Word Facts

There is a no word 'linch' despite the existence of the compound 'linchpin'. Indeed, the fact that it is around in the way it is comes from that there is no 'linch'. In Old English, the origin 'lynis' meant 'axle', hence a linchpin holds the wheel to the axle, but it could also mean the whole axletree. It is not to say that 'linchpin' is therefore not etymologically redundant, but with the introduction of 'axle' from Old Norse 'ǫxultré' it only survived from the compound. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Margarine can contain lots of things, from vegetable to animal fats, but almost certainly not real pearls. Nevertheless, the name comes from the Greek μαργαρίτης (margarítēs), meaning ‘pearl’. This was in reference to the color of the crystals of various esters which is how it was made originally. This is especially clear in older uses, which would use 'margarine' to refer to any solid form of any fat, including human or animal fat, which is much more believable that it isn't butter. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

When one refers to something, or someone's heyday, this is used to denote the height of success in some way or another, but this only even became a noun recently. Indeed, this used to be an exclamation—not much unlike 'hooray'—as is still kept with the interjection 'hey', though the two are probably not related except for syllabic simplicity. It is generally held that 'heyday comes as a variation of 'high day', and other similar phrases from Dutch and German support this. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

In these trying times, it is important to trust medical professionals. That said, there has always been a distrust of doctors, hence where the verb 'to doctor', as in 'to alter' comes from. 'Doctor' comes from Latin, but the verbal form is attested at least from 1509 meaning "to give someone a doctoral degree". This was originally not a negative idea at all, but by the 18th century it eventually took on the meaning of "change; disguise; forge". Support Word Facts on patreon.com.wordfacts

English and German differ in many key ways, but share many lexical and cultural traits. For instance, the word 'heiß' in German is 'hot' in English—German [s] often is realized as [t] in English—but is doesn't share every connotation. 'Heiß', like 'hot' relates to physical temperature, and to physical attraction, but not to spice as it does in English. For that, Germans use 'scharf', which is related to 'sharp' . Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

English is by no means the only language lacking diacritic marks on its letters regularly, but for known for having plenty of loan words, or words that have different meaning depending upon the stress, it is strange. However, there are some exceptions, and especially with proper nouns . For instance, there are only 5 places in the USA which have an Ñ in their names, those being Cañon City, Colorado, La Cañada Flintridge, California; Española, New Mexico; Peñasco, New Mexico; and Cañones, New Mexico. Support Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

Alphabets, and what is or isn't included therein, are just as if not more cultural than linguistic in many cases. For instance, English speakers do not consider any combinations of letters separate, even if they regularly make a distinct sound like SH for ʃ, but Spanish speakers do, considering LL, RR, and CH as distinct in the alphabet. Moreover, the Spanish Ñ was created as a sort of shorthand for a double-n, and as such it too is given its own spot in the alphabet. This shouldn't be too strange for even English speakers, since W was originally just a double-V (which was the same as U in Latin for a long time, hence the name), and it has its own place. However, this is not true in the Spanish alphabet for any vowels, and likewise the French Ç is not given its own spot in the French alphabet; it really comes down to history and culture. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

When we think of 'paste', most people probably associate that with a thick liquid made as a blend of ingredients, so the fact that the word is also related to the more solid 'pastry' and 'pasta' might come as a surprise. However, consider that both pastas and pastries must first begin as a dough and the connection becomes clearer. Its original meaning from the Latin 'pasta' was something closer to 'glue-mixture', and so thick liquid, doughs, pastes, or even 'pâte' (also from this root) were lumped in together. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

John Hancock's name is synonymous with signatures because his is the largest and most prominent on the US Constitution. This is no accident or act of impropriety, because in 1776, when the Constitution was signed, he was the president of Congress, though to be clear this job was not a precursor to the role of President of the USA, and is more comparable to the position of Speaker of the House or Senate Majority Leader in Congress today. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Lots of words relate to theft, stealing, robbery, burglary, and even one which already a few that meant "rob a place violently, especially in wartime": 'pillage', 'ransack', 'plunder'. Given this concept clearly a persistent one then, the fact that in the 18th century, at least by 1788 to be specific, English adopted another might then come as a surprise. However, the term 'loot' coming from the verb 'lūt', was adopted from a Hindustani language when the East India Company was conquering India. This verb was common enough, but gained more popularity from its use associated with other 19th century wars in China, Crimea, and India. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Many times, countries are named after the majority of the people who inhabit it like Slovakia, Kazakhstan, or Israel, but not always. In the case, of Switzerland or Portugal, both of these countries got their respective names from smaller cities within them, neither of which happen to be the national capital. 'Switzerland' comes from the town 'Schwyz', after a union between it and two other areas, Uri and Unterwalden, to form the Eidgenossenschaft (Confederacy), but the demonym 'Eidgenosse' did not catch on elsewhere as much as the older 'Schwytzer', and that stuck around into the formation of 'Switzerland'. Portugal's etymology is less clear, though it was certainly named for one of the seaports ('portus' in Latin), it is unclear which; at any rate, it isn't Lisbon, and one leading theory suggests it was the Roman Portus Cale named after the Gauls, which is nowadays Porto. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

There are lots of names for republics, such as Islamic Republics , (e.g. Afghanistan; Iran), Democratic Republics (e.g. Congo ), so-called Democratic Republics (e.g. China; Bangladesh), People's Democratic Republics (e.g Laos ) and many more qualifications, though these don't really have any specific meaning. Some countries will also officially use their own names, such as Argentine Republic or Portuguese Republic, but there is one country which uses neither description nor name: that of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This name for Venezuela was only adopted in place of Republic of Venezuela in 1999 to reflect the "Bolivarian Revolution", a socialist uprising, named after Simón Bolívar whose own liberal revolutions occurred some 190 years earlier. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

If one were to be asked to think of a European ethnic group who settled in Soviet Kazakhstan, it would be reasonable to think of Russians, but also nearly a million Germans lived there by 1989. Cases like this with Kasachstandeutsche as they are called, along with similar situations Eastern Europe, Siberia, and in South America (especially in the states of Espírito Santo and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil)—all of which Germans fled to during or after the Second World War—have led to certain regions which were never formally part of the German Empire adopting German as an official, regional language. In the last two or three decades especially however, the German speech and overall populations have declined. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

With all of the land- and population-transfers that have happened in Central and Eastern Europe, many places have several totally different names, a common meaning is sometimes retained throughout. Germany and Poland both have regions which translate to 'West Pomerania' ('Vorpommern' and 'Zachodniopomorskie' respectively). These were once one area, and while the German side contains more of the historical region and until 1945 made up the significant majority of the population, the rest of Pomerania is still in Poland. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

It is from the anglicization of French that 'Arkansas' and 'Kansas' have the discrepancy in the pronunciation, but this is not the only area in the region for which this holds true. The Ozarks, a mountain range nestled mostly between Missouri, Arkansas, and a bit of Oklahoma in the United States gets its name from the French 'aux Arc' which either means 'land of the arches', or is possibly short for 'aux Arkansas' (of Arkansas). Notably, despite certain phonetic similarities, the river that feeds the Lake of the Ozarks in that area, Osage River, is not related etymologically, as it is named for the Osage tribe. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

English verb tenses have lots of different patterns, often without discernible rules. Some, like 'ring' change internally for tense ('rang') and aspect ('rung'). Others, however, like 'put', 'shut', 'wed' and many more don't change at all, whether by interval vowel change or by a suffix, like '-ed'. This means "they put the book on the table" is ambiguous. These are irregular, and in many syntactic models to map English grammar, these ('put' and 'put', that is) are treated as grammatically different. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

A wanderwort is a word which has been adopted into many languages, accounting for specific language variation too, but which are not necessarily linguistically connected. For instance, the Indo-European root meaning 'silver' is actually more in line with the Latin 'argentum' (see ' Argentina ') but many Germanic and Balto-Slavic words, including the German 'Silber', Russian 'serebro', or Lithuanian 'sidabras' come from this other root. It has been debated where this comes from, but it is possibly from a language native to the Iberian peninsula, predating the Romantic presence there, which was written about yesterday . Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Basque , spoken mostly in Spain, is not related to any other known language, but being once surrounded by Celtic languages, and for the last 2,000 years or so, Romantic ones, it has picked up a few loan words. For instance, the word for silver is 'zilharr' which was thought to come from a West Germanic root—the same as with English—but some have claimed that in fact the Germanic version cane from an older Iberian loan instead. There will be more on this tomorrow. For more on languages with no relatives, check out the new post on patreon .

According to the Irish folk song, "Star of the County Down", the belle of the local town is named Rosie, but also called 'Colleen', or 'Colene' in the more English spelling. This apparent discrepancy is not an error at all in fact though, but comes from the fact that a 'colleen' (or 'cailin') is a diminutive of 'caile', an Irish word for 'countrywoman', i.e. "young woman". Indeed, 'Colene', and the masculine 'Colin' both come from this root which basically means 'person', but not 'Kayla', despite the phonetic resemblance. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

The first newspapers in the world were all in German, followed (not all that closely) by Dutch, French and Italian respectively. Unsurprisingly, this mirrored the rise and spread of the printing press, because handwriting news is impractical. However, the first Hungarian newspaper, from 1705, was not in Hungarian or even German but Latin. The Mercurius Hungaricus, named for the Roman messenger-god . Remember that Latin was the official language of Hungary until 1836, an this was a semi-official newspaper. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

As mentioned yesterday , time is very relevant for forming the names of newspapers old and new, but this is not the only way. One common was also with the names of the places they were printed, especially as more and more newspapers came about, but also some, along with other still recognizable names like '—magazine', or '—examiner' we were names from Denmark, Hungary, and England including 'Mercurius' (or 'Mercury', as one might say in English) who was the messenger-god in Roman mythology. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Lots of words relating to, and even names of newspapers derive from things relating to time. Everything from '—Times', '—Chronicle', or '—Journal', or indeed, even the word 'news' all relate the fact that people expect the news, regularly updated. This is reflected in other languages as well, such as the world's second-oldest daily newspaper called "Avisa Relation oder Zeitung" (Avisa Relation or News) with 'Zeitung' meaning 'news' but coming from the word 'Zeit', or in English, 'time'. Having two names, broken up by 'or' was more common back then too. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Birds have very different ways of producing vocal noises, such as with the syrinx , but that is far from where the differences stop. The aptly named 'hornbill' uses not merely the shape of its bill but the whole structure of its skull (as visible below on the left) to produce its vocalizations, making them louder and deeper. It is less certain, but some have speculated that this is what the large crown atop the head of a cassowary (as seen below on the right) is for as well, though the evidence is less conclusive, and its purposes may be promaily visual. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

A 'menagerie' another term for a zoo where animals are displayed, but the clearly related 'ménage' doesn't mean anything of the sort; that refers to the member of a household. Both of these come from the French 'menage' meaning ‘to stay’, related to 'manage' , but is also influenced by the older 'mesnie' meaning 'household'. The zoological version is slightly divergent therefore, though the word is mostly used figuratively to mean 'a strange collection'. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

A lot of names in the Bible are changed when being Anglicized or even Hellenized (linguistically speaking), but perhaps none so much as Achashverosh, or sometimes spelt Ahasuerus (אחשורוש), who is Xerxes (Ξέρξης) in Greek. This is because these were rendered independently, rather than going off the Hebrew as is common for other names. The Hebrew version used in the Bible comes from the Babylonian Aḥšiyaršu, originally from the Persian personal name Xšaya.āršan meaning 'king of men'; the Greek version comes from the related, Old Iranian Xšaya-ṛšā meaning 'ruler of heroes', and he was known to the Greeks as an imperial threat anyway. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Every language, assuming it has a writing system at all, will have different ways of dealing with sounds not neatly represented by one letter. English uses 'h' often in combinations like CH, SH, TH, PH and GH for what are actually single sounds (monophthongs), but Hebrew uses an apostrophe in order represent that the sound is a variant of another letter in the alphabet, such as ג usually representing /g/ is rendered 'ג for the /dʒ/ sound as in 'ginger' or simply /ʒ/ as in the French 'je'. Likewise the /t͡ʃ/ sound, usually written CH in English, is represented as a variant of צ (like TS) , 'צ. In Yiddish however, written in the same alphabet, those two sounds are rendered as דזש (like DZSH in 'jungle), זש (like ZSH, as in the French 'je') and טש (TSH in 'chirp') respectively. Many of those same patterns for Yiddish are similar to those used in German, even though German uses the Latin alphabet. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfa

Today, the name 'Fido' is so associated with being a dog's name that it can be used as a synonym for dog. It is, however, debated as to how this started. The name comes from the Latin literally meaning "I trust", so for man's best friend, this is a suitable name generally perhaps, but many attribute its fame to the fact that President Abraham Lincoln had a dog named Fido, who had a little more press than his others after unfortunately being 'assassinated' by a drunk a few months after the president was. There was also the famous Italian dog Fido who was made famous in many news stories and even a commemorative statue is placed for him, as he was found to make the same daily trip to the bus stop to wait for his master for 14 years in vain, as he had died in a factory bombing. Of course, it could be that the fame of both dogs combined helped to make the name as popular as it is. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Despite the game having its origins in the Middle East, the name 'backgammon' does actually come from English. 'Gammon', which is both one of the elements and a move in the game, comes from the Old English 'gamen', an earlier form of the modern 'game'. The retention of the -n, nowadays makes it distinct, as it has survived only through this name. The other part of the compound, 'back', is fairly consistent, and apparently referring to the fact that the pieces are forced to move back in order to backgammon someone. Before the 17th century, the game was called 'Tables', which you can read more about here . Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Like the first R in 'February', people don't always pronounce the L in 'almond', but it is important historically. Italian, Greek, and Portuguese's words for it—'mandorla',  ἀμυγδάλη (amygdálē) and 'amêndoa' respectively—don't have the L, but the Spanish word 'almendra' does. It is believed for both the A- but especially the AL- prefix, this comes from the Arabic article 'al' , i.e. 'the'. However, in many varieties, even where the L is still present, this is disappearing if it hasn't already. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts