Word of the Week – Toilet

by Roseanna White | Mar 24, 2014 | Word of the Week

Last night I ate an orange. (I know–groundbreaking news, right? LOL) At which point Xoe came in and exclaimed over how lovely my hands smelled. Which prompted her cheeky question of, “Mommy, did you get new cologne?”

I, naturally, said, “Now, now. These days cologne is reserved for what men wear, and women wear perfume.” And thought, Mostly. Although it used to be…

While I was thinking thus (ahem, LOL), my hubby thought it would be funny to say I was wearing “eau de toilette.“

Need it even be mentioned that our darling daughter dissolved into laughter and, upon getting the translation of “toilet water,” asked why in the world perfume was ever called that?

I then had the pleasure of educating husband and daughter both. 😉 Granted, I was halfway making it up. But I was right. So there.

Toilet of Venus (no, not THAT kind!) by Simon Vouet circa 1628-1639

The English toilet has pretty much followed the evolution of the French toilette through the ages. First, it meant “cover or bag for clothes.” So, a garment bag. This first meaning, which made its way to English in the 1530s, was from the French toil–cloth. In the late 1600s, it took on the meaning of “the act or process of dressing.” Another 120 years passed, and it became the word for the room in which you do that dressing, especially one with a lavatory attached. Then, and only then–70 some years later, in 1895–did it get attached to the lavatory and its fixtures instead of the dressing room. And yes, that euphemism is also an Americanism.

So really, it’s a very lovely word that we first used to pretty-up a not-so-lovely room…and by which we managed to make into an ugly word. Sigh. Sorry, toilette!

Word of the Week – Geek & Nerd

by Roseanna White | Mar 10, 2014 | Word of the Week

It’s always fun to trace these words that have become names kids call one another…and eventually a banner of pride, LOL.

Photo by Tommy Hancher

Geek traces its origins back to 1510, surprisingly–and was even used by Shakespeare! The meaning has changed over time, though. Originally it meant “a fool, a simpleton.” Within twenty years, it was applied to contemptible people in general. In the early 1900s the circus folk adopted it to mean “a sideshow freak.” Still, it took quite a while longer to be applied to that particular brand of person awkward in the social graces but up on computers–our geek didn’t gain the name until 1983. So this is a word both very old and very new!

Nerd is even funnier. It’s thought to be a variation of nert, which was 1940s slang for “stupid or crazy person,” but it didn’t really gain in popular use until Dr. Seuss used it in “If I Ran the Zoo.” Seuss’s nerd was a small, unkempt animal, and that, interestingly, is where the modern take comes from.

And now they both have such particular definitions that each will proudly claim his own title but be very offended if you call him the wrong one. 😉

Word of the Week – Hourglass

by Roseanna White | Feb 24, 2014 | Word of the Week

Image by Martin Olsson

For some reason, I had this image of an hourglass being really, truly ancient. Like Ancient Egyptian kind of ancient. I’m not sure where that idea came from…probably some movie, LOL. Or maybe just the idea of the sands of time obviously being linked to those desert places…

As it turns out, hourglasses are pretty darn old, but nowhere near ancient. The word–and the device–originated round about 1510. And so, you’d think that an hourglass shape would have come not long after, right? It’s pretty distinctive. And applies so well to the female form, that surely someone made the connection early on. Right?

Wrong. According to etymonline.com, no one thought to call a woman’s figure hourglass until 1897, after corsets had been exaggerating those shapes for half a century. Here’s one of the first written mentions of it:

Men condemn corsets in the abstract, and are sometimes brave enough to
insist that the women of their households shall be emancipated from
them; and yet their eyes have been so generally educated to the approval
of the small waist, and the hourglass figure, that they often hinder
women who seek a hygienic style of dress. [Mary Ashton Rice Livermore,
“The Story of My Life,” 1898] 

And since the sands are flowing and I have a book to finish writing today (woot!), I say farewell!

Word of the Week – A Few Trivializations

by Roseanna White | Feb 17, 2014 | Word of the Week

Now this is fantastic! C&E Dragon by David Revoy

One thing I often flag when I’m editing and have to think about when I’m writing are those words that we use today in a rather un-amazing sense. Words that have come to mean an ambivalent “okay” or “nice.” Words that used to mean a whole lot more.

The first one is fantastic. This is a word we commandeered to mean anything
great or amazing. But it began with a very specific sense of “that
belonging to the world of fantasy; imaginary.” It wasn’t until 1938 that it was trivialized to mean “wonderful, marvelous.”

Next is fine. Fine has become a meaningless answer to the question “How are you?” We all reply “Fine.” It’s therefore taken on a “Meh” connotation. Sure, we still use it in a more pointed sense when talking about a fine point on the tip of our marker, but in general? I think if you ask most kids what the word means, they’d say it’s a synonym with “okay.” So-so. All right.

But of course, when we think about it, we realize that fine actually means “unblemished, of superior quality.” Hence why in England it became an expression of unmitigated approval. Which we then took and overused until it ceased to mean much of anything, LOL. So next time someone asks you how you are, only say “fine” if you mean it. 😉