by Roseanna White | Apr 29, 2013 | Word of the Week
I think we all know what a scandal is, and it’s been in the English language pretty much forever. But there’s a subtly to it I had never picked up on, and which one of our friends was talking about this weekend.
When one goes back to the original Greek skandalizein, the meaning isn’t just “bad behavior, cause for offense,” it’s “to make one stumble.” So a scandal isn’t when one person goes astray…it’s when a person leads someone else astray. Though right there in the definition, I’ve never paused to realize that before. But it makes total sense, doesn’t it? Private sin can be terrible–but how much worse it gets when it becomes a public sin that leads others into it!
Hope everyone has a wonderful week! =)
by Roseanna White | Apr 22, 2013 | Word of the Week
In Circle of Spies, my villain is a railroad tycoon. Slightly tricky because I don’t want to imply that any of the actual railroad men were anything like him, LOL, but I digress. As I was blasting through the scenes last week, I very nearly had my hero contrasting himself with good ol’ Dev and calling the man a tycoon. Then I thought I’d better, you know, actually look it up…
And I’m glad I did. Because though I would swear I’ve watched documentaries that use the word for men of that era, it’s anachronistic to do so. The word originated in 1857, very specifically–it was used by foreigners to the shogun of Japan. Directly from the Japanese word taikun, “great lord or prince,” it was used by the shogun’s supporters to indicate that he was more important than the emperor.
In 1861 the word crossed to America and was used, again specifically, in reference to Abraham Lincoln. But it wasn’t applied to successful business in general until after World War I!
So while I couldn’t use it to speak of Devereaux Hughes, I did find the history intriguing. =) From the shogun to the president, and then nearly fifty years before it gained it modern meaning.
by Roseanna White | Apr 15, 2013 | Word of the Week
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| Agnes Melanie Dickson as a debutante, 1890 |
Anyone who reads historicals, even 20th century historicals…or watches TV…knows what a debutante is. But as I started writing Colonial-set books, I was a bit surprised to learn the word wasn’t around in the 1700s. And a bit at a loss as to what to replace it with when talking about a young woman entering society.
But in its first appearance, debutante actually meant an actress making her stage debut. This word arrived in English round about 1801, coming (no surprise) from the French. It wasn’t applied to society ladies making their debut until 1817. So for me, that means no using it until my Civil War books.
Which I’m now going to hasten back to. 😉 If you haven’t seen the cover of said book, Circle of Spies, yet on Facebook, be sure to come back on Wednesday for a peek, and some fun behind-the-scenes I’ve learned about it since describing it to y’all last week!
by Roseanna White | Apr 8, 2013 | Word of the Week
Another one I looked up in the course of writing. =) I knew that charades was a pretty old game, but I was interested in the metaphorical sense. And learned some fun things.
Charade entered the English language round about 1776, obviously from French. The interesting bit is that it’s from a word that means chatter, talk. Interesting because of where our version of the game has ended up–silent. LOL. The original version of the game relied on enigmatic descriptions to try to get the players to guess the word.
The silent form variation was originally referred to as dumb charades. This is what led to “acting charades,” which is what our metaphorical (i.e. Could she keep up this charade forever?) sense is taken from.
I hope everyone has a lovely Monday! I’ll be enjoying the National Aquarium with my kiddos and a group of other homeschoolers. =)
Oh! And one of WhiteFire’s titles is on super-sale! Check out this biblical novella for only $.99! Trapped: The Adulterous Woman by Golden Keyes Parsons.
by Roseanna White | Mar 18, 2013 | Word of the Week
There’s an awful lot of snooping going on in my current manuscript, so as Marietta and Slade go peeking into things Devereaux doesn’t want them too, I had to pause to look up the history of the word. =)
I discovered that the verb came first, debuting round about 1832. It’s American English, and carried the original meaning of “to go around in a prying manner.” Definitely fits my undercover detective’s behavior, LOL. Conjecture is that it comes from the Dutch word snoepen, which means “to pry.” Interestingly, the association there is to “eat in secret, eat sweets, sneak.” Oh yeah–sneaking dessert. That’s my kind of snooping! 😉 The precise definition of “prying into others’ business” is attested from 1921.
In the middle of those, about 1891, the noun form joined the party, meaning “detective.” And the adjective “snoopy” followed four years later. Leading, of course, to the cartoon in 1950. 😉
Don’t forget that a new installment of A Vow Fulfilled goes live today!
by Roseanna White | Mar 4, 2013 | Word of the Week
Very quick one this week, as I’m still on my writing retreat. =) (And have gotten over 20K written in just two days!) In quick research while writing, I learned something interesting about file.
I think I was looking to see if a file folder would have been around in 1865. So in looking up file, I discovered this:
file (n.1)
1520s, “string or wire on which documents are strung,”
Say what? Strings? Wires? Apparently yes. It comes from the notion of documents being strung up like clothes on a clothes line for safekeeping. The verb entry even had this lovely 17th century quote:
File (filacium) is a threed or wyer, whereon writs, or other exhibits in courts, are fastened for the better keeping of them. [Cowel, “The Interpreter,” 1607]
As www.etymonline.com goes on to say, “Methods have become more sophisticated, but the word has stuck.”
See, you learn something new every day. 😉
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. 