I would go further and just call it wrong. Two full moons in a month isn't terribly uncommon, the opposite of the meaning of "blue moon" which is of a very rare occurrence.
The folk etymology has the "rareness" derive from the not-very-rare double full moons, which makes no sense. It's just wrong.
The Merriam-Webster word of the day for May 30 is unctuous, as in "He may be officially known as Uncle Sam, but he's just unctuous"
Counting sheep...
More maps on our blog:
https://mapologies.com/animals/
#animal #etymology #etymologymap #mapologies #map #sheep #ewe #ram
About the Greek word logos, λόγος. Usually translated as "word", but a lot is lost in translation when doing so. Wiktionary says "speech, oration, discourse, quote, story, study, ratio, word, calculation, reason". The etymology is from proto-Indo-European "leǵ-" meaning to collect, to gather.
Philologist Erik Ellis has thought a lot about logos, and says that the best English translation he has found for logos is "account". Both a bank account and to give an account of last night is about recounting the events that led to the current situation, to tell a story.
Amusingly the way Ellis was describing "account" made me think of the word "log", the way it is used in computing and on ships, and it took me an embarrassing moment to notice the similarity between "logos" and "log", but etymologically they're entirely unrelated as the latter comes from tree log, which has old Norse roots.
It's just another funny, accidental etymological convergence.
The name Chloe is a Greek word meaning the first green shoots in spring.
(I had to look it up because I realised I didn't know what it meant. In contrast, I knew "Zoe" means "life"; think "zoology", etc.)
amazing etymology
> Turbochargers are distinguished from superchargers in that a turbocharger is powered by the kinetic energy of the exhaust gases, whereas a supercharger is mechanically powered, usually by a belt from the engine's crankshaft.
> However, up until the mid-20th century, a turbocharger was called a "turbosupercharger" and was considered a type of supercharger.
> turbosupercharger
> (automotive) A twincharger, a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger.
> Synonym: superturbocharger
> turbocharger
> Contraction of turbosupercharger.
Are there any reliable online resources for popular historic insults/swear/curse words? Specifically British ones from the early 19th century?
Ideally, Susie Dent's email address would be great as she'd know. 😄
did you know that "coche", "Kutsche" and "coach" are all derived from the name of a Hungarian town? #etymology
Providence is a weighty concept. But literally it just means looking forward, from Latin 'pro,' meaning before, and 'videre,' meaning to see, as in video and vision. So providence essentially means looking out for someone. In fact, that's what you do when you *provide* for someone.
But in Classical Latin, the letter V was pronounced like a modern W. Which allowed the cluster of sounds at the start of 'providence' to smoosh together, creating the word that would eventually yield the word 'prudence' in English.
In short, prudence is what you get when you pronounce providence less prudently. Bet you didn't see that coming!
John M. Gamble
Holly
Mapologies
Denny Vrandečić
mytwobits01
schuelermine
Emma Cox
Wordorigins.org
Buridan's procrastinator ⁂
Daniel