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Author Topic: The random etymology of the day  (Read 238656 times)

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Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1325 on: November 09, 2010, 03:44:13 PM »
Those are indeed related. They ultimately come from the Latin infans, meaning 'unable to speak', from the verb fari, 'to speak'. Babies are unable to speak, so obviously they're infants. But then the sense broadened to 'child' and then shifted from 'child' to 'servant', which sounds strange but is actually common in a lot of European languages. For example, words like lad, knave, knight, and boy have all historically had the dual senses of 'boy' and 'servant', especially a lowly servant. But they all shifted over the years, with senses pejorating or ameliorating or disappearing. But infant moved from servant to a lowly soldier (because soldiers were considered servants to the monarch), so that's where the modern sense of infantry comes from—it's the body of soldiers who move on foot.
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Offline BlackBlade

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1326 on: November 09, 2010, 04:34:10 PM »
So would murdering a mute also be infanticide?
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1327 on: November 09, 2010, 04:44:18 PM »
A mute? I must be missing something.
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Offline BlackBlade

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1328 on: November 09, 2010, 04:58:05 PM »
A mute? I must be missing something.
Is there a Latin word to describe a mute that is different from infans?
Kyrgyzstan, is the homeland of the Kyrgyzs, a people best known for cheating at Scrabble. -Tante Shvester

What, you expected us to be badly injured or dead, and flying blind to boot? You're the one who told us all to be Awesome. -Brinestone

Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1329 on: November 09, 2010, 06:08:44 PM »
Oh, I get it. But it looks like the normal Latin word for mute was mutus, which is where we get our word.
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Offline BlackBlade

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1330 on: November 09, 2010, 06:30:01 PM »
Oh, I get it. But it looks like the normal Latin word for mute was mutus, which is where we get our word.
Ah!  Thanks.
Kyrgyzstan, is the homeland of the Kyrgyzs, a people best known for cheating at Scrabble. -Tante Shvester

What, you expected us to be badly injured or dead, and flying blind to boot? You're the one who told us all to be Awesome. -Brinestone

Offline pooka

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1331 on: November 10, 2010, 09:17:16 PM »
Remind me to tell the mute story someday.
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Offline rivka

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1332 on: November 10, 2010, 09:38:16 PM »
pooka, tell the mute story someday.
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1333 on: November 10, 2010, 09:47:52 PM »
Maybe even this day!
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Offline Annie Subjunctive

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1334 on: November 11, 2010, 03:49:09 AM »
Jonathon, everything you say looks 800% better with that avatar.
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Offline Brinestone

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1335 on: November 11, 2010, 06:52:41 AM »
Agreed!
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1336 on: November 11, 2010, 08:15:55 PM »
I still get a big kick out of it myself, but I sometimes have to restrain myself a bit from adopting more T-Rexisms.
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Offline pooka

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1337 on: November 11, 2010, 08:56:43 PM »
I realized I have somewhat spoiled the story, but here goes.

My brother in law was working in customer support for Direct TV briefly and a coworker told a story of the day someone called and said his connection was muddied.  They asked what this meant and he said there was no sound and the screen said muddy on it.  They finally got to the point of asking how it was spelled, at which point-U it became clear that the screen said "mute".  The coworker was not allowed to laugh out loud on the call and had to try and explain in clear and reasonable language how the customer could solve his problem by pressing the muddy button on his remote.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."  Comte de Saint-Simon

Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1338 on: November 11, 2010, 09:05:30 PM »
That's a good story. I've told you guys about the time my sister tried to hire an escort for the weekend, right?
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Offline rivka

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1339 on: November 11, 2010, 09:30:41 PM »
Muse/amuse - related?
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
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Offline Annie Subjunctive

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1340 on: November 11, 2010, 09:52:11 PM »
That's a good story. I've told you guys about the time my sister tried to hire an escort for the weekend, right?

No, but I hope Jonathon with his T-Rex asks you to soon!
"It is true, however, that the opposite of Little Rock, Arkansas is Boulder, Colorado." - Tante

Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1341 on: November 11, 2010, 11:26:09 PM »
Oh.  I was pretty sure I told y'all.  Maybe I told someone else.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1342 on: November 11, 2010, 11:28:09 PM »
Muse/amuse - related?

Sure.  To be amused means that something made you muse.  When I want to really be amused, I go, of course, to the museum.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline The Genuine

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1343 on: November 12, 2010, 09:19:26 AM »
I think Jesse's right.

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Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1344 on: November 12, 2010, 10:12:45 AM »
Hmm. It looks like the verb muse is not related to the other forms, though it was probably influenced by it. But amuse, bemuse, museum, and music are all from the Greek mousa 'muse, music, song'. The nine Muses were so called because they were goddesses of music and poetry. Mousa might trace back to the same Proto-Indo-European root that gives us the words mind and memory.

A museum is a shrine to the Muses. Amuse and bemuse both originally meant 'to cause to ponder'.
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Offline Annie Subjunctive

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1345 on: December 06, 2010, 05:01:07 AM »
Is conjugate related to conjugal? If so, Romance verbs just got a little spicier.
"It is true, however, that the opposite of Little Rock, Arkansas is Boulder, Colorado." - Tante

Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1346 on: December 06, 2010, 08:20:00 AM »
Looks like.

In other news, decadent has nothing to do with being ten years old.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1347 on: December 06, 2010, 08:36:32 AM »
Also related to jugular, yoke, juxtapose, zeugma, zygote, and yoga.
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Offline Annie Subjunctive

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1348 on: December 06, 2010, 09:20:32 AM »
Wow. That's too much relatedness for my brain to contain.
"It is true, however, that the opposite of Little Rock, Arkansas is Boulder, Colorado." - Tante

Offline Jonathon

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Re: The random etymology of the day
« Reply #1349 on: December 06, 2010, 09:29:12 AM »
*explodes Annie's brain with cognates*

join
joint
joinder
joist
joust
jostle
subjunctive
junction
juncture
syzygy
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