Parking Lots

Parking lots are not garbage cans!

Seriously, why are there always flossing picks?

Language Of Confusion: Feeling Strapped

There are so many weird words related to this one. You’re in for a time.
 
First of all, strap, a band of leather, showed up in the early seventeenth century from Scottish, of all languages. It’s thought to be from the Old French estrop, strap, and before that the classical Latin stroppus, which means strap like part of a slingshot. That’s actually from the Greek strophos, rope, from the verb strephein, to turn, from the Proto Indo European strebh-, to wind or turn. So because rope is twisted/turned, we have strap.
 
And that little word gives us so much weirdness. You know what’s from there? Catastrophe. Seriously! It showed up in the mid sixteenth century meaning a reversal of what’s expected, not meaning a disaster until 1748. It comes from the classical Latin catastropha (a reversal or catastrophe), and Greek katastrophe, disaster or undoing. The kata means down or against, and the rest is from strephein, so a catastrophe is turning against. Somehow that makes sense.
 
And from the same place is of course apostrophe. It showed up in the mid sixteenth century, a bit after catastrophe, from the French apostrophe, (same meaning, obvs), from the Late Latin apostrophus and Greek apostrophos prosoidia, which means apostrophe and literally translates to “the accent of turning away”. Yeah, somehow that meant a mark to show that a letter is missing—like it is being shortened to it’s, the apostrophe shows the missing i. Apo- means off or away from, and the rest is to turn, so an apostrophe is a mark that takes a letter away.
 
All right, how about strobe? It didn’t show up until 1942, but it was short for stroboscope, which showed up in 1896. That’s scope with the Greek strobos, twisting or whirling, which is obviously from strebh-. A strobe is a constantly whirling light! And there’s one more we’re going to look at: streptococcus. Yes, it’s from the same place. It showed up in 1877 as the bacteria genus, with the strepto- used by scientists when they wanted to say “twisted” but wanted to use Latin so they sound academic. It’s from the Greek streptos, twisted, which is from strephein. Fun fact, the cocco- part of the word means berry or seed, which is from kokkos, agranule or seed in Greek. Streptococcus is a twisted granule. And it sucks to come down with it.
 
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
Orbis Latinus

From The Spamfiles

It’s back! Finally, I have some saved up. Either my spam filter is working better or I’m so boring not even the spammers are interested in me.

Honestly, I’m not sure if this is spam or just a warning about how AI steals the work of writers and artists.

This, this is what the previous one was warning about. It wants to automate creativity, the thing that makes people happy, so they can be forced to work a soul-crushing job until they die. Yay.

It’s kind of insulting that the spammers think I need this. Also, why is it specifically to smell better naked? Are people smelling worse than when they have clothes on???

I have won so many toolsets these past few weeks. I don’t know how I got so lucky.

Rajani’s back! And they’re totally a real person and not a spambot!

Language Of Confusion: Stalled, Part II

The second and final part of words descended from the Proto Indo European root stel-, to stand or to put in order. It gave us still and stall, and a bunch of other words you wouldn’t think.
 
First we’re going to look at stole. But not like the past tense of steal, which is totally unrelated. No, like a stole you wear around your neck. It comes from the Old English stole, and before that the classical Latin stola, a robe or vestment. That’s from the Greek stole, which means like a uniform or costume, from the verb stellein, to place, which makes more sense than a garment a priest wears around their neck (the kind of stole women wore wasn’t named until 1889).
 
Next is stolid, which I don’t find surprising. It didn’t show up until the seventeenth century, though stolidity, which I’ve never heard anyone use, showed up in the mid sixteenth century. It comes from the French stolide (same meaning), from the classical Latin stolidus, which means… stupid. That’s from stultus, stupid or foolish, from the Proto Indo European stol-ido-, which is from stel-. Apparently a standing object or place was stupid? And that gave us stolid.
 
Not weird enough? How about apostle? It comes from the Old English apostol, apostle or messenger, from the Late Latin apostolus, Greek apostolos, messenger. The apo- means off or away from (we talked about that only a few weeks ago!), and the rest is stellein, which means to send in this sense. An apostle is someone sent away (with a message). Epistle of course has a very similar origin. It was epistol in Old English, from the Old French epistle/epistre, from the classical Latin epistola, aletter. That’s from the Greek epistole, letter or message, with the prefix here epi-, meaning to. Epistle means to send a message to.
 
Then there’s also pedestal. It showed up in the mid sixteenth century from the French piédestal and Italian piedistallo. The pie means foot, the di means of, and the rest is from the Old Italian stallo, stall or place. That’s actually probably Germanic in origin, and definitely from stel-. A pedestal is where you place something.
 
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
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Orbis Latinus

Forgot To Mention

This actually happened just two weeks ago when me and my mom were talking to her sister.

My aunt is a scatterbrain, so of course her much more reliable husband is going to inform everyone about the wedding, by phone since it’s not a formal affair. Unless he’s so busy helping to plan it that he, I don’t know, forgets.

Language Of Confusion: Stalled, Part I

There’s a weird number of words related to this one that you wouldn’t think. All are descended from the Proto Indo European root stel-, to stand or to put in order, two meanings you wouldn’t think actually go together but it does kind of make sense.
 
Stall is one of those words with a lot of different definitions, like a physical stall where you sell goods, or stalling someone, an engine getting stalled, and somehow they are all from the same word. The first one to show up was a stall like you would put animals, sometime before something stalling out, which showed up in the mid fifteenth century. It comes from the Middle English stalle, from the Old English steall, a standing place to catch fish. That’s from the Proto Germanic stalli-, which is thought to be from stel-, so a standing place to catch fish became a stall, and that changed into all those other definitions.
 
Plus there are other words related to stall. Did you know stallion is from stall? It showed up in the mid fifteenth century, though it also showed up earlier as staloun, coming from: the Anglo French estaloun, Old French estalon, Frankish stal, Old High German stal (which means stable), and Proto Germanic stol-. And that’s from stel-. Funny how stallions go in stalls, but the words have diverging etymologies. As for install, which you would think would be related, there’s no real evidence of it. Install is Latin in origin, and while Latin might have taken it from a Germanic language, there’s no clear word it came from, including stall’s origin words. I mean, it makes sense and it probably is related, but maybe not???
 
Back to words that are definitely from stel-. Still comes from the Old English stille, which just means still, so no big WTF leaps. That’s from the Proto Germanic stilli-, from the PIE stel-ni-, which is a form of stel-. Straight to the point there.
 
Then there’s stale. Makes sense, stale things stand for too long. It showed up in the fourteenth century meaning… alcohol that stood long enough that it’s now free from dregs. It didn’t mean something old until the mid sixteenth century! And of course it was Shakespeare who started it to mean something that’s gone stale by being laid out for too long. Stale actually comes from the Old French estale, settled or clear, from estal, a fixed position, form the Frankish stal-, Proto Germanic stol-, and so from stel-. If it wasn’t for Shakespeare immortalizing the slang of the time, stale would only have to do with alcohol clearing up! How does this word make less sense now?
 
Finally today, stalk. Like the stalk of a plant, not stalking after someone (that’s thought to be related to steal). A plant stalk showed up in the early fourteenth century, and that’s thought to be from the Middle English stale (I don’t think that’s even related to stale!), and before that the Old English stalu, the wooden part of a tool. It’s from the Proto Germanic stalla-, which is from the PIE stol-no-, from stel-. I really can’t see that one, but somehow it’s supposed to be true.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
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
Fordham University

August Goals

On one hand, how is it already August? On the other, birthday month!!!!! What did I do last month?
 
July Goals
1. Reduce my blogging schedule. I know, it’s a shock. I’ve been at three times a week for over a decade now! Unfortunately, I don’t have as much energy as I used to.
Well, this was an easy one. Doing less work is not a problem for me.
 
2. Update my etymology page. You know what fun this always is.
Ugh, it’s done. Stupid Google screwing up Blogger.
 
3. Get to 90K on my WIP. I probably won’t get this far, but I’m hoping for a miraculous burst of inspiration.
So close! And since I’m writing this in advance, I may have actually reached it! Yay!
 
Not bad, in all, but they were some easy goals.
 
August Goals
1. Actually keep track of my goals this month. I let it slack when I stopped using sticky notes, but now that the evil rounded corners are gone, I can use them again.
 
2. Finish Book 2. It’s got, like, three more chapters, so this should be easy.
 
3. BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I’m going to get cake! The cake I really love from the good bakery! AHHHHHHHH!
 
I’m very excited.
 
What are you going to do this month?