Category: Words and phrases

Nonce Words

By Simon

This is a wug

A nonce word is “a word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion”, or “a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion” [source].

The word nonce comes from the Middle English nonse / nones, from to þan anes / for þan anes (to/for the one (occasion, instance)). Here’s example of how it’s used: “That will do for the nonce, but we’ll need a better answer for the long term.” [source].

The term ‘nonce word’ was apparently coined by James Murray, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary [source].

Some nonce words become more widely used. Others may be used only by certain people. Here are a few examples:

– quark – coined by James Joyce in Finnegans Wake. Adopted by Murray Gell-Mann for the subatomic particle [source].

– blurb – “A short description of a book, film, or other work, written and used for promotional purposes.” Coined by American humorist Gelett Burgess on a book dust jacket at a trade association dinner in 1907 [source].

– grok – “to drink; to drink in all available aspects of reality; to become one with the observed. Coined by Robert Heinlein in his book Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). Used to mean “to understand (something) intuitively; to fully and completely understand something in all of its details and intricacies.” [source].

– sniglet – coined by the American comedian Rich Hall for the 1980s TV series Not Necessarily the News. It is defined as, “any word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary, but should” [source].

– wug – a blue bird-like creature that appears in Jean Berko Gleason’s wug test, which investigates the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children. Know mainly to linguists. Also features in one of my songs.

A few nonce words I’ve coined include crumptious, snorf, snoob, zambalated, flartled, overflude, flimpsome, plood and tarpool. They appear in my song Plinkin Plookplooks.

I also coined the word omniglot in 1998. I wasn’t the first person to do so though – it also appears in Jenni Fleetwood’s 1988 book, The Intergalactic Omniglot. A book I didn’t know about until after I came up with the word. Has anybody read it?

Do you know of any other nonce words that have become more generally used?

Have you coined any yourself?

What a foofaraw!

By Simon

Have you ever come across the word foofaraw? If not, can you guess what it means?

I stumbled on it in a book I’m reading at the moment, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper. It is used in the following context:

“Dictionaries, he explained, were records of the language as it is used, and so we must set aside our disdain for the adverb “good” [..] and record its long use in our dictionaries in spite of the rather pointless foofaraw around its existence.”

The reference to the use of good as an adverb is illustrated by the phrase “I’m doing good”, which pedants would tell you should be “I’m doing well”.

Foofaraw - definition

Merriam-Webster defines it as “frills and flashy finery; a disturbance or to-do over a trifle.”

Dictionary.com defines it as “a great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant; an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation, as on a piece of clothing, a building, etc.”

According to Wiktionary it means “Overly excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration; Fuss over something of little importance.” It’s pronounced [ˈfu.fəˌɹɔ], was first used in writing in the 1930s, and is of uncertain origin.

Dictionary.com suggests that it may be related to the French word fanfaron (boasting, boaster), which is either imitative, or could come from Arabic فَرْفَار‎ (farfār), which is possibly the origin of fanfare in French and English. The word fanfaron is an obsolete English word for a bully, boaster or braggart [source].

I might use the word hoo-ha instead of foofaraw. It means “a fuss, uproar, commotion or stir; hype; brouhaha, hullabaloo”, and is also written hoohaa, hoohar, hoo-haa, hoo-har or hoo-hah. It possibly comes from the Yiddish הו־האַ‎ (hu-ha – a hullabaloo) [source].

Do you know other words with a similar mean to foofaraw or hoo-ha?

Infestigeiddio

By Simon

Today I was looking for podcasts about language and linguistics in various languages, and found an interesting one in Welsh – Hacio’r Iaith (Hacking Language).

The episode I listened to today included the word infestigeiddio (to investigate), which is an interesting example of an English noun that has been made into a Welsh verb. I haven’t seen this word written anywhere – it didn’t appear anywhere online, as far as I can discover, but does now. It is used in the following context:

Mae rhaid i ni rhoi i’r awdurdodau pŵer i infestigeiddio beth sy’n digwydd gyda data, gyda rhifau, gyda metrics hysbysebi, er enghraifft.

This means “We need to give the authorities power to investigate what is happening with data, with figures, with advertising metrics, for example.” It’s part of a discussion about social media sites like Facebook and the data they collect about their users.

There are a few other ways to say investigate in Welsh: ymchwilio, archwilio, astudio, gwneud ymchwiliad, gwneud ymholiad. The common root for most of these is chwilio [ˈχwɪljɔ] (to search, look for, examine, find) [source].

With some words you can just add io to make it a Welsh verb. With others, like investigate, the spelling needs some tweaking as well.

Other similar examples include licio (to like), parcio (to park), pacio (to pack), hwfro (to hoover / vacuum), and smwddio (to iron – from smooth).

Can you recommend interesting podcasts, especially about language and lingusitics, in other languages?

Genericization

By Simon

Some words were originally trademarked but have become generic and lost their trademark status. Is there are linguistic term for such words?

Here are some examples that I wasn’t aware were, or are, trademarked:

  • Adrenaline – also known as epinephrine, it is trademarked by Parke-Davis in the USA, but widely used generically elsewhere
  • Asprin – a medication used to treat pain, fever, or inflammation made from acetylsalicylic acid. Generic in the USA, but still trademarked by Bayer in many other countries
  • Dry ice – a solid form of carbon dioxide formerlly trademarked by the Dry Ice Corporation of America
  • Escalator – a moving staircase originally trademarked of Otis Elevator Company
  • Ping Pong – table tennis, trademarked by Parker Brothers
  • Plasticine – modelling clay, trademarked by Flair Leisure Products plc
  • Tarmac – still trademarked by Tarmac Ltd, but used generically
  • trampoline – originally trademarked by the Griswold-Nissen Trampoline & Tumbling Company
  • Velcro – still trademarked by Velcro Companies but used generically

Can you think of other examples?

Or product names that are becoming generic?

Source: Wikipedia, robdkelly.com

Library mice and reading rats

By Simon

Illustration of a bookworm

I discovered today that in Romanian a bookworm (a keen reader) is un şoarece de bibliotecă (a library mouse), which I rather like, being a bit of a bookworm / library mouse myself.

In French there is a simliar term for a bookworm – rat de bibliothèque (library rat), and in German voracious reader or bookworm is known as a Leseratte (reading rat), and in Spanish the equivalent is ratón de biblioteca (library mouse).

Are there interesting words for bookworm in other languages?

Horses, chariots and cars

By Simon

Horses at Newborough on Anglesey - photo by Simon Ager

Today I saw a post on Facebook asking why words for horse are so different in languages like English and German, so I thought I’d investigate.

In English horse-related words include horse, stallion (male horse), mare (female horse), foal (young horse), filly (young female horse), colt (young male horse), pony (a small breed of horse), palfrey (a small horse with a smooth, ambling gait) and equine (a horse or horse-like animal; related to horses).

Horse comes from the Middle English horse / hors, from the Old English hors (horse), from the Proto-Germanic *hrussą (horse), from the Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sos (horse), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (to run) [source]. This is also the root of the Proto-Celtic word *karros (wagon), from which we get the Latin currus (chariot, wagon), and the English words car, cart and chariot, and related words in other languages.

Stallion comes from the Middle English stalion, from the Middle French estalon and is of Germanic origin [source].

Mare comes from the Middle English mare / mere, from the Old English mere / miere (female horse, mare), from the Proto-Germanic *marhijō (female horse) [source].

Foal comes from the Middle English fole, from the Old English fola, from the Proto-Germanic *fulô, from the Proto-Indo-European *pōlH- (animal young) [source]

Filly comes from the Old Norse fylja [source].

Colt comes from the Old English colt (young donkey, young camel), from the Proto-Germanic *kultaz (plump; stump; thick shape, bulb), from the Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb), from *gel- (to ball up, amass) [source].

Pony comes from the Scots powny, from the Middle French poulenet (little foal), from the Late Latin pullanus (young of an animal), from pullus (foal) [source].

Palfrey comes from the Anglo-Norman palefrei (steed), from the Old French palefroi, from the Late Latin paraverēdus (post horse, spare horse) [source].

Equine comes from the Latin equīnus (of or pertaining to horses), from equus (horse) [source].

The equivalent words in other European languages include:

Germanic languages

  German Dutch Danish Norwegian Swedish Icelandic
horse Pferd Paard hest hest häst hestur
stallion Hengst hengst hingst hingst hingst graðhestur
mare Stute merrie hoppe hoppe sto
märr		 hryssa
foal Fohlen veulen føl føll
fole		 föl folald

The German word Pferd and the Dutch paard come from the Middle High German phert / pherit / pferift (riding horse), from the Old High German pherit / pfarifrit / parafred, from the Late Latin paraverēdus (substitute post horse) [source], from para-, from the Ancient Greek παρά (from, by, near) & verēdus (a fast or light breed of horse), from the Proto-Celtic *uɸorēdos (horse) [source], *uɸo- (under) & *rēdo- (to ride; riding, chariot), from the Proto-Indo-European *(H)reydʰ- (to ride) [source].

The words hengst and hingst come from the Proto-Indo-European *ḱanḱest- / *kankest- (horse), which is also the root of the Welsh, Cornish and Breton words for mare, and of the Old English word for horse or stallion, hengest.

Romance / Italic languages

  French Italian Romanian Spanish Portuguese Latin
horse cheval cavallo cal caballo cavalo equus
stallion étalon stalone armăsar padrillo garanhão celo
mare jument giumenta
cavalla		 iapă yegua égua equa
foal poulain puldero mânz potro potro equuleus
equulus
pullus
vitulus

In Latin there was another word for horse – caballus, which was only used in poetry in Classical Latin, and was the normal word for horse in Late and Vulgar Latin. It possibly comes from the Gaulish caballos [source]. This is also the root of the English words cavalry, cavalier, cavalcade and chivalry,

The word equus comes from the Proto-Italic *ekwos, from the Proto-Indo-European *h₁éḱwos (horse) [source].

Celtic languages

  Breton Cornish Welsh Irish Manx Scottish Gaelic
horse marc’h margh ceffyl capall cabbyl each
stallion marc’h margh march
stalwyn		 stail collagh
grihder		 greadhair
mare kazeg kasek caseg láir laair làir
foal ebeul ebel ebol searrach sharragh searrach

The Scottish Gaelic word for horse, each, comes from the
Old Irish ech (horse), from Proto-Celtic *ekʷos (horse), from the Proto-Indo-European *h₁éḱwos (horse), which is also the root of the Breton, Cornish and Welsh words for foal.

The Breton marc’h (horse), the Cornish margh (horse) and the Welsh march (stallion) come from the Proto-Brythonic *marx (horse), from Proto-Celtic *markos (horse), from the Proto-Indo-European *márkos (horse). [source]. This is also the root of the Irish marcaigh (to ride), the Scottish Gaelic marcaich (to ride), and the Manx markiagh (to ride).

You can find more about Celtic words for horse on my Celtiadur blog

Slavic languages

  Bulgarian Czech Polish Russian Serbian Slovak
horse кон kůň kón
konno		 лошадь коњ kôň
stallion жребец hřebec ogier
rumak		 конь
жеребец		 жребец žrebec
mare кобила klisna klacz
kobyła		 кобыла кобила kobyla
foal жребец hříbě źrebak жеребёнок фоал žriebä

The Russian word for horse, лошадь, is a borrowing from a Turkic language, probably Tatar [source].

The other Slavic words for horse come from the Proto-Slavic konjь (horse), of unceratin origin [source].

Other European languages

  Latvian Lithuanian Albanian Greek
horse zirgs arklys kalë άλογο
ίππος
stallion ērze erelis hamshor επιβήτορα
mare ķēve kumelė merak φοράδα
foal kumeļi kumeliukas pjellë πουλάρι

Sources: Reverso, Linguee, bab.la, Google Translate

Newborough beach

Eponyms

By Simon

An eponym is a word that derives from, or that is believed to derive from, the name of a real or ficticious person.

Eponym comes from the Ancient Greek ἐπώνυμος (epṓnumos), from ἐπί (epí, – upon) & ὄνυμα (ónuma – name).

Examples of eponyms include:

  • Boycott, from Charles Boycott, an English land agent based in Ireland in the 19th century.
  • Caesarean section, Tsar, Czar and Kaiser from Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman consul and general in the first century BC.
  • Europe, and variants, from Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē), the mother of King Minos of Crete in Greek mythology.
  • Dunce, from John Duns Scotus (c 1265-1308), a philospher whose work was admired at first, but was later attacked and ridiculed. His followers were known as Dunsmen or Dunses, and the word dunce eventually became associated with lack of learning or opposition to new thinking. By the 1580s, a dunce was a dim witted person [source].
  • Leotard, from Jules Leotard, a French acrobat and trapeze artist in the 1800s

Many more examples of eponyms.

If your name was to become an eponym, what would you like to be remembered for? And what form would you like it to take?

Handymen

By Simon

One of the things that we discussed at the French conversation group last night was how to translate the term handyman into French.

According to Wikipedia, a handyman, or handyperson or handyworker is:

a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, are both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as “side work”, “odd jobs” or “fix-up tasks”. Specifically, these jobs could be light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet or light electric jobs such as changing a light fixture.

The term may apply to someone who makes a living doing such work, or to do-it-yourselfers.

The French equivalent on Wikipedia is homme à tout faire (“man who does everything”).

In the Reverso Dictionary a handyman is translated into French as a bricoleur or homme à tout faire. The former is labelled as a do-it-yourselfer, and the latter as a servant. So it seems the connotations of these words are not quite the same as in English.

Perhaps a better translation of homme à tout faire is factotum, which is Latin for “do everything”, and is an old word for a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities, or a general servant.

When you hear the word handyman, what does it mean to you?

What equivalents are there in other languages?

One language

By Simon

Omnigot logo

Yesterday I say a post in the Silly Linguistics Community on Facebook challenging people to write a sentence in all the languages they speak. This is what I came up with:

Tha e duilich writing une phrase ym mhob språk atá agam, pero ich 試試 red ennagh symoil を書く, kaj nun я хочу říct že il mio tomo tawa supa está cheio de țipari.

This means “It is difficult writing a sentence in every language I speak, but I will try to write something interesting, and now I want to say my hovercraft is full of eels”.

The languages, in order, are Scottish Gaelic, English, French, Welsh, Swedish, Irish, Spanish, German, Chinese, Manx, Japanese, Esperanto, Russian, Czech, Italian, Toki Pona, Portuguese and Romanian.

It’s not the best sentence ever, perhaps, but I enjoyed the challenge of putting it together. It also got me thinking about how many languages and writing systems I could use in a version of my motto “one language is never enough“. This motto appears on some versions of my logo, such as the one above, and I usually try to write it in several difficult languages.

Here are some versions I came up with today. The first version incorporates some of the languages I speak and am learning, plus a few others.

Une singură 语言 är nikdy недостаточно – languages = French, Romanian, Chinese, Swedish, Czech / Slovak, Russian.

Ett seule 言語 ist nunca yn ddigon – languages = Norwegian / Swedish, French, Japanese, German, Portuguese / Galician / Spanish, Welsh.

Jeden lingua er niemals suficiente – languages = Czech / Polish / Slovak / Rusyn, Asturian / Chamorro / Corsican / Galician / Italian / Latin / Sicilian / Interlingua, Danish / Faroese / Icelandic / Norwegian, German, Spanish / Asturian.

Can you incorporate more languages and/or writing systems into this phrase?

If I had my druthers

By Simon

In an email I received today, I saw the phrase “If I really had my druthers”, which puzzled me. I hadn’t come across the word druthers before, and had to look it up.

According to Wikitionary, druthers [ˈdrʌðəz] means “wishes, preferences, or ways” and is used informally in the USA. It comes from the the expression “I’d rather” (meaning “I would prefer to”), which is often pronounced “I druther” in some dialects.

According to Dictionary.com, druthers first appeared in the 1870s.

Here are some examples of use:

  • I’d druther stay home today.
  • We druther go swimming than go to school.
  • If I’ve got my druthers, I(‘d) druther not.
  • If I had my druthers, I would prefer to be a writer

Have you heard / seen druther(s) used before?

Do you use it yourself?