Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
Tag: omniglot
Sadly Satisfying Assets
What connects the word asset to the words satisfy and sad?
An asset [ˈæsɛt] is
- A thing or quality that has value, especially one that generates cash flows.
- Any component, model, process or framework of value that can be leveraged or reused.
It comes from assets, from Anglo-Norman as(s)etz (enough), from Old French as(s)ez (enough, sufficiently), from Early Medieval Latin ad satis (copiously), from ad (to) and satis (enough) [source].
Words from the same Latin roots include assai (very) in Italian and assez (enough, quite, rather) in French [source].
The English word (to) satisfy also comes from the same Latin roots, via Middle English satisfyen, Old French satisfier (to satisfy, to pay) and Latin satisfacere (to satisfy, content, secure, pay off), which comes from satis (enough) and faciō (to make, construct). [source].
The Latin word satis (adequate, enough, plenty, satisfactory, sufficient) comes from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂tis (satiation, satisfaction), from *seh₂- (to satiate, to satisfy) [source].
Words from the same PIE roots include sásaigh (to satisfy, to please) in Irish, zat (fed up, have had enough, drunk, sated, full) in Dutch, satt (not hungry, satiated, full, done, fed up, sick of) in German, and (to) satiate (to fill to satisfaction, to satisfy) and satiety in English [source].
The English word sad used to mean sated, satisfied, weary, steadfast, valiant, dignified, serious, grave, naughty, troublesome, wicked, unfashionable, etc. In Middle English it meant sated, weary, firm, solid, heard, considered, thoughtful, serious, etc. From the 14th century it was used to mean inspiring or having sorrow.
It comes from Old English sǣd (full, sated, weary), from Proto-West Germanic *sad (sated, full), from Proto-Germanic *sadaz (sated, satisfied), from PIE *seh₂- (to satiate, to satisfy) – the same root as asset and satisfy [source].
Language Quiz
Losing Marbles
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.
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
Language Quiz
A Nexus of Connections
What connects the words nexus, annex(e) and connection?
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].
Language Quiz
Chocolate Teapots
When something is useless you might say it’s as useful as a chocolate teapot or something similar.
Apparently it first appeared in print in an article entitled Shades of Bunker Hill! by Don berry in the Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York, USA).
Other ways to say that something is useless include:
- as much use as a chocolate teapot
- (to) have a reliability record like a chocolate kettle
- as much use as a chocolate fireguard
- as much use as a chocolate fireplace
- as much use as a handbrake on a canoe
- as much use as a screen door on a submarine
- as much use as a cat flap on a submarine
- as much use as a waterproof towel
- as much use as a dry day in the desert
- as much use as a glass hammer
- as useful as a paper boat
- as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike
- as useful as tits on a bull
- as useful as a politician’s promise
- as useful as a lead balloon
By the way, I made up a few of the sayings above. Can you guess which ones?
Equivalent phrases in other languages include:
- Polish: potrzebny jak dziura w moście = needed like a hole in a bridge
- Scottish Gaelic: cho feumail ri pàillean am fàsach = as useful as a palace in a wilderness
- Vietnamese: cơn bão trong tách trà = a storm in a teacup
Do you know any others?
Incidentally, according to BBC News, chocolate teapots might not be as usesful as they are reputed to be.
Sources: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/useful_as_a_chocolate_teapot
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/useful_as_a_chocolate_teapot
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/104958/origin-of-as-useful-as-a-chocolate-teapot-fireguard
https://www.powerthesaurus.org/as_much_use_as_a_chocolate_teapot/synonyms
Language Quiz
Yexing
Have you yexed recently? If you have, what did you do to stop your yexes?
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].