Day four of fascinating etymology! Here I am, scripting away at processing an etymological dictionary, discovering all sorts of curiosities, and sharing them daily.
The surname Biden likely originates from the verb bide, meaning “to endure, to wait. From the Old English bīdan and Germanic root. However, etymological dictionaries also mention Biden as a phonetic doublet of the root bouter (through the variant beat, “to hit”). Choose whichever you like more.
Interestingly, the word кретин (cretin) in Russian comes from the German word “Kretin” (simpleton). In turn, this word entered the German language from the French “crétin.” The French borrowed it from Latin, where it designated a Christian (Christiānus). By the way, Christ (Χριστός) literally means “the anointed one.”
The words sovereign (ruler, monarch) and soprano (soprano) originate from the same Latin root super — “above, beyond,” but entered the English language through different languages and cultural contexts, acquiring different meanings.
Everyone knows that the word “шедевр” (masterpiece) is French, from chef-d’œuvre — literally “chief work.” Chef comes from the Latin caput — head; hence la capitale (capital), captain, and capitol, which I wrote about a few days ago. And immediately it’s clear why in French chapitre is a chapter in a book, and capiteux means intoxicating, heady. Thus, Œuvre is work, labor. Interestingly, this word traces back to the Latin opera (in nominative case opus). Modus operandi — method of operation. Our operation is of the same lineage. From the same root also come the words ouvrier (worker) and les jours ouvrables (working days). Thus, opera is labor, as is opus. Right now, I’m listening to “Samson and Delilah,” quite fitting.
And this morning, I went to return some Amazon purchases to the Kohl store. They accept them there. So, not sure what else they accept, but Kohl is the same as alcohol. Both words derive from the Arabic root — الكحل (al-kuḥl). Initially, it meant “stibnite — a powdery mineral (usually antimony), used as a cosmetic for the eyes. Later, the meaning expanded in alchemy. First, it referred to any fine powder, then to a concentrated substance obtained by distillation, and finally to alcohol, as a product of distilling wine. In English, Kohl remained associated with cosmetics. But the Kohl’s store, of course, comes from the surname Kohl, German, Maxwell Kohl, and his surname in German means “cabbage.”
The word bedlam (meaning “chaos,” “mayhem”) originates from the name of the London hospital “St. Mary of Bethlehem,” which, since the 1400s, was designated for treating the mentally ill. Over time, the pronunciation of “Bethlehem” shifted to bedlam, and this term came to denote any situation where chaos and confusion reign.
Also, flask (“flask”) and fiasco (“fiasco”) share a common origin — the Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ — “bottle, container, encased container.” In Italian, a fiasco is a bottle. The expression fare fiasco — “to make a bottle” → “to mess up on stage” (in theatrical slang). Metaphorically: failure = “like a broken bottle” or “the loser pays for the bottle.” It entered English with this meaning through French.
It turns out Alice and Adelaide originate from the same Old High German name Adalheidis (adal — “noble,” heid / heit — “nature, essence, condition”).
Array and ready are etymological relatives, originating from the same Proto-Germanic root *raidaz, meaning “ready, organized, prepared.”
Going back to our cretins. I didn’t mention details earlier because it would have disrupted the “flow.” The word “cretin” appeared in Switzerland. More precisely, among the French-speaking people living in the Alps (this area is called Romandy). It’s particularly in mountainous areas where they often encounter endemic cretinism. The disease develops due to insufficient iodine in the mother’s diet during pregnancy.
In the 18th century, in Romandy, patients with cretinism were called “poor Christians” (pauvre chrétien). But they didn’t say chrétien, but crétin due to regional language characteristics. Other regions picked up this distorted word and started using it to describe people suffering from this disease. Hence the medical term “cretinism (when the thyroid gland releases insufficient hormones due to iodine deficiency, leading to serious mental and physical development disorders).
Originally, “cretin” meant “unfortunate Christian” (foolish, blessed). At the end of the 18th century, the term “cretinism” spread through European languages. But it entered the Russian language in the early 19th century via German!
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Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 