Author: John Kelly
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typhoon
Fast Mash Typhoon reaches English–translated from the Italian, itself from the Portuguese tufão–in the late 1580s, and its various spellings point to various possible sources Typhoon may be from the Arabic tufan (“violent storm of wind and rain”), related to tafa (“to turn around”) It may also be from the Greek typhon (“whirlwind” and name of a monstrous,…
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aloha
The Mashed Radish will be off the next week or so. I’m happy to be celebrating a family wedding on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Technically, that’s in Maui County, which seems like such an incongruous thing to say. One just does not associates islands with counties. Aloha–which, in English, has come to be…
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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…
Mashed Radish 