Word of the Week – Colors

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

We have so many beautiful color names, that all describe beautiful shades–which surely existed forever, right? Maybe…but the words sure didn’t! So today, a few quick lessons on when some of those shade names joined the English language. =)

Indian Pigments (image by Dan Brady)

Cerulean is for the blue-green family, and dates from the 1660s. So we historical writers will want to use that one instead of…

Teal – not used for a color until 1923! Before that, “teal” just meant a small duck, whose head is said color. We took the color name from the duck name, not the other way around.

Fuchsia, which I can NEVER spell without the help of a dictionary, was the name of a plant in the 1700s, but didn’t get applied to the reddish-purple color in general until 1923.

And don’t think you can instead use magenta! Magenta was so-called in honor of a battle in a town called Magenta in Italy in 1860, where a rich dye was discovered soon after the fighting ended.

Turquoise – again, the stone has been known and named a goodly while–since the 1560s. But it wasn’t used to describe the color until 1853.

Lavender has the same story. The plant has been a word since the 1300s, but apparently people didn’t use it for the color until 1840.

Aubergine is an eggplant–the original word for it. The deep purple color we associate with eggplant was also first called aubergine (the first veggie called “eggplant” was apparently a white variety, oddly…). But keeping in this pattern, it wasn’t actually applied to the word until 1895.

Okay, that should do us for today. 😉 Have a colorful one!

Word of the Week – Doorknob

by Roseanna White | Feb 3, 2014 | Word of the Week

First of all, my apologies to anyone who missed my Thoughtful Thursday last week–I was taking a sick day. Just a cold, which I’m happy to say didn’t get as bad for me as it did for my hubby. Not that I’m happy it involved a fever for the hubby–you know what I mean. 😉

Anyway! A new week, and on we go to our feature word. So go ahead. Ask “Why in the world are we talking about doorknobs??”

Well, I’ll tell you. Because until 1847, we wouldn’t have been. That’s right–doorknob is only 167 years old! Which is darn new, considering how old doors are. 😉 But up until the 19th century, most doors used latches or handles rather than knobs. In fact, the knob we know and love wasn’t patented until 1878.

Who knew, right? 😉 So we historical writers better be sure to never have our medieval heroine carefully turning the knob and sneaking into a room. Just sayin’.

Happy February, all!

Word of the Week – Escalate

by Roseanna White | Jan 27, 2014 | Word of the Week

Patent diagram of the first escalator (“revolving stairs”) – 1859

This one got me. I admit it. I looked it up during edits on a WhiteFire book because I wasn’t sure it was quite early enough in the sense used. And what do I find? A surprise!

Escalate is new. Darn new. As in, from 1922–and that’s in the literal sense. It’s actually a back-formation of escalator (from 1900). Before that, the verb had been escalade. Not so different a word, right? Except that escalade has exactly one meaning: “to use ladders to scale a fortified wall.” Yeah, um…not how I use escalate!

So what of that meaning? The “to raise,” or “to intensify” meaning? Well…that didn’t come around until the Cold War! 1959 to be exact. I had no idea it was so new!

Word of the Week – Date

by Roseanna White | Jan 20, 2014 | Word of the Week

A Roman Calendar

When I’m writing or editing historicals, much of my word nit-picking relies on gut and ear. If something feels too new or sounds too new (as in, I don’t remember reading it in works of the period), I look it up. Which is how I came to look up date last week.

Date obviously has a long history…in some senses. Ignoring the fruit called a date, which has been around forever, let’s look at the noun and verb that both have to do with noting the day. These have been around since the 14th century, directly from the Latin datum. From which also comes data, apparently. Which makes sense, but I don’t think I ever thought of it, LOL.

This primary meaning gradually evolved to mean “appointment.” But it took several hundred years for that appointment to gain a romantic sense–as in, not until the 1890s, five or so years after it came to mean “liaison.” But this was still just the actual meeting. Calling a person your date didn’t come about until 1925.

And to round it all out, “date” was also used to call something old-fashioned or out-of-date (her clothes date her) in 1895. So many meanings! Some so very old, some so relatively new.

Quick side note! I just added a page to my website featuring the book covers I’ve designed. I didn’t realize how many there were! LOL. If you’d like to check them out–or if you have a project you’d like me to consider taking on–do swing over to http://www.roseannawhite.com/wordpress/designs and take a look at my gallery. I’d love to hear which is your favorite. 😉

Word of the Week – Fiesty

by Roseanna White | Jan 13, 2014 | Word of the Week

The Duchess of Chevreuse as Diana the Huntressby Claude Deruet, 17th century

We see a lot of historical heroines described as feisty–and why not? It’s a great word, right? It means “spirited,” right?

Wrong. Though I just learned this recently, and now I’m wondering if I’m guilty of using this wrongly, LOL. First of all, feisty wasn’t ever used until 1896. At which point it was an Americanism that meant “aggressive, exuberant.”

But here’s the kicker. Do you know where it comes from? I didn’t. But apparently it’s from fice, a word for a dog. Particularly a stinking dog. For centuries, folks would use fice (also spelled feist) to describe, er, passing gas.

So not exactly a compliment, LOL. And I’m going to think twice about using it again in anything but a contemporary, where that original meaning has been largely forgotten.

Don’t forget I have two giveaways running! The first one, for The Wyoming Heir, will run through Tuesday 1/14/14. The second, for winner’s choice of one of my books, will go through Thursday 1/16/14.

Word of the Week – Blizzard

by Roseanna White | Jan 6, 2014 | Word of the Week

The Blizzard by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1860

Given the awful winter weather striking so much of the country this year, this seemed like an appropriate word for the day. =) Though one I can’t take credit for coming up with–one of my fellow Colonial Writers, the amazingly-talented Lori Benton, posted to our group about this one. I otherwise wouldn’t have thought to question it!

But apparently blizzard is a pretty new word. Though occasionally used for a “a hail of gunfire” as early as 1829, it didn’t take on the snowstorm meaning until–get this–1859. It most likely came from blizz, a word for a violent rainstorm that dates to 1770. Etymologists suspect that its origin is America’s Upper Midwest, where locals probably took the word used for the rainstorm and applied it to the snowstorm just to be cheeky. 😉 (Okay, so they technically say “in a colloquialism.” But we all know what they mean.)

So what in the world did they call blizzards before blizzard was a word?? That’s the question Lori asked, and I’m not sure we really found the best answer. “Violent blow” seems to be the closest, but it doesn’t feel sufficient to me. Guess that’s why those Upper Midwesterners found a better word for it. =)

Hope everybody stays warm this week! And if you’re stuck inside, be sure to swing by again tomorrow. I’m hosting a good friend of mine (from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, so a girl who knows all about the cold and blizzards, LOL) in an interview and giveaway of her just-released historical romance, The Wyoming Heir. And on Wednesday, I’m taking everyone on a step-by-step journey through the last book cover I designed for WhiteFire. That should be fun too. =) See you tomorrow!