Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #etymology

Most recents (17)

District names of #Odisha . An #etymology thread Image
1. Cuttack (Katak)
The word “Katak” etymologically means army cantonment. The city of Cuttack started as a military cantonment because of its impregnable situation that further developed into the capital of the state of Odisha. ImageImage
2. Jagatsinghpur
It was known as Hariharpur till 1786. In 1748, The Maratha administration kept the place under their jurisdiction and appointed Jagat Singh to collect revenue. He collected the peshkush and Nazrana and remained an unchallenged and uninterrupted administrator + ImageImage
Read 21 tweets
Operasi perkebunan raksasa selama Preangerstelsel di masa VOC (1720) dan masa Republik Bataaf (1808), Cultuurstelsel (1830) dan Agrarische Wet (1870) di masa Hindia Belanda berpengaruh besar kepada kemiskinan struktural dan generasional di Jawa Barat.
Pemanfaatan ketela pohon dan tepung tapioka (tepung kanji/aci), ke dalam masakan di Jawa Barat tidak lepas dari keberadaan NV. Sin Kong (æ–°ć…‰, Ind: Cahaya Baru) dan NV. Sang Fu (生毌, Ind: Hidup Makmur) yang dimiliki oleh keluarga Chin/Tan dari Bandung.
NV. Sin Kong dan NV. Sang Fu ialah badan usaha yang bergerak di bidang pengepulan, penggilingan dan pengolahan ketela pohon di Jawa Barat abad ke 19 yang dikepalai oleh 陈攷æ”Ș (Mand: Chen Hai Lang, Hakka: Chin Hoi Long, Hok: Tan Hai Long), seorang perantau Hakka asal Guangdong.
Read 17 tweets
In India "hotel" often refers to a restaurant. This is not an innovation; it's actually preserved an older sense of the word. A thread đŸ§”on the #etymology of "hotel" in South Asia. 1/
English hotel is from French hĂŽtel, from Middle French hostel. The Middle French word is also the source of English hostel. In French, the circumflex (eg. ĂŽ) usually marks the historic presence of a consonant like s. Another example is forĂȘt, which was forest in Middle French. 2/
The French is from medieval Latin hospitāle "guesthouse" (think "hospitality"). All of these words—hotel, hostel, hospital—originally referred to inns or shelters for travelers to stay and rest. 3/
Read 8 tweets
đŸ‘šâ€đŸ« Du latin au quotidien ? Eh oui, on peut facilement exploiter le lexique dĂ©jĂ  employĂ© par des auteurs latins plus ou moins rĂ©cents.

🔍 Aujourd'hui, on s'intĂ©resse aux couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel selon l’auteur Ammien Marcellin, un historien du IVĂšme s. de notre Ăšre !
⚠ Si je prĂ©cise d’emblĂ©e qu’il s’agit des couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel SELON un auteur, c’est qu’elles seront diffĂ©rentes des sept canoniques que l’on connaĂźt et apprend dans notre plus tendre enfance.
👀 Entrons donc dans le dĂ©tail des couleurs qu’il emploie : elles auront chacune droit Ă  un post plus dĂ©taillĂ© avec d’autres nuances proches. D’abord une petite phrase de latin, avant d’avoir tout un passage en traduction :
Read 16 tweets
Unexpected #Etymology

Words you wouldn't guess are etymologically linked.

An ongoing, continually updated thread đŸ‘‡đŸ»
Medicine and remedy both come from the Latin verb medeor, meaning to heal.

Medicine comes from the Old French medecine, from the Latin medicina meaning medicine.

Remedy comes from the Old French remede, from the Latin remedium.

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/medeor
Feminism, fawn and fetus both come from the PIE root *dʰeh₁(y)-, meaning to nurse or suckle.

thefactualist.tumblr.com/post/684097793

Read 7 tweets
Trending news of The Rock's daughter Simone Johnson's announcing her new Stage Name is breaking our Versus tool because "Wrestling Name" isn't in our database!

Here's the most useful #Factualist comparison pages #Thread đŸ§” Image
What is the difference between “pseudonym” and “stage name?”

Pseudonym means “a fictitious name (more literally, a false name), as those used by writers and movie stars,” while stage name is “the pseudonym of an entertainer.”

factualist.com/difference/pse
 #english #wiki #wikidiff
People also found this comparison helpful:

Alias #versus Stage Name: What’s the difference?

Alias means “another name; an assumed name,” while stage name means “the pseudonym of an entertainer.”

factualist.com/difference/ali
 #Etymology #words
Read 6 tweets
In many languages the queen chess piece is called by a word derived from the Persian farzān/farzÄ«n (source of Arabic ÙŰ±ŰČŰ§Ù† firzān, Russian Ń„Đ”Ń€Đ·ŃŒ ferz', Mongolian á Șá Ąá ·á °á Ą berse, Uzbek farzin, even Middle English fers !) A thread on the #etymology of this interesting word. 1/9
This word appears as frazēn in Middle Persian sources on chess. The piece wasn't exactly the same as today's queen, but a precursor from an earlier form of chess. It could only move one square diagonally. There is disagreement as to what "frazēn" originally meant. 2/
The disagreement boils down to whether frazēn meant something like "guard" or "counselor/minister". Either way, it later came to be associated with New Persian words for learned/wise, counselor/minister: farzān, farzÄ«n, farzāna, etc. (along with other terms eg. dastĆ«r, vazÄ«r). 3/
Read 9 tweets
In this thread đŸ‘‡đŸŒđŸ‘‡đŸŒđŸ‘‡đŸŒstudents @MQLinguistics @Macquarie_Uni share what they've learned so far (1st quarter of semester)

Favorite facts about #languages and #cultures in #contact
In #Arabic we say: “Footprints indicate trajectory”, but I never thought that a wheel would reveal a culture. This is how #cultures can be traced through #languages. The reading made me feel like I am solving a puzzle more than exploring languages.
Think twice before starting to learn #English, cuz you’ll end up learning even more -- #German and #French, and more 

After all, it was the Anglo-Saxons and Normans who influenced the vocabulary!!
English is a mixed #language!
Read 26 tweets
Long thread: Connections between #Tamil and #Portuguese
When we land in a new country, we generally ask how they say ‘Thank you’ or ‘good morning’ in their language. When we landed in Lisbon, we asked the cab driver: “How do you call a window in Portuguese?” He said, “Janela”.
The emergency windows in Portugal read as ‘Janela de Emergencia’. We continued, “How do you call table in Portuguese?” He said, “Mejai”. We didn’t stop. “How do you call a ‘key’?” “Shavi”, he helped us in the pronunciation. #tamil #Portuguese
Many roof top restaurants in Lisbon are named as “Varanda de Lisboa” (Balcony of Lisbon). Many of us who speak Tamil might have thought Jannal, Mejai, Varanda and Chavi are Tamil words or Sanskrit loan words. They are not. #àź€àźźàźżàźŽàŻ #tamil_portuguese
Read 15 tweets
It's interesting that the American tradition of using 'inaugurate' embeds through #etymology a strange Roman superstition, a way to measure the luck of the future officeholder by ritual reading of omens from the flight of birds.
This, of course, is also why we say "this augurs well" (literally "this is promising according to omens").

We could have used simpler and more concrete terms like 'installation' or 'induction' for this purpose, but they are less laden with figurative meaning.
The French, when discussing U.S. politics, use the word 'investiture' (which we also have): "to clothe in the official robes of office," another vivid and ancient image.

The ultimate Latin root is 'vestis' ("garment"), and our English word 'vestment' retains this meaning.
Read 5 tweets
#Hydronomastics is the study of #hydronyms, the proper names of bodies of water.

It's a branch of #toponomastics, the study of #toponyms (the proper names of places), which in turn is a branch of #onomastics, the study of #orthonyms (proper names).

French / Luxembourghish sign: The River Sauer in Martelan...
#Hydronym and #hydronomastics both derive from Ancient #Greek ᜕Ύωρ / hĂșdƍr (water) + áœ„ÎœÎżÎŒÎ± / Ăłnoma (name). The Greek island of Skiatho...
#Hydronyms tend to outlast other #toponyms, even when new #languages and cultures displace earlier ones.

#England, #EastAnglia, #Essex, and #Sussex are named for the #Angles and #Saxons; but #Trent, #Ouse, #Thames, #Severn, and #Avon are older #Celtic and #RomanoBritish names. A map showing the main rive...
Read 173 tweets
The wise, one alone, unwilling and willing to be spoken of only by the name of #Zeus, the name of Life.

- #Heraclitus 113

[Kahn 1979, pp. 267-271]
“With deliberate antimony #Heraclitus here presents his positive conception of the divine ... The #aphorism is unusually dense and puzzling, full of conflicting forces mysteriously under control.”

- Kahn, ‘Art and Thought of #Heraclitus,’ 1979, pp. 267
“... for #Heraclitus as for Aeschylus ‘#etymology’ must be taken literally: an ‘etymos #logos’ is a ‘true statement’ hidden in the form of a name ... the name ‘Zēnos’ affirms that the supreme #deity is also a principle of life, like the ‘everliving fire’ ...”

- Kahn 1979 p. 270
Read 13 tweets
The #Hebrew word for "independence" comes from a root for "strength," by way of the word "bone."
Let me explain. ʕáčąM is the root of "strength, power, superpower, enormous," and also Etsem, "bone." I guess that meaning 1/2
#language #etymology #YomHaatzmaut
#IndependenceDay
comes from the strength of bones.
This word also developed the meaning of "essence, self," bc bones are the essense of the body (as in, "in my bones", be'Atsmi = "myself"). Then came the word atsma'UT, "independence," i.e., reliance on oneself. 2/2
#Hebrew #language #etymology
(I wrote this in advance yesterday and now see @HebreWords has also tweeted about this today. Great tweet as well: )
Read 3 tweets
Ever wonder why 'go' becomes 'went'? It comes from an old past tense of 'wend', a Germanic word meaning 'turn' or 'proceed', which otherwise survives only in the fossilized phrase 'wend one's way'. 1/3 #etymology
In the 15C–16C, 'went' supplanted existing past-tense forms of 'go'. Texts of this time can have both, e.g. Wycliffe's Bible: 'Thei ȝeden out, and wenten in to the swyne.' The past tense of 'wend', meanwhile, became 'wended' 2/3
Wend–went was in a cluster of verbs with the same pattern: bend–bent, lend–lent, rend–rent, send–sent
 Even when English looks irregular, it's often being locally regular – like the emergence of dive→dove by analogy with drive→drove & co. 3/3
Read 3 tweets
5 Boron B, named after the mineral borax which the element was first extracted from using electrolysis by British Chemist Humphry Davy who called it boracium. The -on suffix came later by analogy with carbon. #EotE #etymology #Chemistry #Science #Language
6 Carbon C, named from Latin for coal: carbo. Late 18th Century French scientists demonstrated graphite, charcoal & diamond made of same element naming it carbone, 1st listed by Antoine Lavoisier in famous 1789 chemistry textbook. #EotE #etymology #Chemistry #Science #Language
7 Nitrogen N, confusion in 16th C led to natron (sodium carbonate) & saltpeter (potassium nitrate) both being named nitre in French. French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal named the new gas nitrogene, -gĂšne, producing from Greek -ÎłÎ”ÎœÎźÏ‚ #EotE #etymology #Chemistry #Science #Language
Read 115 tweets
Etymology of the Elements #EotE. This thread will build to explain the name of each of the 118 chemical elements in the periodic table. #etymology #Chemistry #Science #Language

More in The Secret Life of the Periodic Table, 3rd edition out now! pprc.qmul.ac.uk/~still/wordpre

1 Hydrogen, named from ancient Greek áœ‘ÎŽÏÎż- hydro meaning "water" and -ÎłÎ”ÎœÎźÏ‚ genes meaning "creator" by French Chemist Antoine Lavoisier as it forms water when burnt in air 2H₂+O₂→2H₂O #EotE #etymology #Chemistry #Science #Language
2 Helium, named from the Greek Titan of the Sun Helios (ጄλÎčÎżÏ‚) as it was first seen by the unique yellow light in emits from the Sun by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse 1868 #EotE #etymology #Chemistry #Science #Language
Read 6 tweets
NEXT UP: 10th seed common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) vs. 2nd seed green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) #2018MMM
The clever octopus reached Round 2 by suffocating and enveloping cookie cutter shark. #sneakattack #2018MMM
(Speaking of clever, check out this @MerriamWebster video if you want to impress all your friends by knowing the *multiple* correct plurals of 'octopus'!) #2018MMM #etymology
Read 16 tweets

Related hashtags

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!