by Roseanna White | Jul 30, 2012 | Word of the Week
Well, we just got back from a trip to Texas, and I’m still in get-situated-back-at-home mode, so this will be a short one. =) But last week I had to look up when grandfather clocks came to be called grandfather clocks (can’t believe I even thought to question that one), and was surprised by the answer, so . . . 😉
Grandfather itself is from the 15th century, a compound word of pretty obvious origins. It replaced “grandsire” and the Old English ealdefaeder.
There aren’t many phrases that use it–there’s “grandfather clause,” which referred to exemptions from post-Reconstruction voting and restrictions in the South for men whose family members had voted before the Civil War. That came about near the turn of the century.
And then, ta da, grandfather clock. This is from the 1880s and apparently refers to a song–don’t ask me which one, LOL. Before that–which is to say, for in my story, which is a far sight earlier–they were just called “tall case clocks” or “eight day clocks.”
So there you have it. A few little tick-tocks to learn about the grandfather clock. =) Now I need to go unpack some bags . . .
by Roseanna White | Jul 23, 2012 | Word of the Week
Last week while in the car, we were trying to figure out why “appropriate” (adj) and “appropriate” (v) are spelled exactly the same, pronounced differently, with what we deemed very different meanings. (Yes, my whole family is apparently word-nerdish, LOL.)
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| A Favor by Edmond Blair |
So I just looked it up and kinda scratched my head to see that, in fact, they both come from exactly the same Latin word and both appeared in English in the 15th century.
Both start with proprius, the Latin word from which we get “proper.” It’s the best place the start in this case. Proper means “adapted to some purpose, fit, apt.” The Latin means “one’s own, particular to oneself.” Easy to say how those are related, right? If something is its own, it has a very particular purpose. But it also carries an idea of possession. (Interestingly, it didn’t carry a connotation of social correctness until 1704! Who knew?)
The prefix is a variation of ad- which means “to.” Pretty simple. “To make one’s own” is a very literal definition of the Latin approprius, which is where appropriate comes from. So the verb is pretty easy to see. But it also still has that meaning of “one’s own, particular to itself.” In which case the adjective suddenly makes sense too, because if something is appropriate, it is proper, fit, apt to a purpose.
Yeah, I really never thought that appropriate as “proper” and appropriate as “take for yourself, by force if necessary” were in fact the same. But apparently they are. Pretty interesting, eh?
by Roseanna White | Jul 16, 2012 | Word of the Week
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| Obviously a sober-minded young lady 😉 |
One of the words my editor said was distracting in Ring of Secrets was “sober.” I used it a couple times instead of “serious,” which is, of course, valid. Which she knew. But the modern definition… 😉
I decided to look it up and found that the dual definitions of “temperate” and “not drunk” go back to the original Latin sobrius. The prefix, from se- means “without”, and ebrius is “drunk.” This is a pretty logical correlation, since temperance and drunkenness are rather exclusive. So the opposites have also been drawn together pretty much forever.
In English, sober has meant “grave, serious, solemn” since the 1300s. By the mid-14th century it had edged toward “moderate, temperate,” and “abstaining from strong drink.” Now, that “abstaining” makes me think that it didn’t speak to one’s state at a particular moment, but rather to one’s habit. It wasn’t until the late 14th century that it narrowed to “not drunk at the moment.” Still, of course, carrying that meaning of “grave, serious, solemn, moderate.” 😉
Interestingly, the verb form (usually paired with “up”) didn’t come about until 1820.
Oo, and I learned a new name to call somebody who’s a little too sedate or serious! Sobersides. Yep. My newest go-to for name calling, LOL. 😉
by Roseanna White | Jul 9, 2012 | Word of the Week
Last week I had the pleasure of going over edits of Ring of Secrets with my awesome editor, and she proved her awesomeness by discovering some words I hadn’t thought to look up but which were way too new for my 1780-set book.
One of the most surprising is lowlife. It feels like an old-fashioned word to call somebody, doesn’t it? Like it should be from the age when base-born was one of the meanest things you could say about someone. But . . . it’s not.
The adjective form, low-life, did indeed enter the English language in 1794, meaning “vulgar, disreputable.” (Still too late for my story, mind you…), but it didn’t make the transition from adjective to noun until–get this–1911! Aaaagggghhhhhh!
Thanks heavens for an editor who thought to look this one up. She knows this sort of thing is important to me and got to laugh while I went “Aaaaaggghhhhh, really? Really? What in the world can I call him then?” LOL. (Enter “miscreant” and “criminal” for the two places in the book I’d used “lowlife.”)
I hope everyone was a great week!
by Roseanna White | Jul 2, 2012 | Word of the Week
Waaaaaaaaay back in 2006 when I started submitting a historical manuscript, I had an editor respond saying that some of words were too modern. Like “whatnot.”
Now, I won’t argue that some of my words were indeed too modern. But that she chose that one as an example gave me a chuckle. =)
Whatnot dates to the 1530s, meaning “anything.” It’s a very literal world, from what + not. Even as a piece of furniture, it’s from the early 1800s, named after the items it’s meant to hold. I personally love tossing this word into a historical–it’s one that feels old, yet is still in occasional use today so is easy to understand.
On a not-word-related note, I’m in one of the areas hit by the severe storms/tornadoes over the weekend, and while we didn’t even lose power at our house, my parents are still without electricity, and it’s going to take a long time to clean up all the damage from felled trees at my mother-in-law’s house–prayers appreciated!
by Roseanna White | Jun 25, 2012 | Word of the Week
It was a long time ago at this point that my daughter asked me why it was called a neighborhood. At the time, I said something like “Uh . . . well . . . um . . . I don’t know. Why do you think?” We came up with a nice, totally fabricated story about the houses all being pulled together, like under a hood. But I made a mental note to look it up.
Then forgot. LOL. Until now. 😉
First, let it be noted that this isn’t from hood but from -hood. That hyphen makes all the difference. Hood has been “covering” since the days of Old English, when it was spelled/pronounced “hod.” And –hood has meant “state of being” since Old English too, when it was spelled/pronounced “had.” So too different OE words that eventually ended up with the same spelling.
So. This made a major light bulb go off. –Hood, as in, motherhood, spinsterhood, etc. This is where “neighborhood” came from, originally meaning “neighborly conduct, friendliness.” In the 1620s, it came to be applied to a community of people living close together.
Interestingly, it didn’t gain the metaphorical sense (i.e. “Am I close to the answer?” “Eh, you’re somewhere in the right neighborhood”) until 1857.
So next time my kids ask me this question, I’ll have an answer! 😉
Happy Monday!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.