Category: Uncategorized
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Element, O, P? The elements of “element”
Last post, I discussed how the four, newly confirmed elements are named. But what about the very word element? How did it get its name? Its etymology may not be so, er, elementary. The development of element In English, the earliest record of element names the four elements: earth, air, water, and fire, which ancient and medieval philosophers believed made up the whole…
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Easy as un-bi-tri? Naming new elements
Recently, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) added four new elements to the periodic table. They are temporarily known as ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium, and ununoctium. That’s a daunting lot of u’s, but the nomenclature behind them is actually pretty, um, elementary – which is about the only thing that seems simple when it comes to the business of chemistry, if you…
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Acquaintance
Should old acquaintance be forgot, as we sing in the New Year with Robert Burns’ “Auld Lang Syne.” While we may be well-acquainted with this tradition, the etymology of the word acquaintance may be much less well-known, shall we say. Acquaintance English gets acquainted with acquaintance from French sometime around the 1300s, at least as the written record is concerned. Deriving from…
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Dos niños: Christmas, weather, and nursery words
What do El Niño and Christmas have in common? It’s not just the unseasonable weather much of the US is experiencing this holiday, though my drought-stricken state of California is getting a much needed White Christmas in the Sierras. No, this weather pattern and Christian holiday also share a crib, etymologically speaking. El Niño Spanish speakers will…
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In a “galaxy”… so, so close to home
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… From its opening lines to its ticket lines, Star Wars, whose latest episode, The Force Awakens, opened this week, is as epic as its interstellar setting. But the etymology of this galaxy, it turns out, is so, so close to home. Galaxy English first gazes at the word galaxy, so to speak, late in…
Mashed Radish 