Plus Etymologiae

This link came up on my Facebook feed recently from Mental Floss, 11 Weirdly Spelled Words - And How They Got That Way. I thought it would be a good followup to the last blog post. It's interesting to see how some English words came to be spelled the way they are, especially the ones that seem to make no sense (I'm looking at you, words that begin with k but are followed by a consonant). I was not aware of the so-called "Latinizing" craze of the 16th and 17th centuries (but to be fair, I wasn't there). I like how they were trying to "fancify" (I don't know if that's a word and I don't want to live in a world where it's not) words, just to make things complicated for us. Things would be a lot easier if receipt didn't have that sneaky p. And really, I feel like they were just doing it to be jerks. It's really a stretch to take the s out of insula and stick it in iglund to make island. To be fair, it's not just the Latin-English. Look at colonel! That's just evil.

For a bonus (Latin word turned English alert!), check out 10 Old English Words You Should Be Using. On that note, I will close with this:

Etymologia

One of my favourite YouTube channels is Mental Floss (http://www.youtube.com/user/MentalFlossVideo). Every week they have a list show with facts on different subjects. This week's show was "40 Weird Word Origins".

Now, as I really enjoy etymology, I thought this was a great subject. Of course, there were a lot of words with Latin origins, so it's a great topic for a Latin blog!

Here is a list of the English words discussed that were derived from Latin:

• Lemur - meaning "spirits of the dead" or "family ghost", according to my Halloween vocab. Derived from lemur, lemuris. Also, if I have a family ghost, I'm cool with it being a lemur.
• Muscle - meaning "little mouse". Derived from mus, muris (mouse) and the suffix -cle, altering noun to make diminutive.
• Salmon - meaning "to leap". Derived from salio, salire, salui, saltus; Latin equivalent salmo, salmonis.
• Apprehend - meaning "to grasp". Derived from...(wait for it)...apprehendo, apprehendere, apprehendi, apprehensus.
• Candidate - meaning "white robed". Derived from candidatus, candidata, candidatum.
• Nice - meaning..."ignorant"? Really? Apparently derived from nescius, nescia, nescium.
• Noon - meaning "9th Hour". Derived from nonus, nona, nonum and hora, horae.
• Escape - meaning "out cloak" according to Mental Floss, but I have to disagree. Wouldn't it make more sense to be derived from ex- (out of) and capio, capere, cepi, captum (to take hold of/grasp)?
• Ambulance - meaning "walking". Derived from ambulans, ambulantis.
• Lobster - meaning "locus", but this one I had trouble with. According to my handy copy of The New College Latin and English Dictionary (tagline: The Only Latin-English Dictionary Available At Chapters In St. Catharines ™), locust is locusta, locustae, and lobster has it's own Latin word, astacus, astaci. I don't know if the word lobster has been heavily modified or the dictionary is just not giving me another word.
• Senator - meaning "old". Derived from senex, senis.

Many of the other words would also be derived from Latin indirectly, particularly the French and Italian words. It's interesting to hear how words form and the journey they take to become part of out vocabulary.

Harrius Potter

When I tell people I am taking Latin, I usually get one of two responses depending who I'm talking to. The response from the older generation (i.e. parents/grandparents) is something like, "Oh...why?" or "Isn't that a dead language?" or "Why on God's earth would you take that?!" The response from the younger generation (i.e. people my age-ish) is surprisingly different. People are actually impressed. Of course my brother Chad is not included in this, as he is unimpressed with anything I do, ever:

Anyways, a common comment I receive is, "Soon you can read Harry Potter in Latin!" And herein I think is where Latin becomes cool again. Harry Potter. It goes without saying that the Harry Potter books were some of the most popular books of the last 50 years. There aren't many popular modern books that incorporate Latin as part of the story as much as the Harry Potter books. There are very interesting posts on the Hogwarts Professor and Greek Geek blogs that explore the Latin used. Obviously a lot of the Latin is not great, with words made up and mixing in other languages. A debate has arisen online: Is it a terrible thing that the books use "Dog Latin", or is just the fact they use Latin, bad or not, a good thing? I have to agree with the latter, because to even spark an interest in the language is a good thing. If someone becomes interested in Latin, they will want to research more into it, perhaps even learn it, and in that case they will (hopefully) learn proper form and words. And learning to speak Latin like Hermione Granger is not a terrible thing.

Myself, I'm taking Latin partially because it's strongly recommended for my major (Medieval and Renaissance Studies). The other reason is from reading historical fiction. In the books I read (which generally take place in late Medieval-early Renaissance Europe), Latin is a language frequently mentioned as being a language spoken at court and in the church. As I read these novels, I'm often on Google researching characters and events as I go. I love language in general, and learning Latin is an extension of this Google research on a larger scale. Hopefully with more prestige?

Nope, he's still not impressed.