Month: October 2013
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socks & cardinals
Fast Mash Sock, attested as socc as far back as 725, is from the Latin, soccus, meaning “slipper,” which may come from a yet more Ancient Greek word for some type of early footwear Cardinal, as in “fundamental” and numbers, comes from Latin’s cardo (hinge) The adjective form of the noun, cardinalis, gave us the name for the Catholic…
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on shakespeare, surfers, & slang
“Gnar-gnar.” Forget you, grammar scolds. It’s an utterance like “gnar-gnar”–which I heard my fiancée’s sister pull out of her ever playful idiolect for gnarly (that’s a compliment, Britt)–that makes me love language. Because, in all its clipped and reduplicative glory, “gnar-gnar” spans an invisible bridge between Shakespeare and surfers. And because it also gives me occasion…
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hostage
Fast Mash Hostage comes into English from the French in the 13th century, when it meant handing over a person to another party as a pledge to fulfill an undertaking It might come from Latin’s obses (hostage, pledge, security, guarantee), literally someone “sitting before” an enemy Or it might be from Latin’s hospes, a word…
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breakfast, lunch, & dinner
Fast Mash Appearing in the 15th-century, beakfast joins break and fast, with the latter indeed related to its adjective form Lunch is less clear; lunch is shortened from luncheon, which may be an extension of lunch, possibly from lump (compare bump and bunch); luncheon may have been formed on analogy to words like truncheon In the…
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plumb
Fast Mash Plumb derives from Latin, plumbum, which meant “lead,” possibly from an ancient Iberian language, reflecting the source of lead for Romans and Greeks In construction, a plumb is a string fixed with a weight, often made out of lead, and was used as a reference for vertical lines; thus, out of plumb, among other expressions Nautically,…
Mashed Radish 