Tag: Words

Hire & Rent

By Simon

In English, you might say that you rent a house or a flat (apartment), but you hire a car or a boat. These words have similar meanings, but might be used slightly differently.

Rent

Rent [ɹɛnt] means

  • A payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to lease a property.
  • A similar payment for the use of a product, equipment or a service.
  • A profit from possession of a valuable right, as a restricted licence to engage in a trade or business.
  • To take a lease of premises in exchange for rent.
  • To grant a lease in return for rent.
  • To obtain or have temporary possession of an object (e.g. a movie) in exchange for money.

It comes from Middle English rent(e) (rent, income, revenue), from Old French rente (income), from Early Medieval Latin rendita (revenue, income), from Late Latin rendere (to give back), from Latin reddere (to give back, return, restore, deliver, provide) [source].

Hire [haɪə / ˈhaɪ.ɚ] as a noun means

  • A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.
  • The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.
  • Payment for the temporary use of something.

It comes from Middle English hire/hyre (one’s salary, wages, a reward, recompense, payment, charge), from Old English hȳr (employment for wages, pay for service, interest on money lent), from Proto-West-Germanic *hūʀiju (payment, hire, interest), from *hūʀijan (to hire, pay), from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs- (to pay, hire) [source].

Hire as a verb means:

  • To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment. (chiefly UK)
  • To occupy premises in exchange for rent. (chiefly UK)
  • To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.
  • To exchange the services of for remuneration.

It comes from Middle English hiren/hyren (to hire, pay, accept employment), from Old English hȳrian (to hire) from hȳr (see above) [source].

So it seems that they can both be used to refer to payment for temporary or short-term use of something, and for longer term use. How would you use them?

I’m in the fortunate position of owning my own home, so don’t need to worry about paying rent. I don’t own a car, but if I needed one, I would hire one. If I needed some extra income, and/or wanted some company, I could rent out a room in my house. Last night was Halloween, and I saw a lot of people out and about in costumes that they might have hired.

Are there different words for short- and long-term hiring / renting in other languages?

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Jack Of All Trades

By Simon

If someone described you as a jack of all trades, would you see it as a compliment or an insult?

One man band

These days, this phrase might refer to someone who has some ability in a variety of things, but doesn’t excel at any of them. Or in other words, a generalist with superficial knowledge / ability in various areas, rather than a specialist who focuses on becoming expert at one thing.

The earliest known version of the phrase in English, Jack-of-all-trades, appeared in print in 1618 in Geffray Mynshul’s book Essayes and Characters of a prison and prisoners in the following passage:

Now for the moſt part your porter is either ſome broken cittizen, who hath plaid Jack-of-all-trades, ſome pander, broker, or hangman, that hath plaid the knaue with all men, and for the more certainty his embleme is a red beard, to which ſacke hath made his noſe couſin german.

Key: ſt = st, ſ = s, moſt = most, cittizen = citizen, hath = has, plaid = played, knaue = knave, noſe = nose

A longer version of the phrase is jack of all trades, master of none – the master of none part, or something similar, was added in the 18th century. It first appears in the Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British as:

Jack of all Trades is of no Trade

Sometimes the phrase is made less insulting by adding an extra part: Jack of all trades, master of none, but better than a master of one, or Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. These are modern additions to the phrase, although some people claim that the ‘original’ version included something like them [source].

Synonyms for jack of all trades include:

  • generalist = a person with a broad general knowledge, especially one with more than superficial knowledge in several areas and the ability to combine ideas from diverse fields.
  • polymath = a person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge. From Ancient Greek πολυμαθής (polumathḗs – having learnt much).
  • Renaissance man/woman/person
  • factotum = a person employed to do all sorts of duties, a general servant, a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities. From Latin faciō (do, make) & tōtum (everything).
  • sciolist [ˈsaɪəlɪst] = one who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding. From Late Latin sciolus, a diminutive of scius (knowing).
  • multipotentialite = a term coined by Emilie Wapnick in 2015 to refer to people with many interests and creative pursuits. See: https://puttylike.com

Here are some equivalent phrases in other languages:

  • 万事通 [萬事通] (wànshìtōng) = jack of all trades, know-it-all: “10,000 things expert” (Chinese)
  • duizendpoot = a person of many talents; a centipede: “1,000 leg” (Dutch)
  • touche-à-tout = jack of all trades: “[who] touches everything” (French)
  • 何でも屋 = (nandemoya) generalist, jack of all trades: “anything-er” (Japanese)
  • hombre orquesta = one-man band, factotum: “man orchestra” (Spanish)

Are you a generalist, or more of a specialist?

I’m more of a generalist with a variety of interests, skills and knowledge. For me, one language is never enough, and neither is one instrument, one type of music, or one type of juggling or other circus skill.

Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/jack-of-all-trades.html
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/408782/is-jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-really-just-a-part-of-a-longer-proverb

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Stanzas, Cameras and Salons

By Simon

The Italian word stanza [ˈstan.tsa] means room or bedroom. I noticed it recently in my Italian lessons, and wondered where it came from. Today I realised that it’s related to the English word stanza (a part of a poem equivalent to a verse), and also has that meaning in Italian.

Villa Panza - Robert Wilson, Ivory. Black Panther, 2007

It comes from Vulgar Latin *stantia (standing, stopping-place), from Latin stantem (standing, staying, remaining), from stō (to stand, stay, remain), from Proto-Italic *staēō (to stand), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (to stand) [source].

The English word stanza [ˈstænzə], which was borrowed from Italian, can also refer to:

  • An apartment or division in a building (architecture)
  • A segment or portion of a broadcast devoted to a particular topic (broadcasting)
  • A period or interval into which a sporting event is divided (sports)

It is also used in computing.

Words from the same roots include stance, stand, distant, estate, stable, stage, state, station, status and store in English, sawdl (heel) in Welsh, Staat (country, state) in German, and stam (tree trunk, stem, tribe, clan) in Dutch [source].

Other words for room in Italian include sala and camera.

Sala can also refer to a hall, living room or cinema (movie theatre), and was borrowed from French salle (hall, room), which ultimately comes from PIE *sel- (human settlement, village, dwelling), via Middle and Old French, Frankish and Proto-Germanic. The English words salon and saloon come from the same roots [source].

Camera is a room, chamber, bedroom, assembly, parliament or camera. It comes from Latin camera (chamber, room, vault), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára – a vaulted chamber, vault), from Proto-Iranian *kamarā- (something curved), from *kamárati, ultimately from PIE *kh₂em- (to bend, curve) [source].

Words from the same roots include camera, cabaret and chamber in English, قَمَرَة (qamara – berth, bunk, cabin) in Arabic, καμάρα (kamára – arch, instep) in Greek, chambre (room, chamber, bedroom) and cabaret (pub, tavern, cabaret) in French, and câmara (chamber, council, camera) in Portuguese [source].

IMG_4321

Camera, as in a device for taking photos and/or videos, is an abbreviation of camera obscura (A darkened room in which the image of an outside object is projected and focused onto a surface – see above) from New Latin camera obscūra (“dark chamber”) [source].

In English, camera can also mean a vaulted room or a judge’s private chamber, where cases may be heard in camera (in secret, in private).

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Random Flowing Slumps

By Simon

One of the random Swedish words I learnt recently that I rather like is slumpmässig, which means random, arbitary or haphazard, and isn’t just en slumpmässig radda bokstäver (a random jumble of letters).

Some other examples of how it’s used include:

  • Jag skall nämna några saker i slumpmässig ordningsföljd
    I would like to list a few issues in no particular order
  • Denna utveckling är inte slumpmässig
    This has not happened by chance

Related words include:

  • slump = accident, chance, coincidence, happenstance, hazard
  • slumpa = to randomize
  • slumpartad = casual, coincidental, fortuitous, serendipitous
  • slumpartat möte = chance encounter
  • slumpmässigt = random, haphazardly

Source: bab.la dictionary

The English word slump is possibly related to the Danish and Norwegian word slumpe (to happen on by chance), which comes from the Middle Low German slumpen, and may be onomatopoeic in origin [source].

Incidentally, the English word random comes from the Middle English randoun / raundon (force, magnitude, haste, intensity), from the Old French randon, from randir (to run, gallop), from the Frankish *rant / *rand (run), from the Proto-Germanic *randijō, from *rinnaną (to run), from the Proto-Indo-European *(H)r ̊-nw- (to flow, move, run) [source].

Which is all a bit random, is it not?