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knot & league
Fast Mash Attested in 1633, a knot measures the speed of ships at one nautical mile per hour, based on the number of knots on the log-line running out of the back of a ship, usually in a time period of half a minute Knot comes from Old English cnotta, itself originating in the Proto-Germanic *knutt-; knit is related… Read more.
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risk, part II
Fast Mash Risk might be rooted in the Arabic rizq, meaning “sustenance,” “provision,” “wages,” “fortune,” ultimately from Persian rozik, “daily bread” Greek origins are also possible, including rhiza, meaning “root” and “rhysis” meaning “deliverance”; Greek might have adopted Arabic rizq as well Last post, we saw some risks taken with the origin of risk. Roads led back to Latin’s risicum, signifying commercial… Read more.
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risk, part I
Fast Mash The ultimate origins of risk are unknown, but many have been suggested The word enters English in the 1660s from French risque, in turn from a similar Italian form based on riscare (to run into danger); this is from postclassical Latin risicum, attested even then in commercial contexts In Romance languages during the Middle Ages, risk appears in maritime… Read more.
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transition
Fast Mash Via French, transition comes from Latin transitiōnem, accusative of transitiō Transitiō is formed from transire, to go across, fusing trans (across) and īre (go) Preposition/prefix trans likely derives from a verb, *trare (to cross), while īre stems from prolific Proto-Indo-European *ei– First off, I want to thank Stan Carey for his shout-out of… Read more.