Questions tagged [etymology]
This tag is for questions about the historical origin of a word. Please consider asking this question on English Language & Usage (http://english.stackexchange.com/) instead.
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(Comic) Foo-works
I know quite a lot of "-works" works in comic ("Wetworks", to name just one). Is this meme (or how you want to call it) comic-specific? And who brought it up?
The most simple ...
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Murder, she emailed [closed]
You might know the phrase template from the crime comedy series "Murder, She Wrote" with Angela Lansbury, but before that there was the "Miss Marple" film "Murder, She Said&...
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The history of the "morning after" pill doesn't explain its name
The phrase "morning after" interested me while reading this page:
Example 1.8 RU-486 is claimed to be an effective “morning after” contraceptive pill, but is it really effective?
I got to ...
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What's the etymology of "rack focus"?
Rack focus is a:
filmmaking technique of changing the focus of the lens during a continuous shot. When a shot “racks,” it moves the focal plane from one object in the frame to another.
I don't see ...
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Can these words imply the opposite of their meanings?
The definition of "stay" in a legal dictionary suggests: "A stay is a suspension of a case or a suspension of a particular proceeding within a case.", but the word stay is known to ...
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How rude is the "cockblock"? [closed]
The word, not the act. Also, obviously not the Harry Dresden "Skin Game" version working with a trigger cock - since the cock we are talking about most definitely isn't a rooster (or is the ...
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Why does one say "north of" a number, price, sum of money, quantity, etc, to mean "greater than", and not "south of"?
I read on https://www.wsmv.com/news/kentucky/gov-beshear-north-of-70-dead-could-exceed-in-100-in-kentucky/article_44411154-5a4a-11ec-8c71-a7f18c61dd41.amp.html (mirror):
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ...
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Perr/pɛr/ means peer/pɪə/, pair/peə/, or something else?
What do you mean by 'perr'/pɛr/? 'Peer'/pɪə/, pair/peə/ or something else? You know where that comes from? Is it a throaty pronunciation of the ‘r’ sound, characteristic of the Glaswegian accent of ...
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"But the point is probably moot." Is it arguable or irrelevant?
(Not really answered here.)
See also here - I think I found a self-antonym.
I took up some research after hearing "Jessie's Girl", and I think the following etymology developments hold:
&...
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Why is the abbreviation pp used to mean pages?
I read on https://english.stackexchange.com/a/117978/17712
pp stands for pages
Why is the abbreviation pp used to mean pages?
I tried to search for the answer, but couldn't find the answer yet. I ...
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Why is the discount rate called the discount rate?
Why is the discount rate called the discount rate? It doesn't discount anything. On the contrary, it's about how much the central bank charges other banks to use its financial resources. Why isn't it ...
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Why are data scientists scientists?
Data scientists are professionals in data science, and I was once hired as a senior data scientist in a company, but I thought the title of that job might be misnamed.
What is the etymology of "...
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Is the prefix of heterarchy right?
I read an article on the opposite of herarchy: Is heterarchy the answer to the crisis of hierarchy?, but the prefix of heterarchy seems suspect to me. I don't find a prefix as heter then I thought ...
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Using the word "out" after the word "thaw"
What is the etymology of using the word "out" after "thaw"? For instance, "I put the food on the counter to thaw out." Are there any other such words that are customarily ...
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Where does the phrase "that tracks" come from? [duplicate]
I'm wondering where "that tracks" comes from, i.e. meaning "that makes sense". I've done a bit of Googling and all I could find was a Reddit post with a bunch of different guesses ...
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Why is there a 'p' in "assumption" but not in "assume"?
I know a little bit about the suffix -tion. It is usually added to verbs.
Examples:
-domination (from dominate),
-admiration (admire),
-deviation (deviate),
-ejection (eject).
"Exemption (...
user127220
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Why does "is" have /z/ sound and "this" have /s/ sound?
The standard pronunciation of "is" is /ɪz/. I looked up its etymology and saw that its pronunciation in Middle English was /iːs/, with /s/. In Old English, it was also /iːs/
On the other ...
user119042
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Pronunciation rules for "CH" and "arch-"
Yesterday I was watching Pokémon where I encountered this word "archenemy". It is definitely not the first time I am hearing it, though it is the first time I am putting thought into it.
...
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Why are the pronunciations of IRON and IRONY different?
I got 2 excellent answers to my previous question Why is “iron” pronounced “EYE-URN” but not “EYE-RUN”?. Now I wonder about iron and irony (and ironic). The top voted answer by Void suggests that the ...
user119042
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Why sister [nouns] and not brother [nouns]?
I have noticed this quite often that other (closely) related common nouns are called sister [common noun]. For example:
This question is off-topic here, but is on-topic on our sister site.
This issue ...
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Is "solicitor" a noun form derived from "solicit", or do they have totally different word origins?
I recently came across the word "solicit", but I didn't know its meaning although I know what "solicitor" is. Based on my existing knowledge about "solicitor", I guessed ...
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Where does the phrase "I'm so shook/shocked/shaken" come from?
I have often seen people say this phrase using these different words to convey the same idea of being surprised about something. I have debated with people about the proper word to use in the phrase. ...
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The silent "u": "forty" and "fourteen"
We all know that the cardinal and ordinal numbers 4 and 4th are spelled ‘four’ and “fourth” respectively. Then we have 14 and 14th which are spelled “fourteen” and “fourteenth”. Yet the numbers 40 and ...
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why is the plural form of sheep is not sheeps?
The plural of goat is goats. Even uncountable nouns can have plural forms, e.g. waters (the meaning is slightly different). Some words have two plural forms, like cactuses or cacti. Again, some words ...
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What is the meaning of "roe" in "roe deer"?
According to Wikipedia, a roe deer is
a small, nimble Eurasian deer with no visible tail, a white rump patch, and a reddish summer coat that turns grey in winter, the male having short three-pointed ...
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What the etymology of Netscape brand name? [closed]
Netscape is an old web browser. But can anyone explain the etymology of this word? Is it net+scape or nets+cape, and what is the point in both cases. I feel more logic in nets+cape (geo.), so browser ...
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Why is the phrase parent-in-law and not parent-by-law?
Since it's due to the law that they are his/her parents by proxy, why isn't the phrase 'by-law' instead of 'in-law'?
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Is there any relationship between *bearing* and *bear*?
Why adding -ing after bear becomes totally another word bearing whose meaning seems had nothing to do with a bear?
+ -ing
becomes
.
Was there any relationship between the two words?
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Is it: 'They and I?' Or: 'Them and I?' Or: 'Them and me?' Or something else?
This is purely for communication via online social media for the proper use of a phrase which I am unsure of its proper structure;
which of the following is proper use:
1.) They and I,
2.) Them and I,...
Tyler Brown
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What does the saying “Don’t feel pregnant” mean?
My dad sometimes says “Don’t feel pregnant” when I tell him how I’m feeling. For instance, I’ll tell him “I feel like all I do is work”, he’ll say “Don’t feel pregnant”. I think it may mean “ Don’t ...
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Cocktail etymology
I was told that the word cocktail, when it was invented, was created from the union of two words, namely "cock" and "tail". I tried to check this claim using google, but was not able to come to any ...
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The history of the word "gay" [closed]
When did the word "gay" which initially had a meaning "merry" and "happy" gain another connotation which is now thought to be preliminary?
As I understand, the word in the main old meaning was an ...
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Is "job done" etymologically related to "job well done"?
I've been listening to a podcast by a person who grew up in England, and he often uses the phrase "job done" to mean "that's that" or something similar.
I, however, having grown up in the United ...
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French letters in English
The English language has a great amount of borrowings from French. But why aren't such letters as "ç"(façade) and "é"(café, protégé) changed if they don't exist in the English alphabet and there are "...
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School and school of fish
Why is a group of fish called "school"?
And is it anyhow etymologically connected with the word "school" denoting an educational establishment?
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The word "attendance" and "at ten dance"?
When I was at college, my English teachers used to say that the word attendance was derived from at ten dance. In schools the children used to dance at Ten AM
in the British Rule and slowly it ...
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Grammatical structure of stuck being told
I came across the phrase here:
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~wkneelan/thirdoption/essays/tmnt_music.htm
The listener or viewer is therefore stuck being told what is just as easily observed
I tried ...
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Definitions that are not included in modern dictionaries
I was translating some literature written in the 20th century, and I came across the following sentence
We suppress these partitions
and by Google translate, the "suppress" means “make obscure”. ...
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What's the origin of "price of fish"?
I heard an old song by Scooter where he sings "How much is the fish?", realizing that it sounds so irrelevant and stupid that it might be something idiomatic with it.
Turns out it's an expression ...
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Why is 1000$ called a 'grand'?
Recently I have noticed that people (especially in the USA) call each 1000$ as a 'grand'.
"It costs 48 grand" = "It costs 48 thousand USD"
I have got two related questions about it:
Why is it ...
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Why is the head master not The Head Master?
Head Master is the Head of an Institute.We usually write The Principal in upper case.
Why is the word head master written in a lower case.
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Is "add two and two" an idiom?
"Somebody Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the Tower after Dumbledore died. There were also two broomsticks up there. The Ministry can add two and two, Harry."
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood ...
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How can we be sure about etymology?
It's common to hear words protagonist and antagonist. And based on the way they sound, and their opposit meaning, I always thought that they should have the same etymon, with pro and an being prefixes ...
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Are "confidant" and "confident" homophones?
Both sound like /-dənt/ to me.
Etymology:
confidant comes to English from the French word confident, and when the word first entered our language it was often spelled that way, rather than as ...
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Etymology of words used to start and ask questions
Could you please help me understand the etymology of words used to start questions? I am particularly interested by the words 'how' and 'why'. Thank you!
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Is "deload" a legitimate verb?
I was reading something about strength training and I came across that word. I am wondering if that's a legitimate verb?
If so, what would be the difference between "deload" and "offload" or even "...
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How did "flavored" come to mean "distracted"?
There is a scene in the movie Beautiful Girls:
Marty: Are you OK?
Willie: Yeah. Yeah, I'm... Why?
Marty: You seem a little flavored today.
Willie: No! No, I'm cool.
Marty: ...
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Why is 'left luggage' called 'left luggage'?
I came across this term at an English train station. My friend and I were looking for a place to store our luggage and it didn't occur to us that 'left luggage' was the place we needed to go as it ...
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Is "I did not breakfast today" correct?
Is the following sentence correct?
I did not breakfast today
Due to breakfast coming from ‘to break your fast’.
Jesse Obrien
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Etymological relation between different meaning of "kid"
I looked up kid and got two different meanings.
(of a goat) give birth
deceive (someone) in a playful way; tease
Both are known to me in meanings such as "I'm kidding you" and "it's not my kid". ...
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