, classical Latin armata, armed, which of course is from armare. Fun fact, armata is also the origin word for armada, which came to us from Spanish. Then there’s armor, which also showed up in the fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French armeure and classical Latin armatura, from arma, weapons, which is of course from armare.
 
Armistice has a fairly similar origin. It showed up much more recently, in the early eighteenth century from the French armistice, which was a mix of the Latin arma and the back half of solstice. Armament showed up a bit earlier, in the mid seventeenth century, from the classical Latin armamentum, which means armor or implement, and yes, is from armare.
 
And it wouldn’t be etymology if we didn’t look at some words that are just weird. Armoire showed up in the later sixteenth century from the French armoire, Old French armarie, and classical Latin armarium, a cabinet or cupboard, which is from arma. Because an armoire could be used to hold tools—or implements—and those tools can be weapons. But there’s one more word we’re going to look at, one that does make sense when you think about it: armadillo. It showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Spanish armadillo, which is from the word armado, armed, and that’s from amare, too. Because an armadillo is armed with a shell, we call it that.
 
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

April Goals

Okay, now it’s April??? The year is a quarter done?????? That’s just wrong.
 
March Goals
1. Finish my editing for the new book. I think I’m down to eight hundred notes left. Eep.
I should be done by the time this posts. Fingers crossed.
 
2. Get the last chapters of the web serial ready to post.
Also very close to being done. Just the epilogue left now.
 
3. Work on something fun that isn’t editing. I definitely need it.
Wouldn’t you know, this is the one I didn’t have time to do.
 
Would have been nice to have some free time, but those notes were eternal. I added something like six thousand words of description, so yay?
 
April Goals
1. Actually take some time to rest and creatively recharge.
 
2. Update the etymology page. Ugh.
 
3. Figure out what I want to work on next. Something old? Something new?
 
What do you want to do this month?