by Roseanna White | Oct 3, 2011 | Word of the Week
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning colors, the weather is turning cooler, and the pumpkin vines are taking over my yard. Okay it’s the first year we’ve planted pumpkins, so this is a first–and a lesson to us on where NOT to plant them next year! LOL.
So it seems like a fine time to talk about the roots of the words we associate with the season. =)
For a good while, British folk referred to this time of year solely as “harvest.” It wasn’t until the 16th century that the word “autumn” entered the vernacular. Taken from Old French and, in turn, Latin, there are also suggestions that it shares a root with August, and that the aug- implies severity.
Over the centuries, most “autumn” words have come to carry a meaning of “end, end of summer” or “harvest.” And unlike all the other seasons, we not only have several words for it, we also have several different start/stop dates in English speaking countries. In Britain, for example, autumn begins in August, while in America it’s September.
And of course, from “autumn” we get one of my all-time favorite words: autumnal (pronounced aw-TUHM-nl), which my best friend still swears I made up. 😉 As you can assume, it means “things pertaining to autumn.”
And then, of course, we have “fall.” Now used only in the U.S. as a synonym for the season, “fall” is short for “fall of the leaf,” and dates from the 1540s. So it’s nearly as old as “autumn,” but has for some reason fallen out of use (ha . . . ha . . . ha . . .) in other English-speaking parts of the word.
So here’s wishing everyone a beautiful, colorful fall filled with all the delightful, autumnal things that make you smile. =)
(For reference, the picture is my kids and nieces at our family farm’s Octoberfest, from last year. From left to right you see Isabelle (niece), Paisley (niece), Xoe (my oldest), and Rowyn (son in need of a haircut last year, LOL).)
by Roseanna White | Sep 26, 2011 | Word of the Week
Everyone knows what a fiddle is, right? Or what it means
to fiddle. It’s a violin. More, it’s a colloquial use (that usually denotes the rural or country or south) at this point. Why? The word has been used since the late 14th century, it’s perfectly legitimate. Why the connotation? (Let’s keep in mind that I LOVE what has become termed “fiddling.” I like the more formal
Violin too, but the fiddle is so much fun!)
Interestingly, it’s been relegated to such use largely because of the other words containing “fiddle” that mean “nonsense.” Funny, huh? We’ve got fiddle-faddle used since 1610 for “nonsense.” Fiddlesticks has meant the same since 1620. Fiddlededee combines the nonsensical with contempt, and has since 1784. From what I can tell, there’s no particular reason why “fiddle” got used in all these words, but it’s certainly had an effect on the root word. Fiddle now has associations with nonsense.
Maybe that’s why I like it so well. 😉
Forgive me if this post isn’t quite coherent–we spent 12 hours in the car yesterday coming home from St. Louis. The conference was great, fun, etc. Appointments went well, classes were great, but the absolute best part was getting to talk to all my friends face to face!
I’m guessing it may take a few days to recover though, LOL.
by Roseanna White | Sep 19, 2011 | Word of the Week
How do you describe a pearl? It doesn’t shine like other gems. Doesn’t shimmer, has no fire. It gleams, yes. But it’s the rainbow of color that really sets it apart. That . . . you know, the pearlized effect. 😉 Its iridescence.
I can never think of a more accurate word for it, so I was a little frustrated when I looked up “iridescent” and realized it entered English just a wee bit too late for my 1780 book. As in, 16 years later, in 1796. After grumbling for a minute over not being able to justify using it (I’m nit-picky about my word choices like that), I put it aside to wonder about the word.
“Iridescent” comes from the word “iris.” Now, we all know “iris,” right? The colored part of our eyes. A flower. Yep. But apparently “iris” means rainbow in Greek–hence why the colored part of our eyes are called that. The Greeks would also use it to describe any colored circle, like the round “eyes” on a peacock feather. Pretty neat, huh?
So it makes perfect sense that we would have created a word like “iridescent” to describe that rainbow effect. If only we had created it two decades earlier . . . 😉
(Photo credited to Georg Oleschinski/Inst. f. Paläont., Uni Bonn via Wikipedia Commons)
by Roseanna White | Sep 5, 2011 | Word of the Week
My word of the week is “holiday,” not only because today is Labor Day, but because this week all my posts are going to be gearing up toward 9/11. Which isn’t an official holiday, I know, but I think for all of us it’s a day of remembrance.
“Holiday” is a fairly literal word, coming from the mashing together of “holy day,” in its original meaning of a sabbath (day of rest), a celebration, or a remembrance. In the 14th century, it took on the meaning not only of a religious holiday, but any day of recreation. By 1869, it had also become a verb meaning “to pass the holidays,” hence to holiday in the Riviera. (If only, LOL.)
I hope everybody today is enjoying their Labor Day and taking a much-needed day of rest. In our house, Xoe was too impatient to want to start school tomorrow, so we dove in today–at 6:30 a.m. no less. =)
But I hope this week we also pause to think about how our nation and world changed ten years ago. Because of the close proximity of Labor Day to 9/11, I’m going to be spending much of it not only resting but remembering. And as I remember, I’ll be sharing with you here on my blog, culminating with an article I post annually that I wrote the day following 9/11 and which appeared in my hometown newspaper.
I hope that this day and week reminds us all of the original meaning of “holiday” too, and that we not only rest and remember, but reflect on that which is holy and sacred. I pray that this week be filled with the breath of the Spirit upon our lives, and that He open our eyes to His might in new ways over the next days. Amen.
by Roseanna White | Aug 29, 2011 | Word of the Week
I know, I know–you probably see my word of the week and wonder, “Why in the world is she talking about shacks?” Well see . . . um . . . LOL. Mostly because I needed to describe some ramshackle dwellings in my book a few weeks ago and was surprised to learn how very new the word shack is. And upon looking a little further, the newness gets even more interesting.
What
www.etymonline.com knows is that the word “shack” appeared in American and Canadian English in 1878. But its origins are mysterious. One quoted possibility is that it’s an Americanization of the Mexican-Spanish
jacal, from Nahuatl
xacall. But that’s pretty much just a guess. Another possibility is that it’s one of those fun back-formations, either of “shackly” (shaky, rickety-1843) or of “ramshackle,” which is from 1830.
I’m always intrigued by words that are back-formations. So often language starts with the words for things, with nouns, and then adjectives come of them. I love finding words that began as adjectives and then got turned into nouns.
And for reference, the only word accurate to 1780 I could find for the idea of “shack” is hovel. Which got a little redundant when describing a whole village of them, LOL. So if anyone knows of any words of similar meaning, let me know! 😉
by Roseanna White | Aug 8, 2011 | Word of the Week
My hubby and I get a kick out of watching the History Channel’s Pawn Stars. They have some truly awesome stuff come in there that does a history-lover’s heart good. =) So as I was browsing through interesting words today, I thought we’d talk about pawning and hocking as we look forward to watching Rick and Chumlee tonight. 😉
Pawn is an old word, first used a noun (something left as security) in the late 15th century. It came from the Old French pan, pant, which meant “pledge, security” or “booty, plunder.” Interestingly, the same word also means “cloth” in Old French, raising the question of whether cloth was used in exchange. The word became a verb round about 1560, and pawnbroker sprang up in 1680.
American English added hock into the mix in 1859, and it meant both “in debt” and “in prison,” interestingly enough. It was specific toward gamblers being in debt to one another in its early days. Again, the word began its life as a noun and didn’t become a verb until about 20 years later.
So if anyone else likes to watch the guys in Vegas wheel and deal on interesting pieces of history, tonight you can watch it knowing they’re in a profession whose words date back as far as modern English goes . . . which means they’ve probably been around pretty much forever. =)
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.