Privies

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 presentations, continuing with Privies.

Pop to the loo, go, flush, wash. Nothing could be simpler in the modern world but it wasn't always like this. Our parents, grandparents, and earlier generations had to toddle off down the path to the privy at the bottom of garden. During warm summer days the hole in a board with no flush or sewage system sounds bad enough - but after dark and in the depths of winter armed with only a candle? A number of narratives from the Toilet Tales of Yesteryear and told as only the British can.

Gongfermors, or night soil men, were charged with emptying privies. They would do this regularly, the regularity depending on the size of the pit below. One such pit was in the Bishop’s Medieval Palace in Lincoln, where the detritus down the pit would be cleared out regularly – every 50 years, on average.

Another tale comes from Europe and the thoroughly dislikeable Frederick Barbarossa. Even the man himself realised how much he was hated, and knowing he was most likely to be assassinated whilst paying a visit, ordered that nobody should visit the privy unless he did.

With the whole entourage answering a call of nature together – be they male or female – it put a great deal of strain on the wooden flooring. Eventually the combination of the weight of people and the rotting wood resulted in the floor giving way and several ‘visitors’ disappeared into the morass below – four of whom were never seen or heard of again.

Finally I once discovered a large urinal in a museum, where an image of a bee was to be seen at around knee height. When I asked why it was there, I was told it was a target – hit the target, no splash back. I then asked why a bee, and was told because the Latin name for a bee is apis. And they say these Victorians had no sense of humour.

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

Line Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘fish’ and now look at ‘line’.

Line has been used to mean the same as ‘plumb line’ used in building since the 12th century.

Line in the sense of ‘boundary’ is first found in writing in 1590.

Line has been used instead of ‘crease’ (in the palm or on the face) since 1530.

Line, a reference to anything one-dimensional, has been seen since the 1550s.

Line as in ‘queue’ is first recorded in the same decade, the 1550s.

Line, as in ‘occupation’ appears from the 1630s.

Line in the business sense of ‘goods sold’ appears as recently as 1930.

Line in referring to insurance underwriting is seen from 1899.

Line of credit is first seen in 1958 – not suggesting nobody had credit prior to then, of course.

Line referring to public transport, ‘ships of the line’ for example, is seen from 1786.

Line as in ‘railway’ appears for the first time in 1825.

Line used to refer to a telegraph wire appears in 1847.

Line, as used by fishermen, is only described as such from the early 14th century.

Line as in ‘set of policies’ appears in 1892.

Nobody spoke of the political party line before the 1890s.

The line in the British Army, sometimes as ‘battle line’. Is seen from 1802.

To get a line on, ie to acquire information, appears in 1903.

Nobody was told to lay it on the line (in a monetary sense) until 1929.

Line of work first appears in 1957.

End of the line is not seen until 1948.

Line drawings are not described as such until 1891.

Line-ups are not seen until 1902.

Bee lines appear in 1830.

Lines, as in writing a letter, appears in the 1640s.

Lines as in dialogue for an actor appears from 1882.

Lines of communication is established from 1690, but then lost until re-emerging during the First World War.

No train ran on the main line until 1841.

A-line, describing the flared shape of a dress or skirt, is first seen in 1955.

Maginot Line, a defensive fortification appearing in 1936.

Off line, as in not connected to a computer, appears as early as 1950.

Clothes lines have been used since 1830 – and used to refer to a high tackle in rugby and American football since 1970.

Life lines have been cast to those needing rescuing since the early 18th century, and used to describe the line on ones palm since 1890.

Timelines have been described since 1876.

Nobody look the hardline until 1958.

Frontlines were used in the military sense from 1842.

Plumblines have been used since the middle of the 15th century.

The Mason-Dixon Line (if you don’t know, look it up) is coined in 1834.

And the bottom line, which can only come last, crops up from 1832.

Do You Speak Reindeer?

It's that time of year when certain individuals get to don a certain suit of red. One of the delights of such is hearing what the little ones want for Christmas and having no idea what it is. Requests from more mature individuals have included a blonde of 18 and a Land Rover. Why she wanted an inexperienced driver for such a car when surely half the pleasure is in driving it, I have no idea.

As always I was stumped by one question. A young chap asking "What language does the reindeer speak?" I told him "reindeer" and moved the conversation quickly on. But it did get me thinking as to what animals are heard to sound like in other languages. A quick search failed to reveal anything about speaking reindeer, but I did find this fascinating list of dogs barking, ducks quacking and frogs croaking in other languages.

These alternative sounds can be found here'

Etymology for Entomologists

Recently talking to a represent of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust about the excellent work they do and offered to talk on the origins of some of the names of the animals whose habitat they help to both preserve and create. Here I take a look at the origins of the names of insects, but if you're interested in hearing how other creatures got their names, perhaps you would care to book me for a talk. And if you're missing the story behind the name of Butterflies and Moths, I covered these a few years ago.

Ant - a Germanic term, seen in Old English aemette which is why it is still known in the southwest of Britain as the 'emmet', and coming from the Germanic root ai 'off, away' and Proto-Indo-European mai 'to cut' (a word which has also given us 'maim'). Thus the ant or emmet is actually 'the biter-off', a reference to how the creatures chop up larger prey to take back to their nests.

Aphid - the gardener's traditional enemy has an odd name which has never been understood. It is unknown before 1758, the colloquial name of ant-cow from 1847, when it was apparently coined by Linnaeus as aphides, the plural of aphis. Here the trail goes cold, although it has been suggested this comes from Greek apheides meaning 'unsparing, lavishly bestowed' and a reference to its unbelievable rate of production. While this etymology seems plausible there is nothing to show it to be true. What is true is their prodigous breeding capability for, under optimal conditions and with no predation, disease. parasites, and unlimited food supplies, a single female aphid can, through asexual reproduction, theoretically produce 600,000,000,000 (six hundred billion) descendants in a single season. Now you see why insects have been suggested as the answer to the world's food problem - although it doesn't answer the question the aphids ask about their food problem.

Bee - since humanity's days as hunter-gatherers honey will have been an important natural resource. Freely available, albeit not easily gathered, nutritious, sweet (and who doesn't like sweet), and with a long shelf life, it was the answer to many needs. Hence there has been a long association with the bee and that is reflected in the name. Coming from Old English beo, Old Norse by, Old High German bia, Middle Dutch bie, Proto-Germanic bion, and Proto-Indo-European bhei, all mean simply 'bee' and thus the name of this now worryingly endangered insect has not only never changed but has always been imitative of the buzzing sound associated with it.

Beetle - from Old English bitela, itself from Proto-Germanic bitel 'biting', and ultimately traceable to the Proto-Indo-European bheid 'to split' and referring to the formidable mandibles of beetles.

Caterpillar - the larval stage of butterflies and moths does not have a name it can call its own for, no matter what it is known as and from what language, the creature is always alluded to as resembling something else. For example, the English 'caterpillar' came from Old French chatepelose or 'shaggy cat'. Nothing different in other tongues, Swiss German teufelskatz 'devil's cat', Milanese cagnon 'little dog', Italian gattola 'little cat', Portuguese lagarta 'lizard', and Kentish where it was either a 'hop-dog' or 'hop-cat'.

Centipede - simply unites Latin centum and Proto-Indo-European ped 'foot' - although known centipedes have anything from 30 to 354 legs (or 15 to 177 pairs) and always an odd number of pairs of legs and therefore no centipede can have a hundred legs (see also millipede).

Chafer - a kind of beetle taking its name for a similar reason. Here Proto-Germanic kabraz meant 'gnawer' and came from Proto-Indo-European geph 'jaw, mouth'.

Cricket - comes from the Old French criquet from criquer, which means exactly what it sounds like 'creak, rattle'.

Dragonfly - is a fairly modern name, dating from the early 17th century and an example of folklore more than its earlier name of adderbolt, a good description of its shape and movement.

Earwig - named because it was thought the the wicga 'beetle, worm, insect' would be likely to hide inside the human ear - French perce-oreille and German ohr-wurm give the same warning - although there is not a single recorded instance of any earwig found in any earhole throughout the entire human history. The term wicga shares an origin with 'wiggle' in Proto-Indo-European wegh 'to go, move'. Also worth noting is the old dialect term from the north of England, where it was known as a 'twitch-ballock'.

Flea - see 'fly' below.

Fly - this is from the sense of movement through air, but this comes from the word 'flee' (as is 'flea' above) as it was the fastest means of escape. Here 'flee' comes from Proto-Indo-European pleuk, from the root pleu 'to flow'.

Gnat - shares a root with 'gnaw' as this means 'biter' but understood as 'little biter'.

Grasshopper - is basically the same thing as a locust, except from time to time the locust form vast swarms. The name is obvious, unlike the locust (see below), referring to its movement and habitat.

Greenfly - obviously some are indeed green and they are capable of flight.

Grub - derived from the verb and thus 'the digging insect', in turn this is from Proto-Indo-European ghrebh 'to dig, bury'.

Hornet - there is no doubting this is from 'horn', but whether this refers to the instrument and thus the buzzing sound of the creature or to the sharp feel of its sting is unknown. Interestingly as the first instruments known as horns were likened to the shape of the animal horn, both share an origin.

Katydid - named for the sound made when the male vibrates its wings. Of more interest is the alternative name for the insect, again imitative of the males but said to sound more like "Katy didn't".

Ladybird - or in the USA the ladybug, the latter are far more sensible name as it clearly is not a bird - although better still was the earlier name of 'ladyfly'. The 'lady' here is the Virgin Mary, which can be seen better in the German Marienkafer.

Locust - shares an origin with the name of the lobster, indeed the French form is languste and the Latin locusta meaning both 'locust' and 'lobster'. Now onbviously it referred to any multi-limbed creature with an external skeleton but, other than that, the etymology is a mystery. Note the Latin lacerta is the only other word known to refer to two quite different creatures, in this case the lizard and the mackerel.

Louse - a parasitic insect and one which has been with humankind for so long its name has never changed, at least not since Proto-Indo-European lus.

Mantis - often referred to as a 'praying mantis', where the first element is superfluous as the name 'mantis' comes from the Greek mantis meaning 'one who divines, prophet'.

Millipede - as with centipede (see above) this combines Latin and Proto-Indo-European to give 'a thousand feet', although the most ever discovered had 750 feet.

Mite - can be traced to Proto-Indo-European mei 'small', something which is seen as another meaning of the word 'mite' today. And before anyone points this out, I know a mite is an arachnid, not an insect.

Mosquito - is a Spanish word, itself derived from Latin musca 'fly' and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European mu 'gnat, fly'.

Nit - little change in this, the egg of the louse (see above), since Proto-Indo-European knid which referred to exactly the same thing today.

Spider - an obvious name when we realise this can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European spen meaning 'stretch, draw, spin' and thus the spider is literally 'the spinner'. And before anyone points this out, I know a spider is an arachnid, not an insect.

Tarantula - named from the seaport city of Taranto in southern Italy where these spiders are frequently found, as a place name it is thought to come from darandos 'oak trees'. And before anyone points this out, I know a trarantula is an arachnid, not an insect.

Termite - began as the Latin terere 'to rub, erode', then termes 'woodworm, white ant', and then to Modern Latin termites, pronounced as three syllables: 'ter-mi-tees', which was mistakenly thought to be plural and the final 's' dropped to produce an apparent singular.

Wasp - no matter how far back we trace this word it, like 'bee' (see above), has only ever meant 'wasp'. It is likely related to webh meaning 'to weave' and a reference to the production of the nest.

Weevil - exactly as 'wasp' (see above) in coming from Proto-Indo-European webh 'to weave'.

Ethiopia Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time Ethiopia and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Addis Ababa is easily translated from the Amharic addis abeba or 'new flower'. This is not a place where some striking fauna once grew, here the reference is to natural springs.

Dire Dawa is another translation from Amharic and means 'the place of remedy'.

Bahir Dar translates from the Amharic for 'sea shore'.

Arba Minch comes from the Amharic for 'forty springs'.

Debre Marqos is named after its principal church, dedicated to St Mark.

Debre Tabor takes its name from Mount Tabor, the hemispherical hill in an otherwise flat area having a name describing its shape.

Kibre Mengist takes its name from the Amharic for 'glory of the state'.

Tepi is traditionally held to be named after a Majangr man who managed a hive of bees found in a large tree in the marketplace.

Addis Zemen takes us back to the Amharic tongue and a meaning of 'new era'.

Gelemso at last provides us with a little more to say other than the simplest translation. It is thought this comes from the Oromo tongue, where galma Usso means 'the hall of Usso'. This referred to the mosque named after Usso, who came here to preach Islam to the indigenous people who called him ima gossa or 'the adopted son'.

Adis Alem is from Amharic meaning 'new world'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.