Did you ever think that languages can be amusing? If you think that way, then we have something in common. That is why in my previous entries, I used the word “fun” to describe how best to learn Japanese language.
In other 'fun' situation, when I went out shopping with my shopping buddies.. the conversation will be
Hey, did you know that Primavera (a shoes brand) is “spring” in Spanish?. Voir
in French means “to see”. Why they put brand Noir as cosmetic brand because
noir in French means “black”. That Mont Blanc is “white mountain”. Ichiban Ramen
must be the “number one” ramen in the world. Maison Berger is the “house” of Berger.
I know certain word(s) can easily be found in the internet nowadays; every information under your fingertips. But, if you know the correct way to pronounce it especially Français, it’s a bonus!
In this particular entry; I would like to share something more exciting (for me) which is how English has stolen, purloined, snaffled, pilfered, and looted – from all corners of the world. Sounds interesting already? It is from a book I read recently by the author named Philip Gooden.
"even the simplest words may have origins which contain a small surprise"
Long time ago, around 8th century; the ‘th’ has not even existed. ‘th’ including thing, thorn, etc. Until 15th century, the British is using þ instead in their Old English. Meaning to say, thing was written as 'þing' and thorn is 'þorn'. þ then changed to 'y' and 'ye', however the pronounce is not 'ye' or 'you'; it's actually 'the'.
Similar to ‘th’, Old English did not have a ‘q’. During pre-Norman period ‘quick’ was spelled as 'cwick'. The ‘qu-’ for 'queen' was only existed after 9th century. The original spelling was 'cwen' and that ‘cw-’ was inherit from Latin. In Old English, Cwen means noblewomen, the first lady, a wife of an important person. “Ða wearð unbliðe Abrahames cwen” then Abraham’s wife grew angry/not glad. When Norman French translated ‘cwen’ to Germanic word, they used ‘quyne’ and ‘quene’.
The early version for ‘but’ is buton. Not button. If you ever watched Beowulf, the original story has mentioned “Ealle buton anum” means ‘all but one’. Buton or butan is used for exception, on the outside, without. Over centuries, buton and butan changed to bute to boute to bot and finally but.
“Valley” comes from an old French word that synonym with ‘vale’
and the modern French is ‘vallée’; while Latin is ‘vallis’. Ever wonder
what word they were using back then to describe a small valley that time? In 770AD (written
in an Anglo-Saxon), they were using 'cumb , coomb , combe or comb'. Some place
still remains that name such as Coombe Lane, Combe Road, Salcombe, Woolacombe,
Branscombe and Letcombe Regis.
I just found out that the famous St Regis Hotel, that 'Regis' is from Latin word means 'of the king' or 'royal'. The meaning yes indeed suitable with their 5 star rating.
If you Google around, in Northern England they called a valley or low ground area as "dale"; previously spelled as 'dæl' and it came from Old Norse as 'dalr'. Arkengarthdale and Whaftedale are two best examples for -dale.
A ‘sk-’ sound was originally came from Old Norse (men
from the North) or Old Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) including skin,
skull, skill, sky, skirt and sick. Norsemen were also known as ‘Vikings’, came
from the word ‘wic’ then ‘vic’ which means ‘camp’ in Old
English. It is because they practice to set-up temporary base.
|
|
Old Norse |
Anglo-Saxon |
Old English |
|
Skin |
Skin : skin
the animal |
‘hyd’ (pronounce:
hide) |
|
|
Skull |
‘skoltr’ |
|
‘brægnpanne’
(pronounce: brain-pan) |
|
Skirt |
‘skyrta’ |
|
Refer skirt
as shirt |
|
Skill |
‘skil’ |
Expressed by ‘cræft’
(pronounce: craft) |
|
|
Sky |
Refer ‘sky’
as ‘cloud’ |
‘wolcen’
then ‘welkin’ |
|
|
Sick |
‘illr’ |
|
‘seoc’ |
As we all know, hazard means any source of potential harm, effect or damage. Well actually hazard or hasard were originally from Arabic word; “Az-Zahr” اَلزَّهْر means ‘dice’; the RISK of dicing (gambling). Shakespeare use the word frequently such as “before you hazard” “… hazard all he hath”.
“Coffee” also came from the Arabic ‘qahwah’ قَهوة, via Turkish where it was pronounced as ‘kahveh’; before it come to Europe. There are plenty of English spelling versions to be found in coffee’s early years, in 16th century; such as kaffee, koffie, café, caffè, cahve, cohu, coffa, caffa etc. During the 19th century, the term 'café' refers to coffee house.
When “mocha” was taken
from Mokha Port, Yemen (known as the birthplace of coffee trade), the other
type of coffee was from Italian language such as ‘macchiato’ means ‘stained’, ‘affogato’
means ‘drowned’ and ‘barista’ means ‘barman’.
The first citation in English appear in a book of
surgery translated from Latin “the barbarous auctours use alchohol”
means the foreign authors use alcohol.
As we know, ‘al’ in Arabic means ‘the’ in English while ‘la, le,
l’ and les’ in French.
Literally, 'alcohol' or ‘al-kuhl or al-kohl’ اَلْكُحْل means ‘the powder’ in Arabic. That cosmetic powder used to darken the eyes and we believe it's good for vision. Now, we called it as eyeliner. In 17th century, there’s a phrase of ‘alcohol of wine’.
Ancient Greek use βάρβαρος (barbarous) for babbling. But in the 1st
letter Paul writes to Corinthians ‘therefore if I know not the meaning of
the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian…” 'barbarian' here
signifies as someone who doesn’t understand your language, just as you don’t understand
his. Foreign, strange, unfamiliar, odd, outrageous, outsider, alien. Sadly,
barbarian now is more to a person who primitive, uncivilized and uncultured.
'Utopia' toʊpiə also
formed out from two Greek words “not” and “place” means ‘nowhere’. Obviously, no such perfect places are even existed. Imaginary or fictional places
such as Lilliput (Gulliver’s Travel), La
la land, Wonderland, Neverland, Erewhon and Land of Cockaigne. While dystopia dɪsˈtəʊpɪə and
cacotopia is ‘bad place’ in Greek. Totally opposite of Utopia.
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