"Gotham" was first used to refer to New York City by Washington Irving in his 1807 satirical periodical Salmagundi. He drew this name from the "Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham," a 1460 collection of stories about an English town whose inhabitants pretended to be idiots. As you probably know, Irving was also… Continue reading The Etymology of “Gotham”
Month: November 2017
The Etymology of “Coin”
"Coin" comes from the Latin cuneus, or "corner." When the word first arose in English in the early 14th century, it meant "wedge," but it quickly adopted the sense of "thing stamped" or "a piece of money" because dies for stamping metal were wedge-shaped. "Coin" came to English by way of Old French, which first… Continue reading The Etymology of “Coin”
The Etymology of “Font”
"Font" (as in typography) comes from the Old French fondre, meaning "melt," from the Latin fundere "melt, cast, pour out," as in the pouring of metal into moulds. It is a nominalization of "found," referring to the process of manufacturing letters and printing components at early typefoundries. The word "font" arose in the 1680s to refer to… Continue reading The Etymology of “Font”
The Etymology of “Porcupine”
"Porcupine," formerly "porke despyne," comes from the Old French porc-espin, literally "spiny pig" or "thorny pig," from Latin porcus "hog" (from PIE root porko- "young pig") + spina, "thorn, spine." Much like raccoon, the word porcupine has been subject to all manner of letter-salad spellings, including portepyn, porkpen, porkenpick, porpoynt, and porpentine (which appears in… Continue reading The Etymology of “Porcupine”
The Etymology of “Hyperbole”
The word "hyperbole" (an obvious or extreme exaggeration) is via Latin, from the Greek hyperbole, which was used to mean "exaggeration, extravagance" but literally meant "a throwing beyond." The Greek hyperbole is formed of hyper- "beyond" + bole "a throwing, a casting, the stroke of a missile, bolt, beam." Bole is the nominative stem of ballein, "to throw,"… Continue reading The Etymology of “Hyperbole”
The Etymology of “Daisy”
The word "daisy" comes from the Old English dægesege, formerly dæges eage, meaning "day's eye," because the petals of some species of daisy open at dawn and close at dusk. For the same reason, in Medieval Latin, a common term for daisy was solis oculus, meaning "sun's eye." The name Daisy was at one time… Continue reading The Etymology of “Daisy”
The Etymology of “Mantis”
The praying mantis (Mantis religiosa) and other insects in the order Mantodea get their name from the Greek mantis, literally "one who divines, a seer, prophet," which in turn is from mainesthai, "be inspired." Many people misinterpret the name as "preying mantis," partially thanks to the fact that many mantis species are excellent ambush hunters… Continue reading The Etymology of “Mantis”
The Etymology of “Carpenter”
"Carpenter" is from the Late Latin carpentum ("wagon, carriage, cart"), with a maker of wooden carts known as an artifex carpentarius. In English, "carpenter" replaced the word treowwyrhta, literally "tree-wright." "Carpenter" began to replace treowwyrhta in the 1300s, adopted from the Anglo-French carpenter (Old North French carpentier) and first specifically referring to someone who does… Continue reading The Etymology of “Carpenter”
Useless Etymology 