It’s estimated that we notify spherical 16,000 words a day, but enjoy you ever ever belief of the attach they came from?
Etymology reveals that language has an comic if now not downright chortle-inducing sense of humor at instances. Right here are comely a few examples of unfamiliar note origins.
Dude
Right here’s a note that has completely accomplished a 180-stage flip: within the 1880s, as a replacement of referring to a laid-encourage man, it described one overconcerned with his appearance.
Freelance
Credited to Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 contemporary Ivanhoe, this became a reputation for a warrior who fought for whoever became the excellent bidder (presumably the usage of whatever free lance became accessible for battle).
Genius
In fourteenth-century Rome, this moniker belonged to a person’s guardian spirit—a pressure that watched over them from starting up and guided them thru lifestyles.
Muscle
Musculus, the Latin note muscle comes from, actually manner “microscopic mouse,” which is becoming since this tissue became belief to enjoy a study like the creature though-provoking below the skin.
Nice
Whether you watch at the Latin or French origin of this note, it became completely as soon as supposed as a slur. Among its plethora of earlier meanings: silly, careless, clumsy, ignorant, and frail.
In distinction, “bully” started as a synonym for “sweetheart.”
Nightmare
Consistent with fourteenthcentury German and Slavic superstitions, the “night mare” became a malevolent female spirit who precipitated suffocation and scandalous desires right thru slumber.
Sahara
This name comes from the Arabic note for desolate tract, so if you occur to command “Sahara desolate tract,” you’re actually announcing “Desolate tract desolate tract.”
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is is named a biting impress of humor for a cause: one translation of its Greek origin note, sarkazein, is to chunk or strip off flesh as an animal would.
Silly
Will enjoy to you had been silly within the 1200s, when this term first started being inclined, you had been likely belief of to be jubilant or innocent, which doesn’t sound very silly.
