It’s estimated that we be in contact around 16,000 words a day, but have you ever judicious where they came from?
Etymology shows that language has an fun if no longer downright snicker-inducing sense of humor on occasion. Here are appropriate just a few examples of entertaining observe origins.
Dude
Here’s a observe that has surely done a 180-level flip: in the 1880s, as an replacement of regarding a laid-serve man, it described one overconcerned alongside with his appearance.
Freelance
Credited to Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 recent Ivanhoe, this used to be a title for a warrior who fought for whoever used to be the excellent bidder (presumably the utilization of no matter free lance used to be readily accessible for wrestle).
Genius
In fourteenth-century Rome, this moniker belonged to a particular person’s guardian spirit—a force that watched over them from starting up and guided them thru lifestyles.
Muscle
Musculus, the Latin observe muscle comes from, literally means “tiny mouse,” which is fitting since this tissue used to be notion to head in search of admire the creature transferring below the skin.
Good
Whether you search for at the Latin or French starting up save of this observe, it used to be surely as soon as supposed as a slur. Among its plethora of earlier meanings: foolish, careless, clumsy, ignorant, and light.
In contrast, “bully” began as a synonym for “sweetheart.”
Nightmare
In step with fourteenthcentury German and Slavic superstitions, the “night mare” used to be a malevolent female spirit who ended in suffocation and snide objectives for the interval of slumber.
Sahara
This title comes from the Arabic observe for desolate tract, so for these who allege “Sahara desolate tract,” you’re literally announcing “Barren region desolate tract.”
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is identified as a biting accumulate of humor for a reason: one translation of its Greek starting up save observe, sarkazein, is to bite or strip off flesh as an animal would.
Silly
Within the event you had been foolish in the 1200s, when this interval of time first started being venerable, you had been likely judicious to be delighted or innocent, which doesn’t sound very foolish.
