Author Topic: The random etymology of the day (Read 222475 times)

Japannie · « **Reply #425 on:** February 28, 2007, 11:41:30 AM »

Too bad you're married, JB. I could swear you were meant as a soulmate for Christie the Wordsmith.

Jonathon · « **Reply #426 on:** February 28, 2007, 12:20:48 PM »

I don't know how to respond to that.

And who's Christie the Wordsmith?

Japannie · « **Reply #427 on:** February 28, 2007, 12:39:28 PM »

A Montana Public Radio segment. She's brilliant, but she went populist.

Jonathon · « **Reply #428 on:** February 28, 2007, 12:53:47 PM »

How very tragic.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #429 on:** March 28, 2007, 01:26:44 PM »

You know those antimacassars, those little things that go on the back of the sofa? They are actually to protect against macassar, some kind of 19th century version of Brillcream.

Jonathon · « **Reply #430 on:** March 28, 2007, 01:39:55 PM »

I have no idea what an antimacassar is, nor do I know what Brillcream is.

Farmgirl · « **Reply #431 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:23:46 PM »

You don't know what BRILLCREAM is?

OMG -- Tante, I think you and I are very much older than the others here....

FG

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #432 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:26:52 PM »

Wikipedia knows!

Antimacassars on the back and arms of a chair:

I guess it's spelled "Brylcreem". Who knew?

Farmgirl · « **Reply #433 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:28:07 PM »

yeah, I guess that's it. He just didn't recognize it by that spelling

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #434 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:28:20 PM »

Quote

Tante, I think you and I are very much older than the others here....

No kidding. I found that my SON is getting gray hairs.

Jonathon · « **Reply #435 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:35:03 PM »

Ah. So it's like pomade.

Also, the antimacassar thing is kind of gross.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #436 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:54:36 PM »

You're anti-antimacassar?

What's your position on provolone?

Jonathon · « **Reply #437 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:57:42 PM »

Pro.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #438 on:** March 28, 2007, 02:59:35 PM »

Fox network is floating a new reality show. Professional wrestlers go in the ring with convicted felons. Working title: Pros vs. Cons.

Jonathon · « **Reply #439 on:** March 28, 2007, 03:05:33 PM »

I sense an instant hit!

rivka · « **Reply #440 on:** March 28, 2007, 03:39:50 PM »

Quote

You don't know what BRILLCREAM is?

OMG -- Tante, I think you and I are very much older than the others here....

FG

Pfft. He has no sense of American history! I know what Brylcream is!

Jonathon · « **Reply #441 on:** March 28, 2007, 03:42:11 PM »

Obviously you and I have very different ideas about what things in American history are worth knowing.

rivka · « **Reply #442 on:** March 28, 2007, 05:12:00 PM »

Cultural history is important too, neh?

Porter · « **Reply #443 on:** March 28, 2007, 10:54:40 PM »

Não é.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #444 on:** March 28, 2007, 11:11:07 PM »

Não é?
É!

Jonathon · « **Reply #445 on:** March 29, 2007, 05:41:36 PM »

I don't remember exactly how it came up, but somehow last night we got to musing about the origins of words like sex and gender with Porteiro and Beverly. I told them I'd look into them, so here we go.

Sex comes from the Latin sexus and meant much the same thing then—the state of being male or female. It probably comes from secare, meaning "to divide" (because sex divides the world into male and female). But as a shorthand for "sexual intercourse," it only dates back to the early 1900s.

Gender comes from the same root as genus and meant "kind, sort, or sex." This ultimately traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to beget, to produce, to be born." Some related words are kin, kind, genius, general, generic, gentle, along with many others.

Originally gender referred to the grammatical category or to genera (the word genus was borrowed into English a couple hundred years later). It wasn't until sex came to mean "sexual intercourse" that gender became a popular euphemism for sex.

Porter · « **Reply #446 on:** March 29, 2007, 06:52:58 PM »

What did they use for sexual intercourse before they used the word sex for that?

rivka · « **Reply #447 on:** March 29, 2007, 07:00:18 PM »

You know.

Jonathon · « **Reply #448 on:** March 29, 2007, 08:27:19 PM »

Probably a variety of terms. Copulate goes back to the early 1600s; screw to the early 1700s; the f-word probably to the 1500s or earlier. There was an Old English word, swive (related to swivel) that became a euphemism for sex in the 1300s.

The problem with taboo words (including words for sex) is that they naturally become vulgar, and then you have to find a new euphemism. Then the euphemism becomes vulgar, so you replace it with yet another. And it's often impolite to print them, so they often don't get written down and are thus lost forever.

In other words, it's euphemisms all the way down.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #449 on:** March 29, 2007, 08:43:37 PM »

In the bible, everyone seemed to "know" each other. Or sometimes they lie with each other.

But I don't recall "sex" or any of Jon's euphemisms employed.