Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
Tag: omniglot
Piecemeal Time
The word piecemeal means made or done in pieces or one stage at a time, but why meal? Does it have something to do with food?
Piecemeal is [ˈpiːs.miːl] comes from Middle English pēce(s)-mēle (in pieces, piece by piece, bit by bit), from pēce(s) (a fragment, bit, piece) and -mēl(e) (a derivational suffix in adverbs) [source].
Pēce(s) comes from Old French piece (piece, bit, part), from Late Latin pettia (piece, portion), from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (piece, portion), possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate [source].
Words from the same Proto-Celtic roots include piece in English, pièce (room, patch, piece, play, document) in French, peza (piece, fragment, part) in Galician, pieze (piece, part) in Spanish, peth (thing, object, material) in Welsh, pezh (piece, bit, room, part, what) in Breton, cuid (part, share, portion, some) in Irish, and cooid (certain, some, stuff, goods, part) in Manx – for more related words in Celtic languages see the Parts and Portions post on the Celtiadur [source].
-mēle comes from Old English mǣlum (at a time), from mǣl (measure, mark, sign, time, occasion, season, the time for eating, meal[time]), from Proto-West Germanic *māl (time, occasion, mealtime), from Proto-Germanic *mēlą (time, occasion, period, meal, spot, mark, measure), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”) [source].
The English word meal can refer to food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity (as opposed to a snack), and food served or eaten as a repast, and used to mean a time or an occasion. It retains this last meaning in the word piecemeal. Related words include footmeal (one foot at a time) and heapmeal (in large numbers, heap by heap) [source].
Related words in other languages include maal (meal, time, occurrence) in Dutch, Mal (time, occasion) and Mahl (meal) in German, mål (target, finish, goal, meal) in Swedish, and béile (meal) in Irish.
In Old English, the word styċċemǣlum was used to mean piecemeal, piece by piece, in pieces, gradually, etc. It became stichmeal in early modern English. Related words include bitmǣlum (bit by bit), dropmǣlum (drop by drop), which became dropmeal, and stæpmǣlum (step by step), which became stepmeal [source].
Language Quiz
Jolly Jaunts
Do you like to go on a little jaunt? Maybe you do now, but in the past, maybe not so much.
a jaunting car going for a jaunt
Jaunt is [ˈdʒɔːnt / dʒɑnt] refers to a short excursion for pleasure or refreshment, a ramble or a short journey; and to jaunt means to ramble here and there, to stroll or to make an excursion [source].
In the past it meant a wearisome journey, to jolt or jounce, to ride a jaunting car, or to tire a horse by riding it hard back and forth. That doesn’t sound like so much fun.
To jounce means to jolt or shake, especially by rough riding or by driving over obstructions. It is possibly a blend / portmanteau of jolt and bounce [source].
A jaunting car (see photo above) was a kind of low-set horse-drawn open vehicle, used in Ireland, in which the passengers ride sideways, sitting back to back. They are still used to give rides to tourists in some places, apparently, and the name is used for similar horse-drawn passenger vehicles [source].
The origins of jaunt are uncertain – it’s possibly a version of daunt (to discourage, intimidate, overwhelm), which comes from Middle English daunten (to subjugate, overwhelm, domesticate), from Old French danter, donter (to tame), from Latin domitō (to tame), from domō (to tame, conquer), from Proto-Italic *domaō (to tame, subdue), from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (to domesticate, tame). [source].
Related words may include jaunce (to prance, frolic, jolt shake; a jaunt) in English [source], and jaunder (gossip, to talk idly) in Scots [source].
Incidentally, the word jaunty, which means airy, showy, dapper, stylish or ostentatiously self-confident, is not related to jaunt. Instead, it’s related to gentle, genteel and gentry, and comes from French gentil (helpful, kind, pleasant), from Old French gentil (noble, courteous), from Latin gentīlis (belonging to the same family, tribe, clan, etc), from gēns (clan, tribe), Proto-Italic *gentis, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis (birth, production) from *ǵenh₁- (to produce, beget, give birth) [source].
Language Quiz
Lord of the Marches
How do you pronounce the word marquis? This is something I was discussing with a friend the other day, and we concluded that there is no one right way to say it.
In the UK, one way to pronounce marquis is [ˈmɑː.kwɪs] (mah-kwis), although some people prefer to pronounce it [ˈmɑː.ki] (mah-kee). In General American, it is apparently pronounced [mɑɹˈki] (mar-kee) or [ˈmɑɹ.kwɪs] (mar-kwis). Other pronounciations are no doubt available
What is a marquis, you may ask. According to Wiktionary:
- A nobleman in England, France, and Germany, of a rank next below that of duke, but above a count. Originally, the marquis was an officer whose duty was to guard the marches or frontiers of the kingdom. The office has ceased, and the name is now a mere title conferred by letters patent or letters close.
- Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Bassarona (or Euthalia).
It literally means “lord of the march” (march as in border country), and comes from Middle English markis (marquis), from Old French marchis (marquis), from Midieval Latin marchensis, from Old High German marcha (border, march) and/or Frankish *markōn (to mark, notice), from Proto-Germanic *markō (border, boundary, region,area), from Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs (border, boundary) [source].
Related words in English include:
- marquisate = the territory held by a marquis, margrave or marchioness; the state or rank of a marquis
- marquess = a man ranking beneath a duke and above an earl (an alternative spelling of marquis)
- marquise = marquee; an oval cut gemstone with pointed ends; a canopy
- marquee = a large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment; a projecting canopy over an entrance
- marchioness = the wife of a marquess; a woman holding the rank of marquess in her own right
- march = a formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands and in ceremonies; to walk with long, regular strides, as a soldier does; border region, especially one originally set up to defend a boundary (archaic, historical)
- margin = the edge or border of any flat surface
Words from the same roots in other languages include mark (field) in Danish, mark (ground, land, soil, territory) in Swedish, margen (margin, edge, leeway) in Spanish, bro (region, country, land, neighbourhood, border, boundary) in Welsh, brolo (small vegetable garden) in Italian [source].
Language Quiz
Bloody Pencils
One Italian word that I learnt recently is matita, which means pencil, but looks nothing like words for pencil in other languages I know, so I wondered where it comes from.
Maita [maˈti.ta] comes from ematite (haematite), from Latin (lapis) haematites (‘haematite (stone)’, a red-coloured gem), from Ancient Greek αἱματίτης (haimatítēs – bloodlike), from αἷμα (haîma – blood, race, stock, kin) [source]. It has been borrowed into Armenian as մատիտ (matit – pencil) [source].
Words from the same roots include αίμα (aíma – blood) in Greek, words beginning with haem(o)- in English, such as haemocyte (a blood cell), haemopathy (any disorder or disease of the blood), haemorrhage (a heavy release of blood within or from the body), and emoteca (blood bank) in Italian [source].
Haematite / Hematite (Fe₂O₃) is a kind of iron oxide, is found in rocks and soils in many places. It occurs naturally in such colours as black, sliver-grey, brown, reddish-brown and red, and rods of haematite were once used as pencils. It is also used to make jewellery and other art.
Ochre, a clay containing varying amounts of haematite, which give it a red, brown, yellow or purple colour, has been used as a pigment in decoration, drawing and writing for a very long time. The earliest known examples of human use were found at the Pinnacle Point caves in South Africa, and date from about 164,000 years ago.
Incidentally, ochre comes from Old French ocre, from Latin ōchra (ochre, yellow earth), from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra – yellow ochre), from ὠχρός (ōkhrós pale, sallow, wan) [source].
More information about haematite and ochre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochre
Another word for pencil in Italian is lapis, which also means sanguine (blood-red, blood-coloured), and comes from Latin lapis (haematites) ((haematite) stone), from Proto-Italic *lapets (stone). Related words in other languages include llapis (pencil) in Catalan, lapes (pencil) in Maltese, lápiz (pencil) in Spanish, and lapidary (a person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones), and lapis lazuli (a deep-blue stone used in jewellery [see above], and to make pigment) in English [source].
You can find out about the origins of the English word pencil in the post Pens and Pencils.
Squally Showers
One of the words that came up in my Spanish lessons recently was chubascos, which it translated as (rain) showers. I wondered where it comes from, and thought I’d investigate.
In Spanish, chubasco [tʃuˈβ̞as.ko] means downpour, squall, heavy shower, setback or a rain shower, particularly one associated with heavy wind. In nautical usage, it refers to a dark cloud which suddenly appears in the horizon, potentially foretelling rough sailing conditions [source].
Related expressions include:
- chubascos dispersos = scattered showers
- chubasquero = a waterproof raincoat
- aguantar el chubasco = to weather the storm
Chubasco comes from Portuguese chuvasco (downpour, shower), or from Galician chuvasco (downpour, shower), which both come from Old Galician-Portuguese chuvia (rain), from Latin pluvia (rain, a shower), from pluit (to rain, be raining), from Proto-Italic *plowō, from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (to flow, float, wash) [source].
The word chubasco [tʃuːˈbɑːskəʊ] also exists in English and refers to a violent squall with thunder and lightning, encountered during the rainy season along the Pacific coast of Central America and South America. It was borrowed from Spanish [source].
Words from the same roots include chuva (rain) in Portuguese, choiva (rain) in Galician, lluvia (rain, rainfall, stream, barrage, shower, spray) in Spanish, and pioggia (rain, shower) in Italian pluie (rain) in French, and pluvious (involving or related to rain, rainy) in English [source].
By the way, someone who loves rain, and/or finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days, or an organism that thrives in a rainy environment is a pluviophile and is pluviophilious, and another name for a rain gauge is a pluvioscope [source].
Other rain-related words in Spanish include:
- llover = to rain
- llovedizo = rain, leaky
- llovizna = drizzle
- lloviznar = to drizzle, mizzle
- lluvioso = rainy
- pluvioso = rainy, pluvious
- pluvial = rain, pluvial (of, pertaining to, or produced by rain)
Incidentally, the English word rain comes from Middle English reyn (rain, shower), from Old English reġn (rain), from Proto-West Germanic *regn (rain), from Proto-Germanic *regną (rain), possibly from pre-Germanic *Hréǵ-no-, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- (to flow). It’s cognate with Regen (rain) in German, regn (rain) in Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, rõki (drizzling rain) in Lithuanian, and regar (irrigate, water, scatter, hose, ruin) in Spanish [source].
Breeze-Stoppers
One of the words that came up in my Spanish lessons today was limpiaparabrisas, which means windscreen / windshield wiper, and struck me as a relatively rare multi-word compound in Spanish.
Unlike the Germanic languages*, Spanish doesn’t seem to have a lot of words like limpiaparabrisas made up of several words joined together, at least that’s my impression. It’s made up of limpia, from limpiar (to clean, wash, wipe), and parabrisas (windscreen, windshield), which is made up of para, from parar (to stop), and brisas (breezes) [source]. A related word is lavaparabrisas (screen wash, windshield washing fluid) [source].
*For example, in German there are words such as: Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung (Regulation on the delegation of authority concerning land conveyance permissions), and Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (Beef labeling supervision duties delegation law), which are of course used in everyday conversation. If not, they should be [source].
Spanish does have plenty of words made up of a stem plus prefixes and/or suffixes, or compounds of two words. For example, the word mesa means table, desk, bureau or committee. Related words with affixes include mesero (waiter), mesilla (bedside table, stall), and mesita (small table). Related compound words include sobremesa (tablecloth, desktop) and tornamesa (turntable, record player) [source].
Other two-word compounds in Spanish include abrebotellas (bottle opener), cortarcésped (lawn mower), cortafuego (firewall), lavaplatos (dishwasher), portaaviones (aircraft carrier), quitamanchas (stain remover), sacacorchos (corkscrew) and salvavidas (life jacket) [source].
In fact, limpiaparabrisas and lavaparabrisas are really two-word compounds, but look like three-words compounds. So, maybe they’re not that unusual.
Do you know of any interesting multi-word compounds in Spanish or other languages?