What’s in a Word:History and Culture as Reflected

in English Vocabulary

Timothy Taylor

7th April 2018

Today’s Talk

Part I – Words: Our Other DNA

Part II – The History of English

Part III – Etymological Evolution

Q & A

Relevant Resources: http://timsteaching.blogspot.hk

Part I

Words: Our Other DNA

Whose Words?

“We seldom realize that our most private

thoughts and emotions are not actually our

own. We think in terms of languages and

images which we did not invent, but which

were given to us by our society.”

~ Alan Watts

Etymology = Word History

When did we become human?

When did we begin to speak?

When did we begin to write?

What were early languages like?

How are human languages related?

What was the earliest recorded words?

How can one language change and evolve?

Word Origins

When did we become human? Millions of years ago

When did we begin to speak? 100,000 years ago

When did we begin to write? 2000 – 5000 years

ago

What were early languages like?

How are human languages related?

What was the earliest recorded words? 125 years

ago

How can one language change and evolve?

Words, Words, Words

Words are common to every human

language and no animal language

Words are the beginning of civilization

Words are powerful, magical, taboo, holy

The written word is more lasting than any

archeological evidence of civilization

Infinite Stars – Infinite Words

“If the stars should appear one night in a

thousand years, how would men believe and

adore; and preserve for many generations

the remembrance of the city of God which

had been shown! But every night these

envoys of beauty come out, and light the

universe with their admonishing smile.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Something Divine

In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

~John 1:1

What does the fox say?

Foxes have about 40 distinct calls, including:

“Danger!”

“I’m hungry!”

“You’re attractive!”

“Where are you?”

What does the fox say (music video)

https://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE

What does the fox actually say?

http://youtu.be/k_DVvNK7mRA

A Simple Idea

Wealth and power

are not what they

appear to be.

Ozymandiasby Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!“

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

"King of Kings am I, Ozymandias. If anyone should

like to know my grandeur and the reach of stature,

let him surpass any of my achievements."

Richard Coryby Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Digital infinity

Ten symbols can denote any number:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0

But even two symbols can denote any number:

0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1011, 1111

Phonemes are the smallest discreet, distinguishable sound

in a language, and the number of phonemes varies widely

in different languages.

These few sounds can be rearranged to represent an

infinite variety of sound patterns (words). The sound

patterns can be rearranged to represent an infinite

number of “patterns of patterns” (sentences)

Symbols are used to represent phonemes, multiple

phonemes, or whole words.

In English 26 letters represent 44 – 46 phonemes

+ Intersubjectivity

Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling

along the dam of the Hao Waterfall when

Zhuangzi said, "See how the minnows come

out and dart around wherever they please!

That's what fish really enjoy!"

Huizi said, "You're not a fish — how do you know what fish enjoy?“

Zhuangzi said, "You're not me, so how do you know I don't know

what fish enjoy?“

Huizi said, "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On

the other hand, you're certainly not a fish — so that still proves you don't

know what fish enjoy!“

Zhuangzi said, "Let's go back to your original question, please. You

asked me how I know what fish enjoy — so you already knew I knew it when

you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao."

DNA as Words ~ Words as DNA

We use codes everyday; alphabets are also codes. Let's take the

word "koala". In English, the letters 'k', 'o', 'a', 'l' and 'a' in that

particular order mean an animal that lives in Australia and eats

eucalyptus leaves.

If you didn't know any English, you wouldn't be able to guess what

the word means from the letters that are in it. The letters 'k', 'o', 'a',

and 'l' appear in lots of other words where they don't have anything

to do with koalas. Different languages use different alphabets to

convey meaning.

DNA's code is written in only four 'letters', called A, C, T and G.

The meaning of this code lies in the sequence of the letters A, T, C

and G in the same way that the meaning of a word lies in the

sequence of alphabet letters. Your cells read the DNA sequence to

make chemicals that your body needs to survive.

American DNA Sample

Chinese DNA Sample

Tracking human migration through DNA

Tracking human migration through

language families

The Evolution of Words –

Languages change as they are

handed down from generation to

generation.

In a large population, languages are

likely to be relatively stable - simply

because there are more people to

remember what previous generations

did, he says.

But in a smaller population - such as

a splinter group that sets off to find a

new home elsewhere - there are

more chances that languages will

change quickly and that sounds will

be lost from generation to generation.

Professor Mark Pagel, an

evolutionary biologist at Reading

University, said the same effect could

be seen in DNA.

Modern-day Africans have a much

greater genetic diversity than white

Europeans who are descended from

a relatively small splinter group that

left 70,000 years ago.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1377150/Every-language-evolved-single-prehistoric-mother-tongue-spoken-Africa.html

Gaga to Water

Word changes occur in cycles that

sometimes occur across centuries and

thousands of miles… and sometimes across

a few months or years in one lifetime.

https://youtu.be/RE4ce4mexrU?t=4m2s (from 4:02)

PIE (Proto-Indo European) Chart

Earliest Recordings

of the Human Voice

French song recorded in 1860

Robert Browning, reciting a poem

May 6th 1889

125 years ago

http://youtu.be/OYot5-WuAjE

http://www.cosmos

magazine.com/new

s/queens-english-

no-longer-so-posh/

What is a word?

A word is a unit which is a constituent at the phrase level and above.

We need to agree on some identifiable criteria, such as:

being the minimal possible unit in a reply

having features such as

a regular stress pattern, and

phonological changes conditioned by or blocked at word

boundaries

being the largest unit resistant to insertion of new constituents within

its boundaries, or

being the smallest constituent that can be moved within

a sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical.

A word is sometimes placed, in a hierarchy of grammatical

constituents, above the morpheme level and below the phrase

level.

http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAWord.htm

orthographic words

An “orthographic” word is a written series of

symbols marked by a white “space” on either

side.

This is a useful definition for reading and

writing

But how many words are contained in the

following?

A. ice cream

B. they‘d

C. wouldn’t’ve

phonological words

A unit of pronunciation; rules differ for

different languages.

In English, a phonological word contains only

one main stress:

“The rest of the books’ll have to go here.”

lexical items

An abstract concept

A unit of meaning, potentially represented by

many forms

take, takes, took, taken, taking

= one word or five words? Yes!

= one lexical item

The base form is the uninflected citation word

usually used by dictionaries. In this case,

“take”

GWFs – grammatical word forms

The multiplicity of inflected forms that lexical

items can take to transform their grammatical

meaning or function

Some words have only one form: with

Some have inflection but only one form:

police, oats (both plural)

Some words have different grammatical word

forms that appear identical: ate/eaten are

different GWFs, but so are walked/walked

inflection and derivation

Inflection (as we’ve seen) is a change in

form (or no change) for grammatical

purposes

Derivation is the emergence of a new lexical

item from another lexical item. This also may

or may not involve a change of appearance

(zero derivation)

Examples of derivation:

destroy…. destruction

comprehend… comprehensible

smoke (n.)…. smoke (vb.)…. smoke (n.)

multi-part or discontinuous words

The existence of one word in multiple parts

Phrasal verbs: turn off, turn up, turn over, turn

on, turn on; look out, look over, look down; made

up, made up

Prepositional verbs: She looks down on her

neighbors. “on” is syntactically part of the

prepositional phrase “on her neighbors”, but

lexically part of “looks down on”. She is

condescending to her neighbors.

Infinitives: to open, to pry, to turn on

French example: Ne le touchez pas!

clitics, abbreviations, contraction

Clitics – A lexical item and GWF but does not

stand alone phonologically.

For example: a, an, the, ‘ll, ‘d

In French: Il te le donnera (He’ll give it to you)

has three clitics, all bound to the verb to give.

Abbreviations – Normally, but not always,

orthographic only. Some spoken forms exist and

may become lexical items independent of their

long form. Examples: e.g., i.e., a.m., kg

contractions, acronyms,

initialisms and clipped forms

Contractions – I’m, he’s, she’d, wouldn’t’ve;

Also: ain’t, Mrs

Acronyms and Initialisms - asap, imho, btw, faq, fyi, lol

Also: scuba (self contained underwater breathing

apparatus); radar (radio detection and ranging); DNA

(Deoxyribonucleic acid ); SAT = SAT

Clipped forms – gym, lab, phone, porn, flue, gator, bio,

maths/math, sci-fi, piano, bra, prof

logograms

Part II

The History of English

How languages evolve

https://youtu.be/iWDKsHm6gTA

How English evolved

https://youtu.be/kIzFz9T5rhI

English – etymology of the word

English "people of England; the speech of England," Old

English Englisc (contrasted to Denisc, Frencisce, etc.),

from Engle (plural) "the Angles," the name of one of the Germanic

groups that overran the island 5 c., supposedly so-called

because Angul, the land they inhabited on the Jutland coast, was

shaped like a fish hook (see angle (n.)).

The term was used from earliest times without distinction for all the

Germanic invaders -- Angles, Saxon, Jutes (Bede's gens

Anglorum) -- and applied to their group of related languages by

Alfred the Great. After 1066, of the population of England (as

distinguished from Normans and French), a distinction which lasted

only about a generation.

In pronunciation, "En-" has become "In-," but the older spelling has

remained. Meaning "English language or literature as a subject at

school" is from 1889. As an adjective, "of or belonging to England,"

from late 13c. Old English is from early 13c.

English (10th century)

In 730 a monk wrote that three tribes of Germany: Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in the British Isles in the 5th century

Angli Saxones meant the “English Saxons” as opposed to the “Old Saxons”

English meant the people and the language

Engla land later referred to the country

Before the 14th century it appeared as Engle land; Englene londe; Engle lond; Engelond; Inglad

Angle Land

Angle Land

A Brief History of English Romans leave Britain, taking Latin with them, around 500 a.d.

Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrive soon afterwards

Vikings raids begin about 800 a.d., English absorbs some 2000 words

Norman conquest 1066, English absorbs 10,000 French words, while

French rules for four hundred years

Latin is used in church for centuries

The Great Vowel Shift, 15th Century

Shakespeare introduces 2000 words, 16th Century (1564 – 1616)

King James Bible English translation, 1611

Scientific revolution, 17th century

English Empire (1583 – 1914) spreads English around the world

Samuel Jonson’s dictionary 1746 – 1755 (14,773 entries)

Oxford English Dictionary 1857 (first edition finished in 1928)

American English, World Englishes, science, popular culture, and

multimedia (television, BBC, the Internet) and technologies continue to

spread English

Timeline of the English Language

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/learning-activities/languages/words/timeline-english-language-2/

English Uses Words

from over 350 Languages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Origins_of_English_PieChart.svg

From Chinese

ketchup possibly from Cantonese or Amoy

茄汁, lit. tomato sauce/juice

kowtow from Cantonese 叩頭

(Mandarin, kòu tóu), lit. knock head

kumquat or cumquat from Cantonese name of

the fruit 柑橘 (gamgwat)

Cantonese

canton (n.) 1530s, "corner, angle," from Middle French canton "piece,

portion of a country" (13c.), from Italian (Lombard dialect) cantone "region,"

especially in the mountains, augmentative of Latin canto "section of a

country," literally "corner" (see cant (n.2)). Originally in English a term in

heraldry and flag descriptions; applied to the sovereign states of the Swiss

republic from 1610s. Related: Cantoned.

cantonment (n.) 1756, "military quarters," from French cantonnement,

from cantonner "to divide into cantons" (14c.), from canton (see canton).

Meaning "action of quartering troops" is from 1757.

Cantonese

Cantonese (n.) 1816, from Canton, former transliteration of the name of the

Chinese region now known in English as Guangzhou. The older form of the

name is from the old British-run, Hong Kong-based Chinese postal system.

Used s an adjective from 1840.

http://youtu.be/v9qpqyO_dmU

Old English ~ Beowulf

Around 700 – 800 a.d.

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,

þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,

hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,

egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð

feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,

weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,

oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

ofer hronrade hyran scolde,

gomban gyldan. Þ æ t wæs god cyning!

https://youtu.be/CH-_GwoO4xI

Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in days of yore

Of those folk-kings the glory have heard,

How those noblemen brave-things did.

Often Scyld, son of Scef, from enemy hosts

from many people mead-benches took,

terrorized warriors. After first he was

helpless found, he knew the recompense for that,

grew under the sky, in honors thrived,

until to him each of the neighboring tribes

over the whale-road had to submit,

tribute yield. That was a good king!

Middle English ~

The Canterbury Tales (Around 1400)When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein in liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun

Into the Ram his half-course has run,

And many little birds make melody

That sleep through all the night with open eye

(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-

Then do folk long to go on pilgrimages,

And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,

To distant shrines well known in distant lands.

And specially from every shire’s end

Of English they to Canterbury went,

The holy blessed martyr there to seek

Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak.

http://youtu.be/QE0MtENfOMU

SONNET 116 (Original

Pronunciation)Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

https://youtu.be/LRTkthIMUeE

Early Modern English ~ Shakespeare

The First English Dictionary ~

Samuel Johnson (1755)

Cough: A convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity.

Distiller: One who makes and sells pernicious and inflammatory spirits.

Dull: Not exhilaterating; not delightful; as, to make dictionaries

is dull work.

Far-fetch: A deep stratagem. A ludicrous word.

Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies

himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

Oats: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in

Scotland appears to support the people.

The Oxford English Dictionary

The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious academic

projects ever undertaken.

As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray,

discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand.

When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr.

Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the

criminally insane.

Over the next four decades work on the Dictionary continued and new editors joined the

project. In April, 1928, the last volume was published. Instead of 6,400 pages in four

volumes as originally anticipated, the Dictionary published under the imposing name A

New English Dictionary on Historical Principles – contained over 400,000 words and

phrases in ten volumes. The Dictionary had taken its place as the ultimate authority on

the language.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/

OED

http://80-www.oed.com.edlis.ied.edu.hk/

Part III

Etymological Evolution

The Evolution of Words ~

How do words change?

1. Borrowing

Loan words

2. Semantic changes

Generalization

Transformation

Functional Shift or

Conversion

3. Modifications

Doublets

Folk Etymology

4. Generation

Baby talk

Onomatopoeia

Coinages

How do words change?

1. Borrowing

Loan words – Words ‘borrowed’ from other

languages to fill a gap in English. The British and

American global reach was the source of massive

borrowing. Most of the words have not been

returned.

English Empire

From the Caribbean:

cannibal

canoe

barbeque

English Empire

From India:

yoga

bungalow

English Empire

From Africa:

zombie

chimpanzee

banana

English Empire

From Australia:

nugget

boomerang

English Empire

From America:

raccoon, squash, moose,

tobacco, tomato, skunk

Dutch:

coleslaw, cookies, boss

German:

pretzels, hamburger, poodle

Italian:

pizza, spaghetti, lasagna

Hawaiian

wiki, taboo,

English Empire

New words would immigrate to England:

cool

movies

groovy

jazz

And old(er) English words survived and went

on to a life in other countries, including China

fall (not autumn)

diapers (not nappies)

candy (not sweets)

World Englishes

Hinglish

Chinglish

Singlish

Spanglish

Untranslatable?

1 | German: Waldeinsamkeit

A feeling of solitude, being alone in the woods and a connectedness to nature.

Waldeinsamkeit

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not count the hours I spend

In wandering by the sea;

The forest is my loyal friend,

Like God it useth me.

In plains that room for shadows make

Of skirting hills to lie,

Bound in by streams which give and take

Their colors from the sky;

Or on the mountain-crest sublime,

Or down the oaken glade,

O what have I to do with time?

For this the day was made.

Untranslatable?

2 | Inuit: Iktsuarpok

The feeling of anticipation that leads you to go outside and check if anyone is coming, and probably also indicates an element of impatience.

Untranslatable?

3 | Russian: Pochemuchka

Someone who asks a lot of questions. In fact, probably too many questions. We all know a few of these.

Untranslatable?

4 | Indonesian: Jayus

Slang for someone who tells a joke so badly, that is so unfunny you cannot help but laugh out loud.

Untranslatable?

5 | Hawaiian: Pana Po’o

You know when you forget where you've put the keys, and you scratch your head because it somehow seems to help your remember? This is the word for it.

Untranslatable?

6 | Tartle

Scottish – The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their

name.

Duncan, I’d like you to meet mycolleague… umm… my colleague…umm... Blimey! Pardon my tartle!

Untranslatable?

7 | Cafuné

Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s

hair.”

Untranslatable?

8 | Urdu: Goya

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, but is also an official language in 5 of the Indian states. This particular Urdu word conveys a contemplative 'as-if' that nonetheless feels like reality, and describes the suspension of disbelief that can occur, often through good storytelling.

How do words change?

2. Semantic changes

Generalization – When a particular word meaning is

generalized:

bread – from the word for piece or bit… to bit of bread… to bread.

nausea – from seasick… to sick in the stomach

thing – from OE assembly (cf OGerman ding)… to a matter before

the assembly… to any matter / any thing

Transformation – When the meaning of a word

changes

nice – stupid/ignorant… fussy… precise… good/agreeable

Shift – A change from one part of speech to another

out – see following

Career (transformation)

chariot – carrus (Latin)

carriera – course (Italian)

carriere – course (French)

career – a course (English, 16th century)

career – a job or profession

Out, 9th century (Functional shift)

Out (t. verb) expel something

Out (preposition) out the door

Out (exclamation) Out! Alas!

Out (adjective) The out crowd.

Out a person (t. verb) – a transformation in meaning; to

publicly declare a previously undisclosed sexual

orientation

The OED lists the following number of definitions for

“out”: nouns (22); adjectives (8); verbs (15);

adv./prep./int. (98); prefixes (465). Total = 608

How do words change?

3. ModificationsDoublets – A pair of words with a common origin

mouse/muscle – From Latin, mus (mouse) and musculus (little mouse).

Some muscles are shaped like mice?

cloak/clock – Both from Old French cloque, meaning ‘bell’. Cloaks were

‘bell-shaped’ and clocks sounded each hour with a bell.

tradition/treason – From Latin traditio, meaning to hand over. Tradition

came to English from Old French and treason from Latin.

Folk Etymology – New meaning from popular

misunderstanding

spitting image – From Spirit-in-image… spit ‘n image

plummet the depths – Actually plumb the depths; from plumb line

How do words change?

4. Generation

Baby talk – wee-wee, pee-pee, poo-poo, doo-doo,

doody, bunny, icky, jammies, teddy, tummy, wawa,

yummy

Onomatopoeia – haha, hohum, bark, buzz, moo,

hiss, thump, wow, bang, boom, boo-hoo, wham

Coinages – The creation of a new meaning from a

new or familiar sound.

Coinage ~

Celebrity Wordsmiths

William Shakespeare

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/shakespeare-words_n_4590819.html

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Gloomy

Definition: Somewhat dark: not bright or sunny

Origin: "To gloom" was a verb that existed

before Shakespeare converted the word into an

adjective in a number of his plays.

Quote: "Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy

woods?" - Titus Andronicus

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Laughable

Definition: Bad in a way that seems foolish or silly

Origin: Derived from the verb "laugh."

Quote: "Though Nestor swear the jest be

laughable." - The Merchant of Venice

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Lonely

Definition: Sad from being apart from other

people

Origin: "Alone" was first shortened to "lone" in

the 1400s.

Quote: "Believe it not lightly – though I go alone

/ Like to a lonely dragon that his fen –Coriolanus

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Hurry

Definition: Move or act with haste; rush

Origin: Likely derived from the verb "harry“

Quote: "Lives, honors, lands, and all hurry to

loss." - Henry VI Part 1

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Generous

Definition: Freely giving or sharing money

and other valuable things

Origin: From the Latin "generosus," meaning

"of noble birth."

Quote: "Free me so far in your most

generous thoughts." – Hamlet

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Critical

Definition: Expressing criticism or

disapproval

Origin: From the Latin "criticus," which

referred specifically to a literary critic.

Quote: "For I am nothing if not critical" –

Othello

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

George Washington

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

George Washington

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

Thomas Jefferson

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

George Bush

“I’m the decider.”

http://youtu.be/irMeHmlxE9s

My daughter –

Jessica

“I’m wild awake.”

“You unabled me from

finishing my homework.”

“Is the line

unworthitly long?”

Food

pork (n.) c.1300 , "flesh of a pig as food," from Old French porc "pig,

swine, boar," and directly from Latin porcus "pig, tame swine," from

PIE *porko- "young swine" (cf. Umbrian purka; Old Church

Slavonic prase "young pig;" Lithuanian parsas "pig;" and Old

English fearh, Middle Dutch varken, both from Proto-

Germanic *farhaz).

Body Partscalf (n.1) "young cow," Old English cealf (Anglian cæ lf) "young

cow," from West Germanic *kalbam (cf. Middle Dutch calf, Old

Norse kalfr, German Kalb, Gothic kalbo), perhaps from PIE *gelb(h)-

, from root *gel- "to swell," hence, "womb, fetus, young of an

animal." Elliptical sense of "leather made from the skin of a calf" is

from 1727.

calf (n.2) fleshy part of the lower leg,

early 14c., from Old Norse kalfi; possibly

from the same Germanic root as calf (n.1).

Body Parts and Food

knuckle (n.)

mid-14c., knokel "finger joint; any

joint of the body, especially a

knobby one; morbid lump or

swelling;" common Germanic (cf.

Middle Low German knökel,

Middle Dutch cnockel,

German knöchel), literally "little

bone," a diminutive of Proto-

Germanic root *knuck- "bone" (cf.

German Knochen "bone).

gnocchi (n.)

1891, from Italian gnocchi,

plural of gnocco,

from nocchio "a knot in wood,"

perhaps from a Germanic

source akin to knuckle. So

called for their shape.

They exploded with applause!explode (v.) 1530s, "to reject with scorn," from Latin explodere "drive out or off by

clapping, hiss off, hoot off," originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by

making noise," hence "drive out, reject" (a sense surviving in an exploded theory),

from ex- "out" (see ex-) + plaudere "to clap the hands, applaud," of uncertain origin.

Roman audiences were highly demonstrative. clapping and shouting approval,

stamping, hissing, and hooting for disapproval. At the close of the performance of a

comedy in the Roman theatre one of the actors dismissed the audience, with a

request for their approbation, the expression being usually plaudite, vos plaudite,

or vos valete et plaudite. [William Smith, "A First Latin Reading Book," 1890]

English used it to mean "drive out with violence and sudden noise" (1650s), later, "go

off with a loud noise" (American English, 1790); sense of "to burst with destructive

force" is first recorded 1882; of population, 1959. Related: Exploded; exploding.

explode1.wav

explode2.wav

applaud (v.) late 15c. (implied in applauding), "to express agreement or approval; to

praise," from Latin applaudere "to clap the hands in approbation, to approve by

clapping hands; to strike upon, beat," from ad "to" (see ad-) + plaudere"to clap"

(see plaudit). Sense of "express approval of" is from 1590s; that of "to clap the

hands" is from 1590s. Figurative sense arrived in English before literal.

Related: Applauded; applauding.

Oxymorons ~

Self-contradictory Set Phrases

pretty bad

awfully good

now then

seriously funny

deafening silence

http://youtu.be/WQQ1oGmCoeE

found missing

liquid gas

student teacher

clearly confused

almost exactly

Google

From the word for 1 + 100 zeros: googol

Semantic shift from proper noun to verb in less

than 4 months in 1998.

And other words from technology:

• firewall, download, blog, reboot

phubbing

The birth of a word

http://youtu.be/ZSOfuUYCV_0

Etymology

DoMiddle English do, first person singular of Old English don "make, act, perform, cause; to put, to place," from West Germanic *don (source also of Old

Saxon duan, Old Frisian dua, Dutch doen, Old High German tuon, German tun), from PIE root *dhe-"to set, put, place.“ Use as an auxiliary began in

Middle English. Periphrastic form in negative sentences ("They did not think") replaced the Old English negative particles ("Hie ne wendon"). Slang

meaning "to do the sex act with or to" is from 1913.

YouOld English eow, dative and accusative plural of þu (see thou), objective case of ge, "ye" (see ye), from Proto-Germanic *juz-, *iwwiz (source also of

Old Norse yor, Old Saxon iu, Old Frisian iuwe, Middle Dutch, Dutch u, Old High German iu, iuwih, German euch), from PIE *yu, second person

(plural) pronoun.

Pronunciation of you and the nominative form ye gradually merged from 14c.; the distinction between them passed out of general usage by 1600.

Widespread use of French in England after 12c. gave English you the same association as French vous, and it began to drive out singular

nominative thou, originally as a sign of respect (similar to the "royal we") when addressing superiors, then equals and strangers, and ultimately (by c.

1575) becoming the general form of address. Through 13c. English also retained a dual pronoun ink "you two; your two selves; each other."

WantNoun. From 1200, "deficiency, insufficiency, shortage," from want (v.) and from Old Norse vant, neuter of vanr "wanting, deficient;" related to Old

English wanian "to diminish" (see wane). Meaning "state of destitution, poverty" is recorded from early 14c. Meaning "thing desired, that which is lacking

but needed" is from 1560s. Phrase for want of is recorded from c. 1400. Newspaper want ad is recorded from 1897. Middle English had wantsum (c.

1200) "in want, deprived of," literally "want-some.“

Verb. c. 1200, "to be lacking," from Old Norse vanta "to lack, want," earlier *wanaton, from Proto-Germanic *wanen, from PIE *weno-, suffixed form of

root -eue "to leave, abandon, give out." The meaning "desire, wish for, feel the need of" is recorded by 1706.

CandyFrom late 13 century, "crystallized sugar," from Old French çucre candi "sugar candy," ultimately from Arabic qandi, from Persian qand "cane sugar,"

probably from Sanskrit khanda "piece (of sugar)," perhaps from Dravidian (compare Tamil kantu "candy," kattu "to harden, condense"). The sense

gradually broadened (especially in U.S.) to mean by late 19c. "any confection having sugar as its basis." In Britain these are sweets, and candy tends to

be restricted to sweets made only from boiled sugar and striped in bright colors.

https://youtu.be/AzVL432lEWA

Do you want candy?

Lessons from Etymology

Words are organic; they are forever being

born, growing, changing, dying.

A dictionary is a photograph of a word; some

meanings and uses at a moment in time

The true meaning of a word is exactly what

we understand and agree that it means:

“Those fish are __________ .”

You are as much an authority as anyone else

on the meaning of words!

The End

Questions or Comments?

Further Study:

Google ngram viewer

Food Example: sushi, ketchup, catsup, pizza

Cities Example: Hong Kong, Canton, Peking,

Guangzhou, Beijing

Clothes Example: sunglasses, jeans, hat

Ethnicities Example: Chinese-American,

African-American, Italian-American

https://books.google.com/ngrams

Further Study:

Recommended Reading

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English by David Crystal

The English Language by David Crystal

Genes, Peoples and languages by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza

How to Read a Word by Elizabeth Knowles

The Life of Language by Sol Steinmetz and Barbara Ann Kipfer

The Miracle of Language by Richard Lederer

The Story of English by Joseph Piercy

The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal

Word Routes: Journeys through Etymology by Alexander Tulloch

The Words We Use by Robert Lord