Category: Etymology

Losing Marbles

By Simon

If you say that someone has lost their marbles, you either mean that they can’t find their marbles, or that they’re crazy, mad, incompetent, are losing their mind, or are suffering from a mental illness.

Marbles

It’s not known exactly when or why losing one’s marbles came to be associated with losing one’s mind. One early example that connects marbles with mental capicity appears in a story from April 1898 in The Portsmouth Times, a newspaper from Ohio in the USA:

Prot. J. M. Davis, of Rio Grande college, was selected to present J. W Jones as Gallia’s candidate, but got his marbles mixed and did as much for the institution of which he is the noted head as he did for his candidate.

By the early 20th century, losing or not having all one’s marbles was commonly associated with a decent into madness. For example, American Speech, Vol. 2, No. 8 (May, 1927) has a collection of dialect words from West Virginia that includes the definition:

marbles, doesn’t have all his (verb phrase), mentally deficient. “There goes a man who doesn’t have all his marbles.”

One French equivalent of this idiom is perdre la boule, which literally means ‘to lose the ball’.

Other ways to say this in French include:

  • perdre le nord = ‘to lose the north’ – see also Losing the North
  • perdre la boussole = ‘to lose the compass’
  • perdre la raison = ‘to lose the reason’
  • perdre le sens commun = ‘to lose the common sense’
  • se perdre les oies = ‘to lose the geese’
  • péter les plombs = ‘to blow the fuses’
  • péter un câble = ‘to blow a cable’

Incidentally, perdre comes from the same root as the English word perdition (eternal damnation, hell, absolute run, downfall).

Are there interesing ways to say that someone has lost their marbles in other languages?

Sources:
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/lose-your-marbles.html
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perdre_la_boule#French
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perdo#Latin
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perdition#English




A Nexus of Connections

By Simon

What connects the words nexus, annex(e) and connection?

Nexus

A nexus [ˈnɛksəs] is form or state of connection; a connected group, network or web; or a centre or focus of something. It comes from Latin nexus (bound, tied, fastened, connected, interwoven), from nectō (to connect, interweave, attach, bind, tie, oblige), possibly from nōdus (knot, bond, obligation) and/or nassa (a narrow-necked basket for catching fish) [source].

Apparently in Ancient Rome, a nexus was a person who had contracted a nexum or obligation of such a kind that, if they failed to pay, their creditor could compel them to work as a servant until the debt was paid. This practice was abolished in 326 BC [source].

If there is more than one nexus, there are several nexuses, nexusses or nexi. The plural in Latin is nexūs or nexûs, not nexi, by the way. Do you have a preferred plural for this word?

Related words include nexo (nexus, connection, sense, coherence) in Portuguese, nexo (link, connection, nexus) in Spanish and nexe (nexus, connection, link) in Catalan [source].

The word annex(e) (an addition, extension, appendix) also comes from the same roots, via French annexe (annex(e), appendix), from Latin annexus (tied, fastened, bound, related by blood), from annectō / adnectō (to bind, tie to, connect, annex), from ad- (to) and nectō (to connect, etc) [source].

Related words include anejo (accompaniment, affix) and anexar (to annex, attach) in Spanish, and annettere (to attach, add, annex, consolidate) in Italian [source].

Another connected word is the word connection, which comes from Middle English connexioun (connection), from Latin connexionem, from cōnexiō (junction, meeting, connection), from cōnectō (to connect, link, fasten together) from con- (with) and nectō (to connect, etc) [source].

Related words include connexe (closely related, connected) in French, connesso (connected, associated, linked, related) in Italian and conex (connected) in Romanian [source].




Yexing

By Simon

Have you yexed recently? If you have, what did you do to stop your yexes?

Hiccough

The word yex [jɛks] sounds like a made-up word you might find in a children’s book or linguistic experiment – the wug is yexing, yesterday it yex__. However, it is, in fact, a genuine English word, though archaic. As a noun, it means a hiccough / hiccup, belch or burp, and as a verb, it means to hiccough, belch or burp [source].

The verb to yex comes from Middle English yexen [ˈjɛksən] (to hiccough, belch, yawn, gulp, swallow convulsively, gasp, sob) from Old English ġiscian [ˈjis.ki.ɑn] (to sigh, sob), from Proto-West Germanic *giskōn (to gasp, yawn, gulp), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeys- (gaping, cracked) [source].

The noun yex comes from Middle English yexe / ȝ(e)oxe (the condition of having the hiccoughs), from Old English ġeocsa [ˈjes.kɑ] (sobbing, hiccough), which comes from the same roots as the verb [source].

Words from the same roots include ye(e)sk (a hiccough, belch, the hiccoughs) and to yesk (to hiccough, belch, vomit) in Scots [source], and yux (to sob, weep loudly) in Yola [source].




Bread Vans

By Simon

What would you carry in a bread cart? It could be bread, but doesn’t have to be. Let’s find out more.

面包车

One word that came up in my Chinese lessons this week was 面包车 [麵包車] (miàn​bāo​chē) which can be literally translated as ‘bread vehicle / cart’. According to the MDBG Chinese dictionary, it means a van for carrying people or a taxi minibus. According to Wiktionary, it means a vehicle for delivering bread, or a minibus or van (chiefly in Mainland China).

Other words for van in Chinese include:

  • 货车 [貨車] (huòchē) = truck, van, freight train, goods train, goods wagon
  • 厢式车 [廂式車] (xiāng​shì​chē) = van
  • 小型货车 [小型貨車] (xiǎo​xíng​huò​chē) = light van
  • 廂型車 [厢型车] (xiāngxíngchē) = minivan, van (used in Taiwan)

In Japanese, 貨車 (kasha) is also used, and means a freight train, a train car used to carry freight, or a van [source].

Incidentally, the word van can refer to: a covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than 10) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus [source].

It’s short for caravan, which comes from Middle French caravane (caravan – a group of travellers, merchants, and pilgrims, gathered together to cross the desert more safely), from Old French carvane, from Persian کاروان (kârvân – caravan, convoy), from Middle Persian kʾlwʾn’ (kārawān), from Old Persian 𐎣𐎠𐎼 (k-a-r – the people, subjects, army), from Proto-Iranian *kā́rah (army, crowd), from Proto-Indo-European *kór-o-s, from *ker- (army) [source].

The word vanguard (The leading units at the front of an army or fleet; The person(s) at the forefront of any group or movement) is not related. Instead, it comes from vandgard / (a)vantgard, from Old French avant-garde (the vanguard of an army or other force). This is also the root of the word avant-garde, which in English can refer to any group of people who invent or promote new techniques or concepts, especially in the arts. While in French, it can refer to the vanguard (of an army), or the avant-garde as in English [source].

IMGP8150
guard’s van

A vanguard should not be confused with a guard’s van, which in the UK and Ireland can refer to a van or carriage, or part of one, on a train occupied by the guard, that can be used as storage space for parcels, bicycles, large pieces of luggage, etc. Such things are rarely found on modern passenger trains in the UK, though there may be a small cubbyhole for the train manager (formerly known as the guard), and/or storage space for bicycles on some trains [source].

Omniglot blog - Adventures in the world of words and language - 20 years old

By the way, the day this post was posted, 26th March 2026, marks exactly 20 years since I started this blog on 26th March 2006. Since then, I have posted 3,963 posts here, 3.8 per week on average, and plan to continue doing so. I realised this after posting this, and thought I’d mention it.




Mouchard

By Simon

One of the words that came up last night in the French conversation group was mouchard, which means an informant and various other things. I thought I’d look into it in more detail here.

Histoire de moucharder

Mouchard [mu.ʃaʁ] can mean:

  • a snitch, grass or tell-tale (police informant) – also known as indic, cafteur or cafard in French
  • a bug (hidden microphone)
  • a spyhole or peephole
  • a tachograph (device that records the distance and time traveled by a vehicle)
  • (a piece of) spyware
  • a spyplane
  • a black box, flight recorder

It comes from mouche (a fly, bullseye, historically: a spy employed by the ancien régime to seek out subversive ideas) and -ard (pejorative suffix), from Middle French mousche (a fly), from Old French m(o)usche (a fly) [source], from Latin musca (a fly, an inquisitive or prying person) , from Proto-Indo-European *mu(s)/*mews- (fly). Words from the same roots include midge in English and Mücke (midge, gnat, crane fly, mosquito) in German [source].

Related words include:

  • mouchardage = informing, grassing, ratting
  • moucharder = to rat (on), to tell tales

The French word mouchard has also been borrowed into English, and means an undercover investigator or a police spy, especially in a French-speaking country, or an inverted compass hanging above the captain’s bed. The activity of such people is known mouchardism [source].

Other fly-related expressions in French include:

  • faire mouche = to hit the bullseye, to come off, to hit home, to hit the nail on the head
  • mouche de coche = back-seat driver (person who pretends to be useful by offering unsolicited advice or by running around without actually doing any work)
  • pattes de mouche = scrawl, chicken scratch (illegible handwriting)
  • prendre la mouche = to get offended, to get in a huff, to fly off the handle [source]

Are there interesting equivalents of mouchard in other languages?




Pouring Rain

By Simon

Yesterday it rained quite a lot here in the UK, and rather heavily at times. This got me thinking about the saying it never rains but it pours.

Pouring Rain

This expression means unfortunate events occur in quantity or misfortunes never come singly. A related saying is bad things come in threes. Fortunately this wasn’t the case for me yesterday, apart from a few minor delays and disruptions on the trains I took [source].

It never rains but it pours can apparently also refer to good things happening all at once or to excess, though I suspect the negative meaning is more common. It first appears in It Cannot Rain But It pours, an article by Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope in Prose Miscellanies, and in It cannot Rain but it Pours OR, London ſrowʼd [strowed] with Rarities, a book by John Arbuthnot published in 1726 [source].

There are similar expressions in other languages, including some that refer to rain:

In some languages such sayings mean something like ‘misfortunes do not come alone’ or ‘a misfortune seldom comes alone’:

Here a few other examples that don’t mention rain or misfortune:

  • Ar ein skriðan er lopin er onnur væntandi = when one landslide is over, another is waiting (Faroese)
  • Sjaldan er ein báran stök = rarely is a single bear alone (Icelandic)
  • Nuair a thig air duine, thig air uile = when it befalls one, it befalls all (Scottish Gaelic)




Bons mots

By Simon

What connects bons mots with mottos and muttering? Let’s find out.

bon mot test 2 stitch-out

A bon mot [bɒn məʊ / bɑn moʊ] in English means a clever saying, a phrase or witticism or a witty riposte in dialogue. It comes from French bon mot [bɔ̃ mo], which means the same thing, or literally “good word”. You can also find bon mot in Dutch, Indonesian and other languages [source].

The word mot [mo] in French means a word, note, (short) message or the answer to an enigma. It comes from Middle French mot (word), from Old French mot (word), from Late Latin muttum (a mutter, grunt), from muttīre (to mutter, murmur, talk quietly) from muttiō (to mutter, murmer), which is of onomatopoeic origin and signifies “make a mu-noise” [source].

Other French expressions featuring mot include:

  • demi-mot = a hint (“half-word”)
  • fin mot = the real story, the (whole) truth (“final word”)
  • gros mot = dirty word, swear word (“coarse / rough word”)
  • grand mot = a strong word, strong term (“big-word”)
  • demi-mot = a hint (“half-word”)
  • mot d’esprit = a witticism, bon mot (“word of spirit / wit”)
  • dernier mot = last word

Other words from the same roots possibly include mot (word) in Catalan, motto and mutter in English, mote (nickname, motto) in Spanish, Motto (motto, slogan) in German and motto (philosophy, motto, watchword, byword) in Polish [source].

By the way, the plural of bon mot in French is bons mots, but in English it can be bon mots or bons mots. What about in other languages?




Silly Madness

By Simon

The word mishegoss came up in a book I’m reading at the moment, and I had no idea what it meant, so I thought I’d find out.

mishegoss

Mishegoss [ˌmɪʃəˈɡɒs / ˈmɪʃəɡɒs] is apparently a slang term meaning madness or silliness. It comes from the Yiddish word משוגעת (meshugas), which means craziness, madness, nonsense, crazy talk, senseless activity, irrationality, craze, fad or quirk. That word comes from Yiddish משוגע (meshuge – crazy), from Hebrew משוגע (m’shugá – mad, crazy, insane), from שיגע (shigéa – to drive crazy) [source].

Words from the same roots include mișegos (petty) in Romanian, мишигас [mʲɪʂɨˈɡas] (maddness, insanity) in Russian, мешигос (mešyhós – maddness) in Ukrainian, mesüge (crazy) in Hungarian, and meshugge (crazy, mad, senseless, insane) in English [source].

I think I’ve heard or seen the word meshugge before, though I wasn’t sure what it meant at the time. Apparently it’s been used in English since at least 1880 [source]. Is it mainly used in American English?

Some related words in English include:

  • mashugana = nonsense, silliness, craziness, garbage; a person who is silly or crazy
  • meshugaas = nonsense, rubbish, craziness, a chaotic state of affairs, a mess
  • meshuggener = crazy, insane; a madman, a crazy person, a nutter

Do you use any of these words?




Omphaloskepsis

By Simon

Do you engage in omphaloskepsis?

Mimicking UK politicians navel gazing

Omphaloskepsis [ˌɒmfələˈskɛpsɪs] is a very useful word that means the comtemplation of or meditation upon one’s navel, or in other words, navel-gazing. Another definition is ‘Ratiocination* to the point of self-absorption’. It comes from Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalós – navel) & σκέψις (sképsis – perception, reflection) [source].

*Ratiocination = Reasoning, conscious deliberate inference. Thought or reasoning that is exact, valid and rational. A proposition arrived at by such thought [source].

Related words include:

  • omphaloskeptic = One who contemplates or meditates upon one’s navel; one who engages in omphaloscopy. Likely to, prone to, or engaged in contemplating or meditating upon one’s navel.
  • omphalomancy = Divination by means of a child’s navel, to learn how many children the mother may have.
  • omphalopsychic = Related to or characterised by navel-gazing (omphaloskepsis). Someone who engages in omphaloskepsis, a navel-gazer.

The Modern Greek word ομφαλοσκοπία (omfaloskopía – the action or effect of omphaloscopy. A method of divination involving the examination of the umbilical cord) is also related [source].

The Ancient Greek word ὀμφαλός (omphalós – navel, umbilical cord, anything navel-shaped, centre) comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₃m̥bʰ-l̥- (navel), from *h₃nebʰ- (hub, navel) [source].

Words from the same roots include umbilicus (navel, middle, centre), navel and nave in English, ombelico (navel, umbilicus) in Italian, nombril (navel, belly button, middle) in French, umbigo (navel) in Portuguese, buric (navel, belly button) in Romanian, naaf (hub, nave) in Dutch, Nabel (navel, belly button, centre, middle) in German, and imleacán (navel, belly button) in Irish [source].

By the way, I found the word omphaloskepsis while putting together a Celtiadur post about words for navel, centre and middle in Celtic languages. It appears in the definition of the Welsh word bogailsyllu [bɔɡai̯lˈsəɬɨ / boːɡai̯lˈsəɬi], which means to comtemplate one’s navel, or to engage in navel-gazing or omphaloskepsis [source]. If you are omphaloskeptic, then in Welsh you are bogailsyllol (given to navel-gazing) [source].

The bogail [ˈbɔɡai̯l / ˈboːɡai̯l] in bogailsyllu means navel, umbilicus, belly button or afterbirth, a boss on a shield, a knob a stud, a nave, the hub of a well, middle or centre [source]. It should not be confused with bogail, which means vowel.

Words that mean navel-gazing in other languages include: navlepilleri in Danish, navelstaren in Dutch, nombrillisme in French, Nabelschau in German, and navlebeskuer in Norwegian [source].




A Complete Canard!

By Simon

One of the words that came up in the French conversation group last night was canard, which means duck in French, but is also used in English.

canard

In French, meanings of canard [ka.naʁ] include:

  • A duck, duckling, drake (male duck)
  • A canard, hoax, fake news, a lie
  • A newspaper (of little value), a rag (slang)
  • A lump of sugar dipped in a liquid, especially coffee or brandy, before being eaten.
  • A high-pitched, false note produced by a wind instrument, most often a reed instrument [source].

It comes from Middle French canard (duck), from Old French canart, quanart (duck), from cane (female duck, boat), perhaps from caner (to cackle, prattle), or from Frankish *kanō (boat, floating vessel), from Proto-Germanic *kanô (vessel, vat, tub, boat), from Proto-Indo-European *gan(dʰ)- (vessel, tub) [source].

Some expressions featuring canards include:

  • canard boîteux = lame duck
  • vilain petit canard = ugly duckling
  • ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard = not worth writing home about, not all it’s cracked up to be – to be very ordinary, to be on the verge of mediocrity
  • faire le canard = to suck up to; to flatter too much
  • froid de canard = bitter cold, brass monkeys weather
  • il y a plusieurs façons de plumer un canard = there’s more than one way to skin a cat [a problem generally has more than one solution] [source].

Ce matin, il a fait froid de canard ici à Bangor avec du givre partout. (This morning it was rather chilly here in Bangor with frost everywhere).

Words from the same roots include can in English, kanna (jug, pot, can) in Swedish, kane (swan-shapped vessel) in Norwegian, Kahn (a small flat-bottomed boat such as a punt, used on inland waters; a ship, especially when old or in need of repair) in German, and canot (dinghy) in French [source].

In English, canard [kəˈnɑːd / kəˈnɑɹd] can mean:

  • A false or misleading report or story, especially if deliberately so.
  • A type of aircraft in which the primary horizontal control and stabilization surfaces are in front of the main wing.
  • Any small winglike structure on a vehicle, usually used for stabilization.

Apparently, the meaning of a hoax or false or misleading story comes from the Medieval French expression “vendre un canard à moitié”, which means ‘to sell half a duck’ or ‘to half-sell a duck’. It perhaps comes from a joke or story [source].

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