Quotes About Etymology

Kanal' means 'sewer' as well as 'channel'. 'Kanakafü' has echoes of 'Kacke', a baby word for faeces.

My parents went through the dictionary looking for a beautiful name, nearly called me Banyan, flicked on a few pages and came to China, which is cockney rhyming slang for mate.

Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means "sin." The im in impeccable means "without," so impeccable means "without sin.

all languages that derive from Latin form the word compassion by combining the prefix meaning with (com-) and the root meaning suffering

Mare, despite its Latin meaning, is the Old English word for incubus, and nightmare meant originally the demon that sits on the chests of sleepers, tormenting them with dreams.

Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.

Do you know where 'policeman' comes from, sir? ... 'Polis' used to mean 'city', said Carrot. That's what policeman means: 'a man for the city'. Not many people knew that. The word 'polite' comes from 'polis', too. It used to mean the proper behaviour from someone living in a city.

One of the joys of language is its constant evolution, and a lexicographer's job is both to track new words and to reassess those from the past.

The English word loo for toilet may come from 1) lieu à l'anglaise, the French term for toilet, or 2) Gardez l'eau! (Watch out for the water!), called to alert passersby that chamber pots were being emptied from upper-story windows into the street.

We've been using 'rejuvenate,' meaning to restore youth, to make young again, as a verb for at least 200 years.

Why isn't the word "phonetically" spelled with an "f"?

Why are they called buildings when they're already finished? Shouldn't they be called builts?

Thank goodness it's you, not that madman who came last time, the one with the bullfighter's name. He seemed drunk to me, or else eminently certifiable. He had the nerve to ask me whether I knew the etymology of the word 'prick,' in a sarcastic tone that was quite out of place.

I have a good memory for words, and when I come upon a word I don't know, I remember it, or try to - it's almost like a tic. I also just have a good feeling for how words are made and formed in English and the etymologies that give you prefixes and suffixes.

Languages are something of a mess. They evolve over centuries through an unplanned, democratic process that leaves them teeming with irregularities, quirks, and words like 'knight.'

Another linguistic accident: an unholy marriage of Greek terminology filtered through Latin. That sort of thing begets monsters.

Apple is another word that has always meant itself. In fact, it used to apply to any fruit, vegetable, or even nut. All fruits were apples. The potato was the apple of the earth (and still is in French: pomme de terre). Dates were finger apples. The banana was, in Middle English, the apple of paradise.

As Emerson observes, "The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry."4

The world was full of interesting words used to describe complicated things. There was tartle, a Scottish word for the panicked pause you experience when you have to introduce someone, but you don't remember their name. There was backpafeifengesicht, a German term for a face you'd love to punch. There was gigil, a Filipino word for the urge

I've never been able to understand this generation's infatuation with using last names a first names.

Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit.

Charles Harrington Elster

Sandwiches were invented by the Earl of Sandwich, popcorn was invented by the Earl of Popcorn, and salad dressing by the Oil of Vinegar.

Incidentally, he might have added, are you aware that there's no such thing as a smithereen? The word exists only in the plural.