Author Topic: The random etymology of the day (Read 222723 times)

Noemon · « **Reply #1750 on:** May 26, 2013, 10:34:46 PM »

Are the words "boot" and "foot" related?

BlackBlade · « **Reply #1751 on:** May 27, 2013, 08:37:02 AM »

Apparently "willikers" as in "golly gee willikers" is not in any etymology dictionary I can find.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1752 on:** May 27, 2013, 09:59:13 AM »

Quote from: Noemon on May 26, 2013, 10:34:46 PM

Are the words "boot" and "foot" related?

Nope. Foot goes back to the Proto-Indo-European *ped or *pod. Boot comes from Medieval Latin by way of French bota or botta, but it's ultimately of uncertain origin. There's really no chance that bota is related to the Latin word for foot either, which was pes.

pooka · « **Reply #1753 on:** May 29, 2013, 01:02:31 PM »

Quote from: BlackBlade on April 22, 2013, 10:50:34 AM

Quote from: Jonathon on April 22, 2013, 09:58:00 AM
By the way, here's that corpus of general conference talks that I mentioned. It only goes through 2010, but it's still very useful for seeing trends from 1851 until then.
Indeed, if I could figure out how to work the thing. BTW we were all wrong, Monson became prophet in 2008.

I would have known because that was the year we moved.

Noemon · « **Reply #1754 on:** May 30, 2013, 09:51:23 AM »

Quote from: Jonathon on May 27, 2013, 09:59:13 AM

Quote from: Noemon on May 26, 2013, 10:34:46 PM
Are the words "boot" and "foot" related?

Nope. Foot goes back to the Proto-Indo-European *ped or *pod. Boot comes from Medieval Latin by way of French bota or botta, but it's ultimately of uncertain origin. There's really no chance that bota is related to the Latin word for foot either, which was pes.

Interesting. Thanks!

pooka · « **Reply #1755 on:** May 30, 2013, 11:18:26 AM »

The plural of pes is pedes. And of course there's the greek poda. But I don't think foot and boot have a close common ancestry.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1756 on:** May 30, 2013, 11:23:04 AM »

Right. You'd have to explain voicing of /p/ to /b/, a vowel change, and devoicing of /d/ to /t/, plus the addition of a vowel on the end or the change of suffix. Such sound changes don't typically affect a single word.

Noemon · « **Reply #1757 on:** May 31, 2013, 08:56:43 PM »

What can you tell me about the "pot" in "sexpot"?

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1758 on:** June 02, 2013, 10:38:35 AM »

I think it's like "fleshpot", which were the fancy bubble baths full of naked ladies in brothels and other bathhouse-y places.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1759 on:** June 02, 2013, 11:56:34 AM »

Quote from: Noemon on May 31, 2013, 08:56:43 PM

What can you tell me about the "pot" in "sexpot"?

Not much. The OED doesn't have a separate entry or etymology for it, and all Etymonline.com says is that it's "perhaps suggested by fleshpot."

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #1760 on:** June 03, 2013, 08:25:29 AM »

So at first I thought Tante's fanciful definition was just for being fanciful, but she's right!

FWIW, I always though fleshpots were like big cauldrons of stew. Actually, kind of like Chinese hot pot.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1761 on:** June 03, 2013, 09:00:32 AM »

Tante: your source for all that is both fanciful and correct.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #1762 on:** June 03, 2013, 08:57:52 PM »

Sig-nified!

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1763 on:** June 04, 2013, 02:15:37 AM »

Brinestone · « **Reply #1764 on:** June 08, 2013, 03:50:47 PM »

Today I was wondering about the phrase "spic and span," so instead of asking Jonathon, I looked it up myself. I feel so proud of myself.

Anyway, apparently it comes from a very old phrase (around 1570), "spick-and-span new," where "spick" means "spike" or "nail," and "span" was a wood chip or splinter produced in making something out of wood. It referred particularly to new ships, where the "spans" produced in the making of the ship were still pale-colored and bright, rather than that darker gray they get soon afterward, and the nails were all shiny and new.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #1765 on:** June 08, 2013, 05:04:32 PM »

Cool!

Nighthawk · « **Reply #1766 on:** August 14, 2013, 01:14:53 PM »

Possible origins of the term "86"

Jonathon · « **Reply #1767 on:** September 11, 2013, 12:59:11 PM »

Determine originally meant 'to come to an end' and by metaphorical extension 'to settle, to decide'. It comes from the Latin determinare, which is de 'off' + terminare 'to mark the end'.

link

BlackBlade · « **Reply #1768 on:** September 28, 2013, 03:11:15 PM »

So "trump" as it's used in card games actually derives its meaning from "triumph" which was also the name of a card game from a long time ago that used the mechanic of suits trumping each other. It's interesting to me because the new word seems to have carved out its own space from triumph (probably because trump is a verb, and triumph by itself is not).

dkw · « **Reply #1769 on:** September 28, 2013, 07:34:34 PM »

Quote from: BlackBlade on September 28, 2013, 03:11:15 PM

(probably because trump is a verb, and triumph by itself is not).

Say what?

BlackBlade · « **Reply #1770 on:** September 28, 2013, 07:38:31 PM »

You triumph over something. I can't really come up with a phrase where you triumph something.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1771 on:** September 28, 2013, 07:54:47 PM »

That just means it's an intransitive verb (one that doesn't take an object) rather than a transitive one.

Or maybe it means that BlackBlade has never triumphed.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #1772 on:** September 28, 2013, 08:17:07 PM »

To have triumphed, you'd need to triumph something first. So I guess nobody has.

Jonathon · « **Reply #1773 on:** September 28, 2013, 08:42:22 PM »

*triumphs Tailleur's understanding of verbs*

DONE.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #1774 on:** September 28, 2013, 08:53:14 PM »