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Saturday, June 11, 2011

RANDOM THOUGHTS #44

Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself about the origins of unusual words.

1. Anecdote: This word (a story about someone and some event intended to illustrate a point) comes from the Greek anecdota, which means "unpublished secret." Seems some witty guy collected a bunch of funny, true, and embarrassing stories about lives in the court of Roman emperor Justinian and called them by that title, but the manuscript leaked and was published, changing the meaning of the word.

2. Anthem: A solemn song of patriotic or religious significance, this comes from the Greek antiphon, meaning a response. The priest would give his sermon, and at key points the choir would respond, perhaps agreeing with his wisdom, asking a question, or accepting his guidance.

3. Antic: A ludicrous act or gesture, from the same Latin route as antique. When excavating Roman baths, people in the 1500s came across some rather fanciful paintings of mythical creatures cavorting among vines and flowers, and called them "antic" (antique) but people who saw the paintings took to using the word in the new sense.

4. Apron: Worn by cooks to keep food stains from their clothes, came from the French napron (napkin), but slurred English speech turned "a napron" into "an apron" soon enough.

5. Arena: A venue for a sporting event, it is the Latin word for "sand" which was spread on the ground to soak up the blood of the "contestants" who performed there.

6. Arrive: To reach one's destination, this word meant sea travel until 400 years ago, as it is from the Latin ad rippa, which means "to reach land."

7. Assassin: Someone who kills a politician, comes from a Muslim cult in Persia, which sent young men (the Devoted Ones) to kill the enemies of their leader (the Old Man of the Mountain. The men were given hashish to calm their nerves and improve their courage, for such missions were usually suicidal whether they succeeded or not. This cult flourished for about two hundred years during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.

8. Asset: The valuable property of an individual, this comes from the Norman French "assez" which means "sufficient" as in whether a recently deceased individual has "sufficient means" to pay off his debts.

9. Atlas: The leader of the Titans, overthrown by the Greek gods, was forced to carry the weight of the heavens in his shoulders. Artists took to showing this as a globe, not a dome. When Mercator published a book of maps in the 1500s, he put a picture of Atlas holding a globe on the first page. Everyone thought that this was a wonderful idea, and others who published books of maps copied the idea. In a very short time, every book of maps had Atlas on the first page and became known as "an atlas" in common speech.

10. August: When Octavian captured Egypt, the Roman senate named him "Augustus" (sort of a really cool honor). They had previously renamed the month Quintillus after his uncle Julius, and named the next month (Sextius) August after their popular new leader. Two thousand years later, we still have those names in everyday use.