etymology

etymological fun | 2015-11-18

permafrown

18 Nov 2015 — 1 min read

this week’s topic: etymological fun!

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originally used to refer to rafters in a building because they looked like the hind legs of a goat (une chevre)

happy

same root as ‘happenstance’, ‘happen’, and ‘hapless’; means ‘lucky’

avocado

yummy super-fruit; comes from aztec ‘ahuacatl’ which, of course, means ‘testicle’

jumbo

from two Swahili words ‘jambo’ (hello) and ‘jumbe’ (chief); basically means ‘hey chief’

clue

from ‘clew’ which is a ball of string; Theseus unraveled a clew so he could find his way back out of the labyrinth

robot

from Czech ‘robota’ which means ‘forced labour’

assassin

from Arabic ‘hashishiyyin’ which means hash users; they were a fanatical muslim sect who used to smoke hashish and then kill opposing leaders during the crusades

etymology

from greek ‘etumon’ meaning ‘truth’

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ways to die | 2018-01-10

I was recently reading a Popular Mechanics article on a variety of ‘it is known’ ways to die. /content/images/wordpress/2017/07/w2d_itisknown.mp4 Turns out many of them are simply not the case. So, I’ve ranked them by what I deem to be their level of

colours | 2017-10-04

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poison garden | 2017-05-31

Around 1750, the 1st Duke of Northumberland hired the well-known and talented gardener Capability Brown to design and maintain the gardens around his home, Alnwick (ANN-ick) Castle. The 3rd Duke of Northumberland was a plant collector and expanded the gardens, filling them with all manner of lovely things. The Anlwick

this week’s topic: etymological fun!

chevron

happy

avocado

jumbo

clue

robot

assassin

etymology

Read more

deadlines | 2018-01-10

ways to die | 2018-01-10

colours | 2017-10-04

poison garden | 2017-05-31