Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
At Ease
What does slow music have to do with being at ease? Let’s find out.
The word adagio [əˈdɑːdʒiəʊ / əˈdædʒiəʊ] is used in music to indicate that a passage is to be played rather slowly, leisurely and gracefully. It can also refer to a passage of music marked adagio, or to a type of ballet for two or three people that involves demanding balance, spins and/or lifts [source].
It comes from Italian adagio [aˈda.dʒo], which means slowly, and comes from ad (at, to) and agio (ease), so could be literally translated as meaning “at ease” [source].
The Italian word adagio can also mean proverb, adage or saying in Italian, and was borrowed from Latin adāgiō, a form of adāgium (proveb, adage) [source].
The English word adage (an old saying, a cliché) comes from the same roots, as does adágio (adage, saying, proverb) in Portuguese, and adagiu (adage) in Romanian [source].
Agio means ease, comfort or luxury in Italian, and comes from Old Occitan aize (ease), from Vulgar Latin *adjace(m), from Latin adjacēns / adiacēns (adjacent, adjoining, neighbouring), from adiaceō (to lie beside, to be adjacent to, to adjoin), from ad (to, towards, at) and iaceō (to lie down, recline, to be sick), from iaciō (to throw, hurl, cast, fling) [source].
Words from the same roots include giacere (to lie, to be lying down, to find oneself) in Italian, jazer (to lie (down), sit, lay) in Portuguese, gîte (shelter, lodging, self-catering holiday home) in French, abject, deject, gist, inject, object, project, reject and trajectory in English [source]. The English word ease might come from the same roots as well [source].
The Latin verb iacio also features in the phrase ‘iacta ālea est’, which means ‘the die is cast’ and is supposedly what Julius Caesar said when crossed the Rubicon River in 49 BC(E) and began a civil war in the Roman Republic. However, the Latin phrase is apparently a mistranslation by the Roman historian Suetonius of the Ancient Greek phrase ἀνερρίφθω κύβος (anerrhíphthō kúbos), which is what Caesar actually said. He was quoting a line from a comedy by Menander, a Greek playwright, entitled Ἀρρηφόρῳ (Arrhēphórōi – The Bearer of Ritual Objects). The Greek version means “let the die be cast”, “let the game be played” or “let us proceed irreversibly” [source].
Language Quiz
Monks, Monkeys & Coffee
What links a New World monkey, a type of cloak, an order of friars and a type of coffee? Let’s find out.
The word capuchin [ˈkæp.ə.tʃɪn] can refer to:
- A monk of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a.k.a. a Franciscan.
- A garment consisting of a cloak and hood, made in imitation of the dress of Capuchin monks.
- A capuchin monkey.
- A hooded pigeon.
It comes from French capuchin, from capucin (capuchin [monkey], Capuchin friar), from Italian cappuccino (Capuchin [friar], cappuccino [coffee]), from cappuccio (hood, cowl), a diminutive of cappuccio (hood, cowl, top, cabbage), a diminutive of cappa (coat, cloak, cowl, hood, cape, tarpaulin), from Late Latin cappa (cape, hooded cloak, cap), which possibly is related to caput (head) [source].
Related words include cap, cape, chapel, cope and escape in English, capa (clock, cape, cover) in Portuguese, cappello (hat) in Italian, czapka (cap) in Polish, and Kappe (cap, hood) in German [source].
The coffee gets its name from the friars, as it’s a similar shade of brown to their habits. The English word cappuccino comes from Italian cappuccino, which comes from Viennese German Kapuziner (Capuchin [friar]), an abbreviation of Kapuzinerkaffee / Capuzinerkaffee, a type of coffee that emerged in Vienna during the 18th century. The drink spread to northern Italy when it was under Austrian domination, and became known as cappuccino in Italian. The ingredients and the way the drink is made have changed over time [source].
The monkeys are also named after the friars, as the Portuguese explorers who encountered them in the 15th century thought the colours of their fur made them look like little Capuchin friars [source].
Language Quiz
Lightning Pastries
What links a type of pastry with lightning, flashes and sparkles? Let’s find out.
In English, and many other languages, an eclair / éclair is a small, chocolate-covered, creme-filled pastry puff in a general oblong shape [source].
The word comes from French éclair which can refer to the pastry, and also to lightning, a lightning bolt, a flash of lightning, a glint, flash, gleam or sparkle [source].
It is thought that the name of the pastry comes from the fact that it can be eaten quickly (in a flash), and/or because the glistening of the icing / frosting looks a bit like lightning. The éclair first appeared in Lyon in France in the 19th century, and was called pain à la Duchesse (“Duchess-style bread”) or petite duchesse (“little duchess”) until 1850. After that, the name éclair started to be used in French and in English [source].
The French word éclair comes from éclairer (to light up, brighten, shed light on enlighten, scout) from Old French esclairer (to light up), from Vulgar Latin *exclāriō, *exclāriāre, from Latin exclārāre, from ex- (out, away) and clārō (to brighten, lighten, illuminate, clarify) [source], from clārus (clear, bright, famous, upstanding, loud) from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (to call out to) [source].
Related words and expressions in French include:
- éclair de génie = stroke of genius
- fermeture éclair = zip (fastner), zipper
- rapide comme l’éclair = quick as a flash
- éclairé = well-lit, bright, illuminated, lit, knowledgable, well-informed, enlighted
- éclairement = illumination
- éclairant = illiminating, liminescent, clarifying, instructive
- éclairage = lighting, illumination, perspective
- éclairagiste = lighting specialist, lighting engineer, gaffer (chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production) [source].
Words from the PIE root *kelh₁- (to call out to) include acclaim, claim, clamour, clarify, clarinet, class, clear and council in English, klaar (ready, finished, done) in Dutch, exclamer (to exclaim, shout out) in French, coileach (cockerel, rooster) in Irish, hell (clear, bright, light, quick, clever) in German, and llamar (to summon, call, refer to, be called) in Spanish [source].
Language Quiz
Rice
One word I learnt recently in Swahili is wali, which means rice, or more specifically, cooked rice.
Wali (cooked rice)
Wali means cooked rice or cooked grain in Swahili. Other words for rice include mpunga (rice plant, raw unhusked rice), mchele (dehusked, uncooked rice), ubwabwa (ground rice), and mashendea (husked rice) [source].
mpunga (rice plant, raw unhusked rice)
Wali comes from Malagasy vary (uncooked rice), from Proto-Malayic *bəras (rice) amd Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *pajay (rice plant) [source].
Words from the same Proto-Malayic root include beras (uncooked rice, any grain) in Malay and Indonesian, and berau (raw rice) in Iban [source].
Words from the same Proto-Malayo-Polynesian root include palay (rice plant) in Tagalog, fary (sugar cane) in Malagasy, hare ([uncooked] rice, rice plant) in Tetum and padi (rice plant, paddy, unhusked grain) in Malay and Indonesian [source].
The English word paddy also comes from the same roots via Malay. As well as referring to a paddy field or rice paddy (an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown), it can also mean rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested [source].
Japanese also has different words for rice in different states, which include:
- ご飯 (gohan) is cooked rice or a meal
- 飯 (meshi) is cooked rice, meal, food, one’s living or livelihood, or steamed rice
- ライス (raisu) is rice (especially when served on a plate)
- 米 (kome) is husked grains of rice, or a staple (product) or necessity
- 玄米 (genmai) is unpolised rice, unmilled rice or brown rice
- 稲 (ine) is a rice plant [source].
As does (Mandarin) Chinese:
- 饭 [飯] (fàn) is cooked rice
- 米饭 [米飯] (mǐfàn) is cooked rice
- 白饭 [白飯] (báifàn) is plain cooked rice
- 白米 (báimǐ) is polished rice
- 大米 (dàmǐ) is husked rice
- 米 (mǐ) is uncooked rice
- 稻 (dào) is rice growing in a field or a rice plant [source].
How about other languages?
Language Quiz
Hither & Thither
If someone is described as having come-hither eyes, it means their eyes are seducitve or alluring. If you tell a horse to come hither though, what would you expect it to do?
The word hither [ˈhɪðə / ˈhɪðɚ] is a literary or archaic word that means to this place, to here or over here. So if you tell a horse to come hither, you’d expect it to come towards where you are, but this command actually means move to the left, apparently [source].
Hither comes from Middle English hider / hither (to here), from Old English hider (to here), from Proto-Germanic *hidrê (to this place, to here, hither), from *hiz (this) and *-drê (directional suffix) [source].
Related expressions include:
- behither = on this side of (rare, obsolete)
- hither and thither = to here and to here, one place after another, in different directions, in a disorderly manner
- hither and yon = in, at or to various places (dated, literary)
- hithermost = nearest to this side (archaic)
- hithertofore = heretofore, so far, thus far (rare)
What about thither? It means to that place, or to that point, end or result, and is used mainly in the expression hither and thither, and in legal language [source].
There’s also whither, which means to what place, where, to what cause, to which place, in or to any place to which [source].