From a game called References

The usual way this gets taught is that 東, east, shows the sun 日 coming up behind a tree 木. It is a lovely image and it is not a modern invention. 說文 has it, quoting a man called 官溥, 从日在木中, the sun in the middle of the tree.

The older writing looks like something else though. In the oracle bones and the bronzes 東 reads to me more like a sack or a bundle tied off at both ends, and that seems to be the common view, going back to Guo Moruo. What the shape actually depicts I do not think is settled. The two halves only start to resemble 日 and 木 later, once the script has been straightened out.

If that is right then the sun in the tree is not the origin, it is a later explanation of a shape that had already changed. Which is roughly what beginner books do now, so I have some sympathy with 官溥.

The usual account of the meaning is that the word for east and the word for a bundle sounded alike, so the bundle got borrowed to write east. That is inference rather than anything anyone can show, though it is the sort of thing that happened often.

I had the sun and the tree stuck in my head and I still like it better. I am just not sure it is where the character came from.

This may be a silly question but hoping someone can clarify this please…

I recently discovered that the word hippopotamus comes from the Ancient Greek name meaning River Horse. I then realised the link to Hippodrome also.

Could someone please explain why horses are not called hippos?

I was just thinking about the phrase “sleight of hand“, and I can’t think of any time I’ve heard the word ”sleight” besides that phrase. I can think of other examples:

”Amok” in “run amok”

”Eke” in “eke out”

Can you think of others?

Bonjour!

J'ai fais quelques recherches rapides et l'étymologie de l'expression n'a pas l'air tout à fait évidente. J'ai donc voulu aller sur un reddit qui pourrait m'apporter une réponse et qui n'a pas l'air d'être de l'IA générative ou des informations dont la source semble houleuse. Du coup pourquoi est-ce qu'on parle de manche ? C'est hyper rependu et je comprends bien mieux en anglais quand on parle de "rounds". La plupart des jeux qui se jouent à plusieurs se faisant autour d'une table et demandant qu'on attende que chacun ait joué, on a fait le tour de la table, la ronde. Bref c'est cool ! Mais peu importe comment j'essaye de trouver un lien logique entre une manche et une partie de jeu, si ce n'est peut être les cartes quand on triche? Autrement, rien, je ne comprends pas et j'adorerais savoir d'où ça vient !

Merci !

Like you wouldn't say you went to the gym in the night and commuted to work at morning.

Calling all unusually gifted children precooked from here on out (not that I ever used the word precocious before though)

Coolest thing was how “apricot” ties into all of this.

In a study of Proust, Samuel Beckett wrote:

“Yesterday is not a milestone that has been passed, but a daystone on the beaten track of the years and irremediably part of us, within us, heavy and dangerous.”

It sounds beautiful but I don't know what he's saying. Googling the word "daystone" taught me very little -- per the OED it's a rare usage in the northern dialect of British English meaning "a surface fragment" which is of no help at all, especially as Beckett was Irish, not an English northerner.

Any clues for me?

I was born in the early 90s and I can never recall a time before the age of 10 where the word “drugs” was ever used in my presence in a neutral or positive connotation.

For example, if I heard the term “drug store” I’d think, “why are they using that controversial word?” While it’s still used today, I feel like “pharmacy” has supplanted it. Much of the use of the term “drugs” from the 1940s and previous seem to only refer to “drug stores” or “druggists” “chemist” seems to be the go to noun before the 1920s

The term “dope fiend” predates “drug addict” and “junky” and seems like a deliberate throw back when used now.

My guess is that Nancy Raegan/War on Drugs really brought dialogue and anxieties about drugs to the forefront of public consciousness. However, I’d like to know if someone older than me can dispel the Nancy Reagan theory.

A famous (and frequently sampled) 1967 audio story by Newsweek called The Runaway interviewed a young addict hippie living in a commune. She uses the term “drugs” to relay her experiences using acid, speed and marijuana. I think it’s interesting that a late teens/early 20s hippie is using the term “drugs” before 1970. If she’s using it then it seems like it’s a term that originated amongst users and not the medical and authority figures shaming them.

Is it more likely that the use of the term “drugs” to mean illegal substances originated with recreational users as opposed to the clinicians that treated them?

I coach kettlebells and have spent years on exercise naming, which is how I ended up down this particular hole. I'd like input from people who know the language side better than I do.

Etymonline dates "dead-lift" to the 1550s, glossing it as a pull exerting the utmost effort, originally in reference to a horse. By the 1560s there's a figurative sense: a position where one can do no more. By 1882, an effort involving the whole strength. Wiktionary still carries a related older sense: any lift performed without help or leverage, and by extension an effort made under discouraging conditions.

What strikes me about the construction is that both words are doing separate work. Dead describes the state of the load. Lift describes what's being done to it. Nothing in the phrase specifies a technique or a body position.

Then two things happened. The space closed, giving the modern "deadlift." And the meaning narrowed: for most people today the word names one specific barbell technique with a particular body position, rather than describing any lift of a motionless load.

The narrowing is odd, because the dictionaries never followed. Merriam-Webster still defines dead lift by where the weight travels, floor to hip level, and says nothing about technique. Collins and Dictionary.com both keep the general sense.

Two questions I haven't been able to answer:

1. Is there a dated record of when the two-word form gave way to the closed compound in print? I can find the 1550s dating but nothing on the compression itself.
2. Is the semantic narrowing documented anywhere? My assumption is that it tracks the formalisation of a sport in the mid-twentieth century, but that's inference rather than evidence.

Also curious whether the 1550s "pull" gloss reflects a broader sixteenth-century sense of "lift," where the noun could mean a load or the act of shifting one rather than strictly raising something. The OED entries are behind a paywall I can't get past, so if anyone has access and can see the original citations, I'd be grateful. TIA

I'm currently writing an independent research paper as an undergraduate student of English Literature. My paper is on the translation of the Greek word αἰών (aiōn) in the King James Version of the Bible. I'm focusing particularly on the Gospel of Matthew and Matthew's usage of the word.

Now, the KJV renders the word in most places in Matthew as 'world'. However, the semantic range of the original Greek gives a much broader picture. It seems the word can mean 'world', as in our physical universe, but it more often means something like 'age'.

While researching, I found an interesting fact: the English word 'world' also meant something like 'age' in Old and Middle English. This has huge bearing on my research.

The thing is, I'm in India, and while I have access to my university's library, its catalogue will probably not include the sources I need to research this (though, I'm still looking). So, I need your help.

Could you folk please help me find scholarly sources on the etymology and history of 'world'? At the very least, maybe an expert could confirm whether it did really mean 'age' in the past.

While researching “Embroil” (I can make a separate post if there’s interest) I found the PIE root was also the root for Aphrós, Sea Foam in Greek, which is how Hesiod arrived at the birth story for Aphrodite. That inspired me to make the following post.

The Olympians

Zeus. Root: the PIE *dyeu-. The one name in the pantheon with a clean Indo-European root. dyeu meant “to shine,” and its derivatives “sky, heaven, god” (God being dewos). cognate with Latin deus and Iu- in Iuppiter, Sanskrit dyú, Old English Tīw (like the Norse god).

Hera’s root is unknown but there are theories: A derivation from ὥρα (hōra, “season, ripe age”) has been proposed but is disputed. Plato guessed eratē “beloved,” Plutarch called it an anagram of aēr “air.”

Poseidon- unknown again. The Greek is Poseidon, the Doric is Poteidan, a name of uncertain origin. The popular “lord of the earth” reading rests on da meaning “earth,” which Beekes rejects. See Demeter below.

Demeter- ?da + mātēr: The second element is generally given as māter “mother”; the first element possibly from da, the Doric form of gē “earth,” (from which Gaia supposedly derives).

Athena- pre-Greek: A common Greek goddess dating to Minoan times; The city of Athens is probably named for a lost pre-Hellenic word, not the other way round.

Apollo- pre-Greek and no clear Etymology. But awesome history: Appaliunaš is mentioned in a treaty between Alaksandus of Wilusa and the Hittite king around 1280 BCE. Treaties were signed before the Gods, this one included before the God that scholars assume became Apollo. Wilusa was the precursor to Ancient Greek Wilios which eventually lost its W to be Ilios (Ilium), the formal name for Troy.

Artemis- unknown. The name is most likely from Asia Minor- the name is found in Lydian inscriptions (Artimus) and Lycian has ertemi. Plato’s artemēs “unblemished” is folk etymology.

Ares- ?arē “ruin”: Traditionally connected with the Greek word ἀρή; Scholars note that Ares is a pre-Greek abstract noun meaning “throng of battle,”

Aphrodite- ?aphros “foam”: Hesiod derived her name from aphros “foam,” but scholars believe the word is more likely from Phoenician Ashtaroth (Assyrian Ishtar). My own theory (more like, a fun thing I can choose to believe) is that Aphrodite’s origin story (born from the sea) is not necessarily due to aphros but that the Phoenician’s brought her over in their boats.

Hephaestus- pre-Greek: From Greek Hēphaistos, a pre-Greek word of unknown origin.

Hermes- unknown: From Greek Hermes, a word of unknown origin. The herma (a stone pillar topped with a head, used as a boundary marker) is named from Hermes, not the source of him.

Hestia- “hearth”: One of the few completely transparent/literal names. Latin Vesta is the counterpart, though the hestia-Vesta relationship cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics, so borrowings from a third language must also be involved.

Dionysus- Dio- (Zeus) + -nysos (?): Attested in Mycenaean Linear B as di-wo-nu-so; most philologists root the first element in Dios, the genitive of Zeus, and the second may derive from Mount Nysa where the infant god was raised by nymphs, giving roughly “the Zeus of Nysa.” However, Wiktionary treats the Dios link as popular etymology and analyses the compound as die-nūs-os from a verbal stem die- “to chase, impel,” suggesting an original “impeller of the world-tree.”

Thanks for reading. If you have any corrections or insights, please share!

I don't know if this counts as etymology but I couldn't think of a better subreddit

Huh.