I’ve always loved this one. A bit of magic in the ordinary.
@susiedent
#etymology #wordoftheday #globalmuseum

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etymology of the eye's pupil

Does the word "Urban" have any relation to the Sumerian city of Ur?

#Etymology

Just for the record, if something is "ineffable " then it's something we don't have the words for. Something we can't speak about no matter how hard we try.

Linguistically, of course, this means that if something is ineffable, then we ***can't eff about it***.

You can verbify anything. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

#language
#grammar
#etymology
#English
#words
#SorryNotSorry
#VerbifyAllTheThings

#TIL that the English word "cabbage" comes to us from two Latin words: "caput" and "boce."

caput = head
boce = bump

Therefore:

cabbage = bumphead

#etymology
#HoneyWakeUp
#NewInsult

How to be a word detective

Etymology unravels the mysteries of language and the hidden webs that link people across the world. Here’s how to dive in

by Danny Bate

https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-be-a-word-detective?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=936cbb4e51-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_07_29_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Books about English language -- Etymology at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/2993

#books #literature #etymology

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Cornelis Kiliaan: Etymologicum Teutonicae Linguae, Roeland de Meyere 1777. Title page of "Etymologicum Teutonicae Linguae, sive Dictionarium Teutonico-Latinum" by Cornelis Kiliaan (Kiliani Dufflaei), a Dutch-Latin etymological dictionary, edited with annotations by Gerard van Hasselt. Printed in Utrecht by Roeland de Meyere, 1777, Tomus I. Foxed, aged paper.

How did "one bad apple spoils the bunch" get changed to "just a few bad apples"?

That little switch completely reverses the meaning of the saying/proverb/warning.

It seems awfully convenient that a proverb warning about the rotting influence of one bad apple has changed to excuse any rot as an outlier & not indicative of a systemic failure.

#ACAB #etymology #TTJ

Bytemology of Retronym, OCTADE. Yinzer phonics. Butterfly Perfume.

OCTADE or OCTAD is a retro word that means either an octal digit of three bits, or an octal octet or an eight-bit byte. Thus an octade, depending on its historical use, is either 3 bits or 8 bits.

OCTADE was used to specify eight bits, as opposed to BYTE which is not necessarily eight bits as the word BYTE could signify any of several numbers of bits.

This yields the retro 1337 numbers of 38 and 83. The number 38 is one more than 37 so a bit more elite a bit cooler. Thus it owns cardinally shorter byterz.

83 mod 38 equals 7, the highest octal digit. 838 mod 383 equals 72 or 9 times 8 which is 8 squared plus 8.

8338 mod 3883 equals 572 which is 72 times 8 minus 4 or 71.5 times 8.

8383 mod 3838 equals 707 which is 88 times 8 plus 3.

I prefer the old word OCTADE to the word BYTE. OCTADE sports a Euro-peon dignity and gravitas like an Internet serf ready to surf the worknet like pwnd peons. This is very true when pronouncing OCTADE with a thick Pennsyltucky Dutch or Yinzer accent. The Bostonian pronunciation sounds like bad beginner German or muffled mumbling of 'lactate.'

OCTADE or OCTAD was also used to describe a poem of eight stanzas.

OCTADE was also used to describe a period of eight years, or two leap years.

OCTADECANAL is a pheromone found in butterflies. It is butterfly perfume. I would not wear butterfly cologne. But I would sell it. Who would buy and wear my snobby smell? With wordplay we can call it OCTADE CHANNEL No. 8 . All rights reserved, ye French odor snooties.

Historical references for use of 'octade' or 'octad':

• Burroughs B5500 Information Processing Systems REFERENCE MANUAL *

https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/burroughs/LargeSystems/B5000_5500_5700/1021326_B5500_RefMan_196705.pdf

• Philips Data Systems Product Range - April 1971 *

https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/Philips%20productoverzicht%201971.pdf

• Is there another name for octet that means 8 bits? *

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-another-name-for-octet-that-means-8-bits

#octade #octad #binary #byte #jargon #etymology #bytemology #wordplay #wordgames #wordcrimes #history #retro #retronym #retronymous #yinzer #pennsyltucky #humor

--

OCTADE | news://alt.flashback | https://soc.octade.net

Not by accident, TIL that "wayward" is the shortened form of "awayward."

The existence of:
downward
toward
forward
backward
awkward (etym: Old Norse meaning backward!)
froward
upward
eastward, northward, southward, westward
inward
outward
ETC.

...implies the validity of:

nextward
withward
fromward
intoward
againward
besideward
aboonward
aloofward
yondward
whitherward
nighward
ETC.

#WordsAreFun
#ILoveLanguage
#etymology

RE: https://mastodon.social/@medieval_illuminations/117148721021531224

In German, a turtle is a "Schildkröte": a "shield toad."

In Dutch, apparently, a turtle is also a "shield toad": "schildpad."

Jacob literally drew a toad with shields protecting it.

Also with tails.

#etymology
#language
#ILoveLanguage
#Dutch
#German

Medieval Illumination » 🤖 🌐 2026-08-24
@medieval_illuminations@mastodon.social

Sea turtle. Jacob van Maerlant, Der Naturen Bloeme, Utrecht, ca. 1340-1350. Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 16, fol. 110v.
#medieval #MedievalArt

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Sea turtle. Jacob van Maerlant, Der Naturen Bloeme, Utrecht, ca. 1340-1350. Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 16, fol. 110v. #medieval #MedievalArt

I could see myself taking on an insect photography hobby if I didn't already have too many hobbies. There are constant opportunities in this place at this time of year. An iPhone is not the best camera for this work, but sometimes it does ok!

I rescued this pregnant mantis from my wheelbarrow where she appeared miraculously unharmed after having a pile of dried weeds atop her.

After clinging to the stem I offered, she found herself in a much better place full of tall plants and insects. One even surprised us by being on the tansy where I placed her!

I wanted to capture how she was staring at it, but she turned to look at my phone when it moved into view.

#etymology #Idahobbit #mantis #TrueBug

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Ripe tansy flowers. A bright green praying mantis clings to the backside, an inch away from a large brown truebug on the bloom to the right.

Surrounded by dragonflies today, trying to get a good picture while saying hi to the cat walking by when a hawk spirals above before moving on.

They were right about installing poles everywhere. There's a queue of dragonflies on this one. One takes off and another immediately takes her place.

#etymology #Idahobbit #dragonfly

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A rust-tinted dragonfly perches on a thin orange warning pole in a horizontal position. There is lumber in the background.

Alt...

A closer view of a dragonfly on the same pole, this one with its butt vertically in the air. This is a different dragonfly. Another has since moved in.

Therefore, I submit the following as a synonym for "to totter":

TO TORKLE.

Example sentence: Courtney got up in the middle of the night and torkled blearily to the bathroom.

This actually happened last night, which is what brought on this wild language ride first thing this morning. You're welcome. 😁💜✌️🤘🖖

2/2

#language
#etymology
#linguistics
#GermanLanguage
#EnglishLanguage
#Latin
#ILoveLanguage

#TIL that the word "coach" rolled up into the English language from the Hungarian "Kocs," a town that became known in the 1400s for its "kocsi szekér": the cart of Kocs, a wheeled conveyance with steel spring suspension that spread across Europe.

#etymology
#ILoveLanguage
#transportation
#history

This has been bugging me for a while, because Dad used to say dinner, and I was confused when he meant lunch, and he'd say supper for dinner. Max Miller just brought it up talking about K-Rations so let's resolve this. Please comment on any regional or cultural/etymological details you know of pls! It may just come down to the fact there used to be four meals for farm workers causing all this confusion... breakfast, lunch, dinner, and finally supper. (?) #Culture #Etymology #Language

@ai6yr

Oh no! The view from that restaurant is amazing.

The #etymology and #history of the name is interesting, too.

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NEPENTHE is a word derived from the Greek, meaning "no sorrow." A mythical Egyptian drug, the wife of Thonis, King of Egypt, gave it to Helen, daughter of Jove, to induce forgetfulness and surcease from sorrow. The word and thought have been used in literature through all time. Homer mentioned it in "The Odyssey," and in "The Raven," Poe said: "Quaff oh quaff this kind Nepenthe and forget the lost Lenore." The PHOENIX was chosen as the standard of our NEPENTHE, because of its particular significance. According to legend, the bird, with its wings of gold and jeweled plumage, returned from Arabia to the temple of Heliopolis every five hundred years, to burn itself on the altar and arise from its own ashes, more magnificent than ever—a symbol of immortality.

TIL there is an opposite of "overwhelm" :

unwhelm = to raise (s.o.) up out of being overwhelmed.

There's also, of course, the humorous verb "underwhelm."

All of this implies the existence of antiwhelm, prowhelm, interwhelm, intrawhelm, withwhelm, bywhelm, inwhelm, prewhelm, postwhelm, antewhelm, diswhelm, dyswhelm, rewhelm, forwhelm, gainwhelm, throughwhelm, and counterwhelm, among many others.

#language
#etymology

Last map has ants in its pants

https://mapologies.com/bugs/

#insects #map #mapologies #etymology #etymologymap #ant #ants #languagemap

Most European languages are united by a common thread: the word for ant. From the Galician formiga to the Romanian furnică, and from Greek μυρμήγκι (myrmígki) to Finnish muurahainen. Surprising, huh? We can find the traces of a single Proto-Indo-European ancestor: *mórwis.

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Etymology map of ant

This morning I awoke thinking about sex – actually gender – of borrowed Latin words. Get your mind out of the gutter.

👉 https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/we-still-bury-the-dead

I wrote a piece about it, but I was truly conflicted on my journey, especially as I compared English and French approaches, and a potential feminist rift.

#philosophy #language #sociolinguistics #etymology #english #french #latin #gender #writing #culture #feminism #linguistics #reform #administration

In the East, Slavic languages share a common root, Proto-Slavic *žaba, with the notable exception of Russian: The term ljaguska (лягушка) is derived from the verb ljgat (лягать), which means "to kick." Some ideas?
https://mapologies.com/herpetology/
#etymology #etymologymap #languagemap

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Etymology map of frog in several languages

https://mapologies.com/time/
While Romance and Baltic languages often differ, they share the Proto-Indo-European root *wósr̥, meaning “#spring” and originally “becoming #warmer.” For example, the Portuguese “verão” and Latvian “vasara” derive from this root. Similarly, the German “Sommer” and Kurdish “havîn,” despite their different appearances, both stem from the Proto-Indo-European root *semh₂-, meaning “summer” or “half of the #year.” #etymology #etymologymap #map #laguagemap #linguisticmap

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Etymology map of summer

This article is less about what philosophy is about and more about why we can't particularly know some things, and why not.

👉 https://open.substack.com/pub/brywillis634737/p/what-is-philosophy?r=pvxh5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=masto&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#blog #substack #philosophy #language #ontology #semantics #semiotics #epistemology #etymology #communication #Heidegger #Derrida #Foucault #Wittgenstein #Nietzsche #Gadamer #Peirce #Gallie #McGilchrist #languageinsufficiency

@dougmerritt

So I learned (from Wikipedia and Wiktionary) that "Russell" means "Redhead".

Note also that "Bruijn" means "Brown", of course.

(And further in this rabbit hole are mathematicians
Kumanov and Polovtsev, names derived from an ethnonym (Cumans, Kumans, Polovtsians) likely meaning "Yellowhead".)

Thanks 🙂.

#Etymology

OCTADE or OCTAD is a retro word that means either an octal digit of three bits, or an octal octet or an eight-bit byte. Thus an octade, depending on its historical use, is either 3 bits or 8 bits.

OCTADE was used to specify eight bits, as opposed to BYTE which is not necessarily eight bits as the word BYTE could signify any of several numbers of bits.

This yields the retro 1337 numbers of 38 and 83. The number 38 is one more than 37 so a bit more elite a bit cooler. Thus it owns cardinally shorter byterz.

83 mod 38 equals 7, the highest octal digit. 838 mod 383 equals 72 or 9 times 8 which is 8 squared plus 8.

8338 mod 3883 equals 572 which is 72 times 8 minus 4 or 71.5 times 8.

8383 mod 3838 equals 707 which is 88 times 8 plus 3.

I prefer the old word OCTADE to the word BYTE. OCTADE sports a Euro-peon dignity and gravitas like an Internet serf ready to surf the worknet like pwnd peons. This is very true when pronouncing OCTADE with a thick Pennsyltucky Dutch or Yinzer accent. The Bostonian pronunciation sounds like bad beginner German or muffled mumbling of 'lactate.'

OCTADE or OCTAD was also used to describe a poem of eight stanzas.

OCTADE was also used to describe a period of eight years, or two leap years.

OCTADECANAL is a pheromone found in butterflies. It is butterfly perfume. I would not wear butterfly cologne. But I would sell it. Who would buy and wear my snobby smell? With wordplay we can call it OCTADE CHANNEL No. 8 . All rights reserved, ye French odor snooties.

Historical references for use of 'octade' or 'octad':

Burroughs B5500 Information Processing Systems REFERENCE MANUAL
https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/burroughs/LargeSystems/B5000_5500_5700/1021326_B5500_RefMan_196705.pdf

Philips Data Systems Product Range - April 1971
https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/Philips%20productoverzicht%201971.pdf

Is there another name for octet that means 8 bits?
https://www.quora.com/Is-there-another-name-for-octet-that-means-8-bits

#octade #octad #binary #byte #jargon #etymology #bytemology #wordplay #wordgames #wordcrimes #history #retro #retronym #retronymous #yinzer #pennsyltucky #humor

@wordplay@lemmy.ml @Vocabulary@lemmy.ml

--

OCTADE | news://alt.flashback | https://soc.octade.net

How is this possible?

The origin of the name of the U.S. state of #Oregon is unknown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_Oregon

#language #history #meaning #etymology