I had this professor once--back in college--who taught an honors seminar on Eastern Philosophies or something like that. I loved this guy--he claimed to have inadvertently gotten something stupid like 11 bachelor's degrees, 3 master's and one doctorate degree along his path of taking classes that looked interesting.
Since he told us that, I decided I want to do it, too. --Just take classes on and off throughout life, accidentally accumulating degrees. Why not?
So I work for Verizon Wireless nowadays [we never stop working for you], and I've decided to take advantage of their tuition assistance program. I'm enrolling at Tulane University* in the fall, here in New Orleans, and am going to take a couple of linguistics classes each semester. Why not?
Check out a rough listing of Tulane's linguistics courses here.
I'm soooo excited! I can't wait! I've never taken an official linguistics class before.**
*My alterior motive is to join their quizbowl team and finagle NAQT into having the ICT in New Orleans again next year.
**Of course I'm not forgetting Dr. Hall's Studies of the English Language (aka "Slang") class I took back in 2003 at LSMSA. He's what got me started in all this in the first place!
28 May 2010
25 May 2010
ORANGED!
My Honduran co-worker also says anaranjado for the color; my Cuban co-worker didn't know how to say orange in Spanish and my El Salvadorian co-worker says naranja.
The funny thing is that no other color name is in that past-tense verb form. But then again, none of those words double in meaning for some other noun. In fact, if you do see a color word in that verb form, it means a derivation of that color. For instance, azulado from azul connotes "bluish." I also found blancuzco from blanco, verdáceo from verde and violáceo from violeta--but I've never heard those used in real life.
My best guess is that we only use the different form for the color orange to differentiate it from the noun.
I did some research. We have Orange in English, French and German; Naranja in Spanish; Arancia in Italian and Laranja in Portuguese. Where does this word even come from?
According to the dictionary, From Arabic نارنج (nāranj), from Persian نارنگ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga), “‘orange tree’”), itself of uncertain origin, possibly Dravidian.
I got the following from that same Etymologically Speaking guy. Like I said before, some of his stuff sounds outlandish, but everything I double checked elsewhere was in fact, true. However, this I can't seem to find any support for, except that he himself has been quoted countless times all over the interbutt.*
Interestingly, none of these terms come from the Latin word for orange, citrus aurentium; instead, they all come from the ancient Sanskrit naga ranga, which literally means "fatal indigestion for elephants."
In certain traditions the orange, not the apple, is the fruit responsible for original sin.
There was an ancient Malay fable--which made its way into the Sanskrit tongue around the Seventh or Eighth Centuries B.C.--that links the orange to the sin of gluttony** and has an elephant as the culprit. Apparently, one day an elephant was passing through the forest, when he found a tree unknown to him in a clearing, bowed downward by its weight of beautiful, tempting oranges; as a result, the elephant ate so many that he burst. Many years later a man stumbled upon the scene and noticed the fossilized remains of the elephant with many orange trees growing from what had been its stomach. The man then exclaimed, "Amazing! What a naga ranga (fatal indigestion for elephants)!"
*Bradshaw of the Future seems to think it's false, but his jump from pume orenge to melarancio presents a problem for me. That particular jump is the key, but I see no support for it.
For example, the Greek χρυσομηλιά (chrysomelia) and Latin pomum aurantium both literally describe oranges as golden apples. In other languages like German, Finnish, Polish, or Russian the terms for the bitter orange (a related species) are derived from Latin pomum aurantium. Additionally, the Hebrew word תפוז (tapuz) is a shortened form of תפוח זהב (tapuakh zahav), or golden apple.
In Dutch, sweet oranges are called sinaasappel, which is derived from China's apple. The Latvian apelsīns, Icelandic appelsína, Swedish apelsin, Finnish appelsiini, Russian апельсин (apelsin) and North-German Apfelsine share similar etymology.
Hm.
Etymologically Speaking
I happened upon this great website called Etymologically Speaking written by Stephen Morgan Freidman. He's happened upon *quite a few* interesting etymological discoveries, so I thought I'd copy and paste my favorites here. I'm putting them into categories for you. Some of them seemed too outlandish to be true, but I've double checked a lot of them in the OED and they are all solid, believe it or not.
Marriage and Women:
Gorilla
New Latin from Greek Gorillai, for a tribe of hairy women, from Hanno's account of his voyage along the N.W. coast of Africa, c.500 B.C.E. (Check line 18 here.)
Husband
Comes from the Old German words hus and bunda, which mean "house" and "owner," respectively. The word originally had nothing to do with marital status, except for the fact that home ownership made husbands extremely desirable marriage partners.
Food and Drink:
Companion; Compañero (Spanish); Copain (French) Companion
From the Latin "Companionem," "Con" (with) and "Pan" (bread) -- presumably, your "companion" was someone with whom you would "break bread.
This one is so obvious! How did I never see it before?!
Gin; Ginebra (Spanish); Genievre (French)
The English word "gin" comes from the French word genievre, which means "juniper," the name of the berry which gives gin its distinctive, bitter flavor. Incidentally, the term "juniper" comes from the Celtic word jenupus, meaning "bitter." The Swiss city Geneva also stems from the same source. Apparently, the countryside around Geneva had originally been filled with wild juniper plants.
Biscuit
From the mediaeval French 'Bis + cuit' meaning 'cooked twice'
Gods and such:
Witness
From the pre-Christian, Germanic term "witan", which means wise, tribal elders (literally, those who follow the way of the Norse god "Wodin" or "Odin").
Work and Business:
Slogan
from 2 Celtic words: "slaugh" and "gheun" which mean, respectively, "battle" and "cry".
Essay
The English noun essay comes from the French verb "essayer," to try. Early intellectuals believed their papers to be only a modest attempt to put their ideas on paper.
I always wondered about this one.
Cravate (French); Krawatte (German); Corbata (Spanish) Tie
The term "Krawatte" (German), "cravate" (French) and "corbata" (Spanish), which all mean a man's "tie", first originated in the Napoleonic Wars when French troops were entering the territory of Crotia, which, at that time, was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Apparently the Croatians were so estatic to be rid of the German Habsburg yoke that they showered the triumphant French troops with flowers and ran up to them and tucked squares of red cloth in the collars of their uniforms as a gesture of goodwill. From them on the term "Croat" or a variation thereof seems to have stuck in may parts of Continental Europe.
Quizballers:
Trivia
The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin for "crossroads": "tri-" + "via", which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome, they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of "trivia."
Huh! and Well of course:
Barbarian
From the Greek "barbaroi," meaning "babblers," used to mean non-Greeks, i.e., people who didn't speak Greek; from the sound that the Greeks thought they were making: "bar bar bar bar..."
Pedigree
From the French "Ped de gru," which means or meant, "Crane's foot," the /|\ symbol "used to denote succession in a genealogical table.
Denim/Jeans
The tough cloth used in jeans was originally made in Nimes, France, as well as Genoa, Italy (hence "jeans"). It was called Serge di Nimes--later shortened to di Nimes, which became denim.
Assassin
From the old Arabic word "hashshshin," which meant, "someone who is addicted to hash," that is, marijuana. Originally refered to a group of warriors who would smoke up before battle.
Alarm
From the Italian, "All'arme" -- "To arms!"
Escape
In Latin, escape means "out of cape." The ancient Romans would often avoid capture by throwing off their capes when fleeing.
Malaria
From the medieval Italian "mal'" (bad) and "aria" (air), describing the miasma from the swamps around Rome in the summer months, believed to be the cause of fevers.
Thermostat
"Therma" (hot) is from the Greek city of Therma, known for its hot springs. Among the most healing yet radioactive springs in the world, look.
Debonair
French for "of good air." In the Middle Ages, people's health was judged partly by how they smelled. A person who gave off "good air" was presumed healthier and happier.
Derive
From the Latin "De Rivus," "From a stream."
Elite
From the Latin elire, meaning "to choose," from which we also get the modern Spanish word meaning the same, elegir.
Tennis
"Tennis," a sport which first developed in France, was originally "tenez" (pronounced tuh-nay) which is the French verb "tenir" conjugated at the second person of the plural as a polite imperative verb (translated in this case by something like "there you go"). They were saying "tenez" when they hit the ball so as to say :"there, try to get this one". But tennis lost popularity in France and gained popularity in England at the same time. So, English people were still using the word "tenez" each time they hit the ball, but saying it with the English accent which sounded more like tennis, and which eventually took this new spelling. Then the sport gained popularity world wide and got picked up by many languages, including French.
Marriage and Women:
New Latin from Greek Gorillai, for a tribe of hairy women, from Hanno's account of his voyage along the N.W. coast of Africa, c.500 B.C.E. (Check line 18 here.)
Husband
Comes from the Old German words hus and bunda, which mean "house" and "owner," respectively. The word originally had nothing to do with marital status, except for the fact that home ownership made husbands extremely desirable marriage partners.
Food and Drink:
Companion; Compañero (Spanish); Copain (French) Companion
From the Latin "Companionem," "Con" (with) and "Pan" (bread) -- presumably, your "companion" was someone with whom you would "break bread.
This one is so obvious! How did I never see it before?!
The English word "gin" comes from the French word genievre, which means "juniper," the name of the berry which gives gin its distinctive, bitter flavor. Incidentally, the term "juniper" comes from the Celtic word jenupus, meaning "bitter." The Swiss city Geneva also stems from the same source. Apparently, the countryside around Geneva had originally been filled with wild juniper plants.
Groggy
Comes from the description of the feeling that many British sailors experienced when they would drink too much "grog," a mixture of rum and water. Grog is said to have taken its name from the nickname of "Old Grog" given to British Admiral Vernon by his sailors; much like Lord Mountbatten later, he was in the habit of wearing a kind of heavy coat of grogram, a coarse weatherproof fabric (the word comes from the French gros-grain). The sailors started to apply their nickname for him in a rather derisive way to their rations of rum, after he mandated in 1740 that they be diluted with water.
Vinegar
Comes from the Latin vin aigre, meaning "sour wine."
From the mediaeval French 'Bis + cuit' meaning 'cooked twice'
Gods and such:
From the pre-Christian, Germanic term "witan", which means wise, tribal elders (literally, those who follow the way of the Norse god "Wodin" or "Odin").
Work and Business:
Slogan
from 2 Celtic words: "slaugh" and "gheun" which mean, respectively, "battle" and "cry".
Essay
The English noun essay comes from the French verb "essayer," to try. Early intellectuals believed their papers to be only a modest attempt to put their ideas on paper.
I always wondered about this one.
The term "Krawatte" (German), "cravate" (French) and "corbata" (Spanish), which all mean a man's "tie", first originated in the Napoleonic Wars when French troops were entering the territory of Crotia, which, at that time, was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Apparently the Croatians were so estatic to be rid of the German Habsburg yoke that they showered the triumphant French troops with flowers and ran up to them and tucked squares of red cloth in the collars of their uniforms as a gesture of goodwill. From them on the term "Croat" or a variation thereof seems to have stuck in may parts of Continental Europe.
Quizballers:
Trivia
The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin for "crossroads": "tri-" + "via", which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome, they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of "trivia."
Huh! and Well of course:
Barbarian
From the Greek "barbaroi," meaning "babblers," used to mean non-Greeks, i.e., people who didn't speak Greek; from the sound that the Greeks thought they were making: "bar bar bar bar..."
From the French "Ped de gru," which means or meant, "Crane's foot," the /|\ symbol "used to denote succession in a genealogical table.
Denim/Jeans
The tough cloth used in jeans was originally made in Nimes, France, as well as Genoa, Italy (hence "jeans"). It was called Serge di Nimes--later shortened to di Nimes, which became denim.
From the old Arabic word "hashshshin," which meant, "someone who is addicted to hash," that is, marijuana. Originally refered to a group of warriors who would smoke up before battle.
Alarm
From the Italian, "All'arme" -- "To arms!"
Escape
In Latin, escape means "out of cape." The ancient Romans would often avoid capture by throwing off their capes when fleeing.
Malaria
From the medieval Italian "mal'" (bad) and "aria" (air), describing the miasma from the swamps around Rome in the summer months, believed to be the cause of fevers.
"Therma" (hot) is from the Greek city of Therma, known for its hot springs. Among the most healing yet radioactive springs in the world, look.
Debonair
French for "of good air." In the Middle Ages, people's health was judged partly by how they smelled. A person who gave off "good air" was presumed healthier and happier.
Derive
From the Latin "De Rivus," "From a stream."
Elite
From the Latin elire, meaning "to choose," from which we also get the modern Spanish word meaning the same, elegir.
"Tennis," a sport which first developed in France, was originally "tenez" (pronounced tuh-nay) which is the French verb "tenir" conjugated at the second person of the plural as a polite imperative verb (translated in this case by something like "there you go"). They were saying "tenez" when they hit the ball so as to say :"there, try to get this one". But tennis lost popularity in France and gained popularity in England at the same time. So, English people were still using the word "tenez" each time they hit the ball, but saying it with the English accent which sounded more like tennis, and which eventually took this new spelling. Then the sport gained popularity world wide and got picked up by many languages, including French.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)