This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could meet hundreds more in your pocket. Visit Progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states. Google Ireland and United States Senator, a distinguished man, even if he hadn't contributed so meaningfully to our language. But he did. And now we have that wonderful term for that rather suspicious style, even though I had them in the 90s. All us cool kids did. But there are a lot of etymologies that are fascinating, puzzling, amusing, or dumbfounding. For instance, did you know that the mustache is named after the French nobleman Count Mostache de Fable? You did not, because I made that one up. But on today's Saturday, matinee, we bring you some real etymologies that are just as improbable or interesting from the podcast Etymolion, a show about the history of words. I hope you enjoy. While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow Etymolion. We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's Name Your Price tool for years now. With the Name Your Price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit Progressive.com. Find a rate that works for you with the Name Your Price tool. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Granger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery, so you can keep your facility stocked safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. If you work in university maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off. And Granger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRANGER, visit Granger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Granger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery, so you can keep your facility stocked safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. What does connecting two devices together have to do with blue teeth? Why is it cilantro in America and coriander in Britain? And how is the dollar related to a valley in the Czech Republic? You'll be able to answer these questions after listening to this episode. Most of the words we use every day have hidden histories. Once you start noticing them, it completely changes how you hear language. That's what etymology is, tracing where words come from and how their meanings change over time. Take the word manufacturer. Today it makes you think of mass production. Originally, it meant to make by hand, from the Latin manus meaning hand, and facare meaning to make. Those roots appear in other words. Manus meaning hand gives us manicure, care of the hands. Ray meaning to make is behind factory and fashion. Sometimes linguistic connections are stranger. Words that seem completely unrelated, like gossip and sibling, can share the same origin. Other words are named after real people. Some mean almost the opposite of what they once did, and others trace their origins back to literature and mythology. I'm Leon, also known as Etomoleon, creator of Word History the podcast, and derivative the daily etymology word game. In this episode, I'll take you through over 35 word origins. If you want to know what asparagus has to do with sugar, why a pasta sauce is angry, and how the words glamour and grammar are connected, keep listening. Some people don't just make history, they become words. Bluetooth is named after Harold Bluetooth, a 10th century king who united various Danish tribes. That idea of bringing people together inspired the name for the wireless technology that connects devices. This nickname likely came from a dead tooth that appeared dark blue or black. His real name was Harold Gormson. The name Bluetooth was originally intended as a temporary placeholder when the technology was developed in the 1990s. Mesmerise comes from Franz Mesmer, an 18th century doctor who believed in a mysterious force called animal magnetism. He claimed he could cure patients by controlling invisible forces in the body using magnets. His methods often sent people into trans-like states and his name became a verb meaning to hypnotise or capture attention. Maverick comes from Samuel Maverick, a 19th century Texan who refused to brand his cattle, something nearly all ventures did to mark ownership. Maverick came to mean someone who doesn't follow rules or convention. Galvanise can mean to shock or stimulate into action and is named after Luigi Galvani. In the late 18th century he found that when electricity was applied to the legs of dead frogs they twitched as if they were alive. Sideburns were once called side whiskers but later became known as burn sides, named after the 19th century army officer Ambrose Burnside who famously wore them. Over time the elements of his name flipped to form sideburns which sounded more natural. Silhouette comes from Etienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister in the 18th century. These simple shadow portraits became associated with his name but no one is completely sure why. One theory is that it was a joke about his strict austerity measures as the portraits were cheap and minimal. Another suggests the simplicity of the images reflected the short length of his time in office, a third claims he may have made these kind of portraits himself as a hobby. We can go much further back to find words inspired by people. Greek mythology provides many examples. Promethean describes someone daring or innovative. It comes from the titan Prometheus who defied the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity. The word nemesis refers to a rival or something that leads to a downfall. This was the goddess of retribution, ensuring that justice was served. The task that is impossible to complete can be described as Sisyphean. This comes from the character Sisyphus who is condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, only for it to fall back down each time he reached the top. Some words seem to have nothing in common but they come from the same place. The word dollar ultimately traces back to a word meaning valley. In the Middle Ages the Czech town of Yakimov was known as Sankyakimstal. The name combines Yokim for the Biblical father of Mary and thal meaning valley, a word from the same root as the English word dale which also means valley. In the 16th century silver was discovered there and a local noble began minting coins from it. These coins took their name from the town and became known as Yokinstalas. Over time the name was shortened to dalas and the term spread across Europe. The Spanish carried their version of the word to the Americas and when the United States sought to distance itself from British influence it adopted dollar as its currency name. In the 1960s Australia also adopted the term dollar when it moved to decimal currency. Other suggestions for the name at the time included the royal, the roux and the austral. What the British call coriander, Americans call cilantro. They sound different but they come from the same root. It's easy to see how the Latin Coriandrum became the British Coriander. In American English cilantro came through Spanish, likely through a variant colliandrum where the R shifted to an L, colliandrum becoming cilantro. The word glamour makes you think of beauty and elegance while grammar deals with rules and correctness. They seem completely unrelated but one does come from the other. In ancient Greek and Latin Grammatica and Grammatica referred to letters. This became grammar in old French and English meaning the correct use of language. It also developed a broad sense of learning, especially the study of magic. From that older meaning came the Scottish pronunciation form glamour, first used to describe magic and later adopted into wider English to mean something enchanting. The frame an artist uses to hold their word is named after an animal. The connection comes from carrying a load. The word easel is linked to ass through the Dutch word esel meaning donkey. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system they matter even more. Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Granger offers millions of products in fast dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. If you work in university maintenance Granger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off and Granger is your trusted partner. Offering the products you need all in one place from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRANGER, visit Granger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. This is the story of the one. As a maintenance tech at a university he knows ordering from multiple suppliers takes time away from keeping their arena up and running. That's why he counts on Granger to get everything he needs from lighting and HVAC parts to plumbing supplies all in one place and with fast dependable delivery he's stocked and ready for the next tip off. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course if you enjoy overpaying no judgments but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch. Many culinary terms have origins that link back to everyday words. Minestrone might seem like an unusual name for a soup especially when most soups are named after their ingredients. It's full name Minestrone di Vedure means vegetable soup and the deeper origin of Minestrone points to the idea of the soup being something served. The word comes from the same root as the word minister. In Britain someone who serves in political office and the word administration in the US the serving government. Soup also plays a role in the origin of the word restaurant. The first modern restaurants traced back to the late 18th century. A soup seller in France named Boulanger is often credited as the first restaurateur. He sold what he called restorative broths believed to restore health and energy. From the French word for restore came the English word restaurant. There's a pattern in the origins of whisky, vodka and odovie. Vodka comes from the Russian Vada meaning water, whisky comes from the Gaelic Rishkebeya meaning water of life and odovie is French for water of life too. A crudite platter consists of raw vegetable served with dips. The name comes from the Latin crudus meaning raw. The same root appears in crude oil describing its unrefined state and cruel harsh or raw treatment. Horde cuisine literally means high cooking in French. Horde coming from the Latin altus meaning high. You can see this root in words like alto, the highest male singing voice, altitude, height above ground and exalt to praise highly. The artificial sweetener known as aspartame was discovered in the 1960s by an American chemist researching treatments for gastric ulcers. While testing compounds he licked his finger to pick up a piece of paper and noticed a sweet taste. The name aspartame comes from aspartic acid, one of its components which itself is named after asparagus where the compound naturally occurs. The tomato based pasta sauce arabiata made with chilli and garlic has a fiery origin. The name comes from the Italian rabia meaning anger from the idea that the spice might make diners flushed or heated. The same Latin root appears in English words like rage and rabid. If you're enjoying these word origins remember to follow my podcast etymole on word history for now words that have shifted over time. Caudial. It originally meant heartfelt and sincere. You can still hear that in phrases like you are cordially invited. Today though it often suggests some more polite surface level friendliness especially between people who don't really get on. The word comes from the Latin core meaning heart. This is a relative of an ancient Greek root seen in words like cardiac and cardiovascular both relating to the heart. The Latin form also gives us words like courage and even record from the idea of remembering by heart or mind. Caudial is also used for a drink. In Britain it refers to a concentrated sweet fruit drink. In America it can mean a swillicure. This meaning comes from the idea that these drinks were once medicinal tonics thought to stimulate the heart. A greasious once meant outstanding in a good way. Today it usually describes something shockingly bad. The word comes from the Latin X meaning out and grex meaning flock so it originally referred to something that stood out from the crowd. That same root grex meaning flock also appears in words like segregate aggregate gregarious and congregate all of which relate to groups. The word nice once meant foolish or ignorant before it came to mean pleasant. It comes from the Latin knee meaning not and skyray meaning to know. That same root gives us the word science. The Latin form meant knowledge more generally rather than its modern more specific sense being the study of the physical and natural world. The word silly goes back to old English the language spoken in England between the fifth and twelfth centuries where it meant happy. Today it has shifted to mean foolish. The word girl once referred to any young child male or female. Its meaning narrowed in the early 15th century around the same time that boy emerged for a male child having previously referred to a male servant. What we now call a single P was once P's because P's sounded like a plural. English speakers reanalyzed it creating P as the singular and P's as the plural. Any type of food or a meal was referred to as meat up until the 15th century when the term began to narrow towards just the flesh of an animal. There it is the feeling of food hub. The feeling of your favourite takeaways delivered to your door. The feeling of one app, one tap and all your favourite restaurants in one place. Get that hubba hubba feeling when you order your favourite takeaways with Food Hub. Download from your app store today. What a scream. We installed telephone wires across rural Britain over a century ago and you're still paying to use them for your broadband today. The world moves fast. You work day? Even faster. Pitching products. Drafting reports. Analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps you use. Helping you quickly write, analyse, create and summarise. So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash N365 Copilot. Now for words pertaining to social conduct, how we speak and how we behave. Silence was encouraged in monastic settings. In medieval times, monks and nuns were expected to speak only when necessary. When discussion was required to run the monastery, it took place in a designated room called the parlour. The term comes from the Latin parlour meaning to speak. Parler later came to refer to rooms in manor houses used for private conversation and eventually to family sitting rooms. In 19th century American English, the meaning expanded further to include businesses such as beauty parlours and pizza parlours. From parlour meaning to speak we also get parliment referring to the UK's legislative body where speaking and debate take place. The same route appears in parole from the idea of a spoken pledge to secure release and parable, a short story. Speaking of stories, those that centre on animals are known as fables. This comes from a Latin route also meaning to speak, which also gives us affable, describing someone who is easy to talk to. When conversation turns to sharing information about others, especially when it may not be true, it becomes gossip. The word gossip is related to the word sibling. In Old English, sib meant kinship or relationship. From this came sibling, which originally referred to any relative, not just brothers or sisters. After falling out of use in the middle ages, the term sibling was revived in the early 20th century as scientific and genetic research required a more precise term for people who share parents. To explain how sibling is related to gossip, in Old English a god-sib was a god-parent, god for the spiritual connection and sib for kinship. Over time the word came to refer to close friends, then to the kind of talk shared between them and eventually to idle or speculative talk about others. Behavior is as much a part of social conduct as speech. Text describes adherence to established beliefs, especially in religion. The word origin here is about keeping on the right path. It comes from the ancient Greek orthos meaning straight. The same root appears in orthodontics, the field of dentistry that deals with the straightening of the teeth. Etiquette refers to the rules of behavior in polite society. Its origins are often linked to King Louis XIV of France, who is said to have issued written rules of conduct on small slips of paper for his court. These acted as labels instructing visitors on how to behave, including simple rules such as not walking on the grass. The word etiquette comes from a middle French term, a meaning label, referring to those slips of paper. The same root also gave English the word ticket and is also related to sticker. Many words are shaped by characters from literature. Gargantua and Ampantagruelian both describe something enormous. They come from Gargantua and Pantagruel, a series of novels by François Rabelais about the adventures of two giants. Quixotic describes someone idealistic to the point of impracticality. It comes from Don Quixote by Cervantes, a novel about a man who sets out on misguided adventures. Lilliputian refers to something very small. It comes from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, about a traveller who visits Lilliput, inhabited by tiny people. Rob Dignanian is the opposite, describing something enormous, also from the same tale, where Gulliver visits a land of giants. Once you know the roots of words, you start to see them everywhere. In this closing segment, we'll look at some Latin roots, their meanings and the English words that come from them. You should be able to work out the connections, and maybe even think of a few more. Bene means good or well, and gives us benevolent benefit and benign. Dukes means to lead, and appears in duke, educate and seduce. Capio means to seize, and shows up in capture, perceive and intercept. Fakere means to make or do, producing words like factory, defect and fashion. Sekre means to follow, forming words like sequence, execute and consecutive. Pendere means to weigh or hang, seeing in suspend, append and pendant. Manus means hand, and appears in manipulate, manual and emancipate. That's the end of this episode, but there are more word origins on my podcast, search Etamaleon Word History, where you'll find over 100 episodes. Have a listen, and remember to leave a rating. The world moves fast. You work day, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work, built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create and summarize. So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at microsoft.com slash n365 copilot.
