{"id":15092,"date":"2018-01-25T18:34:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T17:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=15092"},"modified":"2018-01-25T18:34:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T17:34:22","slug":"going-to-the-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=15092","title":{"rendered":"Going to the circus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I went to the circus. It wasn&#8217;t a traditional circus in a big top with animals and clowns, but the wonderful <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piratesofthecarabina.com\/\">Pirates of the Carabina<\/a> with their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piratesofthecarabina.com\/future.php\">Relentless Unstoppable Human Machine<\/a> in the theatre in the local arts centre. <\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/27713325266\/in\/album-72157668977580670\/\" title=\"Juggling some clubs\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7570\/27713325266_1c19fe0b84.jpg\" width=\"281\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Juggling some clubs\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 20px 50px;\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I also saw the film <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Greatest_Showman\">The Greatest Showman<\/a>, a film based  loosely on the life of P.T. Barnum.<\/p>\n<p>I enjoyed both very much, and thought I&#8217;d write about the word <strong>circus<\/strong>, and related words.<\/p>\n<p>In English a <strong>circus<\/strong> can be:<\/p>\n<p>1. A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.<\/p>\n<p>2. A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.<\/p>\n<p>3. A spectacle; a noisy fuss<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever wondered why <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oxford_Circus_tube_station\">Oxford Circus<\/a> in London is so named, when there are usually no of clowns, acrobats or other circusy things there, now you know. <\/p>\n<p>In ancient Roman a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Circus_(building)\">circus<\/a> was an open air stadium for chariot racing, horse racing and performances. Most Roman circuses were oblong rather than round. <\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>circus<\/strong> comes from the Latin <em>circus<\/em> (ring, circle), from the Ancient Greek <em>\u03ba\u03af\u03c1\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2<\/em> (k\u00edrkos &#8211;  circle, ring, racecourse), from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*sker \/ *ker<\/em> (to turn, to bend), which is also the root of the English words ring and rink. [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/circus\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>juggle<\/strong> comes the Middle English <em>jogeler<\/em> (juggler), and and from the Old French <em>jogler, jongler<\/em> (to have fun with someone), from the Latin <em>jocul\u0101ri<\/em> (to jest; joke). It is also related to the Old French <em>jangler<\/em> (to regale; entertain; have fun; trifle with; tease; mess around; gossip; boast; meddle), from the Frankish <em>*jangal\u014dn<\/em> (to chit-chat with; gossip).<br \/>\n[<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/juggle\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>clown<\/strong> is possibly related to the Icelandic <em>klunni<\/em> (klutz) or the Old Frisian <em>kl\u00f6nne<\/em> (klutz) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/clown#Etymology\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>big top<\/strong>, for a large tent, was first used in 1825 by J. Purdy Brown&#8217;s itinerating show in Virginia [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/circus-theatrical-entertainment#ref84480\">source<\/a>]. Why that particularly term was used is uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>The photo is one of me juggling clubs that I took last year. I&#8217;ve been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/juggling\/index.htm\">juggling<\/a> and doing other circusy things for over 30 years, and have considered joining a circus, or becoming a circus skills trainer. At the moment I go to the Bangor University Circus Society every week to practise my circus skills, and to teach others. <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/s\/aHskBadKub\">More photos are available on Flickr<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Are any of you into juggling or other circus skills?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I went to the circus. It wasn&#8217;t a traditional circus in a big top with animals and clowns, but the wonderful Pirates of the Carabina with their Relentless Unstoppable Human Machine in the theatre in the local arts centre. I also saw the film The Greatest Showman, a film based loosely on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,118,10,15,45,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-greek","category-language","category-latin","category-proto-indo-european","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}