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Hoarfrost

Etymology Lesson: hoarfrost

The other day, a client of mine mentioned seeing some spectacular hoarfrost on a trip to Canada, which got me thinking about the word hoarfrost.  If you’ve not seen this phenomenon, its a form of frost caused by dew that rapidly freezes when it collects on vegetation or objects that are colder than the air. It forms feathery crystals that are stunningly beautiful and transform forests into icy winter fairy tale worlds.

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So why is it called hoarfrost?  The hoar in this word comes from hoary which means “venerable, grey haired, ancient.”  You may recognize a similar sounding word Herr, which in German is a title of respect given to men.  It has roots in an Old Norse word harr, meaning, “grey-haired, old.”  And, according to Shipley, this word is related to the PIE root keiro, or koiro, which meant “grey, old, worthy.”  So hoarfrost references the resemblance of this phenomenon to everything being covered in soft, feathery hair.

Frost comes from a Proto-Germanic word frustaz, and is pretty much the same word in all Germanic languages.  The verb form of frustaz is freusanan, which meant “to freeze,” and can find its origin in the PIE root word preus-, which meant both “to freeze” and “to burn,” referring to the power cold has to both freeze and burn.

Here in New England, we have, thusfar, had a rather mild winter with not much snow or frost, which surely means we are about to get nailed with a huge storm any moment now!

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Window

Etymology Lesson: window

This morning I was doing my Duolingo Norwegian course and it gave me a new word, as it sometimes does, as sort of an invitation to see if I can guess what the word is.  Today’s word was vindu, which means, “window.”  As I discussed in my post on the etymology of defenestrate, many other languages use some form of fenestra as their word for window.  But this Norwegian word, vindu, sounds enough like window, that it inspired me to look up the etymology to confirm that the word is indeed of Old Norse origin.

It is indeed, and the etymology is pretty cool. It comes from two words vindr, meaning “wind,” and auga, meaning, “eye,” combined into the Old Norse word vindauga, or “wind eye.”  The word auga can be traced back to the PIE root, oku-, which means, “to see,” and the root can be found in lots of words that relate to seeing, like monocle, oculus, optic, and cyclops.  Wind also has a PIE root, we-, which means “to blow,” and can be found in words like weather, wing, vent, and Nirvana, which, by the way, does not literally mean “transcendence,” it means “disappearance,” like a fire blowing out.

window
My cat, Dr. Nelson Tangles, in the window.
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Apology

Etymology Lesson: apology

Recently I made a few mistakes and hurt someone dear to me, so I needed to make an apology, and it got me thinking about the origins of the word.  Let’s break it down a bit.

There are two PIE roots, ap- and apo- which both mean, “reach, extend, put hence, put off, put away.”  You’ll recognize these roots from words like apostate, apotheosis, apogee, apocalypse etc., all of which have a sense of something set apart or distant that has reached its finality.

Next is the PIE root leg- 1, (there are two leg roots) which is interesting because it means, “to gather, consider, and choose” but in the distinct context of there being an intent to pick things out, in this case, words, from that collection of information.  So from leg – 1, we get the Greek word, logos, which means, “word, speech, discourse” and also “reasoning.”  So an extended definition of the word means “to gather, consider, choose, reason, and then speak about in discourse.”

So when you combine apo and logos together, you get an extended definition that means “an extension to finality of the gathering, consideration, choosing, and reasoning of a personal account, which will be spoken about in discourse.”  The word itself is an invitation to really consider what has occurred, gather what information you can about it, and then figure out the best way to reach forward for some discourse to some finality on the topic.

Can’t think of a better way to put it really.  Apologizing isn’t easy, and, not that I’m an expert on it, but a lot of people are REALLY bad at it.  Right there in the word though are instructions for how to make a good apology.  If you haven’t carefully considered what has occurred and aren’t able to even articulate what you did wrong, how can you ever really offer an apology?

On a lighter note, I will always take any excuse to post this video, because even though Justin Bieber is kind of a tool, Parris Goebel and ReQuest Dance Crew are awesome and I’m not sorry about it:

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PIE: eis

From time to time, I will dive into certain PIE (Proto Indo European) roots.  PIE is fascinating because it is essentially a reconstructed language that linguists uncovered within the languages spoken by Indo-Europeans today.  Since it was likely to have been spoken in Neolithic times, no one has ever heard anyone speaking PIE, yet its roots can be heard every day.  I have most certainly used a very large amount of PIE root words in writing this paragraph.  Count them if you have an hour or two to spare and let me know what you find!

Today I’d like to talk about the PIE root eis, from which we get words like pediatrics, ire, hierophant, and so on.  Shipley defines eis thusly, “set in quick motion ; wrath ; divine power.”  In a way, this root imbues a word with a kick of that divine power.  Take, for example, the word iron, from the German, eisen, meaning “holy metal.” Iron certainly changed our world, to the extent that an entire age of mankind is named after it, so it is no wonder that the ancient germanic people gave this substance a name that recalled for them the passion of wrath and divine power.

Or consider the way we name specialized medical fields, pediatrics, geriatrics.  In these words you can find the Greek word iatros, which meant, “healer.”  And where did the Greeks get iatros from?  That’s right, the PIE root eis.  It makes sense why, when you consider that in ancient times, the healing arts and spirituality were inseparably intertwined.

There are also those who think this root can be found in words like estrogen and estrus. Two words which represent the divine power possessed by the females of species to create life itself.

Pictured is an image from the Thoth Tarot deck of the trump card The Hierophant, from the Greek words hieros, meaning, “sacred,” and phainein, meaning, “to bring to light.”  Thus, literally, “one who brings to light the sacred.”

thoth-hierophant

 

 

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Saeculum

Back at it!

Today’s Etymology Lesson comes from my friend Seth, with his selection of the word saeculum, recently featured in the Sandman graphic novel.

From proto-indo-european, sey, meaning “to bind or tie together,” the word can be found in the Latin phrase saecula saeculorum, meaning, “a lifetime of lifetimes,” or “eternity.”

The saeculum is a measure of time, generally springing from a singular event (a war, catastrophe, etc) which encapsulates the time that any human could have personally experienced the event.  For example, we are approaching a time in which anyone who personally experienced WWI would be deceased, the war began over 100 years ago in 1914, and ended in 1918.  There are likely babies who were born at that time who are over 100 years old, but the saeculum of WWI is nearly over. 

Pictured is Sergeant Stubby, decorated war hero of the 102nd Infantry, survivor of 17 battles on the Western Front, and member of the saeculum of WWI, who died peacefully in his sleep in 1926 at the age of 10.

saeculum 1:5:15

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Betrothed

Thursday Etymology Lesson: betrothed

This one goes out to my cousin Andy and his new bride Elisa, who got surprise married yesterday!  Congrats!  Today’s word is betrothed, which literally means, “be truthful to each other.”  The word truth has roots (pun intended) way back to the Proto-Indo-European words drū, meaning, “tree”, and deru, meaning, “firm, solid.”  We are so happy to add you to our family tree, Elisa! 

The Tree of Life,1905 by Gustav Klimt

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Splendid

Wednesday Etymology Lesson: splendid

Today’s word is inspired by all of the lovely holiday decorations up around the city. Splendid, from the Latin splendidus, meaning, “to shine brilliantly and magnificently.” From Proto-Indo-European splend, which meant, “to be manifest, to be undeniably evident to the senses.”  Pictured is the Resplendent Quetzal, native to Central America, considered divine by both the Aztecs and Maya, revered as a symbol of goodness and light, and associated with their creator god, Quetzalcoatl.  Splendid, no?

splendid 12:17:14

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Fart

Friday Etymology Lesson: fart

Sigh, my friend John Adams insisted on this one, so you get what you asked for, the etymology of fart.

One of the oldest words in the English vocabulary, fart comes from two Proto-Indo-European words perd, meaning, “break wind loudly,” and pezd “break wind softly.”  Obviously these two words are onomatopoeias.  I’ve mentioned before that d sounds often morph into t sounds in Indo-European.  Well, the same thing happened with p and f sounds, so from perd we got furzen in German, which became fart in English.

fart 12:12:14
The Divine Gas, mural art for the Boston ICA by Chiho Aoshima.

Speaking of the English, their custom of rhyming slang gave us raspberry tart as a slang term for fart, which is why it’s called a raspberry when you make a fart sound like Lily Tomlin used to do at the end of her Edith Ann character skits.  Aaaaand now I’m dating myself.

 

edithann
And that’s the truth! Phbbt!
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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.

twin 12:5:14

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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?