Category: Words and phrases

Doxastic

By Simon

I came across the word doxastic (/dɒkˈsæstɪk/) today in Being Wrong – Adventures in the Margin of Error by Katryn Schulz. It means “pertaining to beliefs” and appears in the expression used in philosophy, ‘First Person Constraint on Doxastic Explanation’, or as Schulz terms it ”Cuz It’s True Constraint’. It means that we have only a limited number of ways to explain why we believe what we do.

We often believe things to be self-evidently true without necessarily being explain why or to provide reasons. For example, you might be convinced that your method or system for learning languages works and anybody who doesn’t agree just needs to be convinced of this. You might have invested a lot of time and money to develop and promote your system, so it’s in your interest to believe that the system works. You might not be consciously aware of this, but such things are often obvious in methods and systems developed by others.

Doxastic comes from the Greek δοξαστικ-ός (forming opinion, conjectural), from δοξαστής (conjecturer), from δοξάζ-ειν (to conjecture) [source].

The dox part, from the Greek δόξα (opinion, glory), also appears in such words as paradox – para comes from the Greek παρά (by the side of, beside, past, beyond), so it means ‘beyond belief’, and orthodox – ortho comes from the Greek ὀρθο- (straight, right), so it means ‘right belief’.

Dox is also internet slang for personal details (name, address, etc) that are visible online.

Mountweazels

By Simon

Modified mountain weasel

Today I discovered the wonderful word mountweazel today while listening to The Museum of Curiosity on BBC Radio 4. A mountweazel is a fake or fictitious entry added to a dictionary, encyclopaedia, map or other reference work as a kind of copyright trap – if such entries are found in copies, then its clear that they are copies.

The word mountweazel was coined by The New Yorker magazine and comes from a ficititous entry in the New Columbia Encyclopedia (1975 edition) for a Lilian Virginia Mountweazel. Another name for this is nihil article, which first appear in as Nihilartikel in the German version of Wikipedia.

On maps fictitious streets and place are inserted as copyright trap. The former are known as “trap streets” and the later “phantom settlements” or “paper towns”. One example is the non-existent town of Agloe in New York State.

More information about and examples of mountweazels

Gilets et camisoles

By Simon

Last night at the French Conversation Group we were discussing various words for clothing in French. One word the seems to cover quite a few different types of clothing is gilet /ʒi.lɛ/, which on its own means a sleeveless jacket similar to a waistcoat (vest in American English), and apparently comes from the Maghrebi Arabic word jalikah (a type of jacket worn by Christian slaves in galleys) which comes from the Turkish word yelek (sleeveless jacket; wing feather) [from: Wikitionnaire, Wikitionary and turkishdictionary.net].

Gilet also appears in:
– gilet pareballes = bulletproof jacket/vest; flak jacket (AmEng)
– gilet de sauvetage = life jacket (BrEng) / life preserver / Mae West (AmEng)
– gilet de peau / gilet de corps = vest (BrEng), undershirt (AmEng)
– gilet matelassé = body warmer
– aller pleurer dans le gilet de qqn = to cry on someone’s shoulder

Gilet /ʒile/ is also used in English to mean “a bodice shaped like, or in imitation of, a man’s waistcoat” [source].

In British English the word vest usually refers to a garment, usually sleeveless, worn under one’s shirt, or undershirt in American English. While in American English a vest is a sleeveless piece of clothing with buttons down the front worn over a shirt and under a suit jacket, or waistcoat in British English. So in British English a three-piece suit consists of a jacket, waistcoat and trousers, while in American English these garments are a jacket, vest and pants. I’m sure there are regional variations in these names, as well as in the types of garments they refer to.

Another word that came up was camisole /ka.mi.zɔl/, which in French means “une sorte de vêtement du matin, court, à manches, qui se porte sur la chemise” (a type of morning clothing, short, with sleeves, that is worn on the shirt), and comes from the Provencal word camisola, which comes from the Italian camisciola, a diminutive of camisa (shirt) [from: Wikitionnaire].

In English camisole /ˈkæmɪsəʊl/ can refer to:
– a type of jacket or jersey with sleeves;
– a loose jacket worn by women when dressed in negligée*;
– an underbodice, often embroidered and trimmed with lace;
– a strait-jacket**
[source].

* ‘in negligée‘ = dressed in informal or unceremonious attire. In French négligé (adj) means ‘slovenly, scruffy, untidy, unkempt, slipshod, frowzy, floppy’; and en tenue négligée means ‘in casual clothing’ [source].

** strait-jacket = camisole de force in French.

Maltese (Malti)

By Simon

Today I received some new translations for the Maltese phrases page, and what struck me when adding the phrases was the mixed nature of Maltese vocabulary – about half the words come from Italian and Sicilian, a quarter from English and the rest from Arabic.

The Italian/Sicilian borrowings I spotted include:
– Bonġornu = Good morning (Buonjorno)
– Bonswa = Good evening/night (Buena sera) – sounds more like the French bonsoir.
– Ċaw = Goodbye (Ciao)
– Awguri = Good luck (Auguri – best wishes in Italian)
– Skużi = Excuse me (Mi scusi)
– Grazzi = Thank you (Grazie)

Borrowings from English include:
– Hello
– Heppi berdej = Happy Birthday

Sometimes it’s difficult to spot such words at first due to the different spelling conventions of Maltese, but once you get used to them, they become more obvious. So if you know Italian or another Romance language it is possible to make some sense of Maltese.

You can hear the sounds of the Maltese alphabet and learn more some more words and phrases in Maltese on YouTube, and there are some online lessons here and here.

Do any of you speak Maltese or have you studied it?

Le mal de pays

By Simon

One of the things that came up at the French conversation group last night was homesickness.

In French there are a number of ways to express this concept:
– nostalgique = homesick (adj)
– avoir le mal de pays = to be homesick (for a place/country)
– s’ennuyer de (sa famille) = to be homesick (for one’s family)
– avoir la nostalgie (de qch) = to be homesick (for something)

Example
L’odeur de l’herbe lui donna la nostalgie de la ferme de ses parents.
The smell of the grass made her homesick for her parents’ farm.

The Welsh word for homesickness is hiraeth /hɪəraɪ̯θ/, which is apparently one of those words that is untranslatable. It means homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, and the earnest desire for the Wales of the past. It has similarities to saudade in Portuguese and morriña in Galician [source].

Do other languages have words with a similar meaning?

Kidnap

By Simon

One of the words we discussed at the French conversation group last night was kidnap, which is enlever or kidnapper (verb) and enlèvement (noun) in French. We wondered where the English word comes from, so I thought I’d investigate.

According to the OED, kidnap originally meant “to steal or carry off (children or others) in order to provide servants or labourers for the American plantations” and came to mean “to steal (a child), to carry off (a person) by illegal force”. It is formed of kid (child) and nap (to snatch, seize).

The word kid comes from the Middle English kide/kede/kid (young goat), is thought to come from the Old Norse kið /cʰɪːð/ (young goat), from the Proto-Germanic *kiðjom. It started to be used as a slang expression for child in about the 1590s, and was considered low slang at first, but by the 19th century it was accepted in informal usage.

The word nap (to seize, catch; to arrest; to steal) is of uncertain origin. It is possibly related to the Norwegian word nappe (to tug, snatch, arrest) and the Swedish nappa (to snap, snatch). Then again, it might be related to nab (to seize, to catch and take into custody, to apprehend, arrest, to imprison).

The Welsh for kidnap is herwgipio /hɛrʊˈgɪpɪɔ/, from herw (raid, wandering) and cipio (to capture, snatch, grab). Herw also appears in herwhela (to poach) – hela = to hunt; herwlong (pirate ship); and herwr (prowler, robber, outlaw).

Gloomth

By Simon

According to Bill Bryson in At Home, A Short History of Private Life, Gloomth describes the ambience of neo-Gothic or Gothick architecture.

It was coined by Horace Walpole (1717-1797), an art historian, playwright, antiquarian and politician who revived the Gothic style and applied it to his house, Strawberry Hill, which he built in south-west London. He also wrote a Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, and is credited with coining or introducing over 233 words into English, including airsickness, fairy tale, falsetto, frisson, impressario, malaria, mudbath, serendipity and souvenir.

Here are some examples of how Walpole used gloomth (from the OED):

– One has a satisfaction in imprinting the gloomth of abbeys and cathedrals on one’s house.
– [Strawberry] is now in the height of its greenth, blueth, gloomth, honeysuckle, and seringahood*.
– Strawberry, with all its painted glass and gloomth.

*seringahood = the condition of abounding in seringa bloom. Seringa is any of the shrubs of the genus Philadelphus common in gardens; the mock-orange and the word comes via French from the Latin syringa, from the Greek συριγγ- from σῦριγξ (syrinx – pipe, tube, channel, fistula)

Gloom comes from the Middle English gloum(b)e, from the Old English *glúmian.

Gothic comes from the Goth, from the Old English Gota, from the late Latin Gothī/Gotthī, from the Greek Γόθοι, from the Gothic *Gutôs/*Gutans. The Gothic people, a Germanic tribe that invaded parts in of Eastern and Western Europe between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, called themselves Gutþiuda (Gothic people).

Mackerel currants

By Simon

Groseille à maquereau is the French word for gooseberry, a word that came up last night at the French conversation group, and which none of us knew the French equivalent for.

Groseille means currant, light red or cherry red, and maquereau means mackerel. So groseille à maquereau could be translated as “mackerel currant”. Another French word for gooseberry is groseille verte or green currant.

Groseille also means redcurrant (ribes rubrum). So what’s the link between redcurrants and gooseberries? Well, the redcurrant is acutally part of the gooseberry family grossulariaceae.

A related fruit is the blackcurrant (ribes nigrum) or cassis / groseillier noir, which is part of the gooseberry family as well.

[Addendum] Appartently one possible reason why gooseberries are associated with mackerel in French is because mackerel and gooseberry sauce go well together. Here’s a receipe for mackerel with gooseberry sauce.

神马都是浮云

By Simon

神马都是浮云 (shénmǎ dōu shì fúyún）is a Chinese phrase I learnt yesterday which means something like “everything is fleeting / transient” or “nothing is permanent”. The 神马 part is internet slang for 什么 (shénme) = what, and 浮云 [浮雲] (fúyún) means floating clouds, fleeting, transient. This is apparently a popular phrase in China at the moment, particularly online.

Another phrase that’s popular online at the moment is 有木有 (you mùyou) instead of 有没有 (yǒu méiyǒu) = “have not have” – this is a typical form of question in Mandarin Chinese. For example, 你有没有时间？ (nǐ yǒu méiyǒu shíjiān?) = Do you have time? If you translate such questions literally into English they can sound rude – “You have not have time?” or “You have time or not?”, but this is fine in Chinese.

Sources:
http://www.mdbg.net
http://baike.baidu.com/view/4531752.htm
http://baike.baidu.com/view/5347838.htm

Stooshie

By Simon

Stooshie [ˈstɑʃi, ˈstɪʃi, ˈstʌʃi] is a Scots word I came across recently that means an uproar, a commotion, a fuss, a row, a brawl, a fight, a fuss, commotion or to-do. It is often crops up in relation to protests and complaints – people might create a stooshie about something they don’t like or which displeases them.

The Online Scots Dictionary spells this word stishie [‘stɪʃi, ‘stʌʃi, ‘staʃi] or strushie [‘strʌʃi, ‘struʃi] and defines it as “an uproar, hubbub, disturbance, commotion, turmoil, quarrel, brawl, row. A frolic, banter.” When used as a verb it means “to engage in a frolic, to banter, bandy words.” and the past participle is stishit or stishied.

The Dictionary of the Scots Language / Dictionar o the Scots Leid spells this word stashie, stashy, stachie; stushie, steeshie, steishie and stishie and defines it as “an uproar, hubbub, disturbance, commotion, turmoil, quarrel, brawl, row”.

Some examples include:

– Mony an aukward stashie was he in. (Many an awkward stashie was he in)
– The hail toun’s been in a stushie about it. (The whole town’s been in a stushie about it)
– There was a great stishie gaen on ower the road. (There was a great stishie going on over the road)
– Michty me, sic a muckle stushie at the clamjamphry in Embra! (Good heavens, such a mighty fuss at the gathering in Edinburgh!)

The origins of this word are uncertain, though it has been suggested that it might be a version of the English word ecstasy. Then again it might be related to the word stoush, which is used on Australia and New Zealand to mean fight or quarrel and is of uncertain origin.

Related words include:
– stramash [strɑˈmɑʃ] – an uproar, commotion, hubbub, disturbance, a broil, squabble, row; to shatter, to smash to pieces.
– collieshangie [kɔlɪ̜ˈʃɑŋi] – a noisy dispute, an uproar, row, disturbance

Sources
http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2011/03/04/useful-scots-word-stooshie/001942
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/stooshie/
http://www.scots-online.org/dictionary/search.asp
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/
http://www.newstatesman.com/200104160022