the origin of... PART IV

When I was a travel agent, I went to Perth quite few times. Our driver cum as guide once told me that; when the first British settlements came to Australia, they saw the beast hop/bounded around and asked the local people – “what is that”? But the aborigine people responded with “gangurru” literally means “I can’t understand you”. There’s where the name Kangaroo, a famous marsupial in Australia has been mistranslated. The aborigine people also call “Koala” bear as koala/kaola which means “no water/drink” in their language.

Whereas mosquito and anchovy came from Spanish. The oldest word (first to surface in English – in 1572) is mosquito, appearing as ‘muskito’. Before then, mosquito had been the Anglo-Saxon 'gnat' to the English. And another long-established Spanish ‘borrowed’ word is anchovy. Spanish called it as ‘anchoa’. Shakespeare has a slightly different spelling anchovies as ‘anchaues’. 

I must be proud when certain words for animals are originally from our mother’s tongue. Such as, Orangutan - ‘orang’ is ‘people’ and ‘utan’ is ‘jungle/forest’ in Malay. Same goes to these indigenous birds; Cassowary or burung (bird) Kasuari is similar yet slightly smaller than ostrich. In Malay, we called ostrich as ‘burung unta’; unta means camel. But we never call it as camel bird. Never ever in history. Same goes to one of parrots’ species named Cockatoo or ‘kakaktua’. Kakak is 'sister' and tua is 'old', but we never call them as an old sister. The name of dugong, a sea-cow were also from Malay language.

If you are one of X-Men’s fan or maybe Deadpool, you must familiar with Juggernaut; a fictional character appearing in Marvel Comics. The character is known as a bad guy; literally merciless, destructive and unstoppable. Juggernaut is actually coming from a bandwagon or steamroller which quite similar to some unstoppable force which is going to crush anything or anyone in its path. The huge wagon that bearing an image of a Hindu God from 17^th century, inspired by the Jagannatha Temple. Jagannath is a Sanskrit word, compounded of ‘jagat’ means ‘universe/world’ and ‘natha’ means ‘Master/Lord’. Jagannātha ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ means “Lord of the Universe”. This Jagannatha Temple is located in Puri, Odisha (formerly Orissa), Eastern India – around 500km from Kolkata.

Talking about Kolkata, or formerly Calcutta; the French people has mistakenly heard as “Quel cul tu as” means ‘what an ass you have’. Well, we Malay people also can easily by chance mistakenly hear “pour qui” as something nasty in our language but actually 'pour qui' means “for whom” in French.

And when talking about dirty words…

When puk* means vagina in Malay / Tagalog slang; there are other dirty etymologies in everyday words. Opppss, you just said “vagina” when you said ‘vanilla’ or ‘fig’. And you just said “testicle” when you said ‘avocado’ or ‘orchid’.

Less well-known is the origin of vanilla since the word is ultimately related to the Latin vagina or sheath. During Hernando Cortes’ conquest of the Aztec empire, his men discovered the vanilla plant and dubbed it vainilla, literally “little pod/sheath”. The name came from the shape of the plants’ bodies which need to be split open in order to extract the beans.

From Aztec, we got the name of tomato (tomatl means swelling fruit in nahualt language), cocoa (cacahuatl : bitter water), chocolate (chocolath) and also avocado (āhuacatl or ahuakati: testicle or ahuacacuahalt : testicle tree).

Introduced in 1845, the name of Orchid flowers came from the Greek orchis, which literally translated as ‘testicle’.

Attention to all my Malaysian’s friend named Fika/Fiqa; please take note..

Italian is similar to French when they have masculine and feminine. To recognize what gender a noun in Italian, is by looking the end of the word. Nearby all words ending in -o are masculine (maschile) and nearby all words -a are feminine (femminile). Fico in Italian means fig, but fica means vagina. In one of Shakespeare’s plays “die and be damn’d and go figo thy friendship! The fig of Spain!”. But ‘figo’ was Portuguese, while Spanish actually called fig as ‘higo’.

Puttanesca is one of the spaghettis that was invented in one of many brothel/bordellos in Naples, Italy. The name came from ‘puttana’ roughly means ‘prostitute’. (prostitute is ‘putain’ in French). While Puttanesca literally means ‘Lady of the night’.

The word ‘pasta’ first found in English in 19^th century although the pasta has been invented since 1^st century ᴀᴅ. Pasta in Latin means ‘dough’, but in Greek παστά, pasta means ‘barley porridge’. There are dozens of different types of pasta, from Spaghetti or spaghetto means ‘thin string’, Rigatoni means ‘tone line’, Orecchiette means ‘little ear’, Linguine means ‘little tongues’, Tagliatelle from ‘tagliare’ means ‘to cut’, to Vermicelli means ‘little worms’. Meanwhile, pàsto means ‘meal’ in Italian.

In cooking, the term ‘al dente’ describes pasta or rice that is cooked to be firm to the bite. In other word ‘to the tooth’. The word ‘dental’ originally from dens/dent- in Latin and later dentalis in late 16^th century.

to be continued~

the origin of... PART III

The best part of learning the etymology (origin) of the languages is to trace out the links , in term of cultural, social, historical, geographical and political; between all languages. And according to lexicographer who added 150millions words each month “since a living language is never still, a dictionary’s work can never be done”. And by learning this also,  I just realized that English like to be short and simple, in other word - monosyllables. How interesting! For 5-6 syllables, mostly were came from Latin or French. 

What is the similarity between þ and θ? As in the previous entry, I did mention that in Old English, they used þ for ‘th-’ sound. While in Greek, they used θ symbol. βάθος (pronounce bathos) literally describing depth, and also anti-climax. θ is theta in ancient & modern Greek. It’s also a symbol of number 9, was also considered as symbol of death.

   Telescope also from Greek. The results from combining two Greek terms via Italian ‘telescopio’ meaning “far off” and “look”. Barometer means “weight” and “measure”. While Pendulum originally from Latin, ‘pendeo’ means “hang down”.

‘Ainigmata’ is a Greek word for riddles/puzzle. That’s the origin of ‘enigma’ or mystery. Apart from that, ‘rebus’ was a French phrase from ‘à rebours’ means ‘backwards’. Rebus is a very creative way of visual illustration; may involve number(s), letter(s), image(s), symbol(s), sign(s), and nowadays we love to use emoji for rebus games.

It’s normal to believe in star signs (horoscope) or constellation. Unfortunately, the word ‘disaster’ which is originally came from dis+aster not only relates to magical influences but also the idea of bad luck, trouble and misfortune. ‘Aster’ ἀστήρ is ‘star’ in ancient Greek word. Meanwhile in Latin, star is ‘astrum’. Well hey, I think I know where Astro got their name from. 

All of us has experienced the quarantine moment since Covid-19 badly hit us. The word ‘quarantine’ originally from ‘forty’. Yes, 40! Forty in French is ‘quarante’ kaʀɑ̃t; while Italian is ‘quaranta’ and ‘quarantina’ in Old Italian. Alright, why forty? Ever since 17^th century, those who has leprosy disease or a plague carrier, must be sent to the isolation island called lazaretto (means ‘beggar’ in Italian) for forty days. Forty days is the best treatment duration to make sure that they return as healthy travelers and were no longer disease carriers.

In Muslim culture, it’s our Sunnah to practice midday nap in order to improve memory, enhance alertness and to boost wakefulness and performances. Same goes to people in Spain, and they called it ‘siesta’ from the word ‘sexta’ means the 'sixth' (6^th) hour. An afternoon rest is essential to avoid mid-day heat.

In Julian calendar right before the introduction of Gregorian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, the month of 'August' was once called as ‘sextilis’ means the 'sixth' (6^th) month in Rome. There were only 10 months in Julian calendar, with no January and February. It has been renamed after Augustus Caesar (first Roman Emperor) in 8 ᴃᴄ. 

'Marathon' was named after the real classical place in Greece. It was a long-distance race which the runner needs to cover 22miles (44km) away from Marathon to Athens even though he finally falls down dead when he arrived.

Inuit or Arctic people (Greenland, Alaska & Canada) introduced ‘kayak’ to the world. ‘Kayak’ as in Eskimo tongue means 'one-person boat' or 'small boat'. For the bigger boat, they called it as ‘umiak’.

to be continued~

the origin of... PART II

I'm not writing a book here. And I knew, mostly readers (especially Gen Z) are tend to get bored to read a very loooong entry. Hence, I summarize into 9-10 points only in each entries. 

Continued from PART I...

Please do not laugh in case your friend has wrongly spelled ‘big’ as ‘byg’. In 14^th century, the famous poet Geoffrey Chaucer describe a character in The Knight’s Tale as ‘Ful byg he was of brawn and eek of bones’. It came from a Norwegian region ‘bugge’ and ‘bugga’, originally refer to mighty, rich and powerful man.

Lust known as ‘list’ in Old English. 'List' commonly has been used for cheerful or delightful. For example ‘listless’ means without pleasure. But then, it was written as 'lust' in the Canterbury Tales in 14^th century; ‘Ful lusty was the weder’ was pointed to the good weather. Then broadening out to non-sexual (power, money, fame and etc) and sexual desire.

 

Clue also originally spelled as ‘clew’. But 'clew' also refers to a round object composed of coiled material such as ball of thread or yarn. In Old English, ‘cliwen’ means ‘globe’. First time recorded as ‘clue’ was in 17^th century by the adventurer Sir Kenelm Digby. But his journal only been published later in 19^th century; and then the word ‘clues’ has been frequently used by Sherlock Holmes. 

‘Salary’ was originally came from the Latin word ‘sal’ means ‘salt’. In 1^st century ᴀᴅ, the Roman soldiers were paid in salt. They later called it as ‘salarium’. Salt is very useful back then not only to add flavour but also as a preservative (not only for foodstuff but also wood and material). The word ‘salarye’ was found in poem Piers Plowman by William Langland, in 14^th century. French later use ‘salaire’ for wages - for versatile than salary i.e earning, reward, income, tips (gratuities or pourboire). 

Credit to Hello English

Just by looking at the way of the spelling, we knew that the word of ‘manoeuvre’ came from French language. But actually, the word derived from Latin; combination of ‘manus’ (hand) and ‘operare’ (labour). Describing ‘manual labour’ because back then there’s no equipment nor machine; all work done by hand. In Old French, the spelling was ‘manovrer’ or ‘manouvrer’ refer to military exercise. In 18^th century, the word ‘manure’ means fertilizer and animal dung. 

‘Cabin’ has been known as animal den or grotto. While Shakespeare used it as verb and also noun. “but now I am cabined…” to describe fear, frustration and panic.  And later, the word ‘cabane’ which came from French means wooden hut has been used when French required a word for living quarters on a ship or cockpit of a plane; they borrowed back the English spelling to ‘cabine’. Now ‘cabin’ refers to room on a ship or temporary shelter.

  Same goes to ‘cottage’. We all know that cottage is an old-fashioned small house at the rural area. But in early 70’s, cottage is a gay argot for a pick up or sex in public lavatory.

'Lavatory' came from the word ‘lavabo’, from French word that refer to a basin for hand/feet wash. Apart from ‘lavabo’; ‘eau de toilette’, ‘toile’ and ‘bidet’ also derived from French but obviously nothing to do with toilet. ‘Eau de toilette’ means ‘little spray’. Or in our term, refer to fragrances or perfumes. While ‘toile’ means 'cloth' or 'fabric' and ‘bidet’ means 'pony' or something can be ridden.

  When the time goes by, the lavatory become bigger in size (not only a basin). Now, we have bathroom, washroom, restroom, powder room, water closet (W.C), shithouse etc. Too long to mention? Here are some shortest version of toilet : loo, lav, lavvy, can, bog, shitter, crapper, karzy, netty, cludgie, heads etc. Please be careful when choosing name for your future kid(s), because john, jakes, jordan and jerry also means toilet.

Ironic, tulips flower which originally from Turkey did not use its original name; but the name of turkey bird which has NOTHING to do with Turkey has been stuck with most people in the world especially American.

  The 'turkey' bird species first domesticated in Mexico has been called ‘huexolotl’ from its gobbling noise. Then, they called it as Turkish chicken, which has been imported into Europe from Turkish. Turks knew that the bird wasn’t theirs. They called it ‘hindi’ or Indian chicken. Arabs called it as Deek ديك rom-e means Roman (Italian) chicken. We, Malaysian call it as ‘Ayam Belanda’ means Dutch chicken. Although eventually they sorted out that the chicken is actually same species with African-based Guineafowl ɡɪnifaʊl, which has been bought by Portuguese from Guinea, West Africa; the wrong source of name seems like stuck forever with American, especially during Thanksgiving.

  Tulip flower has a long story of cultivation, and the classification has been complex and controversial. In 10^th century, the flower had been cultivated in Persia. Remained the name as ‘dulband’, refers to turban (headcover) in Persian. Taken by Turks, the flower has become the symbol of the Ottomans. Only until 16^th century, the flower come to the attention of the Western European. When Western diplomats came to Ottoman court observed and reported on them. The flowers were rapidly introduced into Europe but the called it differently. Italian ‘tulipano’, French ‘tulipe’, German ‘tulpe’, British ‘tulpia/tulipa/tulipant’ and Dutch ‘tulp’. In 1630s, Netherland became frenzied and frequently portrayed in Dutch Golden Age paintings - Tulip Mania. Ever since, Netherlands has become tulip-related, especially for tourism and the major producer for the world market.

to be continued ~

the origin of...

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 8^th century; the ‘th’ has not even existed. ‘th’ including thing, thorn, etc. Until 15^th 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 9^th 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’

  Besides those 'sk-' sound word;

  ~ 'want' also came from Old Norse 'vanta'. and 'wish' from Old English 'wyscan'.

  ~ 'raise' originally from Old Norse 'reisa'; and 'rear' (raising animal) from Old English 'ræran'

  ~ 'die' from Old Norse 'deya'; while Old English used 'steorfan' or 'starve'

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 16^th century; such as kaffee, koffie, café, caffè, cahve, cohu, coffa, caffa etc. During the 19^th 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 17^th century, there’s a phrase of ‘alcohol of wine’.

 

Ancient Greek use βάρβαρος (barbarous) for babbling. But in the 1^st 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. 

Correct me if I'm wrong

to be continued~

Japanese Language is Fun! - Lesson 11.2

 Continued from Lesson 11.1; we are still in the chapter of "How Many". As for item/object; there are 3 types of questions depending on the size of the item itself.

IKUTSU for small item(s) *in Bahasa ~ berapa biji/batang

NAN-DAI for bigger item(s), machine/gadget *in Bahasa ~ berapa biji/buah

NAN-MAI for piece(s) *in Bahasa ~ berapa helai/keping

How many	Ikutsu e.g borupen, isu, kaban, ringo, mikan, tamago, heya, nimotsu	Nan-dai e.g terebi, raji-o, keitai, kompyuta, pasokon, kuruma, jitensya, kamera	Nan-mai e.g CD, fuku, shatsu, fuutou, syashin, kippu, kitte, kami, hagaki
1 – ichi	Hitotsu	ichi - dai	ichi - mai
2 – ni	Futatsu	ni - dai	ni - mai
3 – san	Mitsu	san - dai	san - mai
4 – yon / shi	Yotsu	yon - dai	yon - mai
5 – go	Itsutsu	go - dai	go - mai
6 – roku	Mutsu	roku - dai	roku - mai
7 – nana / shichi	Nanatsu	nana - dai	nana - mai
8 – hachi	Yatsu	hachi - dai	hachi - mai
9 – kyu / ku	Kokonotsu	kyu - dai	kyu - mai
10 – ju	Too	ju - dai	ju - mai

with additional Place

PLACE ni OBJECT ga amount arimasu ka
Daigaku ni kompyuta ga nan-dai arimasu ka... How many computer the university has?

Daigaku ni kompyuta ga hyaku-dai arimasu... University has 100 computers

*in Bahasa ~ 100 biji/buah komputer

with additional Verb

OBJECT o amount VERB **verb must past tense
Kippu o nan-mai kaimashita ka... How many ticket you bought?

Kippu o ju-mai kaimashita... I bought 10 tickets

*in Bahasa ~ 10 keping tiket

Ringo o ikutsu tabemashita ka... How many apple you ate?

Ringo o yotsu tabemashita... I ate 4 apples

*in Bahasa ~  4 biji epal

Japanese Language is Fun! - Lesson 11.1

Numbers! Digits! Counters! Amount! $!! Collective nouns!

...is what we are going to learn in this chapter. But hold on! Do you still remember numbering in Japanese?? Haaaa, all you need to do is to click on earlier lesson as well as Lesson 5.1

How many?

"How many" in Japanese is depending on Object or Person (please refer Lesson 10.2 and Lesson 10.3)

OBJECT ga IKUTSU/NAN-MAI/NAN-DAI arimasu ka

PERSON wa [ga] NAN-NIN imasu ka

----------

We starts with "How many person/people" first because it's much easier.

We can ask :-

"How many family member you have?" Kazoku wa nan-nin imasu ka
or "How many sibling(s) you have?" Kyodai wa nan-nin imasu ka
*For family, we can include ourselves, but not for sibling*

**'ga' is not compulsory**

We can answer like this :-

Kyodai wa 5-nin [ga] imasu

~ ani [ga] hitori to ane [ga] futari to imouto hitori to otouto hitori ga imasu

I've 5 siblings

~ 1 elder brother & 2 elder sisters & 1 younger sister & 1 younger brother

Special case :- 

The only child (anak tunggal) : Hitori dake desu

I've no children : Kodomo ga imasen

----------

Other example:-

Kyoshitsu [no naka] de nan-nin ga imasu ka
In [inside] a class, how many person

OR more details

Kyoshitsu [no naka] de otoko no hito to onna no hito ga nan-nin imasu ka

In [inside] a class, how many man and woman

Kyoshitsu [no naka] de otoko no ko to onna no ko ga nan-nin imasu ka

In [inside] a class, how many boy and girl

  1 - hitori

  2 - futari

  3 - san-nin

  4 - yon-nin

  5 - go-nin

  6 - roku-nin

  7 - nana-nin

  8 - hachi-nin

  9 - kyu-nin

10 - ju-nin

Next entry ---> How many item