Language Of Confusion: More Instrumental

Today I believe we’ll look at the etymology of some woodwinds.
 
Flute
Flute showed up in the early fourteenth century from the Old French flaut/flaute, which is from the Old Provençal flaut, but before that is unknown. It might be from the classical Latin flare, which means blowing, mixed with the Provençal laut, which means lute. Imagine it being a mix of flare and laut. There’s no indication that’s what it is, but what if???

 
Clarinet
This one’s actually kind of easy. It showed up in 1768 from the French clarinette, which is from clair, which means clear and is from the classical Latin clarus, also clear. I guess it was called a clarinet because the sound was clear.

 
Saxophone
A sax is probably the most modern instrument here, the word showing up in 1851 from the French saxophone, where it was named for the Belgian who first made it in 1840—Antoine Joseph Sax. Fun fact, he also created an instrument called the saxhorn. Apparently he just liked naming them after himself.
 
Oboe
This one showed up in 1724 from the Italian oboe, which is actually from the French hautbois… which was pronounced something like oboe. That word is actually related to the English (!) hautboy, another name for oboe, a mix of haught (high) and bois, which means wood. An oboe is a high wood. And its name has been translated between English and French a bunch of times.
 
Piccolo
Piccolo showed up in 1830, while piccolo flute showed up in 1809. It’s from the French piccolo and Italian flauto piccolo, which literally translates to small flute. Well, this one was straightforward.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Language of Confusion: Un-Bear-Able

I’m pretty sure I chose this word just so I could use that title.

Anyway, bear is another one of those weird words that has two discrete meanings. One is a large animal, the other is a synonym for endure. And let’s not forget bear as a synonym for birth. There has to be a reason these words spell and sound the same, right?

Wrong. Nothing is logical in linguistics.

Both bears come from Old English. Bear (the verb) is from beran and bear (the animal) from bera. Still pretty close. Further back, in Proto Germanic, you get beranan and beron respectively. Beranan has a similar meaning to endure, give birth to. But beron actually means “the brown one” (brown is actually brunazin Proto Germanic; pretty close to what we call the animal).

Of course, then the two etymologies go back to being one. Just like in English, the Proto Indo European bher has more than one meaning, both endure and brown. It’s worth noting, however, that bher is not the word for bear (animal)—that word is rtko. No, I have no idea how to pronounce that.

I would say we have the Germans to thank for picking the animal’s brown fur for its name. Brown bears are still found in Europe and I guess they chose one of its most distinguishing characteristics. I guess it was a tough choice between “brown” and “furred death machine.”  

Thanks to the Online Etymology Dictionary and the Bear Planet site for the info.