Though today we most often think of wit as a particular kind of humor, historically it has referred more generally to mental faculty. In the time of Chaucer, for example, wit could mean a way of thinking, much as we use mind today in phrases like “we were of one mind” or “he had a mind to.” For many centuries, wit could also refer to …
The history of the term diaspora shows how a word’s meaning can spread from a very specific sense to encompass much broader ones.Diaspora first entered English in the late nineteenth century to describe the scattering of Jews after their captivity in Babylonia in the fifth century B.C.E.
At the turn of the 17th century, dogma entered English from the Latin term meaning “philosophical tenet.” The Greek word from which it is borrowed means “that which one thinks is true,” and comes ultimately from the Greek dokein which means “to seem good” or “think.” The origin of the word dogma acts as a reminder to English speakers that now-established principles and doctrines were …
Camouflage Before it was a military term, camouflage was French street-slang popular among pickpockets and other shadowy figures in 1870s Paris. A combination of the Italian word camuffare (to disguise) and the French word camouflet (puff of smoke), this word described a common practice among thieves:
Echelon Echelon comes from the French échelon, a word whose literal meaning is “rung of a ladder.” Today the term applies generally to a level or rank of accomplishment or authority, but initially it was confined to military use in reference to a step-like formation of troops. While echelon entered English in a military context, it was the first and second World Wars that extended …
Hypochondriac Hypochondriac comes ultimately from the Greek word hypokhondria, which literally means “under the cartilage (of the breastbone).” In the late 16th century, when hypochondriac first entered the English language, it referred to the upper abdomen. The upper abdomen, it turns out, was thought to be the seat of melancholy at a time when the now-outdated medical theory of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow …
In a 2013 column for The Atlantic, Stephen Fried apologized for coining the term fashionista. The word, which Fried first used in 1993, started appearing in dictionaries just six years later. But what is it about the word that Fried now finds problematic? What is a fashionista? First, let’s look at fashionista. This word originally appeared in Fried’s biography of supermodel Gia Carangi, Thing of Beauty: The …
Etymology For a word that originates from the Greek term etymon, which literally translates to “true sense,” etymology certainly has a lot of untruth surrounding its existence since it entered English in the late fourteenth century.
We’ve already discussed that hackers use dictionaries to help hack your passwords, but what if your passwords were controlled by your mind, not by words? Researchers at UC Berkeley’s School of Information announced that they are working on technology that reads your mind to open your email account, buy an app on iTunes, and check your bank balance.
Karma entered English as a religious concept in the nineteenth century, but as it gained popularity, it took on additional meanings, that while still spiritual, are not loaded with the same religious connotations as the original sense. English speaker’s first introduction to karma was in the context of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Originally coming from the Sanskrit term for “action” or “fate,” karma is …
For almost 2000 years—from the time of Aristotle until the early 17th century—popular theory posited that the earth was the center of the universe, and that everything in space rotated around it in concentric spheres filled with a heavenly fifth element called quintessence.
Sentimental, a word intrinsically tied to Romanticism, entered English in the mid-eighteenth century, about 50 years before the Romantic era was in full swing. Scholars officially date the Romantic period from around 1800 to 1850, with the publication of William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798 marking the palpable beginning of the era. In 1800, Wordsworth published a new edition of Lyrical Ballads, this time including …