I don't have any long blogging projects planned yet, I haven't read any new good books recently (Though I did read Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn last week and if you haven't read it you should - especially if you have any interest in traditional European mythology and folktales, plus it will totally make you cry and it's about unicorns so there's nothing to lose), I'm not particularly riled about the state of education or literature at the moment and I don't have much else to say, so instead this blog is going to showcase a few gems of etymology I've discovered over the summer that I think more people will find hilarious, enlightening, and generally filthy.
These are presented in no particular order, and listed this way only because I found some them to be amusing. If I remind you too much of your grandmother's email forwards please scroll down until you see words like "cunt" and take comfort in the fact that when you're calling someone a sycophant you're being much more insulting than you had imagined.
"Vanilla - 1660s, from Sp. vainilla "vanilla plant," lit. "little pod," dim. of vaina "sheath," from L. vagina "sheath". So called from the shape of the pods. European discovery 1521 by Hernando Cortes' soldiers on reconnaissance in southeastern Mexico. Meaning "conventional, of ordinary sexual preferences" is 1970s, from notion of whiteness and the common choice of vanilla ice cream."
"Twat - 1650s, of unknown origin. A general term of abuse since 1920s.
The T-word occupies a special niche in literary history, however, thanks to a horrible mistake by Robert Browning, who included it in 'Pippa Passes' (1841) without knowing its true meaning. 'The owls and bats,/Cowls and twats,/Monks and nuns,/In a cloister's moods.' Poor Robert! He had been misled into thinking the word meant 'hat' by its appearance in 'Vanity of Vanities,' a poem of 1660, containing the treacherous lines: 'They'd talk't of his having a Cardinalls Hat,/They'd send him as soon an Old Nuns Twat.' (There is a lesson here about not using words unless one is very sure of their meaning.) [Hugh Rawson, "Wicked Words," 1989]"
"Sycophant - 1530s (in L. form sycophanta), "informer, talebearer, slanderer," from L. sycophanta, from Gk. sykophantes, originally "one who shows the fig," from sykon "fig" + phanein "to show." "Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, itself symbolic of a cunt (sykon also meant "vulva"). The story goes that prominent politicians in ancient Greece held aloof from such inflammatory gestures, but privately urged their followers to taunt their opponents. The sense of "mean, servile flatterer" is first recorded in English 1570s."
"Shoo - 1620s, "to drive away by calling 'shoo,' " from the exclamation (late 15c.), instinctive, cf. Ger. schu, It. scioia. Shoo-in "easy winner (especially in politics)" (1939) was originally a horse that wins a race by pre-arrangement (1928; the verb phrase shoo in in this sense is from 1908). Shoo-fly, admonition to a pest, was popularized by a Dan Bryant minstrel song c.1870, which launched it as a catch-phrase that, according to H.L. Mencken, "afflicted the American people for at least two years." Shoo-fly pie is attested from 1935."
"Mooreeffoc - "coffee-room, viewed from the inside through a glass door, as it was seen by Dickens on a dark London day; ... used by Chesterton to denote the queerness of things that have become trite, when they are seen suddenly from a new angle." [J.R.R. Tolkien]"
Here's hoping that you had a great summer and are preparing to write quite a lot of wonderful things.
If you ever need inspiration feel free to waste an afternoon at the Online Etymology Dictionary website, which is the source for all the silliness listed above and is an excellent place to find emergency sources for all your left-to-the-last-second papers.
Cheers,
- Alli
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