Feature Word: Weird
Definition:
of strange or extraordinary character
Description:
You may know today’s word as a generalized term for anything unusual, but ‘weird’ also has older meanings that are more specific. ‘Weird’ derives from the Old English noun ‘wyrd,’ essentially meaning ‘fate.’
By the late 8th century, the plural ‘wyrde’ had begun to appear in texts as a gloss for ‘Parcae,’ the Latin name for the Fates — three goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Scots authors employed ‘werd’ or ‘weird’ in the phrase ‘weird sisters’ to refer to the Fates.
William Shakespeare adopted this usage in Macbeth, in which the ‘weird sisters’ are depicted as three witches. Subsequent adjectival use of ‘weird’ grew out of a reinterpretation of the ‘weird’ in Shakespeare.
Source:
Merriam Webster Dictionary
Jul 10
adminFood, Necessities American English, chinese, english
Definition:
or “catsup”:
1) a condiment, usually made from tomatoes, which tastes sweet with a bit of a “bite” (usually from the vinegar component)
2) the (American) spouse of french fries
Description:
The etymology of ketchup actually has several competing theories, namely: the Chinese theory, the “eggplant sauce” theory, the Malay theory, and the European-Arabic theory. The Chinese theory seems pretty strong, we must admit…
In the Chinese theory, it stems from either “kôe-chiap” or “kê-chiap”, both from the Amoy dialect, where it means “the brine of pickled fish or shellfish.”
from http://masterblog.front.lv/category/fun/
As for the “eggplant sauce” theory, “ketchup” derives from a Chinese word composed of two characters (茄汁), which means “eggplant sauce”. The first character (茄), meaning “eggplant”, is also the root for the word “tomato” and the second character (汁) means “juice” or “sauce.”
The Malay theory states that the English word originates from the Malay word kicap (or, kecap, ketjap), which translates to “fish sauce” – which is borrowed from the Chinese, anyway…
European-Arabic Theory: E.N. Anderson, an American anthropologist, claimed that ketchup comes from the French escaveche, meaning “food in sauce” (imagine… French ketchup!) while culinary historian Karen Hess traced it back to Arabic iskebey, or “pickling with vinegar”.
Blue Label Ketchup 1898, from wiki article
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May 27
adminEveryday American English, english
Definition:
1) in great abundance
2) in the best or most extreme way possible; extravagantly
Description:
The ‘spades’ in this phrase refers to the highest suit in cards, not the shovel. How did this shape get its name?
Playing Cards originated in Asia and spread across Europe around the 14th century. It arrived in England a little later than in Spain, Italy and Germany.
“Essentially, the Italian versions of early cards used the suits Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons — which, on migration to England, became Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. The image for Spades on English and French cards looks somewhat like that of the German Acorn or Leaf suits, but its origin is revealed by its name rather than its shape. The Spanish and Italian for sword is ‘espada’ and ‘spada’ respectively, hence the suit ‘Swords’ became anglicized as ‘Spades’.”
So where does the non-card-playing meaning come from? It is an Americanism:
First of all, the phrase isn’t found before the 1920s. Damon Runyon, an American journalist and writer, used the expression that way in a piece for Hearst’s International magazine, in October 1929:
“I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw.“
Some other spade phrases: “cocky as the King of Spades”, “call a spade a spade”, “spade something up”
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May 27
adminEveryday, Life, Oddities english
Description:
The link between buckets and death was made by at least 1785, when the phrase was defined in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
“To kick the bucket, to die.”
Although there is not much evidence to support it, one theory as to why the phrase originates from the notion: people hanged themselves by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicking the bucket away.
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May 21
adminBeauty english, german, slang, yiddish
Definition:
Alluringly plump, curvaceous, buxom… Literally, “juicy”
Description:
1937, from Yiddish zaftik, literally “juicy,” from zaft “juice,” from Middle High German, saft “juice”
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Apr 01
adminTechnology english, technology terminology
Definition:
(in geek technology / communications): a device that can bundle several signals together for use in one big transmission
Description:
A multiplexor is commonly used in the transmission of communication signals, i.e. video and audio signals, and can weave these two components together. It can also be called a “mux” for short.
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