Hand Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'street' last time and this time it's 'hand'.

Firsthand (also secondhand, etc) is first recorded in the 15th century.

At hand in its current use is first seen around 1300, but there is an earlier use from around 1200 when it meant ‘near in time’.

In hand is first seen in the early 13th century, while …..

Out of hand doesn’t make an appearance until 1590.

Hand over fist first appears in a document dated 1803, then used solely in a nautical sense.

On the one hand (and on the other hand) are first recorded in the 1630s.

Hand to hand appears around 1400.

Hand to mouth first recorded around 1500.

Hand in hand is also seen from around 1500, but was then used to mean ‘with hands clasped’, not until seventy years later did it gain the modern sense.

Hand it to (someone), when referring to an acknowledgement of another’s abilities, is recorded from 1906.

Handful in the modern sense of all that can be held in one hand, has been used since the 15th century. Prior to that the term used was ‘handbreadth’, which was also used for a linear measurement of about 4 inches. Having one’s hands full (as in busy) is first seen in the late 15th century.

Offhand is first seen in 1690 when used to mean ‘immediately’, shortly afterwards, in 1719, it is also used in its modern sense.

Right hand, when describing the hand, is first seen around 900, coming about as it was seen as the correct hand to use. Around 1200 the term is starting to take on the sense of that side. Later, in the 1520s, it is used to describe a close worker or assistant. And finally, around 1700, it is used to refer to a person’s dominant side.

Handbasket is seen from the late 15th century, when it referred to a basket held in the hand. The expression hell in a handbasket is first seen in 1867, and was probably born from the earlier (and now largely obsolete) heaven in a handbasket from 1853, which referred to an easy journey.

Nobody said they were drawing ‘freehand’ until 1867.

And nobody had handwriting until 1745 – which makes sense, as everything would be written by hand before the invention of printing.

The hand jive was created, and referred to, for the first time in 1958.

Nothing was ‘handmade’ until 1610, and for the same reason as the handwriting comment above.

Hand grenade is first seen as early as 1660.

Nothing had a handrail until 1793, or at least wasn’t described as such.

Mouth Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'hand' last time and this time it's 'mouth'.

Mouthorgan is not seen until the 1660s.

Mouth-breather is a description first recorded in 1883 (although I have no idea what it was describing).

Mouth-to-mouth was not performed until 1909, or at least not recorded as such. Interesting to note it is by no means certain this referred to artificial respiration.

Word of mouth is a phrase first recorded in the 1550s.

To put words into someone’s mouth is first recorded at the end of the 14th century.

But to take words out of someone’s mouth had to wait another 40/50 years until around the 1520s.

Nobody was down in the mouth before the 1640s, or at least it was not descibed as such – incidentally, it is a reference to the mouth being turned down at the corners.

Blabbermouth is not seen until 1931.

Cottonmouth is a venomous snake of the southern US states, named for the white line along its mouth, is first described as such in 1851.

While nothing was mouth-watering before 1822….

…. surprisingly a mouthwash is recorded in 1801.

Mouthpieces are seen as part of musical instruments as early as 1776, this later used to refer to one who speaks for another in 1805, and in a legal sense from 1857.

Teeth

Currently reading Michael Wood's A Story of England. This book accompanied the television series of 2012. The BBC also put together a series of events at museums up and down the country and I was lucky enough to be invited to events at Coventry and Gloucester.

In the earliest part of the book the author speaks of archaeologists uncovering teeth, at which point the etymologist kicked in and I found myself wondering how these ancient ancestors referred to their dentition. Furthermore just when did the modern terminology evolve? And most importantly, why is 'tooth' the singular and 'teeth' plural?

Tooth is of Proto-Germanic origins, similar words are found in Old English, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Old Norse, Old Frisian, Old High German, and Gothic. This root (no pun intended) is also the reason why words such as Old English toth saw a plural as teth or tith. The other major source of English words, the Latin group of languages, takes us on to the next in the list .....

Dentist or dentition may be though of as a modern word but these go back to Proto-Indo-European dent, identical to the modern French word for 'tooth' and also giving us Sanskrit danta, Greek odontos, Latin dens, Lithuanian dantis, Old Irish det and Welsh dent and all with exactly the same meaning.

Bicuspid is first seen in 1826, a technical term derived from the Latin bi cuspidem or 'having two parts'.

Canine is not difficult to understand, their very shape is reminiscent to those of the dog and it comes from the Latin caninus or 'pointed tooth'. This is first seen around 1600, while the adjective for a dog has no surviving records prior to 1620 - this is not to say they were not used prior to this but simply no records survive.

Incisor is a Medieval Latin word meaning 'cutting tooth', coming from the Latin incus or 'to cut into'. The same root also gave us 'incision' and 'scissors'.

Molar is from the Latin molaris dens or 'grinding tooth'. This comes ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mel 'to rub, grind' and which is also the source of the word 'mill'.

Wisdom is best defined first in the sense of 'sage, learning, experience'. This Germanic word is a compound of wis, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European weid 'to know', and dom, a Germanic suffix meaning 'judgement' (this the same root as 'doom'). The first reference to 'wisdom teeth' is found in 1848 (prior to this the term was 'teeth of wisdom') and so-called as they erupt around the ages 17 to 25, early adulthood when a person is deemed to be wise.

Cementum is the hard substance covering the root. Clearly this is derived from the same root as 'cement', itself from Latin caementa 'stone chips used for making mortar' and ultimately from caedere 'to cut down, chop, beat, hew, fell, slay'.

Crown is obviously from the use of the royal headwear, albeit used as a verb. The word is of Latin origins, where corona originally meant 'wreath, garland'.

Enamel, the hardest part of the tooth, takes its name from the other use where en is a French term preceding esmal, Frankish smalt and Proto-Germanic smaltjan 'to smelt'.

Gum, when referring to the soft tissue of the mouth, comes from a Germanic term meaning 'palate'. Ultimately this shares an origin with Proto-Indo-European gheu 'to yawn'.

Root shares an origin with the underground part of the plant, the dental sense first seen in the late 12th century. The Germanic root of 'root' is wrot and ultimately from wrad, the Proto-Indo-European word which is still found when writing a shopping list for a salad, this being the origin of 'radish', literally 'root-ish'.

Nerve had been used to mean 'sinew, tendon', never used in the modern idea of a conduit for sending impulses to the brain until around 1600. This originates in Proto-Indo-European sneu 'tendon, sinew'.

Incidentally the reason so many teeth are found in comparison to other parts of the skeleton is because they are so resilient. In humans there is the added bonus that teeth, in particular those of children, were not disappearing into the night in the pocket of the tooth-fairy as, quite astonishingly, there is no written record of such before 1964.

Atomic Etymologies

Following on from my recent examination of Elemental Etymologies, and after hearing the latest news on the hunt for the Higgs Bosun, thoughts turned to the origin of these. With the science of splitting the atom a very new idea, the names of the sub-atomic particles would be expected to have very recent beginnings. However some of the following have a most surprising meaning and origin.

Atom is certainly the oldest of the words and also comes first alphabetically, hence it is the logical place to start. It is first seen in the late 15th century and taken from the Latin atomus meaning 'indivisible particle'. Even though we are speaking about sub-atomic particles from hereon, this definition still fits as this is indeed the smallest state any of any element, and smaller and it is quite simply something else. Latin took the Greek atomos meaning 'uncut, unhewn, indivisible' from a 'not' and tomos 'a cutting'. What had been ancient speculation by Greeks such as Leucippus and Democritus, saw a revival in 1805 by the British scientist John Dalton.

Quark is, for a particle only named just fifty years ago, still questioned. As a sub-atomic particle it was certainly named by US physicist Murray Gell-Mann who, in correspondence with the Oxford English Dictionary, informed the editors he took it directly from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake but already had the sound in his head before he found the word in print. Now this is said to be plausible as Gell-Mann's parents emigrated to the US from Austria-Hungary and German quark does exist (its meaning of 'curds, rubbish' is hardly relevant here). The questions concern the pronunciation which in US circles is generally pronounced to rhyme with 'stark' and in the UK more often rhyming with 'walk'. Note George Zweig, who deserves equal credit in the work, suggested the name ace.

Ion, as a noun, came into being when suggested by polymath the Rev William Whewell to physicist and chemist Michael Faraday. Whewell understood the Greek ion, being the neuter present participle of ienai 'go' came from the Proto-Indo-European ei 'to go, to walk' and perfectly describes how electrons move towards the electrode of opposite charge. Incidentally, this ancient root can be traced to words with identical meaning in Greek, Latin, Old Irish, Irish, Gothic, Gaulish, Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Persian, Lithuanian, Old Church Slavonic, Bulgarian and Russian.

Electron was coined by Irish physicist George J. Stoney in 1891. He combined 'electric' with 'on', as seen in 'ion' (below) as the flow of electrons is, in a most basic sense, what the layman refers to as 'electricity'.

Proton was coined in 1920 by the English physicist John Rutherford. He used proton as the neuter of the Greek noun protos meaning 'first'.

Neutron is 'the electrically neuter part of the atom' and named in 1921 by US chemist William D Harkins, he taking 'neutral' and 'on' (see 'ion') to produce a word which has a basis in 'neuter' and originally referring solely to gender in the sense 'not capable of breeding'.

Neutrinos are particles smaller than a neutron, the term coined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and ultimately shares its etymology with 'neutron' (above).

Photons are units of electromagnetic radiation (light to you and I), and derives its name from the Greek photo 'light' and the suffix 'on' (see 'ion'). Note the Greek photo can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European bha 'to shine'.

Baryon comes from the Greek barys 'heavy' and the addition of 'on' (see 'ion').

Fermion is a name coined by Paul Dirac and inspired by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi with the addition of 'on' (see 'ion').

Lepton is named from the Greek leptos 'small.slight' and derived from lepein 'to peel' and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European lep 'peel, shave, to scale (from fish)'. Here the suggestion is the lepton is a weak force and shares a root with 'leper'.

Mesons are intermediate in mass between protons and electrons hence, with the suffix 'on' (see 'ion') the Greek mesos or 'middle' was used.

Hadron uses the suffix 'on' (see 'ion') to follow the Greek hadros 'thick, bulky' as well as 'great, large, ripe'. This prefix comes from the Proto-Indo-European root sa 'to satisfy' and shares an origin with 'sad'. Scientist working at the Hadron Collider (a fabulous potential pub name) might have their own opinions as to their work being related to 'thick' and 'sad'.

Higgs boson is the Holy Grail for physicists - the Holy Grail that is until they discover something ever deeper - and is named after Peter Ware Higgs CH FRS FRSE and Satyendra Nath Bose FRS. Neither men gave the alternative name of the 'God particle' to the Higgs boson, this most often attributed to Leon Lederman as the author of the book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? (catchy isn't it?) but actually came from the publisher (yes, been there!) after Lederman originally came up with the phrase the "Goddamn particle".

Pions were named from the Greek letter pi, itself from the Hebrew where it meant 'little mouth', together with the suffix 'on' (see 'ion').

Positron was coined in 1933 and simply takes the first part of 'positive' and the ending of 'electron' to describe itself.

Muons were once known as the 'mu meson' but scientists agreed upon the shorter version. Hence the 'meson' (see above) took on the Greek letter mu, itself derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'water' and which also formed the basis for the Polish word for 'slime', the Sanskrit word for 'urine', and the Avestan word for 'excrement'.

This is why language is so wonderful. In the modern world of science we need to travel back thousands of years, only to discover the 'water', 'urine' and 'excrement' all, etymologically speaking, stem from the same thing.

Dominica 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 Dominica and a look at some of its largest settlements, there are no cities on this island, and most interesting names.

Salisbury takes the name of the British politician Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who served as prime minister for three terms over a period of thirteen years. The local Creole name for the town is Barroui - pronounced bah wee.

Grand Bay and its alternative English name of South City need no explanation. The village's local name is Berekua or Berricoa.

Calibishie gets its name from the native Arawakan language spoken by the Kalinagos people later known as the Caribs. In this language cali means 'net' and bishie 'reef' and thus describes 'the reef of nets' and gives some indication of how the people gathered protein from the sea to supplement vegetable matter from the forest, the latter also providing building materials.

Wesley, during the 1860s Wesleyville, was named for the Wesleyan missionaries who settled here.

Roseau is the capital and is named after the Roseau River, itself named by the French in the 16th or 17th century for the 'reeds' growing along its backs.

Delices is from the French word delices 'delights' or perhaps better seen as delice 'a delightful thing'.

Massacre is an ominous a name as it appears, this the massacre of the Carib locals by Europeans in 1674.

Paix Bouche is derived from the local Creole language, quite literally this means 'shut your mouth'.

Petite Savanne is from the French for 'little savannah'.

Scott's Head is named after Colonel George Scott, who helped the British secure Dominica from the French and later became lieutenant governor of the island for three years from 1764.

Vielle Case is a local French name meaning 'old house'.

La Vie Douce is a farming area aptly named as this means 'the sweet life'.

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

Czech Republic 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 the Czech Republic and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital city.

Prague is most likely from the Old Slavic prah meaning either ‘ford’ or ‘rapid’, depending upon context, but certainly referring to some early crossing point on the Vltava river. Other sources would give this as the Czech word prah, meaning ‘threshold’ and points to the story of Princess Libuse ordered the city be built ‘where a man hews the threshold of his house’. The problem with the latter story is this princess is mythical.

Brno has a number of suggested origins, including the Old Czech brnie ‘muddy, swampy’, Slavic brniti ‘to armour, fortify’, or a Celtic tongue related to Welsh bryn and thus meaning ‘hill’.

Ostrava took its name from the Ostra river on which it stands, now known as the Ostravice.

Liberec had been known as Reychinberch by the 14th century, this describing ‘the rich or resourceful mountain’. Later Czech versions are simply corruptions of the earlier German name.

Olomouc is another corruption of an early name. Here the Roman fort of Iuliomontium described ‘Mount Julius’.

Usti nad Labem had been known by its German name Aussig. It comes from the Old Czech ustie to describe ‘the mouth of the river Elbe’.

Hradec Kralove is one of the oldest settlements in the country and is named for being the ‘castle of the queen’, a reference to Elisabeth Richeza of Poland (1286-1335) who became the second wife of two Bohemian kings: Wenceslaus II and Rudolph I of Hapsburg.

Most is a name meaning simply ‘bridge’, a reference to the many bridges once linking the dry ‘islands’ in this area of swamps by the 10th century.

Jihlava is derived from the German name Iglau, itself from igel or ‘hedgehog’ as the animal appears on the city’s coat of arms.

Karlovy Vary is named after its founder, Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, who founded this place in 1370.

Jablonec is from the Old Czech jablon and means ‘apple tree’.

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