Quotes About Etymology

Homosexualidad.] La palabra me desagrada. No me gusta el hecho de que su formación sea irregular, y siempre he considerado que apesta a ciencia y a intelecto. Preferiría una palabra que oliera a vida corriente. (...) Sus raíces pertenecen a dos lenguas distintas: "Homo", que en griego significa "igual" y "sexual" que procesde de la palabra latiana para "sexo". Alguien la acuñó en el esiglo XIX y no logro imaginar en qué estaba pensando.

Shenanigans even starts with the word 'She'.

The reason they call it 'golf' is that all the other 4 letter words were used up.

How did females become 'guys?' How did everyone become 'guys?' Remember, too, that a male guy was something of a scoundrel. And a wise guy was a fresh kid, a whippersnapper. In its most other famous evocation, men in Brooklyn said 'youse guys.' Damon Runyon referred to hustlers, gamblers, and other nefarious types as guys.

I contend, most seriously, that there is a real need for a good, thick, complete-as-possible dictionary of 'What People Used to Call Things.'

The Latin verb "to fasten" was pangere, from which, via the Latin pagina, the word "page" descends. Suddenly it was possible to read a document by turning pages of parchment rather than unspooling a roll of papyrus.

The word nepotism comes, in fact, from nipote, Italian for nephew.

Nwt. Her name is the basis of English words such as nocturnal, night and equinox.

What does the name Ryan mean? Ryan is an Irish/American name that means The Little King or The Little Ruler.

If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.

It is never a waste of time to study the history of a word.

By the time the traditionally male lexicographers become interested in looking at fashion words, their origins are lost in the mists of time.

thus Jacob's name, which means "the deceiver

the ancient Persians had indeed used their arya word in an ethnic sense; they called themselves the 'Ariana' (whence derives the modern 'Iran').

Even the name is not his real one. His given name was Aristocles. Plato, from the Greek for "wide" or "broad," was probably a family nickname.

wymowa j?zyka saamskiego i portugalskiego jest zaskakuj?co podobna. J?zyk portugalski wywodzi si? przecie? z ludowej ?aciny, a saamski z porykiwania reniferów.

originalmente, bárbaro no significa salvaje, sino extranjero)

Legislative language is governed by a law of etymology that is also the ancient code of the bureaucracy: It doesn't have to be right, it just has to be close enough for government work. If they understand what you mean, it doesn't matter what you say or how you say it.

Miss Lucy's called the bell o' St. Ogg's, they say: that's a cur'ous word,' observed Mr. Pullet, on whom the mysteries of etymology sometimes fell with an oppressive weight.

Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.

Ever since third grade, I had a notebook and was putting together words just for fun. I liked different etymologies, different slang that came out in different eras. Different languages. Different dialects.

English is full of Scandinavian words. Margate, Ramsgate, Billingsgate, any town with a 'gate' on it takes their suffix from the Danish word 'gade' which simply means 'street.'

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.

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.