by Roseanna White | Nov 12, 2012 | Word of the Week
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Whistler’s Harmony of Pink and Gray – 1881
Yes, I chose it because of the year and its prettiness,
not because of any other relevance. 😉 |
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I know, right? You’re thinking “Her word of the week is what? Seriously? This chick is losing it…” 😉 But hopefully you’ll read on to see what in the world inspired me to write about what, LOL.
Last week as I was editing an upcoming WhiteFire title, I read a line where one of the characters says “What’s up?” The year is 1921, the phrase sounds modern to me, so I thought I had better look it up (even though I trust this author implicitly, things slip by us all, right?) So I tapped what into the etymology dictionary and found quite a few idioms that were older than I’d thought!
The word as a question, as a “What did you say?” dates all the way back to 1300. That doesn’t really surprise me. But I was quite surprised to see that “what’s-his-name” dates from 1690! I would have thought that a more modern phrase, personally. (The variant “what’s-his-face,” though, is from the 1960s, LOL.)
The phrase “what for,” as in “give him the what-for” is from 1873, which apparently, interestingly, came about as a smart reply to people asking the question “What for?”
And finally, the one I was looking up. “What’s up?” made its debut right around 1881. Which did surprise me a bit, I confess. It didn’t give me any idea where it came from (like that handy explanation of the what-for…) but it’s always so much fun to discover a use is older than I anticipated!
I hope everyone has a lovely week!
by Roseanna White | Nov 5, 2012 | Word of the Week
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| A Prayer for Those at Sea by Frederick Daniel Hardy, 1879 |
With Election Day being tomorrow and so many already having voted early, I felt the need to spend today’s post in a word of prayer rather than a word’s etymology. I try to steer clear of politics in my online presence, and so I don’t intend to talk about candidates or my opinions–but please do join me in praying for our country and her direction.
Dear Lord, we fall to our knees before You, in awe of Your beauty and reverence. In amazement at Your love for us. When I think of Your glory, of Your wonder, of all the intricate paths You set before us, tears come to my eyes. You are true. You are holy. You are worthy of every whisper of love our lips can utter. And we worship You knowing that You are the Lord of our beginnings and the God of our ends.
Father, I know you have placed us all where we need to be, for a purpose. You have put our feet on the earth at this exact point in history because this is where we belong. And so we are intimately tied to all that happens in this world around us, even if we are apart from it as our focus is on You. You have called us to live in peace, as much as we are able, and to always, always choose righteousness. If we suffer for Your sake, it is glory. But how much better to live selflessly and so influence other for You so that our enemies become Your children!
So here we sit in this nation You have made ours, this nation founded with such lofty principles, all based on the idea of freedom. Here we sit, people on both sides of the aisle claiming that to elect the other guy would mean fewer freedoms. But Lord, we know that true freedom rests not in the decrees of man, but in the freeing liberty of salvation. We know that there is no man who can become president and set the world to rights–that such change must come from within the hearts of the people.
But we also know, Lord, that only one can win. And we pray now, on our faces prostrate before Your throne, that the man will win who will follow Your path. We pray that your angels be stationed around each polling place, that with their swords outstretched they will keep the enemy away. We pray that the ears of our neighbors be stopped against any whispers from the evil one, that their hearts be guarded against that influence. Because we know, Father God, that whatever You want, he wants the opposite, and he will manipulate mankind to achieve it. Guard us against his wiles, O Lord my God. Guard us and protect us.
Father, we pray Your will be done. In every person’s day, in every person’s decision, in every vote, in every result, in every office. Let Your will be done. Let Truth prevail and overcome any fraud or deceit. Let Wisdom dictate our decisions. Let Love cover campaigns so often focused on the negative. Let Your will be done. And let it be, please dear Lord, for our redemption and not for our destruction. Help us, through our decision, to redeem the times as You instruct us in Ephesians. Help us to be the light in this darkness. And to
Shine that light through our voices and votes.
We commit our nation, our states, our communities into Your hands. We commit our hearts, our lives, and our spirits unto You. Take us back, God of All, hear our cries. And silence our enemies to that we may hear Your voice directing us. In the name of Your precious son Jesus we pray. Amen.
by Roseanna White | Oct 29, 2012 | Word of the Week
First of all, I would like to report that I finished up Whispers from the Shadows on Thursday! Woot! It checked in way too long (130,000 words instead of the 116,000 I was to shoot for), but everyone agrees that it’s better to have too much than to run out of story with 20K to go. 😉 Now it’s time to shift my focus to editing–and hunker down as Sandy swings up this way. She’s supposed to hit us tomorrow morning, with tropical storm force winds hitting us here in the mountains. Should be interesting.
Anyway. Rereading one of my chapters yesterday, I was inspired to look up the word card to see when the phrase “playing the ______ card” came into being. So I thought I’d share my findings. =)
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| Playing card from the 1895 Vanity Fair deck |
The word card itself is really old–the English word dates from 1400. It’s taken from the Latin charta, which means “leaf of paper,” which in turn comes from the Greek khartes, “layers of papyrus.” Which, in its turn, is probably derived straight from the Egyptian word.
The most familiar meaning of “playing cards” dates in English and French from the 1590s. The listing didn’t tell me about calling cards, but I happen to know those were around for a long while, especially popular in the 19th century. Greeting cards came about in 1869, and people who are original earned the name card in 1836 but usually had “smart” in front of it back then and came from the playing card sense.
“Card table” dates from 1713 and “house of cards” in the figurative sense is from 1640s–supposedly from Milton. To have a card up one’s sleeve is 1898; and, finally, the one I was actually looking for! LOL. To play the _______ card is from 1886, originally the Orange card, meaning “appeal to Northern Irish Protestant sentiment (for political advantage).” Who knew?
So yeah, my hero’s best friend couldn’t accuse him of playing the _____ card, which is fine. But I sure learned something in the looking up of it!
by Roseanna White | Oct 22, 2012 | Word of the Week
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| A Dream of a Girl Before Sunrise by Karl Briullov, 1830 |
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This is a word that I had no idea had anything interesting to it so was very shocked to find such a long entry! And at this point, can’t even remember why I bothered looking it up, LOL.
Dream in the literal sense–a sleeping vision–dates from the 13th century and is related to a number of similar words in other Germanic languages, including a few with a meaning of “merriment or noise,” “illusion, deception, or phantasm,” and from there “ghost, apparition.” Our
dream though, the Old English word carried only the literal meaning and those of
Joy, mirth, and (for some reason…) music.
There were, however, two identically spelled Old English words. The one that meant a literal dream and the one that meant “revelry.” Folks have tried to prove that the modern
dream came from the revelry one instead of the expected one, but to no avail. As it turns out, Old English literature often avoided using the word for the primary purpose to avoid confusion and would use
swefn (sleep) in its place.
Who knew?
But here’s the thing that really surprised me. It wasn’t until 1931 (1931!?) that dream gained the meaning of “ideal of aspiration.” Can you believe that?? I had no clue it was so new. And now so need to rewrite a line of my manuscript…and wonder how many times I’ve used it wrong in other books. Argh! Seriously. Never thought to look this one up. But apparently this modern meaning came from an 1888 sense of “something of dream-like beauty of charm.”
Yeah, definitely one of those words I never thought to question and now will never look at the same again. 😉
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by Roseanna White | Oct 15, 2012 | Word of the Week
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| Christ Healing the Sick by Washington Allston, 1813 |
Oh yeah, going for controversy this week. 😉
So here’s the deal. I’ve heard from quite a few sources that we moderns are misusing the word nauseous. That it ought not mean “to feel sick or queasy” but that it rather means “to cause a feeling of nausea.”
Now, I’ve heard this from sources I trust, but they never quote their sources, and I’m now on a quest to figure out why in the world this is touted as grammatical fact and, more, as a “modern mistake” when every dictionary I look it up in says that nauseous has carried both means (“to feel sick” and “to make sick”) since 1600-1610.
One dictionary I found says “careful writers will use nauseated for the feeling of queasiness and reserve nauseous for “sickening to contemplate.” I’m okay with being careful, really I am, but I’m still unsure why grammarians are saying that using its original meaning is “a mistake of the moderns.” It is, in fact, the first definition of the word in the OED.
So. Calling all grammarians! 😉 If you learned it this way and could point me to a source (not just an expert like the wonderful Grammar Girl, mind you) that states this as fact (maybe CMS has settled the question at some point??), I would be very grateful. I don’t mind changing my ways to be a “careful” writer–but I’m a Johnnie. I don’t ever accept an expert’s opinion without checking out their sources. 😉
by Roseanna White | Oct 8, 2012 | Word of the Week
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| Lesbia Weeping over a Sparrow by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1866 |
Depression. Which is what I would be in right now after the failure of my primary coffee pot if I did not have a French press to serve as backup . . . 😉
Naw, seriously, this is another word I had to look up for my work-in-progress. See, I’ve learned to be careful about any word or phrase that is used in modern psychology, because many of them are either plain ol’ new or with new meaning since Freud and company came along, but so much in today’s common vernacular that we often don’t even pause to consider them… So I thought depression had better be investigated.
Apparently the first appearance of the word was in the 14th century, as a term in astronomy. I admit I had to look this one up, because I couldn’t fathom, on this Monday morning with belated coffee, why in the universe astronomy would employ this word. Until I saw the phrase “the sun at an angle of depression…” Ah. Angles. Right. Moving on.
Pretty much all connotations of depression stem from the literal “pressing down” of something, though that above sense pre-dates the literal meaning by 300 years. Go figure! For that matter, even the most familiar “dejection” is from the 15th century, so pre-dates the literal.
Of course, do keep in mind that when older texts (or historical fiction, LOL) refer to someone experiencing depression, this is merely a description of low spirits, not a clinical term. The clinical term didn’t come about until 1905.
But we also have a few more meanings that come from those in-between years. In 1826, depression was applied to “a reduction in economic activity.” And then in 1881 the meteorological meaning joined the team in reference to barometric pressure. Talk about a word with meanings in every sphere! The celestial one, the atmospheric one, through our wallets and all the way to our spirits.
Interesting indeed!
Hope everyone has a lovely October week full of no depression other than the atmospheric and celestial types. 😉
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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.