North Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘south’ and now, somewhat predictably, look at ‘north’.

North Pole can refer either to the geographical north pole, this the normal idea of the region and the northernmost point around which the planet turns on its axis – it’s the only point on the planet where you can only travel south, north, east, and west are not available – or there is the magnetic north pole, which is where the compass always points and moves all the time, not in any regularity or overly predictable way.

Not until 1766 was anyone referred to as a North American.

North Sea has been known as either the German Sea or German Ocean for most of British recorded history, and only disappeared for good in 1830. Earlier the North Sea was what we would know as the Bristol Channel (ie it north of the Celtic Sea or English Channel). It was the Dutch who first referred to the body of water as the North Sea, from around the 13th century and to distinguish from the South Sea or Zuider Zee. Note the Danes referred to the North Sea as the West Sea, while in the late 14th century the North Sea was the northernmost portion of the ocean which surrounded the entire globe.

Nothing was described as northbound until 1870.

The North Star, also known as Polaris or Pole Star, has been known as such since the late 14th century. Note the Pole Star, the one point of light around which the heavens appear to rotate in the northern hemisphere, has only been seen as such for about 1500 years, around 5,000 years ago it was Thuban in the constellation of Draco, 13,000 years ago it was Vega, 10,000 years ago it was Iota Herculis, and in 5,000 years it will be Alderamin in Cepheus.

Northeasters, or nor’easter at times, is a strong wind coming from that point of the compass and first recorded in 1794.

The Northwest Passage, that hypothetical sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific around the north of the continent of North America, is first described around 1600.

Northumbria, named because it was north of the Humber, is one of the kingdoms which once comprised England and is first mentioned around 720.

Several place names have been named as being ‘north’, these include Norway, Norfolk, Pohjoinen (is in Finland), Beijing,

Sea Idioms

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

Sea change, a phrase meaning ‘to transform’, has rather fallen out of use in the modern era but has been recorded since around 1660. Indeed, it appears in my friend Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Sea legs refers to the ability of someone to walk confidently on the deck of a ship regardless of the rolling and pitching of the vessel and has been known since 1712.

All at sea is a way to convey a meaning of ‘perplexed’, and has been recorded since 1768. Prior to that, and since the late 12th century, it had the very different meaning of ‘out of sight of land’. The two must be connected in conveying ‘lost’.

North Sea which, as popularized by Billy Connolly, is famously always cold, hasn’t always been known as the North Sea. To the English it was the German Sea for most of recorded history and until at least 1836; the North Sea at that time referred to that part of the ocean now known as the Bristol Channel. The Dutch referred to it as the North Sea to distinguish from the Southern Sea (or Zuider Sea). As if to complete this baffling nomenclature, the Danes decided they would know it as the West Sea.

Sealions have been known as such since the 1690s, although applied to any species of eared seals. Hitler codenamed his planned invasion of Britain ‘Operation Sealion’ in July 1940, but had abandoned these plans by October of that year. But sealions were also a species of lobster, and recorded as such since the end of the 16th century.

Dead Sea is known as such for its high salt content. It is not exactly devoid of life, but nothing of any size is found there. The Bible calls it the Salt Sea, and is also known as the ‘Sea of the Plain’, and the ‘East Sea’, and the Asphalite Sea. Confused? So you should be, for this Dead Sea – with 26% salt content as opposed to the 3% to 4% of the ocean, is not a sea but a lake.

Red Sea is thought to be named for the algae of that colour which blooms in its waters; or a tribal name; or the sandstone found around its shores; or perhaps ‘red’ to represent ‘south’ as ‘black’ represents ‘north’. (No, neither do I.)

Sea breezes blow from the sea onshore, at least they have since the 1690s.

Sea mew is an old name for the gull, known as such for its call and recorded from the 15th century.

Sea monsters are prolific in mythologies around the globe, but nobody called them such before 1580. Sea serpents debuted in 1640; while alternative names of sea wolf and sea dragon are also found.

Man has produced salt by evaporating sea water for millennia, but the term ‘sea salt’ is unrecorded before the end of the 16th century.

Sea anemones were named as such from 1742; but eight years later the same creature was also referred to as a sea pudding.

Sea captain is first found in 1610.

Sea power, a reference to a dominant naval power, is found from 1849.

Sea dogs referred to the harbor seal from the 1590s; it referred to ‘pirates’ from 1650; and to any sailor from 1823.

Sea horses were first named in the 1580s, but the term had been used for more than two centuries to refer to the walrus.

The sea floor has only been known as such since 1832, prior to that it was the sea bottom.

Sea urchins were named in the 1590s, described as a kind of crabfish that has prickles instead of feet. In the 19th century the same creatures were called ‘whore’s eggs’ in Newfoundland.

Sea level is first seen in 1806 and then described the mean level between high and low tides.

Nothing was described as ‘sea going’ until 1829.

Sea shore is a term found since 1520.

Seaside was coined much earlier, certainly in use by 1200.

Nothing was said to be overseas until 1580.

Seafaring has been used since around 1200.

An Etymologist's look at Incan Mythology.

Continuing on after my recent course on ancient languages, I thought it would be interesting to examine a selection of Incan mythological figures and examine the etymologies for their names.

Apu has several meanings, depending upon the context, but most likely means simply 'lord', with the deity associated with a mountain which houses the god's living spirit.

Pacha Kamaq is from the Quechua language and means 'creator of the world'. He is said to have created the first man and woman, but he forgot to give them food and the man died. I don't think anything more needs to be said. Agreed? Let's move swiftly on.

Pariacaca was a god of water and rainstorms and, while born a falcon, later became human. Theetymology of the name of the god is uncertain, but there is a mountain of this name in the Peruvian Andes (it is unclear which was named first) which is thought to mean 'reddish, copper, or sparrow rock' depending upon which text is consulted.

Viracocha may have several meanings, for Quechuan languages speak of qucha meaning 'lake, sea, reservoir', and wira means 'fat', and tiqsi means 'base, foundation'. Hence, we may be looking at something described as 'the fat of the sea'.

Synonym Etymologies E

Continuing the look at synonyms through the eyes of the etymologist, this time it is the letter E and edge. We will look at the noun twice, first as in 'rim' and then as in 'advantage'.

Edge as in 'rim' comes to English through the Germanic route and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European ak 'be sharp' or perhaps 'point'. Note that Germanic trail also sees forms such as the Old Frisian egg, Old Saxon eggia, and Old Norse egg. Remember these early forms when we look at the other use of 'edge' below.

Rim is derived from Old Norse rimi where it was used to refer to 'a raised strip of land or ridge'. That it came to be used in this sense is down to it being used in the Old English saerima or 'seashore'.

Border has only been used in this sense since the early fifteenth century, it came to English with Old French bordeure 'seam, edge of a shield'.

Boundary puts the suffix '-ary' on the word which should be seen as meaning 'limit'.

Fringe also came to English from French, there frenge was used to refer to 'thread, strand' as much as 'edge'.

Margin was first used in English to refer to the edge of a body of water (and still is today). It came from Old French margin and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European merg 'border'.

Lip has only been used in this sense for the last two centuries at most. Clearly from the body part it has hardly changed in millennia and has never had any other meaning, thus the etymology is difficult to see.

Brim, as with margin, started as a reference to where land met water, this time more often used to refer to the riverbank. It is derived from Proto-Indo-European bhrem 'point, spike, edge', where it is easy to see why it came to be used when referring to hats.

Brink has near identical historical usage and meanings, with the exception of Proto-Indo-European bhreng meaning 'to protect' as well as 'edge'.

Verge comes from the Old French verge meaning 'twig, branch' and also 'measuring rod' and 'rod of office' and also 'penis'.

Perimeter is a compound of peri- 'around, about' and -meter from metron 'measure'.

Circumference is another compound word, from circum- 'around' and ferre 'to carry' and also 'to bear children'.

Periphery is first seen in the fourteenth century, where periferie means 'atmosphere around the earth'. It is a compound of peri- (as in perimeter) and the same suffix found in cirumference.

Edge again, this time as in 'advantage'. is from the verb 'to egg on'. Now, if you've ever wondered why we 'egg' someone on, it's because 'egg' is the correct early form and only from the early 17th century did the word become 'edge'. There was no confusion between the two as these would be used in quite different contexts. Thus to 'egg' someone on is the same as edging forward or advancing slowly. (I won't bother with the etymology of 'egg' as in chicken here, or we'll be here all day.)

Advantage is another first sen in the fourteenth century, and comes from the Latin abante 'from before' and Proto-Indo-European ant 'front, forehead'.

Lead is a Germanic word, all forms suggesting 'to travel' and all can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European leit 'to go forth'.

Superiority is from 'superior' and from 'super', 'above, upper' and from Proto-Indo-European uper 'over'.

Dominance is a derivative of dominant, coming to English from Old French dominant, from Latin dominari 'to rule', and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European dem 'home, household'.

Supremacy is derived from supreme, from Latin supremus 'highest' and from that same Proto-Indo-European root uper seen in 'superior'. (Well who else did you think I was going to suggest fitted this description?)

What on Earth (or Neptune)?

Or not on Earth as the case may be. I was looking at the names of our planet in languages other than English. It came as something of a disappointment to discover they were mostly translations of 'earth' in the sense of 'soil, dirt'.

So I decided to look elsewhere in the heavens and see what names other languages had given to the remaining seven planets in orbit around our sun. Below is the language, its name and, where possible, the translation. Many nations simply use the same name, albeit with the phonetic spelling reflecting local pronunciation. As these clearly come from the same source as the English names, I have concentrated on the alternatives and finally the planet Neptune

As this is one of the planets discovered in the age of astronomy and thus unknown to the ancients (it is not visible to the naked eye), many languages simply use the name 'Neptune' - these have been omitted.

Greek - Poseidon - the Greek personification of Neptune, the god of the sea.

Korean - Haewangseong - 'Star of the king of the sea'.

Mandarin Chinese - 'the ocean-king planet' and borrowed from Japanese.

Mongolia - dailain van - the same meaning and origin as Mandarin Chinese.

Note the spellings and characters used are English, so don't write to me pointing missing umlauts, accents, etc. or how I should have used a different alphabet.

What on Earth (or Uranus)?

Or not on Earth as the case may be. I was looking at the names of our planet in languages other than English. It came as something of a disappointment to discover they were mostly translations of 'earth' in the sense of 'soil, dirt'.

I decided to look elsewhere in the heavens and see what names other languages had given to the remaining seven planets in orbit around our sun. Below is the language, its name and, where possible, the translation. Many nations simply use the same name, albeit with the phonetic spelling reflecting local pronunciation. As these clearly come from the same source as the English names, I have concentrated on the alternatives and this time the planet Uranus.

As this is one of the planets discovered in the age of astronomy and thus unknown to the ancients (it is not visible to the naked eye), many languages simply use the name 'Uranus' - these have been omitted.

Korean - Cheonwangseong - 'Star of the king of heaven'.

Mandarin Chinese - 'the heavenly king planet'

Mongolia - Tengerijn van - in Hungarian this means 'there is a sea', which is a little confusing as it is Neptune who is the Roman god of the sea.

Note the spellings and characters used are English, so don't write to me pointing to missing umlauts, accents, etc. or how I should have used a different alphabet.

Togo 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 I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest of Togo's cities.

Kara takes its name from the Kara River on which it stands, the river name has never been understood.

Kpalime was originally known as Agome-Kpalime, the Agome being the name of the people. Kpalime is an abbreviation of mokpalipe or 'crossroads'.

Tchamba takes its name from the tribe living in and around here.

Notse is a distortion of the word noin, and says 'we stay here' in the Ewe dialect.

Maritime is the southernmost of Togo's five regions and named as it is the only one with a coastline.

Centrale is a region of Togo named because it is the middle of the five regions.

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

Mexico 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 I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Mexican cities.

Mexico takes its name from the lake which once occupied the same general area as the capital city. Known as Metzlianan by the Aztecs, this comes from netz-tli atl and gave the name of Metzxihco to the city, the latter meaning 'in the navel of the waters of the moon'.

Ecatepec is from the Nahuatl and means eithr 'windy hill' or perhaps 'hill devoted to Ehecatl', this the deity in Aztec mythology associated with the wind.

Guadalajara is a transferred name from Spain, that of the leader of the original settlers Nuno de Guzman. That name comes from the Arabic Wadi-al-Hajara 'valley of stones' and a likely translation of the earlier Iberian name of Arriaca or stony river'.

Puebla was founded in 1531 in an area then known as Cuetlaxcoapan or 'where serpents change their skin', a much more interesting definition than the current name which is simply the Spanish for 'village'.

Juarez was known as Paso del Norte or 'pass of the north' until it served as a temporary stop for Benito Juarez's republican forces when they were fighting the French.

Tijuana was first named as such when the rancho was establsihed here by Santiago Arguello Moraga in 1829. He took the name of Rancho Tia Juana from the local Kumeyaay language where Tiwan means 'by the sea'.

Leon is simply the Spanish 'lion'.

Zapopan is the Spanish form of the Nahuatl tzapotl with pan giving 'among the sapote trees'. This does not refer to a specific tree but is a general term for the many trees bearing soft edible fruits.

Monterrey was named after the wife of Gaspar de Zuniga, 5th Count of Monterrey and ninth Viceroy of New Spain.

Nezahualcoyotl comes from the Nahuatl or Aztec for 'fasting coyote', the animal featured on the city's seal.

Culiacan is a Spanish version of the original and could either refer to Colhuacan 'the place of those who adore the crooked god Coltzin' or coahuacan 'palace of snakes'. Neither of which are particularly pleasant and yet another indication that places were named by the neighbours more often than the inhabitants, who simply called it 'home'.

Chihuahua is not named after the breed of dog but comes from the Nahuatl for 'between the waters', or 'place of the holed rock', or dry and sandy place', depending upon which era the name developed.

Naucalpan is another of Nahuatl origin, either referring to 'place of the four neighbourhoods' or 'four houses'.

Merida is taken from its Spanish namesake itself once Emerita Augusta and a reference to this being where the discharged soldiers of Emperor Augustus settled - it means 'the veterans'. Earlier the Mayans referred to this as Ichkanzihoo or 'city of the five hills' - a much nicer origin than the current name.

San Luis Potosi City is named after Louis IX of France, who is the city's patron saint. Potosi is a nod to the role played by the mines of Potosi in Bolivia, on which the wealth and growth of this place was founded. The origin of Potosi is uncertain, but may come from the Aymaran root meaning 'thunderous noise'.

Aguascalientes originates in the Spanish aguas calientes or 'hot waters', thermal springs still a feature of this area.

Hermosillo was named after Jose Maria Gonzalez Hermosillo, a 19th century hero whose surname loosely translates as 'beautiful ones'.

Mexicali is a modern name, a portmanteau composed of Mexico and California.

Guadalupe is another transferred from a Spanish namesake, here the Arabic wadi and Latin lupus combine to mean 'valley or river of the wolf'.

Acapulco is from the Nahuatl aca pol co or where the reeds were destroyed'.

Tlalnepantla resulted in a dispute between the towns of Tenayuca and Teocalheuyacan as to where the Franciscan monastery should be located. The decision to place it beween resulted in this sense of 'middle place'.

Cancun is a Spanish translation of the Mayan kaan kun 'place of snakes'.

Queretaro comes from the Purepecha language where they refer to Crettaro 'place of crags'. It was also referred to as Maxei or Ndamaxei in the Otomi language, this meaning 'ball game' oand 'grand pool game' respectively.

Chimalhuacan is from the Nahuatl for 'place of those who have shields'.

Torreon comes from the Spanish for 'big tower' these built to monitor the regular flooding of the area.

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