Word Stories | notes on the origins of interesting words. Etymologikon™
Interesting European etymology maps : etymology. Maps. Quiz: What's the origin of the word bungalow? And 19 other etymological posers. Ten Unusual Etymologies. Books Etymology is the study of the origin of words. Some words have obvious origins. The name for the letter W in English (and several other languages) is named simply and descriptively for its shape. Some words, on the other hand, have unknown origins (where did the word picnic come from) for example. Here are ten words with unusual stories behind their coining. To be called a dunce means you are slow-witted, stupid, and unable to learn. Gerrymandering is the rigging of elections by changing the boundary lines to give one party an advantage through the distribution of voters.
Words and things named for a person are called Eponyms. Jumbo, meaning huge, is another eponym but this time derived from the name of perhaps the most famous elephant in the world. The Quakers, or Society of Friends, are a Christian denomination with a long history of social reformation. Silhouettes were once a highly fashionable form of art which displayed their subjects in outline with no other features.
The Origins of 9 Great British Insults. For as long as people have been speaking the English language, they’ve been deploying it to poke fun at one another. Let's dig a little deeper into the grab bag of insults that language has bequeathed us throughout history, and find out where those terms come from. 1. Wazzock Wazzock was a particularly prevalent—and particularly loutish—insult in the 1990s. At the time, "lad culture" ran throughout British music and television, and wazzock, a North-England accented contraction of the sarcastic wiseacre (a know-it-all) became a powerful tool to shoot people down in an argument. 2.
Though the etymology of lummox is heavily disputed, one thing is for certain: It came from East Anglia, the coastal outcrop of Britain above London. 3. Skivers and shirkers are one and the same. 4. Often hurled at the opposite sex, to call someone a minger is to say they are objectively unattractive. 5. For such a colloquial word, nincompoop actually has a very learned past. 6. 7. 8. 9. Wordwizard Home. Wordorigins.org. Behind the Name: Meaning of Names, Baby Name Meanings. The Word Detective. World Wide Words.