Rose-Tinted

1 August 2025 By Simon

If you are generally optimistic, and/or view things in a positive way, you could say that you see the world through rose-tinted spectacles or rose-colored glasses. What have roses got to do with positivity? Let’s find out.

Here in the UK we might talk about rose-tinted spectacles or rose-coloured spectacles, while elsewhere, you might talk about rose-colored glasses, rose-tinted glasses or rose-colored lenses, and you might look through, see through or wear them.

These phrases refer to an optimistic perception of something; a positive opinion, or seeing something in a positive way, often thinking of it as better than it actually is. Apparently the use of rose-coloured spectacles to mean something pleasant dates back to the 1830s, and is based on the idea that roses are widely regarded as uncommonly beautiful.

Rose-colour was used to refer to a “pleasant outlook”, and is possibly based on the French phrase coleur de rose (rose colour), which was used in poetry.

English isn’t the only language to associate the roses or particular colours with positivity:

Catalan: ulleres violetes = purple glasses
Czech: růžové brýle = rose-colo(ur)ed glasses
Danish: rose bril = rose glasses
French: lunettes roses = rose(-coloured) glasses
Irish: spéaclaí bándearg = pink glasses
Spanish: gafas violeta = purple glasses
Welsh: sbectol-lliw rhosyn = rose-coloured glasses

However, in Italian, you might see the world through gli occhi di un bambino (the eyes of a child), and in Croatian you might talk about svijetla strana medalje (the bright side of the coin.

You might also talk about people being rosy-eyed (optimistic, idealistic), or say that everything in the garden is rosy (things are going well, everything is fine), or even paint a rosy picture (to describe a situation or events in an upbeat, optimistic manner, especially if everything is coming up roses (favourable, developing in a pleasing or advantageous manner), and you want to come up smelling of roses (be regarded as appealing, virtuous, respectable, untainted or unharmed).

Then again, every rose has its thorn (every good situation includes some aspect of misfortune or adversity), and there’s no rose without a thorn (to enjoy a pleasant subject or thing, one must take trouble and hardship).

Incidentally, the word rose, which refers to a shrub of the genus Rosa, a flower of the rose plant, and various other things, comes from Middle English ro(o)se (rose, a morally upstanding and virtuous individual, reddish-purple), from Old English rōse (rose), from Latin rosa (rose, dear, sweetheart, love), probably from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon – rose), from Proto-Hellenic *wródon, maybe from Proto-Iranian *wardah (flower, rose).

Related words in English include roseate (like the rose flower, pink, rosy, full of roses, excessively optimistic), rosette (an element or ornament resembling a rose), and possibly rosemary (a shrub Salvia rosmarinus that produces a fragrant herb used in cooking and perfumes), although this might come from Latin rōsmarīnus (rosemary), from rōs (dew, moisture) &‎ marīnus (marine, of the sea).

Sources: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rose-colored_glasses#English
https://www.etymonline.com/word/rose-colored
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rosy#English
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/come_up_roses#English
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smell_like_a_rose#English
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rose#English
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rosemary#English

Shiny Sheens Show

17 July 202517 July 2025 By Simon

Are the words show, sheen and shine connected? Let’s find out.

Show [ʃəʊ / ʃoʊ] means a play, dance or other entertainment; an exhibition of items, etc. It comes from Middle English schewe (show), from schewen (to show), from Old English scēawian (to watch, look at, examine, show), from Proto-West Germanic *skawwōn, from Proto-Germanic *skawwōną (to look, see, watch), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (to perceive, observe) [source].

A sheen [ʃiːn] is a thin layer of a substance (such as oil) spread on a solid or liquid surface; splendor, radiance or shininess. It comes from Middle English shene (beautiful, fair, handsome, glorious), from Old English sċīene (beautiful, fair, bright, brilliant, light), from Proto-West Germanic *skaunī (beautiful), from Proto-Germanic *skauniz (beautiful), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (to perceive, observe) [source].

Other words from the PIE root *(s)kewh₁- include caution in English, choyer (to cherish, pamper, coddle) in French, cauto (cautious) in Spanish, cautela (caution, care) in Italian, precaver (to prevent, take precautions) in Portuguese, czuć (to feel, sense) in Polish, and qyr (to observe, look, analyse) in Albanian [source].

Shine [ʃaɪn] means to emit or reflect light so as to glow, etc. It comes from Middle English schinen (to shine, stand out), from Old English sċīnan (tp shine), from Proto-West Germanic *skīnan (to shine, appear), from Proto-Germanic *skīnaną (to shine, appear), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (to shine, shimmer) [source].

Other words from the PIE root *(s)ḱeh₁y- possibly include sheer and tinsel in English, schijnen (to shine, appear, seem) in Dutch, scheinen (to shine, gleam, seem, appear) in German, skina (to shine) in Swedish, siljati (to shine, beam, glitter) in Slovenian, and skaer (glow, glimmer, tinge) in Danish [source].

So show and sheen are related, but shine isn’t.

Here are a song called Show by Ado, a Japanese singer. It’s had 238 million views in a year – a few more than my videos – so she’s quite popular:

Dwile Flonking

18 June 2025 By Simon

Have you ever flonked a dwile or gathered your girt in a snurd?

Dwile flonking is mentioned in a novel I’m currently reading, Fiends in High Places by D.C. Farmer, and as I had no idea what it meant, I thought I’d find out.

According to Wiktionary, dwile flonking is

“An obscure and intentionally preposterous sport in which teams take turns to dance while avoiding a “dwile” (beer-soaked cloth) thrown by their opponents.” It is also written dwile flunking, dwyle flonking, dwyle flunking. The first documented game took place in 1966 [source].

According to Wikipedia,

“dwile flonking, dwyle flunking or nurdling is a British pub game played by two teams, with one dancing around in a circle, while a player from the other team attempts to hit them by throwing a beer-soaked cloth. The game is associated with the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Although the game can supposedly be traced back to the 16th century, it is thought to have been invented in the mid-1960s [source].

Apparently dwile flonking requires a dwile, a driveller (a stick of some kind) and a bucket full of beer. The dwile is soaked in beer, then one team forms a snurd (circle) of girts, while a member of the other team, the flonker, stands in the middle holding a dwile on a driveller. The jobanowl (referee) yells let’s go t’gither, and the girts begin to girt (dance in a circle) in one direction, while the flonker turns in the other direction and attempts to flonk the dwile at or over the head of one of the girts. Participants dress up in local rustic attire, and drink rather a lot of beer before, during and after the flonking of the dwile. Other ridiculous rules apply. See TradFolk for details.

It sounds like an ideal sport for the Olympics, and is in fact included in the Cotswold Olimpick Games, and is played annually in Beccles and Lewes in East Sussex in the south of England.

Dwile used to refer to a cloth for wiping or cleaning, and comes from Dutch dweil (floorcloth, mop, worthless person, weakling), from Middle Dutch dwâle (cloth, towel), from Old Dutch *thwāla (towel, washcloth), from Proto-West Germanic *þwahilu (towel, washcloth), from *þwahan (to wash, bathe) from Proto-Germanic *þwahaną (to wash, bathe) [source].

Words from the same roots include þvo (to wash, do laundry) in Icelandic, två (to wash) and tvål (soap) in Swedish, tovaglia (tablecloth, cloth) in Italian, toalha (towel, tablecloth) in Portuguese, and towel in English [source].

Flonking possibly comes from flong, an old past tense form of fling, which comes from Middle English flyngen (to dash, rush, charge, fly, strike, throw, fling), from Old Norse flengja / ᚠᛚᛁᚾᚴᛁᛅ (to whip, ride furiously), from Proto-Germanic *flangijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- [source].

Stages & Balconies

12 June 2025 By Simon

What links the Italian word palco (stage), with words like balcony, plank and block? Let’s find out.

Palco [ˈpal.ko] means platform, stand, layer, (theatre) box, stage, antler in Italian. Related words include palchetto (shelf, sidebar, upper tier box), palchettista (boxholder – ticket holder for the gallery or an upper tier box [in a theatre]), palcoscenico (stage), sottopalco (understage (area), backstage), and spalcare (to dismantle scaffolding, to prune or lop [trees]) [source].

It comes from Lombardic palk (stand, stage), from Old High German balko (beam), from Proto-West Germanic *balkō (beam, balk), from Proto-Germanic *balkô (beam, balk), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (beam, plank), or from PIE *bʰelǵʰ- (to swell) [source].

The English word balcony comes from the same roots, via Italian balcone (balcony, floor-length window), Old Italian balcone (scaffold), Lombardic *balk(o) (beam), Proto-Germanic *balkô (beam, balk), etc [source].

Plank also shares the same roots, but arrived via Middle English plank(e) (plank, counter, tablet, prop), Old French planke (plank, board), Late Latin planca (slat, plank), from Latin palanca (slat, plank, stake), from phalanga (wooden roller, carrying pole), from Ancient Greek φᾰ́λᾰγγᾰ (phắlăngă – phalanx, battle order), from φάλαγξ (phálanx – line of battle, phalanx, main body, trunk, log, beam), from PIE *bʰelǵ- (beam, plank) [source].

Block comes to us from Middle English blok (log, stump), from Old French bloc (log, block), from Middle Dutch blok (treetrunk), from Old Dutch *blok (log), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk (block, log), from Proto-Germanic *blukką (block, log, beam), from PIE *bʰelǵ- (beam, plank) [source].

Other words from the same roots include balk, bulk, fulcrum and phalanx in English, balk (beam, solid support) in Dutch, Balken (beam, bar) in German, balcão (counter, balcony) in Portuguese, and folcire (to support, sustain, guide, direct), fulcro (fulcrum, pivot,crux, core, thrust) and falca (gunwhale) in Italian [source].

Dog Days

29 April 2025 By Simon

What does the word canicule have to do with heat waves and dogs? Let’s find out.

In French, canicule [ka.ni.kyl] refers to a heat wave or hot spell, the dog days of summer, or Sirius (Canis Major / the Dog Star). A heat wave is also known as une vague de chaleur. In English, it’s an old word for dog days. It comes from Latin canīcula (puppy), from canis (dog, hound), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (dog) [source].

Related words include caniculaire (scorching), chenille (caterpiller), chien (dog) and chiot (puppy) in French, and canine (of or pertaining to a dog), cynophile (a dog lover) and kennel (a dog house) in English.

What are the dog days (of summer)?

(archaic) The days following the heliacal rising of Sirius, now in early August at dates varying by latitude.
The unpleasantly hot days of late summer.
Any similar period of inactivity, laziness, or stagnation.

The expression dog days is a calque of Latin diēs caniculārēs (puppy days), a calque of Ancient Greek κυνάδες ἡμέραι (kunádes hēmérai – dog days). The return of Sirius to the night sky (its heliacal rising), occurred in antiquity around 25th July in Athens and 29th July in Rome, and was considered by the Greeks and Romans to herald what were considered the hottest, least healthy, and least lucky days of summer [source].

Bad weather is also associated with dogs in French: temps de chien (‘dog weather’) means bad, filthy, dreadful or awful weather. Similar associations are made in Italian: tempo da cani (‘dog weather’ – bad or rotten weather); German: Hundewetter (‘dog weather’ – bad weather), and Dutch: hondenweer (‘dog weather’ – particularly bad or rough weather, the kind of weather when it is raining cats and dogs) [source]. In Welsh, unsettled weather is tywydd llwynog (‘fox weather’) [source].

Is bad weather associated with dogs, or other canines, in other languages?

Incidentally, the letter R was known as littera canīna (‘dog’s letter’) in Latin because its trilled pronunciation sounds a bit like a dog [source].

Calm Heat

23 April 2025 By Simon

The word calm seems to a cool and collected kind word, but it possibly has roots related to heat or burning. Let’s find out more.

Calm is [kɑːm / kɑm] means:

Peaceful, quiet, especialy free from anger and anxiety
Free of noise and disturbance
With few or no waves on the surface (of water)
Without wind of storm (of weather)

It comes from Middle English calm(e) (calm), from Middle French calme (calm, still, windless), probably from Old Italian calma (calm, stillness, peacefulness), possibly from Late Latin cauma (heat [of the midday sun]), from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma – heat, especially of the sun), from καίω (kaío – to light, burn, cause to be extremely cold); or possibly from Latin caleō (to be warm, heat, glow), from Proto-Germanic *kalmaz (coldness, freeze, frost), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (to be cold, to freeze) [source].

Other words from the same roots include cold, chill, cool, gel and jelly in English, koud (cold) in Dutch, kalt (cold, chilly, calm, restrained) in German, gelato (icy, frozen, very cold, ice cream) in Italian, and kylmä (cold, level, sensible) in Finnish [source].

In Old English, the word smylte was used to mean calm, and also quiet, tranquil and serene. This became smilte, smolt (quiet, still, gentle) in Middle English, and may be related to the modern English word smolt (a young salmon two or three years old) [source].

Incidentally, the famous poster featuring the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” (see above), was produced by the Ministry of Information of UK government in 1939 in preparation for World War II. It was intended to raise the morale of the British public, and while 2.45 million copies were printed, in was never officially released, and most posters were pulped in 1940. A few did make it into the wild, and the poster became famous when a copy was rediscovered at a bookshop in Alnwick in the northeast of England in 2000 [source].

Lord of the Marches

11 April 202511 April 2025 By Simon

How do you pronounce the word marquis? This is something I was discussing with a friend the other day, and we concluded that there is no one right way to say it.

In the UK, one way to pronounce marquis is [ˈmɑː.kwɪs] (mah-kwis), although some people prefer to pronounce it [ˈmɑː.ki] (mah-kee). In General American, it is apparently pronounced [mɑɹˈki] (mar-kee) or [ˈmɑɹ.kwɪs] (mar-kwis). Other pronounciations are no doubt available

What is a marquis, you may ask. According to Wiktionary:

A nobleman in England, France, and Germany, of a rank next below that of duke, but above a count. Originally, the marquis was an officer whose duty was to guard the marches or frontiers of the kingdom. The office has ceased, and the name is now a mere title conferred by letters patent or letters close.
Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Bassarona (or Euthalia).

It literally means “lord of the march” (march as in border country), and comes from Middle English markis (marquis), from Old French marchis (marquis), from Midieval Latin marchensis, from Old High German marcha (border, march) and/or Frankish *markōn (to mark, notice), from Proto-Germanic *markō (border, boundary, region,area), from Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs (border, boundary) [source].

Related words in English include:

marquisate = the territory held by a marquis, margrave or marchioness; the state or rank of a marquis
marquess = a man ranking beneath a duke and above an earl (an alternative spelling of marquis)
marquise = marquee; an oval cut gemstone with pointed ends; a canopy
marquee = a large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment; a projecting canopy over an entrance
marchioness = the wife of a marquess; a woman holding the rank of marquess in her own right
march = a formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands and in ceremonies; to walk with long, regular strides, as a soldier does; border region, especially one originally set up to defend a boundary (archaic, historical)
margin = the edge or border of any flat surface

Words from the same roots in other languages include mark (field) in Danish, mark (ground, land, soil, territory) in Swedish, margen (margin, edge, leeway) in Spanish, bro (region, country, land, neighbourhood, border, boundary) in Welsh, brolo (small vegetable garden) in Italian [source].

Bloody Pencils

4 April 20254 April 2025 By Simon

One Italian word that I learnt recently is matita, which means pencil, but looks nothing like words for pencil in other languages I know, so I wondered where it comes from.

Maita [maˈti.ta] comes from ematite (haematite), from Latin (lapis) haematites (‘haematite (stone)’, a red-coloured gem), from Ancient Greek αἱματίτης (haimatítēs – bloodlike), from αἷμα (haîma – blood, race, stock, kin) [source]. It has been borrowed into Armenian as մատիտ (matit – pencil) [source].

Words from the same roots include αίμα (aíma – blood) in Greek, words beginning with haem(o)- in English, such as haemocyte (a blood cell), haemopathy (any disorder or disease of the blood), haemorrhage (a heavy release of blood within or from the body), and emoteca (blood bank) in Italian [source].

Haematite / Hematite (Fe₂O₃) is a kind of iron oxide, is found in rocks and soils in many places. It occurs naturally in such colours as black, sliver-grey, brown, reddish-brown and red, and rods of haematite were once used as pencils. It is also used to make jewellery and other art.

Ochre, a clay containing varying amounts of haematite, which give it a red, brown, yellow or purple colour, has been used as a pigment in decoration, drawing and writing for a very long time. The earliest known examples of human use were found at the Pinnacle Point caves in South Africa, and date from about 164,000 years ago.

Incidentally, ochre comes from Old French ocre, from Latin ōchra (ochre, yellow earth), from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra – yellow ochre), from ὠχρός (ōkhrós pale, sallow, wan) [source].

More information about haematite and ochre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochre

Another word for pencil in Italian is lapis, which also means sanguine (blood-red, blood-coloured), and comes from Latin lapis (haematites) ((haematite) stone), from Proto-Italic *lapets (stone). Related words in other languages include llapis (pencil) in Catalan, lapes (pencil) in Maltese, lápiz (pencil) in Spanish, and lapidary (a person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones), and lapis lazuli (a deep-blue stone used in jewellery [see above], and to make pigment) in English [source].

You can find out about the origins of the English word pencil in the post Pens and Pencils.

Squally Showers

26 March 2025 By Simon

One of the words that came up in my Spanish lessons recently was chubascos, which it translated as (rain) showers. I wondered where it comes from, and thought I’d investigate.

In Spanish, chubasco [tʃuˈβ̞as.ko] means downpour, squall, heavy shower, setback or a rain shower, particularly one associated with heavy wind. In nautical usage, it refers to a dark cloud which suddenly appears in the horizon, potentially foretelling rough sailing conditions [source].

Related expressions include:

chubascos dispersos = scattered showers
chubasquero = a waterproof raincoat
aguantar el chubasco = to weather the storm

Chubasco comes from Portuguese chuvasco (downpour, shower), or from Galician chuvasco (downpour, shower), which both come from Old Galician-Portuguese chuvia (rain), from Latin pluvia (rain, a shower), from pluit (to rain, be raining), from Proto-Italic *plowō, from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (to flow, float, wash) [source].

The word chubasco [tʃuːˈbɑːskəʊ] also exists in English and refers to a violent squall with thunder and lightning, encountered during the rainy season along the Pacific coast of Central America and South America. It was borrowed from Spanish [source].

Words from the same roots include chuva (rain) in Portuguese, choiva (rain) in Galician, lluvia (rain, rainfall, stream, barrage, shower, spray) in Spanish, and pioggia (rain, shower) in Italian pluie (rain) in French, and pluvious (involving or related to rain, rainy) in English [source].

By the way, someone who loves rain, and/or finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days, or an organism that thrives in a rainy environment is a pluviophile and is pluviophilious, and another name for a rain gauge is a pluvioscope [source].

Other rain-related words in Spanish include:

llover = to rain
llovedizo = rain, leaky
llovizna = drizzle
lloviznar = to drizzle, mizzle
lluvioso = rainy
pluvioso = rainy, pluvious
pluvial = rain, pluvial (of, pertaining to, or produced by rain)

Incidentally, the English word rain comes from Middle English reyn (rain, shower), from Old English reġn (rain), from Proto-West Germanic *regn (rain), from Proto-Germanic *regną (rain), possibly from pre-Germanic *Hréǵ-no-, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- (to flow). It’s cognate with Regen (rain) in German, regn (rain) in Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, rõki (drizzling rain) in Lithuanian, and regar (irrigate, water, scatter, hose, ruin) in Spanish [source].

Strong Strings

12 March 202512 March 2025 By Simon

Are the words string, strong, strength, strait, stretch and strict related? Let’s find out.

String comes from Middle English streng (rope, cord, line, thread, string, ribbon, muscle, tendon, ligament, filament), from Old English strenġ (string, rope, cord), from Proto-West Germanic *strangi (string), from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (string), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (to twist; rope, cord), possibly from *sterh₃- (to spread, extend, stretch out) [source].

English words from the same roots include constrict, constrain, restrict, strong, strength, strain, strait, stress, strict, stricture and stringent.

Words from the same roots in other languages include stringere (to clasp, grasp, squeeze) in Italian, étreindre (to hug, clutch, grip) in French, streng (strict, severe, rigorous, unbending, cruel) in Dutch, sträng (strict, stern, severe) in Swedish, strangs (brave, brisk, fresh) in Latvian, rankka (burdensome, hard, intense, harsh, tough) in Finnish [source].

So, the odd one out in the list above is stretch, which comes from Middle English strecchen (to stretch out, spread, extend), from Old English streċċan (to stretch, extend, spread out, prostrate), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (to stretch, make straight), from *strak (stretched, straight), from Proto-Germanic *strakaz (stretched, straight) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg- (stiff, rigid).

Words from the same roots include stark in English, stark (strong) in German, strak (taut, tight) in Dutch, strække (to stretch) in Danish, and shtriqem (to stretch) in Albanian [source].

Here’s a tune from the music session I went to last night called The Bishop of Bangor’s Jig. It’s played on string instruments (fiddle, guitar and banjo), so is sort connected to the theme of this post.

You can find the dots: https://www.folktunefinder.com/tunes/94828

Omniglot Blog

Adventures in the world of words and language

Category: Italian (italiano)