Posted on by theresourceress

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!

Posted on by theresourceress

Holy

Friday Morning Etymology Lesson: holy

I’ll spare you the long and twisty history of how we got the word holy in modern English, involving things like proto-indo-european linguistics, but it begins waaaaay back in prehistory with a root word: sol- which means, “whole”.  You will recognize this root word from many modern words, like solar and solitary, which might sound different from each other, but they have one thing in common and that thing is ONE, a whole, a single entity.  The root sol- informed many words related to wholeness, health, soundness, etc.  So in its most basic form, holy relates to health. It makes sense that holy came to mean something sacred, since in ancient times, health was generally thought to be a gift from the divine, and healers were believed to be connected to the divine.