RANDOM THOUGHTS #122
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to
himself about the curious origins of interesting words:
1. HELPMEET, which is a spouse, is an unnecessary word since helpmate already exists. But the Bible used the term "help meet" (suitable helper) as two words and everyone read it as one word and the result was the almost forgotten duplicate word for the same thing.
2. HERMETIC, which today means "sealed air tight" and often assumed to mean "welded shut," got there by an unusual route. The Egyptian god Toth was the one responsible for learning, science, and art. The Greeks decided that he was the same guy as Hermes, or Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods. The 42 books of all Egyptian knowledge were known as the "books of Toth" and the Greeks called them "the Hermetic books." What passed for science in ancient days was a mix of guesses, alchemy, and the occult, and Hermetic was taken to mean "secret" and from there evolved into "airtight." The application of heat to create the airtight seal is assumed to be there because Hermes was a blacksmith familiar with the hammer-welding process.
3. HOBBY, a pursuit (perhaps a sport or craft) done for amusement or exercise (physical or intellectual) comes to us by a very strange route. In the old days, the Moors of Spain had a certain kind of performance done by actors and dancers. This came into Europe as "the Moorish dance" and reached England as "the Morris dance." Troops a Morris dancers entertained across England. By tradition, the dance troupe always included Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, a whole bunch of clowns, and "The Arab Rider" who had a small wicker "Arabian steed" fastened around his waist. This was known as a hobbyhorse because that word had always meant a small horse or pony used on a farm cart or in a mine (think Shetland Pony). Various people fashioned similar toy horses for their children in the 1600s, allowing them to play at knights of the round table or perhaps horseracing. These were known as hobbyhorses and that term still applies to toy horses mounted on springs that small children ride to this day. A child who ignored his other toys or duties to play with his hobbyhorse was said to "have a hobby" and from there the term moved onward to refer to hobbies as the word is used today.
4. HOBO, an itinerant unemployed person, has a murky but entirely American origin. Some think it comes from the musical instrument the oboe, and referred originally to wandering musicians who played to beg for money. Others thing it comes from the French-Canadian "haut bois" which lumberjacks called to say a "high tree" was about to fall. A weaker theory is that it derives from "hi, beau" or "hello, boy" but few consider this likely. The strongest theory may be that it comes from hoboy (a menial worker who cleaned public rest rooms at night), that word possibly having gypsy origins.
5. HORDE, a large crowd or army of misbehaving people, originally applied to the Mongols, who invaded Europe around 1235 and made a mess of things. They called their camp an ordu, and the Poles (as they did to many foreign words) changed this into horda, and from that point it quickly evolved into horde (and later, the "e" fell silent).
6. HOYDEN, a boisterous misbehaving girl, derives from heathen, another word for barbarian and one particularly applied to American Indians who screamed while attacking. The word is seldom used today.
7. HUMOR, a term now linked with comedy, was more properly linked with "mood" as in "being in a foul mood." The Greeks thought that the body was ruled by four humors, as humor was their word for fluid. Someone who is "in a good humor" currently has his body ruled by the fluid which makes people happy.
8. HYACINTH, a certain type of flower, comes from an ancient Greek youth, Hyacinthous. He was a good kid and Apollo liked playing games with him. The demigoddess of the west wind, Zephyrus, wanted him to grow up and become her lover, and a puff of her wind caused a discus thrown by Apollo to strike the lad. She had intended it only to cause him to break off his friendship with Apollo, but misjudged the breeze and the discus killed him. Stricken with grief, Apollo caused a beautiful flower to spring from the blood-soaked ground where the boy died.
1. HELPMEET, which is a spouse, is an unnecessary word since helpmate already exists. But the Bible used the term "help meet" (suitable helper) as two words and everyone read it as one word and the result was the almost forgotten duplicate word for the same thing.
2. HERMETIC, which today means "sealed air tight" and often assumed to mean "welded shut," got there by an unusual route. The Egyptian god Toth was the one responsible for learning, science, and art. The Greeks decided that he was the same guy as Hermes, or Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods. The 42 books of all Egyptian knowledge were known as the "books of Toth" and the Greeks called them "the Hermetic books." What passed for science in ancient days was a mix of guesses, alchemy, and the occult, and Hermetic was taken to mean "secret" and from there evolved into "airtight." The application of heat to create the airtight seal is assumed to be there because Hermes was a blacksmith familiar with the hammer-welding process.
3. HOBBY, a pursuit (perhaps a sport or craft) done for amusement or exercise (physical or intellectual) comes to us by a very strange route. In the old days, the Moors of Spain had a certain kind of performance done by actors and dancers. This came into Europe as "the Moorish dance" and reached England as "the Morris dance." Troops a Morris dancers entertained across England. By tradition, the dance troupe always included Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, a whole bunch of clowns, and "The Arab Rider" who had a small wicker "Arabian steed" fastened around his waist. This was known as a hobbyhorse because that word had always meant a small horse or pony used on a farm cart or in a mine (think Shetland Pony). Various people fashioned similar toy horses for their children in the 1600s, allowing them to play at knights of the round table or perhaps horseracing. These were known as hobbyhorses and that term still applies to toy horses mounted on springs that small children ride to this day. A child who ignored his other toys or duties to play with his hobbyhorse was said to "have a hobby" and from there the term moved onward to refer to hobbies as the word is used today.
4. HOBO, an itinerant unemployed person, has a murky but entirely American origin. Some think it comes from the musical instrument the oboe, and referred originally to wandering musicians who played to beg for money. Others thing it comes from the French-Canadian "haut bois" which lumberjacks called to say a "high tree" was about to fall. A weaker theory is that it derives from "hi, beau" or "hello, boy" but few consider this likely. The strongest theory may be that it comes from hoboy (a menial worker who cleaned public rest rooms at night), that word possibly having gypsy origins.
5. HORDE, a large crowd or army of misbehaving people, originally applied to the Mongols, who invaded Europe around 1235 and made a mess of things. They called their camp an ordu, and the Poles (as they did to many foreign words) changed this into horda, and from that point it quickly evolved into horde (and later, the "e" fell silent).
6. HOYDEN, a boisterous misbehaving girl, derives from heathen, another word for barbarian and one particularly applied to American Indians who screamed while attacking. The word is seldom used today.
7. HUMOR, a term now linked with comedy, was more properly linked with "mood" as in "being in a foul mood." The Greeks thought that the body was ruled by four humors, as humor was their word for fluid. Someone who is "in a good humor" currently has his body ruled by the fluid which makes people happy.
8. HYACINTH, a certain type of flower, comes from an ancient Greek youth, Hyacinthous. He was a good kid and Apollo liked playing games with him. The demigoddess of the west wind, Zephyrus, wanted him to grow up and become her lover, and a puff of her wind caused a discus thrown by Apollo to strike the lad. She had intended it only to cause him to break off his friendship with Apollo, but misjudged the breeze and the discus killed him. Stricken with grief, Apollo caused a beautiful flower to spring from the blood-soaked ground where the boy died.
9. HYDRAULIC, meaning something operated by water, comes from the Greek words for water (hydro) and pipe (aulus). An ancient Greek named Cteibius had invented the first water-powered musical organ and named it a hydraulic organ. The adjective was, thereafter, applied to any machine that operated on or by water.
10. HYMN or religious song comes from a Greek boy named Hymeneal. He pursued the affections of a girl who found him insufficiently studly to deserve her affections. He wanted to spend time with her, so he dressed as a girl and went on an outing with her and many other girls. Pirates appeared and captured the girls, taking them to another land. The pirates (weary from the journey and resting up for the intended debauchery celebration) fell asleep. Hymeneal cast off his disguise and killed all of the sleeping pirates (which even an un-studly man would find fairly easy), returning the grateful girls to Athens and their even more grateful parents. He won the affections of his intended (or, the story varies, the families bribed her to marry him with a huge dowry), and married her amid great fanfare. New songs of love and devotion were written just for the occasion, and became hymeneal songs. As the songs were at least semi-religious and often sung in the temple at subsequent weddings, the term eventually applied to any song sung in the temple. Indeed, we may not have had music in church at all except for the fact that when the pagan Greek temples were converted to churches about 350AD, the congregations would not give up their hymns.
posted by Federation Commander at 9:23 AM
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