Etymology: 11 Words with Interesting Origins

This week has been crazy for me and I’ve been stressed to the point of teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown, but I’m here and it’s podcast time!! I decided to pick a topic that was a) fun to research and doesn’t take too much thought that my brain can’t handle right now, and b) in a category that we haven’t covered very much.

So I’m going to talk about etymology, and the interesting origins of a few words that we have adopted into the English language over the centuries.

Avocado (Origin: Nahuatl)

The word avocado comes from Spanish aguacate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl (now-att-l) word ahuacatl (ah-wa-cat-l), meaning testicle. Nahuatl is the language of the Aztecs and is still spoken by approximately 1.5 million people native to Mexico and other parts of Central America.

It’s likely that the Aztecs who discovered this fruit way back in 500 BC named it this because they were inspired by the texture and shape of the fruit and by the fact that it was considered an aphrodisiac — not to mention that avocados also grow in pairs.

Avocado isn’t the only Nahuatl word that has been borrowed by the English language: chilli, chocolate, tomato, and guacamole were also coined by speakers of Nahuatl. Indeed, the -mole of guacamole is derived from the Nahuatl molli (ahuacamolli), which means sauce.

Cappuccino (Origin: Italian/German)

Usually, Italian names for coffee have simple translations: Espresso comes from the Italian word that means "pressed-out," which explains how the drink is made; macchiato is short for "caffe macchiato," which means "coffee with a spot (of milk)." But cappuccino is different.

Cappuccino is the diminutive form of the Italian word cappuccio, which means “hood” in Italian. Why hood? Well, it comes from the Capuchin (cap-you-sheen) Monks, whose order was founded in 16th century Italy. They’re renowned for their missionary work among the poor, as well as their dedication to extreme austerity, poverty, and simplicity. The Capuchins are also renowned for their robes: they wear a simple brown robe that includes a long, pointed hood that hangs down the back.

When the cappuccino was first introduced in Italy, it was named after the Capuchin friars because the colour of the drink was similar to their robes. The name stuck; we borrowed it into English in the late 1800s.

The first recorded use of the word cappuccino was in 1790 in Vienna, Austria. Wilhelm Tissot jotted down a recipe for an exquisite Kapuzinerkaffee (“Capuchin coffee”), which was quite different to what we know today, containing sugar, cream and egg yolks. The current recipe now consists of espresso and foamed milk, but there are still parts of Austria where you can order a traditional Kapuziner.

Disaster (Origin: Italian/Greek)

The word disaster has been passed around Europe like a hot potato. The English version is most closely tied to the French désastre, which is derived from the Old Italian disastro, which itself is derived from Greek. The prefix dis- and aster can be interpreted as bad star, or an ill-starred event.

As we’ve established on this podcast many times, ancient Greeks were fascinated by astronomy and the cosmos, and believed in the influence of celestial bodies on human lives. For them, a disaster was a particular kind of calamity, the causes of which could be attributed to an unfavourable and uncontrollable alignment of planets.

Handicap (Origin: English)

This word handicap originates from the 17th-century English trading game “hand-in-cap.” The game involved two players and an arbitrator, or umpire. The players would present two possessions they would like to trade. The umpire would then decide whether the possessions were of equal value or not, and if they weren’t, would calculate the discrepancy. The owner of the lesser object would make up the difference with money, and then all three participants would place forfeit money into a hat. If the two players agreed with the umpire’s valuation, they would remove their hands from the hat with their palm open. If they disagreed, they would pull out their hands clenched in a fist. If both agreed or disagreed, the umpire would get the forfeit money, while if one agreed and the other didn’t, the player who approved the transaction would receive the forfeit money.

Over time, hand-in-cap came to be known as “handicap” and started to be used to refer to any kind of equalisation or balancing of a contest or game. The word handicap is still used in many sports today, such as golf and horse racing – in fact, horse racing was probably the first sport to introduce the term in order to define an umpire’s decision to add more weight to a horse so that it runs equally to its competitors. This notion of being burdened or put at a disadvantage was carried over to describe people with a disability in the early 20th century. By the mid-20th century, it was widely used, but it has since dropped out of popular usage again as people find it an offensive word, due to the fact that disabled people aren’t burdened by their disability.

Salary (Origin: Latin)

The word “salary” comes from the Latin salarium, meaning “salt money.” In ancient times, salt was used for many important things and was often referred to as “white gold.” It could be used as an antiseptic to treat wounds and to preserve food, and also as a method of payment in Greece and Rome.

As far back as the Egyptian Empire, labourers were paid with salt that they could use to preserve their food. The Roman Empire continued using this form of payment and it took on the name “salary” for “that which was given to workers at the end of the working month”.

Nightmare (Origin: Germanic)

The “mare” part of the word “nightmare” comes from Germanic folklore, in which a “mare” is an evil female spirit or goblin that sits upon a sleeper’s chest, suffocating them and/or giving them bad dreams. The same Germanic word – “marōn” – gives rise to similar words in many Scandinavian and European languages.

In Germanic folklore, it was believed that this “mare” did more than just terrorise human sleepers. It was thought that it rode horses in the night, leaving them sweaty and exhausted the next day, and it even wreaked havoc with trees, twisting their branches.

Sandwich (Origin: English)

Britain’s favourite lunch, the humble sandwich, gets its name from the 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu. The story goes that 250 years ago, the 18th-century aristocrat requested that his valet bring him beef served between two slices of bread. He was fond of eating this meal whilst playing card games, as it meant that his hands wouldn’t get greasy from the meat and thus spoil the cards. Observing him, Montagu’s friends began asking for “the same as Sandwich”, and so the sandwich was born. Though people did eat bread with foods such as cheese and meat before this, these meals were known as just “bread and cheese” or “bread and meat”.

Quarantine (Origin: Venetian)

This is definitely a word we know well by now, and hope to never hear again. The word “quarantine” has its origins in the plague, the so-called Black Death, which swept across Europe in the 14th century, wiping out around 30% of Europe’s population. It comes from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian words “quaranta giorni”, or “forty days”, in reference to the fact that, in an effort to halt the spread of the plague, ships were put into isolation on nearby islands for a forty-day period before those on board were allowed ashore.

Originally – attested by a document from 1377 – this period was thirty days, but this was extended to forty days to allow more time for symptoms to develop. This practice was first implemented by the Venetians controlling the movement of ships into the city of Dubrovnik. We now use the word “quarantine” to refer to the practice of restricting the movements, for a period of time, of people or animals who seem healthy, but who might have been exposed to a harmful disease that could spread to others.

Groggy (Origin: British)

When you feel “groggy”, it means you feel lethargic, sluggish, usually through lack of sleep. The word groggy originated in the 18th century with a British man named Admiral Vernon, whose sailors gave him the nickname “Old Grog” (not Gregg) on account of his cloak, which was made from a material called “grogram”, a weatherproof mixture of silk and wool. In 1740, he decreed that his sailors should be served their rum diluted with water, rather than neat. This was called “grog”, and the feeling experienced by sailors when they’d drunk too much of it was thus called “groggy”.

Clue (Origin: Greek)

Technically, English speakers stole this from the Greek Gods. It is taken from the word ‘clew’ in Greek mythology. When a Mintatour – a monster with the body of a man and a head of a bull – trapped the mythical king, Theseus, in a labyrinth, Theseus is said to have escaped using a ball of yarn or a ‘clew’. He used the yarn to track his path so he could follow it back again if he got lost. So, a “clew” came to mean something that guides your path, and later it came to mean this in the broader sense of offering guidance to discover the truth.

Shambles (Origin: Latin/British)

The origin of the word “shambles” is a real mess, which is ironic considering that’s the meaning of the word itself. It’s not uncommon to hear English speakers complaining that something disorganised is “a complete shambles”.

The term is said to have derived from the Latin term “scamillus”, meaning a small stool (like a chair). But at the same time that the term ‘scamillus’ was being used, the word “shambles” was also being used to refer to a stool. It’s not really known why the two terms were being used at the same time, but at some point the meaning of a ‘scamillus’ became more specific to distinguish it from the other; it referred only to a stool upon which something is sold.

Some years later, the meaning of a ‘scamillus’ was refined further to mean a stool (or stall) specifically where meat is sold. Then, it meant a meat market. Next, it came to mean a slaughterhouse. And finally, somewhere along the line we started using the word “shambles” to create witty puns about how our lives are a bloody mess, much like a slaughterhouse.

And that feels like a very apt place to end this episode, considering I would definitely say my life feels like it’s a bit of a shambles right now!