offbeat word origins for curious minds
"Raccoon" comes from the Algoniquan/Powhatan word arahkunem, meaning "he scratches with the hands," which was first clumsily adapted by English colonists including John Smith. (Also related, "trash panda" is from the internet, circa... 2016 probably.) "Raccoon" is often shortened to "coon," which was also a nickname for members of the American Whig Party in the… Continue reading The Etymology of “Raccoon” and “Coon”
"Decal," a design that can be transferred onto another surface, is short for "decalcomania," from French décalcomanie (Latin calcare "to tread on, press"). Decalcomania may also be the source of "cockamamie," meaning "nonsense, implausible," from the name of a series of children's temporary tattoos. Invented around 1750 by French engraver Simon François Ravenet when he… Continue reading The Etymology of “Decal” and “Cockamamie”
Thomas Keightley described brownies as "a personage of small stature, wrinkled visage, covered with short curly brown hair, and wearing a brown mantle and hood" in his 1823 compendium Fairy Mythology. (Full text of that passage from an 1892 version.) So by that logic the name is based on their clothing, which—considering they were household imps—might… Continue reading The Etymology of “Brownie” (the Impish Variety)
"Grinch" was predictably popularized by Dr. Seuss in 1957, but he was not the first author to use it. Rudyard Kipling included it as an onomatopoetic participle—grinching, or "harsh grating"—in the 1892 poem "The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief." Kipling, of course, is also the author of The Jungle Book. Here's the word in the context… Continue reading The Etymology of “Grinch”
There are all manner of false word origins that get tossed around the web, but one of the more common ones I see is that "slang" is short for "shortened language," and while it's believable, there's no historical record to indicate that this is the case. (This supposed origin also doesn't entirely make sense because… Continue reading The (Real) Etymology of “Slang”
"Alchemy" is from the Greek khemeioa, which was either from Khemia, a name for Egypt meaning "land of black earth," or the Greek khymatos "that which is poured out." It was often used as a scientific term until the 1600s when "chemistry" arose from it, leaving "alchemy" with its more mystical sense. The al- prefix predictably comes from the definite… Continue reading The Etymology of “Alchemy”
Ambivalence was first a psychological term, literally meaning "strength on both sides." Paul Eugen Bleuler, the psychologist who coined it in 1910, also coined the terms schizophrenia ("a splitting of the mind") and autism (from Greek autos, "self"). Originally coined by Swiss psychologist Paul Eugen Bleuler in 1910, "ambivalence" as a psychological term means much the same… Continue reading The Etymology of Psychological Terms: “Ambivalence,” “Schizophrenia” and “Autism”
