Author Topic: The random etymology of the day (Read 235466 times)

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #950 on:** November 11, 2009, 08:56:48 PM »

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Ha ha ha! Check out the first definition of the interjection fudge from the OED:

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A. int. Stuff and nonsense! Bosh!

That's a riot. I may just use "Stuff and nonsense! Bosh!" instead of "Flanken" sometime.

The Genuine · « **Reply #951 on:** November 12, 2009, 06:43:35 AM »

Just a riot? Not a hot riot?

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #952 on:** November 12, 2009, 08:19:53 AM »

Yup. Just a regular riot. They can't all be hot.

Neutros the Radioactive Dragon · « **Reply #953 on:** December 05, 2009, 11:06:39 AM »

I was asked by a friend recently if palindrome was originally a palindrome itself in Greek. Wouldn't that just be "palindrome" then?

Jonathon · « **Reply #954 on:** December 05, 2009, 02:32:25 PM »

Palindrome is pretty much straight from the ancient Greek itself, which was palindromos. Definitely not a palindrome.

Neutros the Radioactive Dragon · « **Reply #955 on:** December 05, 2009, 02:32:58 PM »

That's what I thought. Thanks!

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #956 on:** December 05, 2009, 03:37:43 PM »

Palin drone is what the former governor of Alaska does.

pooka · « **Reply #957 on:** December 06, 2009, 02:35:44 PM »

palindromemordnilap. Nope.

Maybe they were thinking of onomatopoiea, which is of course the noise all animals made in ancient greece.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #958 on:** December 06, 2009, 03:05:48 PM »

Yes! I've been waiting for some fresh new sig material.

Neutros the Radioactive Dragon · « **Reply #959 on:** December 06, 2009, 03:07:50 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #960 on:** December 06, 2009, 10:22:30 PM »

It seems that inch and ounce are related. The Latin uncia, meaning "twelfth part", was apparently borrowed into early Old English as unkja, which became ynch. The word was borrowed again a few centuries later from postclassical Latin and Middle French as unce or ounce. The Latin uncia comes from unus, meaning "one". I don't know Latin well enough to how unus + cia = "one twelfth".

pooka · « **Reply #961 on:** December 06, 2009, 10:38:10 PM »

And an ounce is a 16th.
I don't know any mechanism where unum + cia = twelfth. I don't even know where eleven comes from.

rivka · « **Reply #962 on:** December 06, 2009, 10:42:32 PM »

Not if it's a troy ounce.

Or a fluid ounce! (Well, ok, it's a 1/16 of a pint. But it's an 1/8 of a cup!)

Jonathon · « **Reply #963 on:** December 06, 2009, 10:52:59 PM »

As Rivka notes, a troy ounce is one-twelfth of a pound. Apparently it was one-twelfth of a pound in ancient Rome, too.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #964 on:** December 06, 2009, 11:04:41 PM »

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As Rivka notes, a troy ounce is one-twelfth of a pound. Apparently it was one-twelfth of a pound in ancient Rome, too.

Not only that, but Trojan condoms come in 12-packs. Which all goes back to ancient Troy. Somehow.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #965 on:** December 06, 2009, 11:18:00 PM »

You know what, though, folks? Metric system. Seriously. We're totally being neanderthals about it.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #966 on:** December 06, 2009, 11:36:19 PM »

So condoms will have to come 10 to a pack? I'll bet you that they'll still charge the same price as for the 12-pack.

This is one reason why the metric system will never catch on worldwide.

rivka · « **Reply #967 on:** December 07, 2009, 02:26:45 AM »

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You know what, though, folks? Metric system. Seriously.

Amen!

Porter · « **Reply #968 on:** December 07, 2009, 06:45:41 AM »

Heh. I finally agree with Annie about something.

In Portuguese, the word for inch was the same as the word for thumb.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #969 on:** December 07, 2009, 08:46:49 AM »

Hey! You agree with me about a lot of things.

Porter · « **Reply #970 on:** December 07, 2009, 09:00:09 AM »

It seems that I rarely agree with you anymore about anything that a) you want to talk about and b) I want to talk about.

pooka · « **Reply #971 on:** December 07, 2009, 09:22:33 AM »

I just explained the whole agree =! like thing to my husband. Well, I was originally letting him read the trojan bit but it ran into the agreement thing.

Jonathon · « **Reply #972 on:** January 04, 2010, 09:31:11 PM »

The word drift was originally a noun form of the verb drive meaning "the act of driving". It developed a bunch of other senses and then got verbed around 1600. Drive then got nouned a little later, around 1700. I'm not sure it ever would have occurred to me that the two are related, except that I learned in German today that the verb treiben (which is obviously cognate to drive and means the same thing) can also mean to drift.

Scott R · « **Reply #973 on:** January 05, 2010, 05:13:24 AM »

NERD!

BlackBlade · « **Reply #974 on:** January 05, 2010, 09:00:48 AM »

You know as for as etymologies go nerd doesn't have a very long one. Maybe 60 years?