Word of the Week – Crevice and Crevasse

by Roseanna White | May 30, 2016 | Word of the Week

The other night, my husband asked if crevice and crevasse were the same word. I, being the spelling nerd that I am, quickly replied that they were spelled differently, and insisted that crevice was a small crack and crevasse a large one.

But . . . it did seem like a bit of a coincidence, so I went to look it up. And discovered that, in fact, hubby and I were both right. They’re spelled differently, and the meanings are what I said–but they’re also the same word.

Both trace their roots to the French crevasse, which means simply a gap or crack. But over the centuries, crevice (the English spelling) took on a smaller and smaller meaning . . . so in the 1800s, people went back to the original word, crevasse, to stand in for those BIG gaps and cracks, like in glaciers or river banks.

I love it when we’re both right. 😉

And Happy Memorial Day! I’m saying a prayer today for all those veterans and family members of veterans who have served our country. I owe you a debt of gratitude. Your sacrifices will not be forgotten.

Word of the Week – Heist

by Roseanna White | May 16, 2016 | Word of the Week

After the release of A Lady Unrivaled in September, my Ladies of the Manor Series will be at an end. And my Society Thieves (if that’s the name we keep) Series will begin.

Now, given the title of the series, and the fact that the first book, as of this moment (again, titles and names change a lot, LOL) is The Name Thief, it ought to be no great surprise to anyone that one of my characters is a thief.

And given that one of my characters is a thief, I obviously had to mention a few of her past exploits. The heists she has pulled off.

There’s just one problem with stating it like that–the word heist didn’t exist until well after my 1914 setting (thank you, Stephanie, for pointing this out!)

Now, this is a great disappointment to me, because I like that word. I don’t know why, exactly, I like that word. But I do.

The word is American slang (another mark against it for my British characters), and is thought to be a dialectical variation of hoist–which would be used in stealing much like “lift.” It was a noun first, from 1930, and then a verb in 1943. Interestingly, heister (thief/shoplifter) is traced back to 1927. Older, but still not old enough for my purposes!

Which of course left me with the problem of figuring out how Rosemary would be referring to “the museum heist” when heist isn’t an option. Thankfully, job was in use as “a planned crime” sine 1722. So that’s now how she thinks of everything that had been called a heist. 😉

Hope everyone has a great week!

Word of the Week – Bang(s)

by Roseanna White | May 9, 2016 | Word of the Week

I was in middle school when I read L. M. Montgomery’s Emily series. And man, did I love those! Even more than the Anne series, and that’s saying something. I loved Emily especially, you see, because she was a writer. Need I say more?

Well, in one of those books, Emily has a moment of extreme rebellion and decides to “cut a bang.” She’d never liked her high forehead, but her aunt/guardian had always been very strict about modest styles and didn’t like these new fashions.

I won’t tell you how long it took me to realize that “a bang” was in fact “bangs.” It’s embarrassing to admit. 😉

The hairstyle got its name in 1878 and was indeed singular for many years. The etymology of it isn’t actually very clear. There’s a notion that it’s something straight and abrupt–horses sometimes had a “bang-tail.” We know that a bang was taken from this notion, but not exactly why the horse’s tail was called that to begin with. The best guess is that it ends abruptly, “with a bang” as it were.

The verb to bang, i.e. “strike hard with a loud blow” dates from the 1540s, with the noun form following by the end of the century. Bang-up has been used since the 1830s as a phrase meaning, “excellent, first rate”–probably a shortening of the phrase bang up to the mark.

As for me . . . I have sometimes in my life sworn never to get bangs again . . . and then at other times sworn I would always have them, LOL. At this point I have them, quite happily. And on that oh-so-pivotal thought (guess who has a haircut scheduled for tomorrow so has hairstyles on the brain?), I bid you all a lovely week!

Word of the Week – Kiwi

by Roseanna White | May 2, 2016 | Word of the Week

Last week after hearing someone from New Zealand refer to themselves as a Kiwi, my hubby got curious as to where that word came from. So I obligingly looked it up. 😉

Apparently the first thing to earn the name was the bird native to New Zealand. It’s an imitative word, so imagine these little, flightless birds saying, “ki-wi. Ki-wi.” (Which makes total sense.) It had been a Maori word for who knows how long, adopted into English in 1835.

During Word War I, New Zealand soldiers began to be called kiwis, and from there it branched out to include all NZers.

Now, in America we associate kiwi with a very delicious little fruit. 😉 This is very new! They began to be imported to the US from NZ in 1966, and so we called them “kiwi fruit” because “kiwi” described where they came from. In New Zealand, they obviously don’t call them that–they call them, instead, “Chinese gooseberries.” (That right there rates a big ol’ “REALLY? Who knew?”) (UPDATE–I’ve heard from a few New Zealanders who say they do call the fruit kiwi. So I’m going to assume that it was once called Chinese gooseberry, but not anymore. Or else Etymonline is lying to me.) 😉

Happy Monday, everyone!

Word of the Week – Mean

by Roseanna White | Apr 11, 2016 | Word of the Week

I always find it interesting to see how very common words have changed over time–and mean is certainly one that has shifted around quite a bit!

I’m going to focus solely on the adjective version of the word today, though it’s worth noting that through the years, some of the changes to mean‘s meaning (ha…ha…ha) is because of it’s noun definition (“that which is in the middle or between extremes”–a definition mostly retained these days in math).

When mean first entered the English language back in 1200 (you know…when the English language first entered the English language), it meant “of low quality; common to all.” Within a hundred years there was a subtle shift to “inferior, second-rate.” This was of things–think of the second verse of “What Child Is This?”: “why lies he in such mean estate…?”–but it came from an application to people that had arisen earlier in the 1300s, that of a low or inferior rank.

The word carried these meanings of “common” or “inferior” for quite a while. In the 1660s, it took a bit of a turn and started to mean “stingy, nasty.”

So when did our main meaning today (“not obliging, pettily offensive”) come into play? Interestingly, not until 1839, and it was American slang. The inverted meaning of “remarkable good” (think, “She plays a mean piano”) is from about 1900, probably a shortened form of “no mean _____”)