by Roseanna White | Jun 22, 2015 | Word of the Week
One of my husband’s favorite shows is Top Gear–the British version. Being a car show, they have cause to say lots of things that are different than how we say it in America. Boot, bonnet…and aluminium instead of aluminum. On one particular show, the presenter is talking about an American car and quotes that it’s made from “aluminum–whatever that is.”
First, it made me laugh. Then it made me wonder why we say it differently. Looking up the answer made me laugh again. =)
Sir Humphry Davy coined the word aluminum in 1812, taken from the Latin alum. In 1809 he’d called this metal alumium, but he changed it for reasons unknown, and American kept this second incarnation of his word. Editors that same year, however, amended it still further:
Aluminium, for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in
preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound. [“Quarterly
Review,” 1812]
So there we have it. Aluminum didn’t sound classical enough. Love it. =)
by Roseanna White | Jun 8, 2015 | Word of the Week
It’s going to be a fun week around Writing Roseanna…so I thought I’d start us off with some fun, happy words. =)
I suppose I should start with the root word, cheer. The earliest English reference to word, from about 1200, was from the Anglo-French chere, and meant “face.” Within about 50 years, it had extended to mean “frame of mind or state of feeling.” Within another hundred years, it was more specifically the mood as could be determined by the expression on one’s face.
By about 1400, though, cheer was reserved for the positive of those expressions. And right about then, the verb came around–cheer, as in to cheer someone up. The act of shouting out encouragement is from about 1720 and is thought to have originated with sailors.
But what about cheers and cheerio?
First, cheers. As a salute or a toast, this British-ism dates back only to 1919–pretty new! It is quite simply a plural of cheer–the act of cheering.
Cheerio claims a date of 1910. Another Britishism, this departing salute was just a way of wishing someone good cheer with a bit of style. 😉
But before I say “Cheerio!” for the day . . . we have some fun waiting this week!! The awesome folks of Bethany House let me know that there are a couple extra ARCs of The Lost Heiress and asked if I would like to do a contest to give them away. YES, PLEASE!
So beginning on Thursday, the fun will be hosted right here. I’ll be running a contest, promoted by Bethany House, for these advance copies of The Lost Heiress… AND I’ll be sharing the first chapter here on my blog! AND, a week from today, I’ll be revealing the cover of the second book, The Reluctant Duchess, as part of the ongoing celebration! I’m so excited!!
Normal posting will be suspended during the contest, but this Wednesday I’ll be doing a Thoughtful post since I was under the weather last week and didn’t get one up. =)
See you back here soon! Cheerio!
by Roseanna White | Jun 1, 2015 | Word of the Week
We’ve all heard it through the grapevine (and some of us might break into song at the mere mention…), but do you know where the saying comes from?
I didn’t–but I learned recently so thought I’d share. =)
Grapevine, meaning “a rumor” or “information spread in an unconventional method,” comes from the Civil War era South. The “grapevine telegraph” was much like the “underground railroad.” Metaphorical and secretive. Just as the latter wasn’t a real railroad, but a term to refer to the secret movements of runaways, so the “grapevine telegraph” referred to spreading information on the down-low, rather than using the real telegraph. And so grapevine is a shortening of that–a way to spread information without using typical means that could be tapped or overheard.
by Roseanna White | May 18, 2015 | Word of the Week
So, duh moment. Did you know that the noun fence–like, you know, the thing around your yard–is from defense? Yeah. Duh. I’d never paused to consider that, perhaps because the spelling has ended up different, but there you go! It has been a shortening of defense with the same meaning since the 14th century. Then sense of that enclosure followed in the 15th century.
It had a similar verb meaning at the same times too, with the “to sword-fight” way of defending oneself arising in the 1590s.
But the reason I looked it up was for the meaning that has a fence being someone who buys and sells stolen goods…and to fence being to sell those stolen goods. I expected it to be a pretty modern use, but no! As the verb, it’s been around since 1610, and it was then applied to the person doing it right around 1700–all from the idea that it’s accomplished under “the defense of secrecy.”
by Roseanna White | May 11, 2015 | Word of the Week
 |
| My kiddos on a field trip to a one room school house last year |
Since someone asked me about this over the weekend, I figured, hey–already looked it up, might as well share! 😉 Especially appropriate since this is our last week of school. Oh yeah. Right about now the kids are mighty glad we didn’t take a bunch of snow days! 😉
Field trip comes from the idea of field…not as in “an open piece of land, often cultivated” (which dates from time immemorial) but from the idea of field being a place where things happen. This is a slightly newer meaning that began evolving in the 1300s. (I said slightly newer, not new, LOL.) By then it could mean a battleground. And by mid-century, a “sphere or place of related things.” By the mid-1700s people would refer to field-work as anything that took one out of the office or laboratory and into the world, where things take place.
Field trip, then, is a natural extension of this meaning. It’s a trip into the field, going out of the classroom and into the world where the things you’ve been learning about can be found. Though an actually-new phrase (from the 1950s), it has its foundation on a nicely aged idea. =)
by Roseanna White | May 4, 2015 | Word of the Week
So, cute story. Way back when Xoe was just a little miniature thing (as opposed to now, when she’s quickly closing the gap between our heights and wearing my shoes!!!!!), I read her the Little Quack books. In one, Little Quack is playing hide and seek with his brothers and sisters, but he can’t think of a place to hide–so he hides behind Mama Duck, swimming right behind her, in her blind spot, while she finds everyone else. But she can’t find him, until finally she calls out for him, and he says, “Here I am, Mama!”
Ever since I read her that book when she was two, Xoe has liked to play “duckling.” She would try to hide behind me as I moved around, usually ruining her stealth with giggles…and with the fact that I’m not a duck with that particular blind spot, LOL. But she still does it–and I knew well she didn’t remember why, given how long it’s been since we’ve read Little Quack. I was telling her about the origins of that particular playful habit on Friday night, explaining that’s why I call her “my little duckling” when she does it. She didn’t remember the why, but Rowyn sure thought it was hilarious that his sister was acting unknowingly like a duck…and then asked why in the world we call them ducks.
I, in my wisdom, said, “I don’t know. Maybe because they duck and dive under the water?”
Rowyn: “Well not always, Mommy. Only when they’re eating.”
Smart little fella. 😉 Anyway, naturally I went and looked it up. And happily, I was right! Duck is from the Old England ducan, which means “to duck, to dive.” So the verb really did come first, and then it was applied to the waterfowl. For hundreds of years it carried that water-associated meaning only. You ducked under the water, but you didn’t duck to avoid a ball flying at your head. The “to bend, stoop quickly” meaning didn’t come until the 1520s–several hundred years after the “dive” meaning.
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.