While it always held the connotation of “disreputable fellow,” “scalawag” first referred to trade unionists, ponies, and post-Civil War anti-Confederate Southern white people; it held no association with pirates until it appeared in novels and plays about seafaring swashbucklers the late 1800s. Scalawag—also spelled scallawag or scallywag, if you prefer—is a remarkable term. Not only… Continue reading The Etymology of “Scalawag” (or “Scallywag”)
The Greek name of the Gorgon Medusa (Medousa) means "guardian," from medeiun ("to protect, rule over"). Medusa is also the genus name for jellyfish, comparing their tentacles to the snakes in place of her hair, and their sometimes-deadly sting to her ability to turn those who saw her face to stone. note that the character… Continue reading The Etymology of “Medusa”
"Dragon" comes from the Latin draconem, meaning "huge serpent, dragon," which in turn is from the Greek drakon, "serpent, giant seafish." The PIE root derk- "to see," suggests that the literal sense of drakon was "the one with the (deadly) glance." The sense of "glance" or "gaze" in the Greek drakon also appears in the stem… Continue reading The Etymology of “Dragon”
The word "dizzy" evolved from the Old English dysig, meaning "foolish, stupid," from the Proto-Germanic dusijaz and perhaps from the PIE dheu-, "dust, vapor, smoke; to rise in a cloud," suggesting "defective perception or wits." Its swimmy-headed sense arose in the 14th century. Some early English translations of the Bible refer to the foolish virgins… Continue reading The Etymology of “Dizzy”
"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”
"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”
"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”
"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 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”
Useless Etymology 