Word of the Week – Draw

by Roseanna White | Oct 12, 2015 | Word of the Week

Last week, Rowyn was reading Amelia Bedelia, who classically misunderstands commands that include words with more than one meaning. Early on in the story, she’s working on a list of chores from her employer, who instructs her to “draw the drapes.” Naturally, she sits down with a marker and paper and draws those drapes.

I’m totally raising my kids up right–Rowyn asked, “Why does that word mean both things?”

So Mommy the Lover of Etymology replied, “I think it’s that draw means, ‘to pull across.’ So you draw the drapes closed, along their rods…or your draw your pencil across the page, which eventually got shortened just to draw. It’s also why drawers are called that–because you pull them out.”

Score one for Mommy, who was right on. 😉

Draw dates from about 1100, its meanings including both those things, plus to “draw a weapon.”

As a noun (specifically, when something like a game has no winner), it has existed since the 1600s, and in the sense of “something that will draw a crowd” from about 1881. To draw a blank is an expression that came about from the lotteries and dates from 1825.

Word of the Week – Command/ment

by Roseanna White | Oct 5, 2015 | Word of the Week

At church this week a slight variation in translations of 2 John made us wonder at the difference between the nouns command and commandment. These different translations were using the words interchangeably, but then…why are there two different words?

Both have a very long history in the English language. Interestingly, commandment is the oldest, dating from the 1200s. It was taken immediately from the French comandement, which is taken in turn from Latin commandamentum, which was a noun form of commandare. And carried a very particular meaning–“and order from an authority.”


The verb command then came into English right around 1300. Pretty interesting in my mind that the verb was at all behind the noun!


Then we have the noun version of command. Also old, but they date it to the 1400s, which makes it a couple hundred years newer than commandment. And at the time there was a slight variation in the meaning–this was any order, not necessarily from an authority. 


So while translators today no doubt use them interchangeably, any time it’s coming from God I daresay the original translations would have taken care to use that -ment ending. 😉

Word of the Week – Romance

by Roseanna White | Sep 28, 2015 | Word of the Week

Romance writers are often looked down upon by those who read “serious literature”–and have generally never even picked up anything labeled “romance,” yet judge them anyway. And as much as we romance writers rail against that, it’s a tale as old as–well, as popular fiction.

Back–I’m talking way back–in the day, all “serious” work was written in Latin. That would include medical, scientific, philosophical, religious, and political works. But then people started writing more fun stories. Stories of adventure and love, of chivalrous deeds. (If you’ve read Don Quixote, these are the tales of chivalry that it was mocking.) These stories were meant to be accessible to the common man, so rather than being written in Latin, they were written in the common language.

Now, I daresay everyone has heard the term “romance language.” These are the languages descended from Latin (Roman). French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. Back in these middle-ages days, people would refer to things written in the common languages as “romances.” 

In many of the romance languages today, some variation of romance still just means “novel.” Not a particular kind of novel, just a novel.

So why did it take on meanings of love in English? Well, we extended the meaning to include the type of story told in common vernacular–a love story. This had become a solid meaning by 1660. By 1800 or so, it could mean “an adventurous quality.” It didn’t actually mean “a love affair” until 1916! And the term “romance novel” as a whole separate genre is quite new indeed–from 1964.

So really, all these genre snobs need to get off their high horse, because they are reading romances…unless, of course, they only read works written in Latin. 😉

Word of the Week – Surf

by Roseanna White | Sep 14, 2015 | Word of the Week

Back from vacation, but not quite ready to let go. 😉 And so, today’s word of the week will bring us a bit of the beach…

Surf began its life as a noun meaning “waves coming ashore” in about 1680, though it was quite likely a variation on suffe, from the 1590s. Where did it come from? No one’s quite sure. But it was originally used to describe the coast of India, so speculation points to it being borrowed from an Indic word. It could also be a variation of sough, which means “a rushing sound,” which is an Old English word.

The verb meaning “to ride the crest of a wave” dates from 1917. Surfing as an activity and surfer both date from 1955. And of course, the internet usage is first recorded from 1993.

Word of the Week – Espresso

by Roseanna White | Aug 31, 2015 | Word of the Week

It’s release week for The Lost Heiress! So in honor of Brook, this week’s Word of the Week is one of Brook’s favorite things: espresso.

Now, according to etymonline.com, espresso didn’t come into the English vernacular until 1945. But the Italians had created caffe espresso in 1906, literally meaning “coffee that is pressed out” under steam. The first espresso machines reportedly produced a strong coffee that critics said tasted burnt, but that didn’t stop it from being a hit and soon gaining die-hard fans. Over the next decades smaller and more economical machines were invented, the “burnt” taste was managed, and now espresso is often the only coffee to be had in many parts of Europe.

Brook got a taste for it in Monaco–she loves espresso, or coffee in general if the specialty variety can’t be found (so long as it’s strong! Must be strong, she says)…but detests tea. Much to the horror of her newly-discovered English relatives. 😉