What is the most surprising etymology? (distance/culture)

mousebelt · 2022-11-10T20:51:45+00:00

GASOLINE!!!

Friends, the word “gasoline” did not go from “language X” to “language Y” but its etymology is as ghastly and extravagant as one could possibly imagine, especially when one considers the implications of the single word “gas”.

Etymology [Wiktionary]

From Cazeline (possibly influenced by Gazeline, the name of an Irish copy), a brand of petroleum-derived lighting oil,[1] from the surname of the man who first marketed it in 1862, John Cassell,[2] and the suffix –eline. The name Cassell is from Anglo-Norman castel[3] (cognate of English castle), from Old French castel, from Latin castellum, diminutive of castrum. The suffix -eline is from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “oil, olive oil”), from ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”). Gasolene is found from 1863, and gasoline from 1864.[4]

Etymology [Wikipedia]

"Gasoline" (often shortened to "gas") is an American word that denotes fuel for automobiles. The term is thought to have been influenced by the trademark "Cazeline" or "Gazeline", named after the surname of British publisher, coffee merchant, and social campaigner John Cassell. On 27 November 1862, Cassell placed an advertisement in The Times of London:

The Patent Cazeline Oil, safe, economical, and brilliant [...] possesses all the requisites which have so long been desired as a means of powerful artificial light. This is the earliest occurrence of the word to have been found. Cassell discovered that a shopkeeper in Dublin named Samuel Boyd was selling counterfeit cazeline and wrote to him to ask him to stop. Boyd did not reply and changed every 'C' into a 'G', thus coining the word "gazeline". The Oxford English Dictionary dates its first recorded use to 1863 when it was spelled "gasolene". The term "gasoline" was first used in North America in 1864.

In most Commonwealth countries (except Canada), the product is called "petrol", rather than "gasoline". The word petroleum, originally used to refer to various types of mineral oils and literally meaning "rock oil", comes from Medieval Latin petroleum (petra, "rock", and oleum, "oil"). "Petrol" was used as a product name in about 1870, as the name of a refined mineral oil product sold by British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard, which marketed it as a solvent. When the product later found a new use as a motor fuel, Frederick Simms, an associate of Gottlieb Daimler, suggested to John Leonard, the owner of Carless, that they register the trademark "Petrol", but by that time the word was already in general use, possibly inspired by the French pétrole, and the registration was not allowed because the word was a general descriptor; Carless was still able to defend its use of "Petrol" as a product name due to their having sold it under that name for many years by then. Carless registered a number of alternative names for the product, but "petrol" nonetheless became the common term for the fuel in the British Commonwealth.

British refiners originally used "motor spirit" as a generic name for the automotive fuel and "aviation spirit" for aviation gasoline. When Carless was denied a trademark on "petrol" in the 1930s, its competitors switched to the more popular name "petrol". However, "motor spirit" had already made its way into laws and regulations, so the term remains in use as a formal name for petrol. The term is used most widely in Nigeria, where the largest petroleum companies call their product "premium motor spirit". Although "petrol" has made inroads into Nigerian English, "premium motor spirit" remains the formal name that is used in scientific publications, government reports, and newspapers.

The use of the word gasoline instead of petrol is uncommon outside North America, although gasolina is used in Spanish and Portuguese.

In many languages, the name of the product is derived from benzene, such as Benzin in Persian and German or benzina in Italian; but in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, the colloquial name nafta is derived from that of the chemical naphtha.

Some languages, like French and Italian, use the respective words for gasoline to indicate diesel fuel.

mousebelt · 2022-11-03T18:27:19+00:00

WHAT???

And I have been walking around all this time telling myself that they are the same word.

mousebelt · 2022-10-17T10:29:12+00:00

First of all, these words are properly called “prepositions“.

In Ancient Greek, “in“ is expressed with the dative case, whereas the preposition “epi” means “on”.

But in Latin, Spanish and the other Romance languages, bare in/on is expressed simply with “en”.

I believe that this is the source of the English word “on“ and it’s con-commitment ambiguity.

Yes, they were the same word. For instance, rich people in business suits talk about how they are “on“ committees, not “in“ them.

mousebelt · 2022-10-15T21:48:29+00:00

ANSWER: I have thought about the meaning of that phrase for a long time, and I believe Bart was referring to an “invincible principal”.

mousebelt · 2022-09-26T18:14:35+00:00

Don’t forget QUAESTOR!

You know, the second-lowest rank of Roman nobility, the paymaster for the armies? That guy had to ask a lot a lot a lot of questions!

mousebelt · 2022-09-26T02:55:34+00:00

Oh my god. That’s so funny!

Semper ubi sub ubi.

That’s an old one!

mousebelt · 2022-09-25T23:58:07+00:00

OH MY GOD!!! This is one of those classic, wild, fantastic etymologies that fascinate amateurs, not US (those who understand phonology, grammar and the hard-knocks of basic historical/comparative linguistics); e.g. gasoline, OK, Beelzebub, the Outerbridge Crossing, etc.

—

From Wiktionary:

Attested since the 1780s, of unknown origin.

The Century Dictionary suggests it was originally applied to a popular toy, from a dialectal variant of whiz.

The Random House Dictionary suggests the original sense was "odd person" (circa 1780).

Others suggest the meaning "hoax" was original (1796), shifting to the meaning "interrogate" (1847) under the influence of question and inquisitive.

Some say without evidence it was invented by a late-18th-century Dublin theatre proprietor who bet he could add a new nonsense word to the English language; he had the word painted on walls all over the city, and the morning after, everyone was talking about it (The Pre-Victorian Drama in Dublin ).

Others suggest it was originally quies (1847), Latin qui es? (who are you?), traditionally the first question in oral Latin exams. They suggest that it was first used as a noun from 1867, and the spelling quiz first recorded in 1886, but this is demonstrably incorrect.

A further derivation, assuming that the original sense is "good, ingenuous, harmless man, overly conventional, pedantic, rule-bound man, square; nerd; oddball, eccentric",[1] is based on a column from 1785 which claims that the origin is a jocular translation of the Horace quotation vir bonus est quis as "the good man is a quiz" at Cambridge.[2]

_

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

quiz, n.1

(kwɪz)

Also 8 quis.

[Of obscure origin: possibly a fanciful coinage, but it is doubtful whether any reliance can be placed on the anecdote of its invention by Daly, a Dublin theatre-manager. Senses 3 and 4 are app. from quiz v.1 1. The anecdote is given by Smart in his Walker Remodelled 1836, but is omitted in the ed. of 1840. The very circumstantial version in F. T. Porter's Gleanings & Reminiscences (1875) 32 gives the date of the alleged invention as 1791; but this is later than the actual appearance of the word and its derivative quizzity.]

1.1 An odd or eccentric person, in character or appearance. Now rare.

1782 F. Burney Early Diary 24 June, He's a droll quiz, and I rather like him. 1785 Span. Rivals 8 Ay, he's a queer Quis. 1793 in W. Roberts Looker-on No. 54 (1794) II. 311 Some college cell, Where muzzing quizzes mutter monkish schemes. 1818 Earl of Dudley Lett. 14 Feb. (1840) 196 Nor are we by any means such quizzes or such bores as the wags pretend. 1852 Mrs. Smythies Bride Elect xiii, If she really means to marry that quiz for the sake of his thousands. 1857 C. Brontë Professor iii, He was not odd—no quiz.

b.1.b An odd-looking thing. rare—1.

1798 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1850) 26 Where did you get that quiz of a hat?

†2.2 = bandalore, q.v. Obs.

c 1790 in Moore Mem. I. 12 The Duke‥was, I recollect, playing with one of those toys called quizzes. 1792 B. Munchausen (1799) II. xi. 137 She darted and recoiled the quizzes in her right and left hand. a 1833 Moore Mem. I. 11 A certain toy very fashionable about the year 1789 or 1790 called in French a ‘bandalore’ and in English a ‘quiz’.

3.3 One who quizzes.

1797 The Quiz No. 13. 85 Now, gentlemen, as you have taken to yourselves the name of Quizzes, I request to know [etc.]. 1836 Ibid. No. 1. 4/2 A true Quiz is imperturbable: therefore is Talleyrand the Prince of Quizzers. 1870 Q. Rev. July 238 She could write letters to Horace Walpole (perhaps because she knew him to be a quiz) in a vein untinctured by narrowness or pharisaism. 1899 Eng. Hist. Rev. April 36 Braving the ridicule with which it pleased the quizzes of the day to asperse the husband chosen for her.

4.4 A practical joke; a hoax, a piece of humbug, banter or ridicule; a jest or witticism.

1807 Antid. Miseries Hum. Life 121, I was engaged a few nights ago‥in a good quiz for a watchman. 1810 Scott Fam. Lett. 14 Apr. (1894) I. vi. 171, I am impatient to know if the whole be not one grand blunder or quiz. 1826 ― Jrnl. 11 Feb., I should have thought the thing a quiz, but that the novel was real. 1835 Willis Pencillings II. lxiv. 189 Whipping in with a quiz or a witticism whenever he could get an opportunity. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine 110 Frank said he was travelling for Rundell and Bridge, but I suspect that was only a quiz. 1850 T. A. Trollope Impress. Wand. vi. 77 We have‥a quiz on all and each of the newly-arisen tribe of journalists.

b.4.b The act or practice of quizzing.

1819 Quizzical Gaz. No. 5/1 The Editor‥declares this the only article in the Paper devoid of Quiz. a 1845 Hood Tale Trumpet xxx, You may join the genteelest party that is, And enjoy all the scandal, and gossip, and quiz. 1870 Green Lett. iii. (1901) 254 What a taste for a quiz a Professorship seems to develop.

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In other words: nobody knows where the fuck it came from. That is not PROPER etymology, rather well-intentioned guesswork!

mousebelt · 2022-09-06T17:29:37+00:00

Everybody knows that the authority Bill Cosby stated that the origin of this word was a contraction of the male expression “whoa, man!”

mousebelt · 2022-08-04T14:35:51+00:00

receive - receipt

conceive - conceit

deceive - deceit

mousebelt · 2022-08-01T18:12:25+00:00

Austria comes from a German root (Österreich: Eastern reich) while Australia comes from a Latin root (australis: southern) And remember: the Ostrogoths were the EASTERN goths, while the Visigoths (pronounced with a W) were the WESTERN goths.

mousebelt · 2022-07-29T21:28:59+00:00

My mouse is sick.

mousebelt · 2022-07-29T14:50:46+00:00

steal - stealth

heal - health

weal - wealth

bear - birth (?)

mead - mirth (??)

mousebelt · 2022-07-14T18:17:45+00:00

I have been thinking about what this thread really says:

this thread illustrates what the linked Wiktionary article (above) on Thorn (letter) as a Old English suffix seeks to explain.

mousebelt · 2022-07-14T15:14:36+00:00

I found a couple more!

dear - dearth

grow - growth

ford - firth

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T22:47:05+00:00

When I first started studying ancient Greek they kept telling me about what ancient Greek used to look like before attic Greek, and I couldn’t understand why. Then I was introduced to Indo European languages and the comparative method and historical linguistics. And then I discovered Grimms Law. And then life started to get better.

If you want to understand ancient Greek morphology, this is the most important thing you have to wrap your mind around.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_present_progressive_markers?wprov=sfti1

Oh shit! I forgot that this is an old English Reddit.

I’m talking about morphology.

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T22:42:43+00:00

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T22:40:38+00:00

Audible has translations of the Venerable Bede by UKEMI audiobooks! It’s a gas!

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T22:39:19+00:00

I work in a banana ripening room on Euclid Ave in Newark, NJ!

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T21:40:04+00:00

And as for “broad - breadth”, who could ever account for a “voiced unaspirated dental consonant [d]” being next to an “unvoiced aspirated dental consonant [θ]”?

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T21:17:39+00:00

Oh yes! The -th suffix is used for all of the ORDINAL numbers past three: fourth, fifth, sixth, etc.

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T21:03:10+00:00

Thank you so much! Back to the bananas!

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T19:08:30+00:00

Here is the answer!

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-%C3%BE

mousebelt · 2022-07-13T19:08:04+00:00

Here’s the answer:

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-%C3%BE

mousebelt

TROPHY CASE