Tag: etymology
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crisis & turmoil
Fast Mash Crisis originally referred to point in which an illness would get better or worse It comes from the Greek, krisis (decision, sifting) The Proto-Indo-European root is *krei-/*ker- (separate, sift, sieve); cognates range from ascertain to excrement to crime Turmoil likely comes from the French tremouille, evoking the commotion of a “mill hopper” This…
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champion
Fast Mash Champion, through French, derives from Late Latin campio, “warrior” or “fighter,” in turn from campus, meaning “field” In Ancient Rome, such a campus staged military exercises as well as political and athletic events From this campus English also gets such words as campaign, Champagne, a university campus, camp, scamp, and possibly even gambol and jamb Its ultimate origin is unknown, but campus may go…
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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…
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on knock-knock jokes & word origins
Before moving on to the second part of my citrus series, I want to take a break from specific etymologies to reflect on them as such. Last post, I ended on quite the corny pun: “Orange you glad I didn’t squeeze them all into one?” This, of course, evokes a classic lemon of a knock-knock…
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bodies of water (II of II)
In Part I, we discovered armpits and bosoms in our bodies…of water. In Part II, we discover enemies, mucous, rifles, and sponges in marsh, river, sea, stream, and swamp. Fast Mash Marsh comes from Old English mersc/merisc, related to root that gave Latin mare and English mere River enters into English around 1300 from French, riviere, from Latin riparia or ripa (riverbank) Sea is…
Mashed Radish 