Saturday, March 3, 2018
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Secret Origins: September
Honestly, I’m just relieved that I don’t have to do any more -leg posts. It got kind of exhausting after a while.
September, the ninth month, is of course named after the word for seven. I get that the Romans started their year in March so it would have been the seventh month then, but why is it still September?
Maybe we’ll find out today! But probably not because etymology is not a field of satisfying answers.
September comes from the classical Latin September, which is translated into English as… September. The first part comes from septem, which, obviously, means seven, while the -ber part is thought to be from the suffix -bris which doesn’t really have a meaning but was thought to be adjectival. Or it could be from membri, which in turn is from month [http://www.calendar-origins.com/calendar-name-origins.html]. It’s another one of those we don’t actually know things.
That’s kind of boring. Back in Old English, September used to be haerfestmonað or haligmonað, the former of which means harvest month and the latter of which means holy month. Both of which are way cooler than boring old September. Why aren’t we still using those? Stupid Romans, making everyone use their stupid calendar.
Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
The Stuff I Have To Deal With
If this is the shortest month of the year, why does it feel like it’s going on forever? Plus there’s another Tuesday and I have no idea what to post. So here’s a stupid conversation between me and my mom that took place when she showed up at my door at ten thirty in the morning:
Me: What’s up?
Her: Were you just sleeping?
Me: What?
Her: You look like you just woke up.
Me: I’m fully dressed. My hair is up.
Her: And you look like you just woke up! I think you were sleeping!
Me: You talked to me, like, an hour ago.
Her [narrowing her eyes]: I think you were sleeping.
Me: …
I’ve never been able to sleep during the day even when I’m tired. Unlike her, who enjoys an afternoon nap. She just thought I looked tired and couldn’t stand the thought of me being asleep. I think it physically pains her to see me resting.
Ugh.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Expired
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Language of Confusion: Legs Part VII
It feels like I’ve been doing this series all year.
First up today, legal. It showed up in the mid fifteenth century from the Old French legal and classical Latin legalis, which is just legal. It’s from the word lex, which means law and is the origin word for legitimate as well as loyal (loyal and legal can be compared, spelling wise, to royal and regal). Now, you might bet thinking that lex is related to lexicon, and it is, but not as much as you might think. Like I mentioned several weeks ago, lexicon comes from Greek, but legalis is only from (probably) the Latin verb legere, which has also popped up in this series as the verb to read. And legere is from the Proto Indo European leg-, collect or gather, which is also where lexicon and all the other leg words originate.
Religion is also in the leg family. Well, maybe. It showed up in the thirteenth century with pretty much the same meaning as today, coming from the Old French religion and classical Latin religionem, religion or reverence for the gods. It’s thought to be from the word relegere, reread, which is literally re- (again) and legere, (to read). However there’s another theory, that religion actually comes from the same place as the word rely, which has nothing to do with the leg- words at all!
Privilege showed up in the mid twelfth century from the Old French privilege and classical Latin privilegium, privilege. No great surprises here. It’s actually a mix of the earlier mentioned lex and the word privus, individual, and the origin word for private. A private law… is a privilege.
Next, diligence showed up in the mid fourteenth century from the Old French diligence and classical Latin diligentia, diligence. Boy, I’m getting repetitive today. But diligentia is from diligere, single out, value highly… or love. The di- comes from dis-, apart, and legere means choose or gather here (instead of read). Gather apart to love to attentiveness. We’re getting some weird ones today.
Finally, to finish off the leg words once and for all… we have coil. Seriously. It showed up in the early seventeenth century from the Middle French coillir, to gather or pick, and classical Latin colligere, gathering. A word I actually mentioned when I did the post on collect. And like I said then, it’s a mix of the prefix com, together, and legere, to gather. I don’t know why it transformed into something spiraled together, but I do know that that didn’t happen until 1798! Can you believe it?
Anyway, we’re done!!! Woo!
Sources
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Spamfiles Classics
Time for another spam post! But since my spam filter has been working really well lately and I don’t have any amusing fresh ones for you, I’m going to mine my archives for some. I mean, I’ve got, like, two thousand. You probably haven’t seen these before. And if you have it’s been five years.
I think they’re insulting my writing, which is pretty damn offensive considering that their method of communication seems to be copy and pasting words from the dictionary.
I know that supposedly the reason they write so incoherently is because that anyone who ignores it is an easy target. But come on. There has to be a limit. People can’t be seeing “God bless you as you listening to the voice of reasoning” and thinking “Hm! Looks legit!” Right?
Wow. I’ve been doing this for way too long.
Perfumes help a lot with emphasis.
Luckily making sense is not a requirement for making a lot of money! It explains a lot about the world, really.
I can safely say that no, I do not look like a blank spam message.
…Right?
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Bowled Over
Veronica is almost sixteen! That’s an old kitty. And it seems to be better for her digestion if she eats food formulated for old cats. However…
Peaches doesn’t want food. She wants other cats’ food.
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