Word of the Week – Posh

by Roseanna White | Nov 28, 2016 | Word of the Week

A quick but fun one, especially in context. =)

So, y’all probably know my current series is about thieves. I’m have SO much fun with this. And working pretty hard to make sure each main-character-thief views the world differently than her/his “sister” did in the previous one. But one thing they’re all destined to have in common is noting the rather huge difference in 1914 between the upper class and the common worker. As I was searching for the right words to describe something, I wanted to use posh.

Upon looking it up to make sure it was old enough, I discovered that, in fact, its first appearance in print was actually in 1914! Here’s the fun part, though. Despite claims from the 50s that the word is actually an acronym for “port outward, starboard home” (to describe accommodations on luxury steamers), it’s not–it is, in fact, taken from thieves’ jargon!

Posh actually dates from the 1830s as a word for “money,” particularly a coin of small value (thought to come from the Romany posh, which means “half”). By the 1850s, it was also being applied to people–the so-called dandies. From there, it was another 60 years or so before it became an adjective, though in 1903 we see an occurrence or two of the variation push.

So that of course seals it, that it came from thieves. I had to use it. 😉

Word of the Week – Upbeat

by Roseanna White | Nov 14, 2016 | Word of the Week

Quick word of the week today, and musical, since I just finished writing A Song Unheard. 😉

In today’s vernacular, upbeat means “with a positive mood”–but this is a rather modern connotation, only dating back to about 1947. It’s thought to have come from the phrase on the upbeat, which meant “improving, getting better.”

This does indeed come from the musical idea that a conductor’s baton is raised during a given beat in a measure (the denotation which is also rather modern, dating only to 1869)–however this beat in a measure isn’t particularly positive by nature or anything. It gained a “happy” connotation simply because it sounded optimistic. My kind of reasoning, LOL.

Word of the Week – Eccentric

by Roseanna White | Oct 17, 2016 | Word of the Week

I have long loved the word eccentric for an odd, unique person. Ever since I learned it back in . . . middle school? . . . it was my choice word for those like me. A little different (you know, like someone who has scads of people living in her head begging to have their stories told), a little unusual, and infinitely interesting (perhaps not part of the standard definition, but I maintain that it’s true, LOL.)

It was in college, studying Ptolemy and Apollonius, that I learned about the ancient mathematics, derived from studies of astronomy, and how an eccentric orbit was one where the earth was not precisely the center (as they assumed everything was, more or less).

It never once occurred to me that these two meanings of the word eccentric were related. But of course, they are!

Eccentric as a mathematical concept of an off-center, elliptical orbit dates back more or less forever, directly from the Greek word ekkentros, which means simply “off center.” (Compare that to concentric.)

Eccentric as an odd or whimsical person dates from 1817, and once you realize they’re the same word, it’s easy to see why, right? Because we eccentrics are a little off-center. A little different from the norm. Just a little odd.

And infinitely interesting. 😉

Word of the Week – Sappy

by Roseanna White | Oct 10, 2016 | Word of the Week

I honestly don’t remember why I was looking this up . . . but I’ll share the results with you anyway. 😉

Sappy in a figurative sense of “foolishly sentimental” has been around for quite a while! Dating from the 1660s, it comes from an intermediate meaning of “wet, sodden.” How we get, I guess, when we’re sappy. 😉 Interesting to note, for a while in earlier days, sappy could also mean “full of vitality” (that one’s from the 1550s) and, around 1620, “immature.”

Sap, as a figurative noun meaning “simpleton” is from around 1815. It was English and Scottish schoolboy slang, deriving from the idea that one had soft, sappy wood in their heads.

Have a great week!

Word of the Week – Fast

by Roseanna White | Sep 5, 2016 | Word of the Week

What primary school student hasn’t been correctly at some point for saying “fastly”? I know I was…and I know I’ve done the correcting too. But last week when my son said something about this, my husband and I decided to look it up (because really, why isn’t that a word??).

Pretty interesting discovery too!

So the original meaning of fast, dating back to the 12th century, was “firmly, securely.” We still use this occasionally, though it’s old-fashioned. “It stuck fast” etc. Early on, fastly was then indeed a word and used in relation to this sticking definition. It didn’t go completely out of use until the 19th century.

So where did the notion of “quickly” come from? Well, that meaning has been around nearly as long as the original, and came about rather organically. Etymologists believe it’s because “to run hard” and “to run quickly” mean the same thing–and also perhaps because if you’re running “fixedly,” you’re keeping up with anyone in front of you.

Regardless of how it evolved, it’s certainly worth noting that fast was used both as an adjective and an adverb since the get-go, with that “fastly” fading from use a couple hundred years ago solely because the root word had been treated as both adj and adv for so long.

So sorry, kiddo. No need for that -ly. 😉