Found Words

It might have participated in some great Shakespearean insults – if only it had come into its own just a couple of centuries earlier.

In the late 18th century, schist (a layered type of metamorphic rock) was hewn from the earlier schistus,  modified at the beginning of the 17th century from le French, schiste.
The French had broken up Latin’s schistos lapis (“stone that splits easily”~ Pliny), in turn derived from Greek skhistos (divided, separated) – originally a chip of their ol’ skhizein (to split).

Continue reading “schistose, adj.”

Anyone have some groggy moments over the holiday break? I did and mine were of the “pass me another glass of bubbles”* variety as well as the “sluggish from lack of sleep” type moments.

You may be familiar with the grog back-story:
In 1740 a British Admiral introduced watered down rum into the navy to prevent sailors getting intoxicated on their allocation of spirits. Admiral Vernon’s nickname was “Old Grog” – from the cloak he wore; made from a weatherproof material of silk and wool called grogram. The 50/50 watered rum was called grog, and how the sailors felt when they’d drunk too much of it (thus defeating the good Admiral’s intentions) was described as groggy or groggified.

Continue reading “grog-blossom, n.”

I’ve been testing IFTTT applets to transfer my Instagram posts to WordPress and the process has been testing me. But we’re there now and so while on the topic:

Noun

The original test is from the late 14th century and referred to a small vessel used in assaying precious metals. It came to us via Old French’s test (a pot) becoming Modern French’s têt (a cupel – the assaying vessel) from the Latin testum (earthen pot).
And due to some Old French confusion between their test and teste in the 15th & 16th centuries, it’s also related to Latin’s testa (piece of burned clay, earthen pot, shell). Continue reading “testing, n.”