The word #revolution ultimately comes from Latin revolutio, “a rolling back” or “turning around,” from revolvere: re- (“back, again”) + volvere (“to roll, turn”).

Rolling things over is rarely bloodless.

#etymology #history #language #WordsMeanThings

Surrounded by dragonflies today, trying to get a good picture while saying hi to the cat walking by when a hawk spirals above before moving on.

They were right about installing poles everywhere. There's a queue of dragonflies on this one. One takes off and another immediately takes her place.

#etymology #Idahobbit #dragonfly

Therefore, I submit the following as a synonym for "to totter":

TO TORKLE.

Example sentence: Courtney got up in the middle of the night and torkled blearily to the bathroom.

This actually happened last night, which is what brought on this wild language ride first thing this morning. You're welcome. 😁💜✌️🤘🖖

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#language
#etymology
#linguistics
#GermanLanguage
#EnglishLanguage
#Latin
#ILoveLanguage

For another interesting journey involving #English and Java, see this post I wrote: humancode.us/2022/09/18/a-lice…

#etymology

• For me dinner is a mid-day meal. (4%, 1 vote)
• For me dinner is the last meal of the day. (91%, 22 votes)
• For me supper is a mid-day meal. (4%, 1 vote)
• For me supper is the last meal of the day. (29%, 7 votes)

TIL: the bird with the scientific name Puffinus puffinus is not the Puffin.
"The Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English pophyn) for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_she…

#Birds #Names #History #Etymology

From 18th-century drama to Archie comics

wordorigins.org/big-list-entri…

#etymology #wordorigins #language

Today I learned the word #ableism - am I the only one who first read ableist as /ab'laist/ (instead of /'ejblist/) and inferred connection with the German word Leistung instead of disabled people? I am therefore a huge proponent of using #ablism instead.

In hindsight, it could have been even /e'bleist/, like along, aside and awry (no, the latter does not come from awe/awre but from wry, an equal surprise to me).

#pronunciation #etymology

The word for salt is one of the oldest we share.

Proto-Indo-European *séh₂ls survived across most of the family:
- Germanic: salt, Salz, zout
- Romance (via Latin sal): sal, sale, sel, sare
- Slavic: соль (sol'), sól, sůl
- Baltic: sāls (LV)
- Hellenic: ἅλς (háls)
- Celtic: salann, halen

Two branches went their own way: Lithuanian coined druska, Indo-Iranian went its own words (Sanskrit लवण lavaṇa, Persian namak).

#Etymology #IndoEuropean #Linguistics

Probably goes back to time of the German printer Gutenberg. When he wanted to keep his place in a book he was printing, he would often take a bill from his wallet and insert that in the book. This was in the 1400s, so way before the Euro € was invented. Germans used the Deutsche Mark before the Euro. So it was a Mark in the book = bookmark.

#etymology #bookmark #Gutenberg

Did you know?

In Old Japanese, "papa" meant MOTHER.

Sound shift over 1000 years: p → f → h. Every papa became fafa, then haha 母.

Father evolved too: t → ch. Every titi became chichi 父.

Then in the 20th century, Japanese borrowed パパ and ママ from European languages. Now パパ means father.

Same syllables. Opposite parent. A thousand years apart.

#Etymology #Japanese #Linguistics #SoundChange

Portuguese "embaraçada" = embarrassed
Spanish "embarazada" = pregnant

Both from Latin *barra (obstacle) via Vulgar Latin barrāre (to obstruct). Entered Romance in the 13th-14th c. as imbarazzare (Italian), embaraçar (Portuguese).

French borrowed in the 1580s, English in the 1670s. All kept the "obstruct → feel awkward" route.

Only Spanish diverged: by the 16th c., embarazada specialized to "pregnant". Spanish already had avergonzada for "embarrassed".

#Etymology #Spanish #Portuguese

Today I learned…

#language #etymology

A false friend that catches every English speaker learning German.

English "gift" = a present.
German "das Gift" = poison.

Both descend from Proto-Germanic *giftiz, "something given". English preserved the neutral sense. German narrowed it during Middle High German (11th to 14th century) to "a dangerous dose".

Same root, opposite emotional charge.

#Etymology #FalseFriend #GermanLanguage #Linguistics

FYI "Fritter" like the fried food has nothing etymologically to do with the transitive verb "Fritter" most frequently used in the statement "fritter time away"

In case you were wondering and, like, not doing anything useful.

etymonline.com/word/fritter

#words #etymology