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Phenomenon

Thursday Etymology Lesson: phenomenon

Two words for the price of one today!  Phenomenon from the Ancient Greek word phaínō, meaning “I show.”  In Latin phaenomenon, meaning, “appearance, particularly in the sky” and noumenon, from Greek nous, meaning, “I think, I mean, perception, intuition, understanding.” 

In a way phenomenon is the opposite of noumenon, because a phenomenon is a thing that is seen and observed, and a noumenon is a thing that is known (or maybe unknown?) without being seen. 

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Noumenon, sculpture by Jan Kuck.

Confused yet?  In simple terms, noumenon represents a thing outside of the sensory filters we use to perceive the natural world.  Humans tend to provide names and stories about objects in order to accept them as known.  Stories like, this is a table, I sit in a chair, I am separate from you, you are separate from me.  The concept of a noumenal world is necessary if one believes that our understanding of the world is not limited to what we can perceive with our senses.  It may sound floofy, but in a way, science would not exist without this concept.  

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Melancholy

Wednesday Etymology Lesson: melancholy

This one’s a bummer, folks.  Today’s word is melancholy [sad trombone].  The word itself comes from the Ancient Greek words kholḗ meaning, “gall, or bile,” and mélas meaning, “dark, black, murky.”  You’ll recognize mélas from the word melanin. 

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Melancholy,1801, by French painter Constance Marie Charpentier

Back in medieval times, physicians believed that the body had four humors, which were basically four bodily fluids, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.  These humors corresponded to the four elements, air, water, fire, earth respectively.  They could become imbalanced for any number of reasons.  Ancient physicians believed that a melancholic state of depression or great sadness was caused by an excess of black bile, or earth, in the body originating in the spleen.  Treatments for excessive black bile included, of course, blood letting by way of leeches, mistletoe poisoning, consumption of moist warm foods, and dancing! 

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Train

Tuesday Etymology Lesson: train

Those of us who ride the MBTA will be amused to know that the word train originally meant, “delay” or, “a drawing out,” and also, “procession,”  From Old French, trainer “to pull, drag, draw,” from Vulgar Latin *traginare.  It began to be used to describe a locomotive in the 1800s.

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Arctic

Monday Etymology Lesson: arctic

Today’s word is inspired by the frigid temperatures we are experiencing.  Arctic, from the Ancient Greek word arktikós, meaning, “land of the Great Bear.”  The greek word árktos means “bear” and arktikós references the constellation Ursa Major, the bear.

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Seen in the northern sky, Ursa Major has served mankind as a beacon toward the north for millennia.  A remarkable number of distinct civilizations have named this constellation “bear,” from the Ancient Greeks, to the Iroquois and Wampanoag people of pre-european America.

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Vincent van Gogh painted the constellation, Ptolemy listed it in the second century, Homer wrote about it, and so did Shakespeare.  The Romans believed that the bear was the nymph Callisto, transformed by Juno in a fit of jealousy over her husband Jupiter’s lustful longings. 

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Twin

Friday Etymology Lesson: twin

This word is near and dear to my heart because I am an identical twin.  Twin comes from a Proto Indo European word dwóh, which you’ll recognize from the word duo, as well as many other words in various languages for the numeral two.  Dwóh morphed into dwino, and then twinaz, through a linguistic tendency wherein d and t sounds get swapped for each other.  Twinaz became twynn, twinn, and then twin. 

Here’s a photo of me with my own twin, Abby, who has been my constant companion since before I was even aware of my own consciousness.  For a tiny infinite moment, she and I were one cell, one being, una, nova, singulare tantum.

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Zeitgeist

Thursday Etymology Lesson: zeitgeist

Today’s word is made up of two German words zeit meaning, “time” and geist, meaning, “spirit.”  Our English word ghost also comes from geist which came from a Proto Indo European root gheis which meant, “to be amazed, excited or frightened.”  The word zeitgeist literally means, “time-spirit.” 

The word asks us to question whether we can surpass the spirit of our own time, or if we are helpless against it, as is it not true that being born in the time we are in, the spirt of our time is our own spirit, and thus inescapable?

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Connection

Wednesday Etymology Lesson: connection

Today’s word is one of the things that is most important to me in life.  From Latin, com- meaning “together” and nectere or necto/nexus meaning both, “I bind” and also, “that which binds or ties together.”

In a way, the word connection is a like a little magic spell, willing things together.  This word is very old and so is the force it represents.  The very atoms that make up our bodies are bound together by electromagnetism.  Everything is connected, and so are we.

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Bollicky

Tuesday Etymology Lesson: bollicky

Today’s word was suggested by my friend Meaghan, who is an awesome writer and photographer. 

I hope you’re ready for the naked truth [groan] behind the word bollicky!  Bollicky is a slang word, originating in pre-Shakespearean times from the word bollocks, which a slang term for testicles.  Bollocks, by the way, comes from the Proto-Indo-European base bhel-, which means “to inflate or swell.”  Oh grow up! 😉 

My favorite thing about the word bollicky is that it doesn’t just mean “naked,” it means as naked as one could possibly ever be.  The kind of naked you are in those dreams where you’re somehow caught without clothing in the middle of the hallway of your high school and the bell just rang. The kind of naked a person is when they are only wearing shoes and a knit cap.  More naked than just naked.

Stay warm out there, folks!

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Funicular

Monday Etymology Lesson: funicular 

One of my favorite words and modes of transportation!  Funicular comes from the Latin funis meaning “cord or rope.”  Funiculars are a type of cable car which go up inclines and use some of the weight of the descending car to hoist up the ascending car.

Pittsburgh has not one, but two funiculars, one of which was built in 1870, and is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the USA!  These funiculars are oriented in such a way that the car itself stays level even with the incline. Another reason why Pittsburgh is one of my favorite places.  Pittsburgh, hell of a town!

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Family

Wednesday Etymology Lesson: family

This one was suggested by my sister Abigail and is holiday appropriate. 

Family is our word today.  The word comes from the Latin famula, and is related to the word familiar.  It was originally used to describe all of the members of a household, and in particular, the servants in the household, and wasn’t used to describe actual blood relatives until the mid 1500s in England.  The Latin word for “family,” as we use it in English, was domus.  You’ll recognize the words domestic and domicile coming from domus.  Previous to using family, English-speaking people referred to their close blood relatives in Old English as hiwscipe, a word now forgotten.  I’m thankful that tomorrow I will get to see many of my hiwscipe and feast with them for American Thanksgiving.