Word Facts

Numbers, and therefore counting, may seem to be fixed, but this is only half true. Numbers are objective, but there are multiple ways of counting, and there is evidence to suggest that inclusive reckoning (i.e. counting, usually days, including the first and/or last day) was more common in the past than the alternative. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Israelites all counted like this, which we know from written works, mostly describing time. A clear example is with the ' nones ' (from the root word of 'nine') of the month being the 8th day, or that the period between Olympic games, which happen every 4 years, was called the pentaeteris, from 'pent' ('five'). This also shows up in the Bible and in musical notations, which will be explored over the next few days. If you know of any yourself, write a comment.

Esperanto may be the most famous artificial language—it is certainly the most learnt one— but 'Esperanto' was not supposed to be its name. Many also believe it was named after the founder, but he was only nicknamed Dr. Esperanto, his real name being Dr. L.L. Zamenhof. He also intended to call the language 'Lingvo Internacia', but soon after got the name 'Esperanto' meaning 'he who is hoping'. In that regard, it is not as artificial even as it was set out. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

There is an alphabet for speaking letters (listed below) that goes by many names including 'International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet', and 'NATO Phonetic Alphabet'. This started with the advent of phones, as many letters sound similar, such as P and B or M and N when said individually, but each country had its own set, mostly standardized by the military. However, as long-distance travel became more accessible, people from different linguistic backgrounds often had trouble understanding, so in 1947 the International Air Transport Association made a list suitable for speakers of English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, even if it mostly draws from English. Support Word Facts for even more: patreon.com/wordfacts And to see a video on globalization of English, click here . Full alphabet as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Unif

A lot of US states are named for Native American tribes or other native words, others come Europe, but at least one comes from nowhere. There are certainly some intriguing states-etymologies like ' California ', but 'Idaho' doesn't really have one at all. A lobbyist George Willing said it was from Shoshone when he proposed the name, but later admitted he made it up, and the Shoshone etymology is likely fabricated. No one knows how he came up with 'Idaho', but many that suggest other native origins neglect the fact that we might not have really have had significant contact with tribes of the area. Check out the latest video, about accents of English across the globe: https://youtu.be/F2tYDTiv7qQ

Watch the latest video here:  https://youtu.be/F2tYDTiv7qQ

It is typical for any language for some of the sounds to change over time. You can see more about this regarding English in the video released today . This is one of the reasons ( among many ) that the Hebrew alphabet not only multiple pairs of letters able to represent the same sounds, but also 3 letters representing no sound, sort of. One of these letters, now often mistakenly likened to a vowel in Hebrew, and acting as a vowel for Yiddish and Ladino, ע (ayin) ‎but traditionally this sound was a glottal fricative, having a similar oral posture (position of the mouth) as with [s] but produced at the back of the throat. Now it is most often a glottal stop. In Arabic, it still usually retains this pronunciation, but it varies in different regions.

Esperanto and globalism—particularly pan-Europeanism—have always gone hand in hand. While the Euro was not created for Esperanto, Esperantists have before tried to create currencies, namely the spesmilo and the stelo, the former of which was used by a real cheque bank. In 1907 the Ĉekbanko Esperantista was founded for the Spesmilo in London. Many have called the Euro 'Esperanto money', and in a way this is not so wrong. For more thoughts on Esperanto, check out the Word Theory from yesterday.

About 80% of Yiddish vocabulary is from German, more or less depending on dialect, but when it comes to grammar the number is harder to discern. For instance, it is common for Yiddish to have the diminutive suffix -l (ל-), even using this in place of the word for small 'kleyn' (קליין) as is the case in German. For instance, 'city' in German is 'Stadt' (pronounced like SH-t [ʃt]), and in Yiddish it's 'shtot' (שטאָט), but a town—when not a village—is sometimes 'Kleinstadt' or just 'kleine Stadt' in German but 'shtetl' (שטעטל‎) in Yiddish. However, this Yiddish feature is Germanic, not Slavic or Hebraic, and does appear infrequently in some dialects. For instance, the Austrian town Neustadtl an der Donau (literally: New Little Town on the Danube) uses this convention, which is not really standard for German.

While 'copper' for 'policeman' might not be related to metal [1], the history of the term for a metal is much richer. The word may ultimately come from Latin in the form of 'cuprum', but the whole thing comes from Cyprus [2], insofar as that Latin was a contraction of 'Cyprium aes': Cypriot metal. In fact, the first ever man-made metal alloy, 'bronze' is made partly from copper, and was originally made in that part of the world. It was so common that the words for 'copper', 'bronze', or even metal objects— particularly cash coins—were at times indistinguishable in Latin, simply referred to as 'aes'. Eventually 'cuprum' meant the distinct copper we know today, and 'aes' became 'ore' when it entered English.

There's a belief that the term 'copper' for police officer comes from copper badges, but this is folk etymology. Instead, it comes from the verb 'to cop', meaning 'to seize' referencing their arrests. This root is very old however, and it is also related to the modern word 'cheap', since the root word (something like 'kap-') meant 'to grab' and in other languages derivative terms sometimes mean 'to buy'. Get more from Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

Following from yesterday , there looks like at least one exception to the Germanic patter of words similar to 'siker' meaning 'safe; certain', and that's the Dutch 'sjikker' meaning 'drunk'. This is actually not related at all, and comes from Hebrew rather than Latin like the others ultimately. Dutch and Hebrew—neither Biblical nor Modern—were in much contact, so 'sjikker' comes from the Hebrew שִׁיכֺּור‎ (šikkōr) meaning 'drunkard' via Yiddish שיכּור‎ (shiker). This Yiddish word has in turn also led to the German 'schikker' and the English 'shikker' (alcoholic) but these are both fairly dated. Support for Word Facts comes from patreon.com/wordfacts , where you can see even more content.

Most Germanic words meaning 'secure; certain' along the lines of 'zeker' (Dutch) or 'sicher' (German) are related etymologically. The English word 'sure' and indeed 'secure' are as well, though they are more distinct. It wasn't always this way, as there was the word 'siker', which is in use in some British dialects, mostly northern, and Scots. This might lead you to believe that 'sikker' and its various forms in each Germanic language was originally Germanic and not Romantic in origin, but actually all of them come from the Latin 'securus' meaning 'without care'. Give that these derivatives now usually means "safe; certain", this is sort of a reversal of meaning, but it used to mean 'free', and is related to the English 'sinecure', meaning 'carefree' i.e. something that doesn't require work and is therefore safer. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

The titles of 'kaiser', 'caesar', and 'czar' all mean 'emperor' [1] in different languages, but 'czar' can also be spelt 'csar', 'tzar' or 'tsar'. The word in Russian is царь with ц representing the 'ts' (ь is the symbol for softening consonants ). It is not uncommon for a single letter to represent this double-articulation; German orthography does this with Z and the Hebrew alphabet has צ as an equivalent, but the difference here in spelling from using the increasingly standard Ts/Tz for English words broadly, and was adopted later. Cs/Cz is older was introduced into English by a Slovenian, Sigismund von Herberstein, who used the convention used by many Slavic or other Eastern Europeans for writing that sound generally.

While 'of Arc' was a name and not a title for ' Joan of Arc ', 'Bruce' was a title and a name for Robert the Bruce. For the Scottish king known as both Robert I and Robert VIII de Bruce in Scotland, he actually follows a line of men named Robert de Brus that went back at least 200 years before his birth. The change from 'de Brus' to 'the Bruce' was not ubiquitous at the time, though it mostly is now, but it was simply a misinterpretation of the French 'de' (of). 'Bruce'—both here and as the modern first name—comes from the Norman city 'Brix' meaning 'the willowlands'. Scotland was close diplomatically to the French, and most nobility used 'de', like his contemporary Sir Roger de Kirkpatrick of Closeburn.

Joan of Arc's name wasn't 'of Arc' (d'Arc in French) as discussed yesterday , but it is even more complicated than this. For one thing, her name wasn't Joan as it is in English, or even really Jeanne as it is rendered in French, but Jehanne as she spelt it. It was rendered as Joan in English because there was no other equivalent at the time, though now there are many female forms of John. Also, her father's surname was something like Darc (though there are many other possibilities) but in Medieval society, a woman took her mother's name; in Joan's case her mother's was 'Romée' but she also went by Isabelle de Vouthon. Last names weren't universal in Medieval France though, and she mostly was called "la Pucelle d'Orléans" (The Maid of Orleans).

In European societies, it was typical for the titles of nobility to include place-names, but with "Joan of Arc" or "Jeanne d'Arc", this was not the case. She was not born in Arc but Domrémy. Moreover she was a peasant and this was her father's name, so it definitely wasn't for nobility. It is believed instead that this comes from a misinterpretation of 'Darc' or 'Dars' or something like this. French elides its vowels so 'de' before places with vowels it is now written d', but the apostrophe was not always part of French spelling.Since the apostrophe would not be used until later in French, and because surnames were not universal then, it was miscorrected after her death. There will be more on her name tomorrow. Support Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

The word 'artificial' often has connotations towards 'insincere' or 'unnatural', but like ' artifice ', this is not what it originally meant. Initially, it just meant 'hand-crafted', although certain phrases like 'artificial intelligence' use 'artificial' this way, since 'art' used to mean 'craft; skill'. This is even exhibited in the German word for 'artificial intelligence' is 'künstliche Intelligenz'; in German 'Kunst' is 'art' so while not a loan word, the pattern is still the same. See more that Word Facts can offer here: patreon.com/wordfacts

It is commonly known Columbus thought the Caribbean to be India upon arrival but a less known false assumption was that the Spanish thought the Solomon Islands (officially just "Solomon Islands") to be the Biblical lands of Ophir, famous for its wealth. The riches were not there as people of other islands claimed, but the name stuck. This is not the first time a place has been thought to be Ophir, as has happened in South America, Asia, and Africa before, but this is most obvious with Africa as the name comes from the Romanized form of one Carthaginian tribe who lived in the wealthy area of what is now Tunisia, it is theorized that this is where Ophir really was. If this is true, it ultimately is believed to come from the native Phoenician for either 'dust' (afar) or more likely 'cave' (ifri).

The Bible is the most translated book in the world, but this is not without its difficulties. Some languages have multiple competing translations because it each word can be such a debated issue, but this pales in comparison to the difficulty that was had translating it into further flung languages. Often this is true for translating flora and fauna, or other specific terms, but for instance, a difficulty for the translation into Taetae ni Kiribati (a.k.a. Gilbertese), spoken in a country whose highest point is 81m, was that there was no word for 'mountain' or 'hill' etc. Read more like this here .

Although English has in many cases synonyms that come from multiple languages, this is not the case with 'dairy' and 'milk'. It is only very recently that 'dairy' on its own has meant 'milk and its byproducts". In Old English, 'dǣge' meant 'female servant', thence 'dairymaid', and indeed 'lady' comes from this ending, along with 'hlǣf' 'meaning 'loaf' (literally 'dough-maid'). Moreover, the word 'dough' is related to 'dairy' etymologically. In Middle English, and even technically today 'a dairy' is a building where milk products are processed and stored, and along with the other similar terms would have been associated with women's work more generally. Support Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

It is not know where '-sit' in 'babysit' comes from, but what is known is that the word evolved in an atypical manner. The first recorded use of the phrase comes from the 1930's in the form of 'babysitter' with 'babysit' following a decade later. This is called backformation , and it may have occurred doubly, as 'babysitting' is documented at least a year before 'babysit' as well, though this could just be due to the means of data-collection, and not so indicative. Either way, the '-sit' is thought to come from an older meaning of the word, some saying it relates to hens sitting on eggs, and others say it comes from the idea of someone sitting by a crib. Get more benefits from Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

Though they sound similar, 'wink' and 'blink' have totally different origins. For one thing, 'wink' used to mean what 'blink' does now. This changed over time in the Middle Ages in part due to 'wince', to which it is related, and other senses of the word meaning 'blink irregularly' or even 'to signal'. Blinking on the other hand, meant something more like 'twinkle; shine' and also related to grimacing in pain, being related to 'blench'. It only came to mean what it does after meaning "sharply or suddenly moving the eyelids", but this connection is pretty close. See more about etymologies here: https://youtu.be/AviuxNIvdPM

Over the last week, the posts have focused on naming things in our solar system. An obvious source is the Roman pantheon of gods, and while that may seem strange, looking at other cultures it is anything but. In languages ranging from Chinese to Hebrew to Nahuatl, rather than using the same words—even in scientific contexts as is often the case—different mythological systems will inspire naming the cosmos. Indeed, even in newer discoveries this happens. With 'Neptune', named for its blue color like the ocean and the Roman god thereof, it is 'Rahab' (רהב) in Hebrew named for a sea monster and 'Tlāloccītlalli' in Nahuatl after the Aztec rain-god. While these are newer, most cultures used mythology to inspire the names of these celestial bodies, and the two often related culturally as well. This concludes the week-long series, but you can can get them all together here .

There are many naming conventions for features of planets, such as siller ones mentioned yesterday, as well as more traditional ones. For instance, with few exceptions, all the features of Venus have feminine names, and all the features of Mars have masculine ones. There are at least 3 physical features named for male scientists on Venus, but even so most modern naming is feminine. This comes from the idea that Mars and Venus as gods represented the male and female forms, and any newer names are a nod to this. Get more out of Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

All other planets in the solar system (and a few other bodies) are named for Roman gods, but modern naming conventions are a bit less grandiose. Lord of the Rings, for instance, has been the inspiration for the names of some of the features of Titan, a Saturnian moon, and authors who wrote about Mars were memorialized in the names of physical features on Deimos, a Martian moon, named for the god of terror to correspond with Mars, the god of war. There are numerous easter-eggs—informal and formal—like this in cosmic, and particularly galactic nomenclature, so if you know any more, feel free to leave a comment, though there will be more tomorrow about other, older traditions. Read more from the last few days here . Support Word Facts on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Pluto was demoted from being a planet in 2006, but this was not the first time something like that's happened. The word 'planet' was not terribly meaningful throughout much of history. Classically, both the Sun and the Moon were considered planets, part of the "seven classical planets". The word 'planet' comes from two Greek words, πλάνης (planēs) and πλανήτης (planētēs). The former meant 'planet' like we'd think now but also 'star', and they both meant 'wanderer', describing anything moving in the cosmos. See more from the Solar System Series here: https://stonewordfacts.blogspot.com/search?q=s.s.

Again, of the two planets unknown (as planets) to the Romans, 'Neptune' still got a Roman name (see 'uranus' here ). At first, it was just called "Le Verrier's planet" after the discoverer, but the English again pushed for Uranus to be called 'Herschel' after its discoverer, and these were used for a short time, until it was decided to keep tradition and name the planets after Roman mythology, so 'Neptune' was selected, as it is an icy, blue planet, and therefore named after the god of the ocean. Many other language's name for the planet come from their respective mythology around the ocean as well, from Chinese to Hebrew and even Nahuatl, rather than using the same word. There will be more on this tomorrow.

All of the 6 planets known to the Romans were named for gods , but the fact that the rest are too was never a forgone conclusion. Uranus was the next to be considered a planet, though it was always known about even before telescopes. It was named because Uranus was the father of Saturn in Roman mythology, and Saturn is the planet before Uranus, though the name wasn't popular outside of Britain. The discoverer Herschel wanted to name it after King George III, calling it 'Georgium Sidus' (George's Star), though it was not a star, though this name was unpopular, and many called it 'Neptune' for some time, as a way to commemorate British naval victories. The last planet, 'Neptune', will be discussed tomorrow.

All of the planets, except for Earth, in the solar system are named for Roman gods. The reasons for most of the names are fairly straightforward. Mercury, what appeared as the fastest planet, was named for the messenger god; Venus was named after the goddess of love—same as the Babylonians—because it is so bright; Mars, a red planet is from the god of war; and Jupiter, the biggest planet is from the king of the gods; Saturn was named for the god of agriculture because it was thought to be a sun. However, these were the only known planets in Roman times, and it was not always a done-deal that the rest of the planets would borrow the tradition. The rest of the planets will be discussed in the post tomorrow. See more here: https://stonewordfacts.blogspot.com/2019/07/1687-naming-planets-after-hell-jul-28.html

In Western Europe from the 12th-19th centuries (esp. the 14th-18th centuries) so-called 'laid paper' was the dominant form of paper-making. While most paper made today does not have this style, there are subtle traces in the language. Laid paper is made by placing a wired sieve in water mixed with linen-pulp, and then leaving it to dry. This would leave small lines across the paper that were thinner where the pulp fell on the sieve. Paper manufacturers would also put symbols on these sieves as a sort of stamp, and this mark was called a 'watermark' as it was made from the water evaporating off while the paper dried over it. The term is now used for other symbols used for protecting copyrights. For another example of paper-making's effect on language, click here: 'Stationary' and 'Stationery'

There were more Ruthenians in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth than Lithuanians, as mentioned yesterday [1], but since no one speaks it anymore, it is natural to wonder where they all went. The truth is that they didn't go anywhere, more than normal anyhow, but that the language split into several different ones, namely Belarusian, Ukrainian, and controversially, Rusyn. Rusyn, spoken mostly in Slovakia, Serbia, and Poland is the most similar to Ruthenian (occasionally Rusyn is called 'Ruthene') but while those in places like Slovakia, the US and Hungary etc. tend to consider it its own language, Ukrainians, Poles and Serbs etc. hold that it is actually a dialect of Ukrainian. https://youtu.be/PKXEg15Etk0

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had at least 5 official languages, but none was Lithuanian. Instead however, two contemporaneously dead languages—Latin and Hebrew—were official, as well as the now-dead Ruthenian, along with German and Polish. This is because those were the languages used for legal purposes, since almost all the nobility were Polish, and some laws and scientific materials were written in Latin. Jews often had their own laws and scholarship, for which they wrote in Hebrew, even though they spoke Yiddish normally. The official recognition of German and Ruthenian was mostly for the sake of foreign relations, though there were more Ruthenian speakers than Lithuanian speakers at some points. In fact, by some standards there was more recognition of Armenian than Lithuanian, despite there being only a small population. https://youtu.be/E8wxfur1HwI