What is Cool

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with What Is Cool. Once when we heard the word 'cool' we immediately thought of popping on an extra layer of clothing. Not so today. In this talk a look at the changes of the use and meanings of words. Where they originally came from and some examples of how earlier generations will have been astonished, bemused and probably shocked by what we would see as a perfectly normal sentence.

As an etymologist so I’m interested in the origin of the word, where it comes from, how it evolved and its usages both today and through time. So let us examine ‘cool’. The word can be traced to the same root as ‘cold’ and indeed were once likely interchangeable, albeit ‘cool’ is not seen as severe as ‘cold’. Both are derived from a Proto-Indo-European root gel or gol meaning ‘cold’.

The word ‘cool’ was chosen to represent the way language changes and it is a word which has changed its meaning completely within a generation and which is currently used in both senses, albeit more often in the vernacular. Oh and before we go any further, let’s have a look at some of the uses of ‘cool’ and ‘cold’ that we may have forgotten. While we may think of ‘cool’ as meaning ‘fairly cold’, what about ‘cool clothes’? They aren’t actually cool but designed to help us stay cool in warmer climes or during heat waves, hence the meaning has changed. Even more so would be ‘cool colours’. You can’t have a cool colour as it is the same temperature as the wall it’s on or the dye can’t be cool as it is the same temperature as the dress. I was told one can’t have a blue bathroom as it feels cold (so she said), so I questioned why she put a blue block thing in the cistern. Her answer? “I CAN IF I WANT!” What a great loss to the debating society that was. Colours are not cold, it is our pre-conceived ideas of red being hot and blue cold, that is the different.

To remain calm or unexcited is another synonym for ‘cool’. All these t-shirts telling us to keep cool are simply looking at the opposite of ‘hot headed’. It became fashionable in the 1950s, but is first recorded at the end of the 19th century. However this goes back to Beowulf, the one great piece of Saxon literature which everyone remembers (although there are many, many more) and where the term is used as a metaphor. This gave rise to the following uses. Such as lacking zeal or enthusiasm – such as in ‘to cool one’s interest’ – again used as a literary metaphor and from the pre-conception that anything not warm is bad. Again with calmly audacious – as in ‘a cool customer’. And another with the phrase ‘cool as a cucumber’ which may seem a modern phrase but is at least 250 years old as it was used in the 18th century.

It is around the 18th century that a second sense came about. This seen as in the seemingly slang term meaning ‘excellent, marvellous’. When it comes to the slang term meaning ‘calmness, composure’, this is earlier and one thought to have negative implications. Negative because such was seen as a lack of warmth, no enthusiasm, which is exactly the same as ‘cool reception’. Cool one’s heels – is to pass the time futilely. Here the same negative is seen, to do nothing is a pointless waste of time.

Now the modern vernacular, which is clearly modern slang. Only it isn’t. It is the same as every slang term ever created. It takes a word, one of obvious and quite innocuous meaning, and uses it to mean something completely and utterly different. Here that slang term is thought to have been coined by African Americans, much as the more recent use of ‘evil’ or ‘wicked’ to mean something good. Just when this began is unclear but may well go back to the very early days of the slave trade, not long after the Africans arrived and within a couple of generations had a firm grasp on the English language. That it has been used in this sense can be traced to a specific use.

Restrained, relaxed as in the playing of music, that brand of music created by the black population of America, derived from the rhythms of their homeland. Note jazz hasn’t always been cool, there was once something know as hot jazz but that became swing and rock and roll and rock and other stuff. An appreciable amount – as in ‘a cool thousand’ – understated, as in the music. More slang meaning ‘fashionable, having street credibility’ – at least since the 1930s and has lately been adopted by the younger generation who now are beginning to spell it k-e-w-l.

What is rather astonishing for ‘cool’ is its longevity as a slang term. It has been around for at least 170 years (and almost certainly a hundred years or more earlier) and seems to have no intention of going away in the foreseeable future. As much as slang terms have survived and been added to, more modern use is little short of annoying. For example the cool bag – no it isn’t, it’s a bag equivalent of a thermos flask, for it will keep things hot as well as cold and it certainly isn’t k-e-w-l and hence its name is utterly wrong.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

A Toponymist's Tour of the World

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Toponymists Tour of the World. In the classic story of Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg bets four members of his Reform Club that he will return to that very establishment inside that set number of days. The wager meant winning or losing an immense £20,000. No such odds or amounts here but a tour of the world through the origins of some of the more famous names around the globe. There is also the chance to compare the meanings and derivations with place names found much closer to homes.

English is a Germanic language and the odd word of German is recognisable to we English but ostensibly it’s a foreign tongue to us. And so is the native language of Wales. Which is interesting because it’s a Celtic language but named from Old English, the forerunner of what we speak today. It is a name from the Old English language brought to our shores by the Saxons (and before anyone points out the Angles, Jutes or Frisians also came across, they all spoke the same language as much as we English, Scots, Welsh, Irish do with different dialect words.) It is from the Old English wahl – which is often defined as ‘foreigner’ but correctly should be said to be ‘not Saxon’, which may be the same thing but looked at from a slightly different angle.

Speaking of close neighbours, we should also mention Scotland. This is simply ‘the territory of the Scots’, although ‘Scot’ is a Latin name for the Gaels. Note until the Middle Ages the place was seen as divided between the Scotland and Alba.

Austria – this is German for ‘eastern realm’.

Herzegovina – this is ‘herzog’s land’, this being the German word for a ‘duke’.

Greece – comes from the people, the Greeks. The Greeks never referred to themselves as such, the city states and regional people all knew themselves by different names: Spartans, Athenians, Ionians, and all the rest. The Greeks latterly referred to themselves as Hellene, named after Hellen their mythological patriarch. It was the Romans who called them Graeci when they found an offshoot of these people living happily in Southern Italy. Trouble is, nobody knows what Graeci signified – was it an insult?

Italy – is generally accepted to be ‘the land of young cattle’, not an insult but the use of the bull to symbolist the resident tribes, the people being the children of the bull .

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

The Vagaries of the English Language

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with The Vagaries of the English Language. English is an odd language. Those on the west of the Atlantic Ocean will look bemused at their counterparts washed by the waters on the eastern side of the ocean and vice versa. In truth both forms are oddly different from other languages. Not just the words but the grammar, syntax and usage which seemingly have no fixed rules.

English has acquired the largest vocabulary of all the world's languages, perhaps as many as two million words, and has generated one of the noblest bodies of literature in the annals of the human race. Nonetheless, it is now time to face the fact that English is a crazy language.

I mean ‘flammable’ means ‘burns readily’ but ‘inflammable’ doesn’t mean the opposite it means the same thing.

Why does night fall but never break and day break but never fall?

Send something by land it’s called a shipment, but send it by ship and it’s cargo.

Men get HERnias and women HISterectomies

We pack suits in a garment bag – but garments go in your suitcase.

Anyone in the army? Privates eat in the General Mess and Generals in the Private Mess.

Why do we call it ‘newsprint’ when it contains no printing but when we put print on it we call it ‘newspaper’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Not Politically Correct

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Not Politically Correct. Few will not have heard the phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." In the modern world of political correctness many words and phrases are considered hurtful in the extreme. Curses and more base language are heard described as 'Anglo-Saxon'. In truth these more than likely began in this Old English language but had quite innocent meanings. Here the origins and original use of the words are examined and analysed to show how these terms began quite innocently. This talk is intended for an adult audience and some may find some parts offensive. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Now the most common no-no is the unacceptable terms for those of a different nationality. And why not start with those across the channel, the French. The French have been known as Frogs – and as we all know this is down to the French delicacy of frog’s legs. But it isn’t. And it was coined by the English. But it wasn’t. And it’s a racist comment. But it isn’t. This dates from the 16th or 17th century when the city of Paris had on its coat of arms toads. As with all capital cities the residents and officials thought themselves above the rest of the nation and thus it was originally the rest of France who referred to the Parisians as ‘Frogs’ (when it should have been ‘toads’). This caught on and by the 18th century the Belgians, who did not like the French, were certainly using it and it seems we got it from the Belgians.

British have been called Limies ever since naval men were given a ration of citrus fruit to ward off scurvy. Limes would have been eaten but only because these citrus fruit had a longer shelf life. I’m sure the ratings would have loved to have them replaced by a nice ripe avocado – incidentally the Aztec word ‘avocado’ meant ‘testicle’, as they saw it as an aphrodisiac and thought the fruit resembled the testicle. No wonder they died out. Australians call us Poms or Pommies, apparently they are convinced we dine on pomegranates a lot. Can’t say I’ve ever knowingly eaten a single pomegranate. It is NOT an acronym for Prisoner of Her (or His) Majesty nor is it Permit Of Migration.

Enough of the race words and off to insults. To me this is where political correctness goes completely insane. As we have already shown so-called racial slurs have, for the most part, quite innocent beginnings – now surely to describe someone as ‘bald’, ‘short’, ‘fat’ (all used to describe kings of France named Charles, please note) is simply true. Whilst I accept they shouldn’t be the sole identifying feature, if you have three people named Charles who were all French monarchs, how would you know which one was which without the additional information? So let’s have a look at the origins of some of these words. And we’ll start with ‘fat’. Now clearly any insult is using the word as an adjective, while the word began as a noun. Not so, it began as an adjective, then used as a verb ‘to fatten’ and finally as a noun. The word is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European poid which meant ‘fat, swell, grow’ particularly with milk, fat or water. Now I could be wrong here but I can’t see milk or water ever being insulting and fat in this context is surely a bonus. Thin – is unacceptable while ‘slim’ is a compliment. Now historically this might be more of an insult for it began as ‘stretched out, diluted, lacking body’ – much as we describe gravy, soup or sauce.

If not yet appalled and might want to hear me take the etymologist’s view of these terms, drop me a line. Note the words are not the problem, it’s the usage. If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

The Letter H

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with The Letter H. The eighth letter of the English alphabet has the distinction of being the first letter to have its own listing in the dictionary, doing so many years before the second. Look up 'H' and discover the recommended pronunciation is 'aitch' although the dictionary concedes the increased use of 'haitch' is an alternative. Hear, too, how the letter came to English, of its changing usage throughout history and just how the letter's upper case rugby posts-like image and corresponding lower case form came about. Yet this is not just a talk about a single letter but a look at the development, changing usage and beginnings of our all-too familiar alphabet.

The letter ‘H’, the eighth letter of the alphabet, is also listed in the OED under the first letter of the alphabet – ie ‘A’. This is because the letter ‘H’ is unique as it is the only letter in the OED to be listed as a word. Why on earth would this be I hear you cry – well no, I don’t but you’re finding out anyway. It is because of the plural, a plural found in the phrase (sadly not used anywhere near enough these days) “to drop one’s aitches”.

Now dropping one’s aitches is the reason why some refer not to AITCH but to HAITCH. Remember Parker the chauffeur in Thunderbirds? He was your archetypal cockney, his speech saw him drop the aitch at the beginning of words such as ‘appy, ‘elp, ‘erring, and ‘enry, but include an erroneous ‘h’ at the beginning of words such as h’easter, h’avenue, h’artist, and h’England. Now somewhere along the way someone thought the letter ‘aitch’ began with an ‘aitch’ when it doesn’t but it does end in an ‘aitch’

Now the OED base their rules very much on usage. Thus the more people get it wrong and say HAITCH the more likely it will be that HAITCH will lose its listing under ‘A’. Indeed the OED already recognise both forms, so the rot has probably already set in so far it is impossible to reverse

Not only do we add an ‘h’ at the beginning when none is present, but we also pronounce the ‘h’ at the beginning of words where the ‘h’ is present but accepted pronunciation is without. Perhaps the best known of these is ‘hotel’ which, being of French derivation, should be said to be ‘otel and thus we should say ‘an hotel’ not ‘a hotel’. There are others: such as ‘hour’, ‘heir’ and ‘honest’ which have also come to English from French.

We also need to look at the origin of the letter for, like all letters and symbols, they were not simply invented but developed. To do so it is probably easier to work back from the present era rather than forward from the beginning of writing. During the last thousand years the letter has become harsher in languages such as Portuguese and Spanish; while Romance languages, such as Romanian, had lost the sound completely until re-borrowed from neighbouring Slavic languages. All these come from Etruscan ‘H’ and this comes, in turn, from archaic Greek alphabets the letter became a long vowel, borrowed directly from the earliest known form as a letter. While the Greek version is eta early forms give this as heta, itself also seen in the Phoenician heth. The Phoenician alphabet had two forms, one clearly very similar to a modern capital ‘H’ and the other related to Old Semitic which appears as the ‘H’ but with a bar at both top and bottom. This in turn clearly represents a part of the Egyptian hieroglyph known as ‘fence’. Both of these are referred to as a ‘voiceless pharyngeal fricative’ and undoubtedly stood for a fence or posts.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Gobbledegook

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Gobbledegook. Gobbledegook describes speech which is not clear and a term coined around the 16th century when said to be imitative of the turkey. Gobbledegook from yesteryear is not readily seen for the terminology has become ingrained in the English language. Those featured may not be realised as having been created to describe something in an unusual way. The focus is on those words we are less likely to understand, the modern terms coined to be 'buzz words' and the so-called 'new speak' featured in offices across the country.

Balderdash – first seen in the 1590s the origin is officially said to be ‘unknown’. This early use was quite different in referring to ‘a jumbled mix of liquors’ and not until the 1670s was the modern meaning first seen.

Hogwash – first seen in the middle of the 15th century as two Middle English words hogges and wash. At the time it referred to slops fed to pigs, be it refuse from the kitchen or from a brewery. By 1712 this referred to ‘cheap alcoholic drink’ and fifty years later to ‘inferior writing’. At the time the term was coined, ‘hog’ referred to a castrated male, hence one reared for slaughter and encouraged to eat anything it could to fatten it up; while ‘wash’ was used here to refer more to that skimmed off, such as the cuttings from vegetables or the waste left over from brewing.

Poppycock – is seen as so very twee isn’t it? Almost has to be followed by some chinless wonder asking “anyone for tennis?” Yet the origin is anything but innocent. It comes from the Dutch dialect pappekak where pappe means ‘soft food’ and kak ‘dung’.

Tosh – as British slang it meant ‘rubbish, nonsense’ and there is no known earlier form and thus the origins are unknown. However, it could be a loan word for there is also an earlier Scottish word ‘tosh’ from 1776 and used to mean ‘neat, clean, trim’. We also find another English use dating from 1852 and slang used very much in the capital from 1852 to speak of, somewhat extraordinarily, ‘valuables collected from drains’.

Mullet – now nobody uses mullet-head any more, even though the Beastie Boys recorded Mullet Head – of which we all recall the wonderful lyric “Number one on the side and don’t touch the back; number six on the top and don’t cut it wack, Jack.” However the insult ‘mullet-head’ existed from 1866 (130 years before the haircut) and even nine years before the fish is first recorded (although doubtless the name was in use at least at the same time and probably before). Hence ‘mullet’ originally meant something or someone stupid.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Foreign Words in English

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Foreign Words in English. English has more words than any other language. This is, in part, due to the once vast British Empire and the many languages spoken in the outposts. Yet there are at least as many words which have been borrowed from other tongues. Often these loan words have retained the original meaning, but others have changed completely. While Latin and even French phrases are easily recognised, here we concentrate on the less obvious and the words more ingrained in English. Learn how words such as 'trek', 'yacht', 'beige', 'bandanna', 'bangle' and 'bungalow' were never truly English.

Bete noire – (French) a person or thing one particularly dislikes (literally ‘black beast’)

Cosa Nostra – (Italian) a US criminal organization related to the Mafia (literally ‘our thing’)

Doppelganger – (German) an apparition or double of a living person (literally ‘literally double-goer’)

Ex officio – (Latin) by virtue of one’s position or status (literally ‘out of duty’)

Katzenjammer – (German) a hangover or a severe headache accompanying a hangover (literally ‘cat’s wailing’)

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.