etymology i enjoy
// last update: 04 APR '26
☙About❧
A dedication to etymology, one of my true loves. I love linguistics, but to me, language by itself is not (completely, soul-consumingly) interesting. Thinking about how language is shaped by humans, however, is, and is why I love it so much. Etymology is one of the clearest displays of this "shaping"; thus, the love I hold for it, and thus, this page.
Don't expect insanely professional descriptions; if you want those, you can go to the Wiktionary page yourself lol. I'm here for fun only.
Credit to Wiktionary, my one and only.
☙Contents❧
noun; a loose term for any snake that looks like a viper.
From an incorrect division of a naddere (from Old English nǣdre, snake), which became an addere, which became the word it is today.
noun; a set of ordered steps that solve a mathematical problem.
Ultimately from the Arabic nisba (like a locational surname, like "da Vinci") of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī. What was surprising was that this word (and the "-rithm" in it) has nothing to do with "arithmetic", though the spelling was influenced by it.
noun; an article of clothing worn over the front of the torso and/or legs for protection from spills.
Another example of rebracketing, as with adder above; originally from a napron (the same "nap" as in napkin) to an apron.
noun; a small, yellow, finch.
From the Latin name for the Canary Islands, which in turn are named after the largest island of the archipelago, Insula Canaria...which means "Canine Island". Basically, the bird is named "dog".
noun; the person or thing at fault for a problem or crime.
From Anglo-Norman cul. prit, which is a contraction of culpable: prest (d'averrer nostre bille) ("guilty: ready (to prove our case)"). The words were used by prosecutors to open a trial, but were mistaken in English as a way to address the defendant (the "culprit").
noun; bulbous plant of the genus Narcissus.
From Middle English affodill, which is originally from Ancient Greek ἀσφόδελος (asphodelos). The "d" at the start of the word is thought to have come from the article de in Dutch. That's right. Another example of rebracketing. De affodil to daffodil, baby.
verb; to hold in belief; to adjudge as a conclusion.
Etymology is not too special; what's interesting is that it is related to the word doom, which makes sense when you think about the meanings.
noun; a small model of a human figure, typically one of a baby or girl, used as a child's toy.
From a common pet name for the name Dorothy. How common were pretty Dorothys (Dorothies?), back in the day, I wonder, that their nickname became the term for all pretty women, which would then turn into a word for "pretty women as a toy"?
verb; to add sound or change audio on film.
From a shortening of the word double. Unrelated to the meaning of "to dub/name".
verb; to increase (something) in extent or intensity.
A back-formation from the word escalator; yes, the machine. The word "escalator" itself comes from the former trademarked name of the machine, "Escalator".
noun; a hard transparent mineral; a dark red colour.
From Old French, grenate, meaning "pomegranate"/"pomegranate red". Doublet of "grenade".
noun; a substance or matter in a state in which it will expand freely to fill the whole of a container, having no fixed shape (unlike a solid) and no fixed volume (unlike a liquid).
From Dutch gas, borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος. The reason I added it here is because it is a doublet of chaos; the word chaos comes directly from the Ancient Greek χάος, while gas has the Dutch middleman.
noun; a thin fabric with a loose, open weave; (medicine) a similar bleached cotton fabric used as a surgical dressing.
From French gaze, most likely borrowed from Arabic قَزّ (ḡazza, "silk"), most likely borrowed from the name of the city "Gaza", due to the city's long-standing association with silk production. Similar to the way the word china ("a kind of porcelain") was borrowed from the country name, China, due to the craft's association with the country.
From the river to the sea.
noun; a genus of trees with fan-shaped leaves.
From a Japanese word for the same tree. What stands out is the spelling of the word; the word transcribed from Japanese was "ginkyo", but there was a mistake in the print and it was written as "ginkgo".
noun; a small explosive device.
From French, grenade, from the Old French term pomme grenate, meaning "pomegranate" (also where the English word for pomegranate comes from). French and their pommes...see also Апельсин. Doublet of "garnet".
noun; a contract which binds a person to work for another, under specified conditions, for a specified time (often as an apprentice). verb; to bind a person under such a contract.
Indent comes partly from two Middle English words: one of which comes from in + dent as in "a mark from a blow", and one of which is from en + Latin dent, as in "teeth". The reason indenture means "to be under a contract" is because the contracts used would be cut in a zig-zag (tooth-like) pattern, so both sides would have to match along the irregular cut, thereby being proven authentic.
noun; one of several kinds of birds in the family Corvidae; my favourite Australian bird :)
From the nickname Mag of name Margaret, a nickname for people who were chatty, combined with pie, an old word for "magpie".
noun; a contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement.
Ultimately from Latin mūsculus, meaning, literally, "little mouse", perhaps due to the mouse-like movements of some muscles (like, I guess, imagine those videos of marathon runners' legs cramping up post-marathon...). The Russian word for muscle, "мышца", developed in the same way as Latin (from the Proto-Indo-European word for "mouse") so also shares both meaning of "muscle" and "mouse".
noun; a small lizard-like amphibian in the family Salamandridae that lives in the water as an adult.
Another example of rebracketing; from Middle English an ewte to become a newte.
adjective; bad-tempered or difficult to deal with.
From either a contracted or dialectical form of ordinary. People with strong accents were insulting people back in the day by calling them "ordinary", huh.
noun; commonly used as an ellipsis of "giant panda".
Unclear origin, but most likely from the Nepali word for "red panda". Funny that now "panda" by itself almost always refers to the giant panda, and "red panda", the origin of the word, requires the qualifier "red".
adjective; (of an argument or statement) seeming reasonable or probable.
The fact that it sounds similar to applause is no coincidence; from Latin "plausibilis", meaning "deserving of applause". Thought it was interesting how "praiseworthy" became "seemingly possible", as if statements that were more likely to be true garnered more positive attention, which makes sense.
noun; a person who repairs pipes and waterlines.
From Latin plumbum (meaning "lead"), due to pipes being made of lead in the past.
noun; a period of isolation, ususally due to disease; a period of 40 days.
From Latin quarentena, meaning 40 days. Called such because the period of isolation for the sake of slowing the spread of disease was 40 days, specifically in 1448 in Venice, during the time of the bubonic plague.
verb; to restore (a dead person) to life.
A back-formation from resurrection. Back-formations are always fun; people see a word that looks like it fits into a rule, and create a new word to fit the trend. Compare to direction, for example, which comes from direct.
noun; a harsh criticism.
From re- and Old French buchier, meaning "to strike". The interesting part is that buchier comes from a word originally meaning "tree; bush". Basically, giving "rebuke" the original meaning of whacking back trees. Fitting for its meaning now.
noun; a food made typically of a mixture of vegetables, usually served with a dressing.
Ultimately from Latin, saliō, from sal, meaning "salt", due to vegetables being seasoned with salt/brine during Roman times.
noun; a fixed amount of money paid to a worker.
Ultimately from Latin, salārius (“related to salt”), from sal. Most likely from the phrase "salt money", meaning either being paid in salt, or being paid so that one can buy salt and other general goods.
noun; a person who is held in servitude as the property of another person.
Ultimately from Late Latin Sclavus, meaning "Slav" (as in "Slavic"), assumed to be because Slavic people were often made into slaves in the Middle Ages. Doublet of ciao, because the greeting word was used as a polite "Hello/Goodbye, from your humble servant/slave".
noun; a hollow tube, usually held in the mouth, used by swimmers for breathing underwater.
Borrowed from the German word for "submarine snorkel" (Schnorchel), which is related to the German word for "to snore". Named because it's like the nose of a submarine, and makes a noise like snoring.
adjective; not crooked or bent; having a constant direction throughout its length.
From Middle English streight, which was the past participle of strecchen (“to stretch”). Basically meaning "something that has been stretched".
noun; a very thin flow; the act of trickling.
Also a rebracketing; was originally from Middle English striklen, and most likely came out from phrases such as teres strikled (“tears trickled”) being commonplace, and becoming teerys trikled.
noun; a three-pronged spear.
From Latin, tridēns, meaning "three-toothed".
(Russian) noun; orange (fruit).
Borrowed from Dutch, which was in turn was a word that calqued (word-for-word translated) the French term pomme de Sine (Chinese apple). Chinese apple... Though I suppose it's not too strange, for French; the word "potato" in French is "apple of the earth", after all.
(Russian) verb; to wake up.
Etymology is not so interesting, but what's fun is that this is a cognate of the Sanskrit word, also meaning "awake"...and also meaning "Buddha".
(Russian) noun; bear.
From a Proto-Slavic word that means "one that eats honey/mead". (Cute...) The Russian word for honey is мёд and the ending for "to eat" is -ед, so the connection is quite visible there, but what also stood out to me was the мёд-mead (English) connection. The words both stem from Proto-Indo-European.
(Uzbek) noun; squirrel.
From olma ("apple"), and xon ("khan"). Apple khan...ruler of the apples...
(Japanese) noun; lightning, a lightning bolt.
Compound of 稲 ("rice plant"), and 妻 ("wife, spouse"). The word stems from an ancient belief that rice plants wouldm mate with/be fertilised by lightning strikes, due to riceplant harvest/bloom season being in late summer, a time of year when there is a lot of lightning.
(Japanese) noun; cherry tree; cherry blossom.
A word originally created by joining 咲く (to bloom), and -等 (the same suffix as in 僕ら (we; us). Used to pluralise.). Basically, means "many blooming [things]", which is cute as hell.