As my husband and I were walking along the beach on vacation and talking about…something or another (mental health, maybe?), he was reaching for the word stigma and instead said stigmata, which proved hilarious for the conversation. And also made us stop and go, “Huh. Those are obviously related,” and I figured they both meant mark. Naturally, I had to look it up to make sure I was right!

So, yes. Stigma dates from 1590s with that spelling (and was spelled stigme as early as 1400) and basically meant a brand–“a mark made on the skin by burning it with a hot iron.” (Youch!) It comes from the Latin stigma, which meant “mark of a pointed instrument, puncture, tattoo, or brand.” The root is steig-, which means “to stick” or “pointed,” and itself comes from the Greek word of the same sound and meaning.

Interesting note–stigma is the singular. Plural? You guessed it! Stigmata.

So let’s move to the figurative sense of “a mark of disgrace or infamy.” That is pretty old too, dating from around 1610. Interestingly, the “marks resembling the wounds on the body of Christ that appear supernaturally,” which we today call stigmata, was originally stigmas and dates from 1630 in that form; as early as the 1300s it was in use, but spelled stigmate. The plural Latin stigmata did also begin to be used at the same time and eventually displaced stigmas for that sense, differentiating it from the other forms of marks or brands that got the word.

Word Nerds Merch!

When we think of appointments, we probably think first of those things we put on our schedules. Then maybe we think about being appointed to an official position. And recently when discussing my calendar, my husband pointed at me…and then said, “Hey, is appointment related to pointing at something? Word of the Week!”

So here we are. 😉

So first of all, let it be noted that the sence “fixing a date for business” dates from the early 1400s as a meaning of the word, whereas “act of placing in office” came quite a bit later, not joining English meanings until around 1650. I really had no idea which might have been first, so it was lovely to have an answer to the question. 

Now. What, pray tell, is the relationship between point and appoint/ment?

I’m so glad you asked.

If one traces the roots back enough, from English to French and then to Latin, one learns that appoint comes ad + point in Latin, that point itself being from the word punctum (think “puncture”), which meant “a small hole make by pricking.” This small hole then came to indicate a precise spot. And so, coming “to a point” in a matter meant that people “agreed, settled” on said matter. This is the meaning that carried from Latin into French around the 1100s, and then from French to English in the 1300s. And so, appoint–“to decide, resolve, arrange, or settle” soon began to be applied to the time when one would meet to do such things.

And there we have it.

Word Nerds Merch!

Since last week we looked at college, this week it’s only fair that we examine the history of the word university.

While college dated from the late 1300s, university actually joined the English language almost a century earlier, right around the year 1300. And, get this, it meant the same thing it means today, “institution of higher learning.” I’m always a little bit amazed when things haven’t changed in meaning after all this time… But of course, there are still some interesting things to look at!

Namely, have you ever noticed how similar universe and university are? Yeah, that’s not a coincidence. University does indeed come from the Latin universus, meaning “whole, entire,” which was used both for the universe itself and also for all of society or, more narrowly, for a corporation or whole of a group.

So how did it come to be applied specifically to an institution of higher learning? Well, simple. It’s a shortening of a phrase. 😉 The actual phrase was universitas magistrorum et scholarium, meaning “community of masters and scholars.” Guess that was just too much of a mouthful. 😉

And English and French are far from the only languages that use this same idea! Spanish has universidad, German has universität, and Russian has universitet.

Word Nerds Merch!

It’s that time of year when students are going back to school…and I’ve featured school on here several times. But upon dropping my daughter off at college two weeks ago, I realized that I’ve never actually looked up the word. So today, let’s see where college comes from.

Our English word dates from the late 1300s, taken from French which in turn came from Latin. So what does the root collegium mean in Latin? It actually has nothing to do with education, per se. It means “community, society, or guild.” It’s literally “an association of partners,” from com (“with” or “together”) + leg (from legare, “to choose”).

The French word meant a “collegiate body,” which could be used for any group and is still preserved in English with things like the U.S. electoral college or the Vatican’s college of cardinals. Its original meaning was just any “organized association of people invested with powers and rights to engage in a common duty or pursuit.” The most common examples, however, were in religious and educational life.

So let’s focus on the educational. The term was used to refer to the “body of scholars within an endowed institution of learning.” Not the institution itself. It wasn’t until around the year 1800, in fact, that the word began to be used to refer not to the body of scholars within a university, but to a degree-giving educational institution itself. Even today, most universities have several colleges within them, often denoted as “school of…”. 

When I was a tour guide for St. John’s College, not to be confused with St. John’s University, I often had to explain that we used the word college to describe ourselves instead of university because we are truly one body of scholars, all pursuing the same program of study and degree.

Next week, we’ll take a look at the word university!

Word Nerds Merch!