Today’s word: card. Oh, what a card.
Ow. Ow, that physically hurt me.
Card can mean either like playing cards or the completely
unrelated comb wool. The former actually showed up first in the early
fourteenth century, coming from the Middle French carte and classical Latin charta. Like many Roman things, it
was taken from the Greek, in this case the word khartes, which means maps and probably derived from Egyptian. Interesting fact, “to card” once used to
mean to play cards, like they didn’t need the extra verb in there. Tell me
that’s not hilarious?
Anyway, the other card, which showed up decades later in the
late fourteenth century, comes from the Old French carder (verb) and carde (noun), which had pretty much the
same meaning. Before that, it was the Old Occitan cardar, which can be traced to the
Vulgar Latin caritare and classical Latin carrere, to comb with a card, meaning
it’s not related to the other card at all.
Sources
English is such fun - we takes words from all over the place and then end up with the same word for different things :). So when did we add in the extra 'playing' rather than just using 'to card'?
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
Combing with a deck of cards would be difficult.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the phrase "the cards we're dealt"? Cards as in a situation or hardship we've faced. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat about the phrase "the cards we're dealt"? Cards as in a situation or hardship we've faced. :)
ReplyDeleteSo interesting with how words can have several meanings. So frustrating for those trying to learn English.
ReplyDeletebetty
I never heard of the comb wool. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I get together about once a week for a card night. It's the best. I had no idea about the comb wool!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the 2015 A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com
I'd forgotten about the combing wool thing. I had a friend whose mother spun and we used to help her get ready to spin the wool by carding it for her.
ReplyDeleteThat's not hilarious. That's not true, but you told me to tell you. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm familiar with the other carding. It's a knitting thing (although, I don't spin).
ReplyDeleteNow you've got me wondering what items beginning with D you have lying around your house. Drills? Duct tape? Dust bunnies? The anticipation is killing me...
ReplyDeleteWe've turned it into a verb too...we get carded at bars.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
Carding wool... that's ringing a faint bell for me although I've no idea what it means. I used to card an awful lot - with playing cards, that is.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since I've heard of comb wool.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that card is related to map.
ReplyDelete