Sylvan Forests

23 October 202523 October 2025 By Simon

When is a forest not a forest?

In modern English, the word forest [ˈfɒɹɪst / ˈfɔɹəst] means:

A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods.
Any dense collection or amount – e.g. a forest of criticism

Historically it referred to ‘defined area of land set aside in England as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use’, and didn’t necessarily contain trees.

It comes from Middle English forest (forest, wood, a preserve for hunting exclusive to royalty), from Old French forest (royal hunting ground, forest), from Early Medieval Latin forestis (a large area reserved for the use of the King or nobility, often a forest and often for hunting or fishing, forest), from Proto-West-Germanic *furhisti (forest), from *furhiþi (forest, woodland) and *hursti (thicket, wood, grove, nest) [source].

*furhiþi (forest) comes from *furhu (fir, pine), from Proto-Germanic *furhō (fir, pine, forest [of fir or pine trees]), from Proto-Indo-European *pérkus (oak), from *perkʷ- (oak) [source].

Words from the same roots include pērkons (thunder) in Latvian, perkūnas (sound of thunder, god of thunder) in Lithuanian, perth (bush, hedge) in Welsh, quercia (oak) in Italian, forêt (forest) in French, vorst (copse, grove, woodland) in Dutch, fjör (vitality, energy, fun, life) in Icelandic, and cork, fir and farm in English [source].

*hursti (thicket, wood, grove, nest) comes from Proto-Germanic *hurstiz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷr̥s-ti-s, from *kʷres- [source].

Words from the same roots include hirst (a barren, unproductive piece of ground, usually a hillock, knoll or ridge) in Scots, horst (an elevated land overgrown with shrub) in Dutch, Horst (the nest of a bird of prey, eyrie, bush, thicket, small forest) in German, and hurst (wood, grove – found mainly in place names such as Sissinghurst) in English [source].

The Irish word crann (tree, mast), the Welsh word pren (timber, wood, tree), and related words in other Celtic languages also come from the same roots, via Proto-Celtic *kʷresnom (tree, wood) [source].

In Middle English, the word wode was used to refer to a living tree, a group of trees, a grove, a copse, a wood, a forest, wood, etc. As a verb, it meant to hunt, to take to the woods, or to hide oneself in the woods, and a wodeward was a forester or forest warden.

Wode comes from Old English wudu / ᚹᚢᛞᚢ (wood, forest, woods, tree), from Proto-Germanic *widuz (wood, tree, forest), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰ-u-s [source].

Words from the same roots include wood in English, viður (trees or brambles, forest, wood, timber) in Icelandic, viita (a thicket of young deciduous trees) in Finnish, gwedhen (tree) in Cornish, gwezenn (tree) in Breton, and fiodh (wood, timber) in Scottish Gaelic [source].

Another forest-related word in English is sylvan, which means pertaining to the forest or woodlands, residing in a forest or wood, wooded, or covered in forest.

Related words include silviculture (forestry – the care and development of forests in order to obtain a product or provide a benefit), silvology (the scientific study of forests), and names such as Syliva, Transylvania (“across the forest”), Spotsylvania and Pennsylvania (“woodland of William Penn”).

It comes from Medieval Latin sylvanus, from Latin silvanus, from silva (forest), from Proto-Indo-European *s(w)el- (beam, board, frame, threshold) [source]. Words from the same roots include selva (forest, wood, mass, multitude) in Italian, selva (jungle, woods, forest) in Portuguese, and silva (bramble, blackberry bush) in Galician [source].

Gluten Glue

8 October 20258 October 2025 By Simon

Did you know that the words glue and gluten are related to each other, and to the word clay?

Glue [ɡluː] is:

A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.
Anything that binds two things or people together.
A viscid secretion on the surface of certain plants.

It comes from Middle English glew [ɡliu̯] (glue, birdlime, tar, resin), from Old French glu (glue, birdlime), from Late Latin glūs, from Latin glūten (glue), from Proto-Italic *gloiten, from Proto-Indo-European *glóh₁ytn̥, from *gleyH- (to smear, to stick, glue, putty) [source].

Gluten [ˈɡluːtən / ˈɡluːtn̩] is:

The major protein in cereal grains, especially wheat; responsible for the elasticity in dough and the structure in baked bread.

It comes from Middle French gluten, from Latin glūten (glue), etc. [source].

Clay [kleɪ] is:

A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.

It comes from Middle English cley, from Old English clǣġ (clay), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij (clay), from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (clay), from Proto-Indo-European *gloy-(y)ó-s, from *gleyH- (to smear, to stick, glue, putty) [source].

So they all come from the same PIE root. Other words from that root include glynu (to stick, adhere, settle) in Welsh, klína (to smear) in Icelandic, glina (clay, loam) in Polish, liiv (sand) in Estonian, klei (clay) in Dutch [source].

Shearing Scissors

3 October 20253 October 2025 By Simon

Why does the word scissors have a silent c in it, and is it related to the word shears? Let’s find out.

Scissors [ˈsɪzəz / ˈsɪzɚz] are:

A tool used for cutting thin material, consisting of two crossing blades attached at a pivot point in such a way that the blades slide across each other when the handles are closed. [other meanings are available]

It comes from Middle English sisours (scissors, shears, [candle] snuffer), from Old French cusoirs (a cutting tool), from Late Latin cīsōria, from cīsōrium (a cutting tool), from Latin -cīsus or caesus (cut, hewn, felled, stuck, beaten), from *caedō (to cut, hew, fell, strike, beat), from Proto-Italic *kaidō (to cut, hew, fell), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (to cut, hew) [source].

The c was added to scissors during the 16th century due to the influence of the Medieval Latin word scissor (tailor, carver) and the Latin word scindō (to cut, tear, read, separate), which both come from Proto-Indo-European *skeyd- (to divide, split) [source].

Words from the same PIE root include cement, to excise, incision, precise and chisel in English, qeth (to cut) in Albanian, césped (lawn, grass, turf) in Spanish, précis (specific, explicit, sharp) in French [source].

In Old English, the word for scissors or shears was sċēar [ʃæ͜ɑːr], which comes from Proto-West Germanic *skāri, from Proto-Germanic *skēriz (cutting, cuttable), from *skeraną (to shear), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (to cut off, sever, separate, divide) [source].

Words from the same roots include shear(s), shred, share, scourge, sharp, scrotum, cortex and carnage in English, scheren (to shear) in German, skörd (harvest) in Swedish, ysgar (separation, split, divorce) in Welsh, cena (dinner) in Italian and Spanish, and harr (to weed, prune) in Albanian [source].

So, scissors and shears are not related.

Another word with a silent / unnecessary c is schist [ʃɪst], which refers to any of a variety of coarse-grained crystalline metamorphic rocks with a foliated structure that allows easy division into slabs or slates.

It comes from French schiste [ʃist] (shale, schist), from Latin lapis schistos (“stone that is easy to split”), from Ancient Greek σχῐστός [skʰis.tós] (skhĭstós, cloven, divided, divisible), from σχῐ́ζω [skʰíz.dɔː] (skhĭ́zō, to split, cleave, divide), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skeyd- (to divide, split) [source].

Words from the same PIE root include schism (a split or separation within a group or organization, typically caused by discord) and schizophrenia in English, scindere (to split up, divide, cleave) in Italian, and scheef (crooked, weird) in Dutch [source].

Good Intentions

19 September 2025 By Simon

One of the things that came up in conversation last night was the expression the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This got me wondering about where it comes from and whether there are similar phrases in other languages.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions means that well-intended acts can potentially lead to disasters. Phrases with a similar meaning is hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works and the streets of hell are paved with promises [source].

The origins of this phrase are not known, but there have been sayings with a similar meaning going back a long way. For example, in the Aeneid (book 6, lines 126-129), Virgil wrote:

“facilis descensus Averno;
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est” [source].
“The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies” [source].

In the Bible (Ecclesiasticus 21:10) we have:

“The way of sinners is made plain with stones, but at the end thereof is the pit of hell.”

In around 1604, Bernard Clairvaux is claimed to have written, though probably didn’t:

L’enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs
“Hell is full of good meanings and wills”

In 1670 in A Collection of English Proverbs collected by John Ray we have:

“Hell is full of good meanings and wishes”

In 1741 John Wesley wrote in his sermon The Almost Christian:

“‘Hell is paved’, saith one, ‘with good intentions.'”

In 1791 in James Boswell’s biography of Samuel Johnson, Boswell quotes Johnson as saying to an acquaintance:

“Sir, hell is paved with good intentions.”

In 1811 in an English translation of a book by Johann Jacob Rambach we find:

“Der Weg zur Höllen sey mit lauter gutem Vorsatz gepflastert.”
“The road to hell is paved with good resolutions”

Related phrases in other languages include:

Catalan: l’infern està ple de bones intencions
(Hell is full of good intentions.)
French: l’enfer est pavé de bonnes intentions
(Hell is paved with good intentions)
Mandarin Chinese: 好心没好报 [好心沒好報] (hǎoxīn méi hǎobào)
(Good intentions don’t go unrewarded)
Spanish: el infierno está empedrado de buenas intenciones
(Hell is paved with good intentions)

How about in other languages?

Sources and more information about these expressions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_road_to_hell_is_paved_with_good_intentions
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions.html
https://idiomorigins.org/origin/road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions

Facting Facts

29 August 2025 By Simon

This morning I spotted an interesting case of fact being used as a verb in a comment on a TikTok post, and thought I’d blog about it.

I can’t find the post in question again, but the comment went something like “Your facts are not facting”. Which probably means that the facts are not true, or the commenter doesn’t believe them.

I found another example of the verbification of fact in this post on Instagram, which includes the comment When the facts are not facting.

Here’s another example of facting used as a verb: “He was facting the news article for the evening broadcast.”

Facting can also be used as a noun meaning “The act of stating or presenting factual information”. For example, “She impressed everyone with her facting skills during the presentation.”

As an adjective, facting means “Pertaining to the existence of verifiable information or circumstances”. For example, “It is important to base decisions on facting evidence rather than assumptions.” [source].

According to Fast Slang:

“Facting is a term that has recently emerged in the online world, and it refers to the act of spreading false information or fake news with the intention of misleading people. The practice of facting is often used by individuals or groups who have an agenda to push or a narrative to promote, and they do so by creating and sharing content that appears to be factual but is actually completely fabricated.”

The word fact is usually used as a noun meaning something actual as opposed to invented; something which is real; or an objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of experts, and so on.

It comes from Old French fact, from Latin factum (fact, deed, act, work, explot, etc), from factus (done, made), from faciō (to do, make, produce), from Proto-Italic *fakjō (to make) from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁k-yé-ti (make), from *dʰeh₁- (to do, put, place) [source].

Words from the same PIE roots include affair, affect, artificial, credible, deed, defect, divide, face, factor, faction, feast, perfect, verb, verify and many more in English [source].

The act of using a non-verb, particularly a noun, as a verb, is called verbing, verbalizing / verbalising, verbifying or verbification, and is quite common in English. Do other languages do this as much? [source].

Incidentally, a minor fact or item of trivia is a factlet [source], and a factette is a small snippet of true information, or a minor fact [source].

Factoid is generally used to refer to a minor fact, like factlet and factette, but can also mean “an inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media.”

It was coined by American writer Norman Mailer and appeared in his 1973 book, Marilyn: A Biography, in which he defines factoids as “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority” [source].

This post has been thoroughly facted and fact checked, and is entirely factual, factful and factic, to the best of my knowledge. It contains no misfacts, nonfacts, pseudofacts or unfacts, and that’s a fact, as a matter of fact.

Inflammability

14 August 202514 August 2025 By Simon

Something that is not divisible is indivisible and something that is not accurate is inaccurate, yet something that is inflammable can be burnt. Why is that? Let’s find out.

The word inflammable [ɪnˈflæməbəl] means:

Capable of burning
Easily set on fire
Easily excited; set off by the slightest excuse; easily enraged or inflamed.

It can also mean the opposite: Incapable of burning; not easily set on fire. It comes from Middle French inflammable, from Medieval Latin īnflammābilis, from Latin īnflammāre (to set on fire), from in- (in, on) & flamma (flame) [source].

A related word, (to) inflame means to set on fire, to kindle, to cause to burn, flame or glow, to put in a state of inflammation, or to produce morbid heat, congestion, or swelling, and something that is inflammable can be inflamed [source].

Other related words include inflammation in English , infiammare (to set fire to, to inflame, stir up or flush sth) in Italian, inflamar (to inflame, catch fire) in Portuguese, and inflamar (to inflame, ignite) in Spanish [source].

The word flammable is a back-formation from inflammable and means capable of burning, easily set of fire, or extremely contentious. The prefix in-/im- is often used like un- and non- to negate the meaning of words, such as unaware and non-abrasive. It doesn’t have this meaning in inflammable, but to avoid confusion, the word flammable was coined [source].

Other words that can be used to indicate that something is not easily set on fire include non-flammable, noninflammable, unflammable, uninflammable, incombustible, non-combustible, not flammable and fireproof [source].

In French and Spanish, something that can be burnt is inflammable, while something that cannot be burnt is ininflammable, and there’s a similar word in Italian: ininfiammabile – a nice pile up of prefixes! [source]

More on inflammable v flammable:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/flammable-or-inflammable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustibility_and_flammability

A Cargo of Cars

7 August 20257 August 2025 By Simon

Is the word cargo related to the word car? Let’s find out.

Cargo [ˈkɑːɡəʊ / ˈkɑɹɡoʊ] refers to freight carried by a ship, aircraft or motor vehicle. It comes from Spanish cargo (charge, burden, position, post), from cargar (to load, carry, charge), from Late Latin carricāre, from carricō (to load), from carrus (wagon, a two-wheeled baggage cart, load, two-wheeled Celtic war chariot), from Gaulish *karros (wagon), from Proto-Celtic *karros (wagon), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (vehicle), from *ḱers- (to run) [source].

A car [kɑː / kɑɹ] is a wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal transportation; or any vehicle designed to run on rails [other meanings are available].

It comes from Middle English carre (cart, wagon), from Anglo-Norman carre (cart), from Latin carra, from carrus (wagon(load), cart(load), load), etc. – so the same roots as cargo [source].

Other words from the same Proto-Celtic roots include car (vehicle, car, sled, dray) in Welsh, karr (car, vehicle) in Breton, carro (wagon, cart, van, lorry, truck) in Italian, char (chariot, carriage, tank, car) in French, carro (cart, car) in Portuguese, kar (cart, car, truck) in Dutch, kärra (cart, wagon) in Swedish, qerre (cart, carriage) in Albanian, and career, carriage, carry, charge, chariot and posssibly carousel in English [source].

Other words from the same Proto-Indo-European roots include courier, course, carry, charge, current, curriculum, cursive, cursor, horse, hurry and possibly rush (to hurry) in English; corriere (messenger, courier) in Italian, and courir (to run, hurry, rush) in French [source].

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

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].

Strong Names

5 June 2025 By Simon

What connects the names Cathal, Ronald, Valerie and Walter? Let’s find out.

Where’s Walter / Wally?

The name Cathal comes from Irish Cathal [ˈkahəlˠ], from Old Irish Cathal, from Proto-Celtic *Katuwalos from *katus (battle) and *walos (prince, chief), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (to rule, to be strong). The Welsh names Cadwal and Cadwaladr come from the same roots [source].

Names that also share the Proto-Celtic root *walos (prince, chief) include Conall – from *kū (dog, wolf) and *walos; Donald / Domhnall from *dubnos (world) and *walos, and (O’)Toole – from *toutā (people, tribe, tribal land) and *walos [source].

The name Ronald comes from Scottish Gaelic Raghnall [ˈrˠɤ̃ː.əl̪ˠ], from Old Norse Rǫgnvaldr, from Proto-Germanic *Raginawaldaz from *raginą (decision, advice, counsel) and *waldaz (wielder, rule), from *waldaną (to rule), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (to rule, to be strong) [source].

Names that also share the Proto-Germanic root *waldaz (wielder, rule) include Harold – from *harjaz (army, commander, warrior) and *waldaz; Oswald – from *ansuz (deity, god) and *waldaz; Gerald – from *gaizaz (spear, pike, javelin) and *waldaz, and Walter – from *waldaz and *harjaz (army, commander, warrior) [source].

The name Valerie comes from French Valérie, from Latin Valeria, a feminine form of the Roman family name Valerius, from Latin valere (to be strong), from valeō (to be strong, to be powerful, to be healthy, to be worthy), from Proto-Italic *waleō (to be strong) from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti, from *h₂welh₁- (to rule, to be strong) [source]. Names from the same Latin roots include Valentine, Valeria and Valencia.

Parts of all these names can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂welh₁- (to rule, to be strong) – the same is true for the names Arnold, Reginald, Reynold and Vlad(imir) [source].

Other words from the same PIE root include: ambivalent, cuckold, evaluation, invalid, prevalence, unwieldy, valour and value in English, gwlad (country, sovereignty) and gwaladr (ruler, sovereign) in Welsh, walten (to rule, exercise control) in German, vallita (to prevail, predominate, reign) in Finnish, vládnout (to rule, reign) in Czech, and власт (vlast – power, authority, influence, government) in Bulgarian [source].

Omniglot Blog

Adventures in the world of words and language

Category: Latin (Lingua Latina)