Words With Friends!
“For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice.”
—T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Just like most of you out there, I have a fairly set morning routine before going to work. One of the things I enjoy doing on my way there is listening to TED talks. If you've never heard of TED, I would absolutely recommend giving them a try! Most are fairly short ranging from 5 to 15 minutes, and they cover all sorts of topics ranging from video games to global warming, politics, technology, and anything in between. Basically, if you can think of a topic or issue, it's very likely that someone has done a TED talk about it, possibly even multiples!
Now this particular morning I was listening to a talk about women in history. Interestingly enough they mentioned something that piqued my curiosity and thought it would make a great topic for here--The origins of the word "Hysteria".
Today it is known as a nervous disease. However, it is derived from the Greek hystera, meaning "womb". This is why it was first attributed as a neurotic condition peculiar to women, and thought to be caused by a disfunction in the uterus.
Needless to say, this got me thinking, "What other words could have similar fascinating origins?" After some digging, I managed to find a few that were quite intriguing:
Clue: Anything that guides or directs towards the solution of a problem, mystery, puzzle, etc. Its origins can be traced back to the 1590s from Greek Mythology. Originally a clew was a ball of thread or yarn
If you're familiar with the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, it was Princess Ariadne (daughter of King Minos) who gave him a clew of yarn to help him find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth.
Nightmare: Compound word thought to originate from the 1300s combining "night" + "mare". While today a mare is defined as a full grown and mature female horse, originally, it referred to an evil female goblin spirit.
This ancient apparition was thought to haunt men at night while they were in deep slumber. She was believed to sit on their chest making it difficult for them to breath, afflicting them with a feeling of suffocation.
Muscle: Contractible tissue consisting of fibers. This dates back to late 14th century and comes from the Latin musculus, which literally translates to "a little mouse".
Apparently muscles were given this particular name because when flexed, they resembled little mice running around under the skin.
Ha! That thought might give some people nightmares!
Nice: It's most common definition today is, something or someone that is amiably pleasant and/or kind. However, as it turns out, nice was actually a negative term. It stems from the Latin nescius, meaning "unaware or ignorant". In the early 1300s, the French borrowed the term and began using it to describe people that were ignorant and foolish.
However, by the late 1300s it was being used to describe a person who was excesively luxurious in conduct, their dressing, or both. As you can imagine this is what started nice on its path to become the positive and uplifting term that it is today.
Hmmm, he should stop being nice and use the force huh?
Are there any other words you know with interesting origins you know about? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
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