Words form language, and our language helps us create communication. Over a period of time, several people have coined new words that have evolved—sometimes with their meanings remaining the same, and the other times with their meanings completely changed.
Several ancient languages like Latin, Sanskrit, and Greek have been the origins of several words in the English language. We may not always know the interesting origin of the words we use every day, but many of them have fascinating origins.
Here is a list of 15 such words with the story of their etymology:
1. The word “quarantine” comes from the mandatory period of isolation the ships and people had to go through before entering the city-state of Ragusa after it was invaded by the Venetians.
“Quarantine” is derived from the Italian words “quaranta giorni” of a Venetian dialect that means “40 days.” In the middle of the 14th century, the Black Death had wiped out approximately 30% of Europe’s population. As a measure of prevention, all the ships along with the people who arrived in Ragusa, a city-state (a small independent country with its dependent territories) ruled by the Venetians, were to stay in a restricted place for 30 days at first, which was then increased to 40 days. This period came to be known as the period of “quarantine.” (source)
2. “Nepotism” has its origins from the favoritism practiced by the Pope towards his nephews in the 15th century which was then carried on by his successors.
“Nepotism,” which means a practice, often unfair, of favoring relatives or friends for jobs, was started by Pope. Sixtus IV during his papacy from 1471-1484 when he granted a lot of favors to his family, especially his nephews. The Italian word for nephew is “nipote,” and a 17th century variant of it was “nepote” from where we get the word “nepotism.”
The other Popes, and eventually everyone else in power, continued the practice that stood the test of time. In 1667, a writer named Gregorio Leti also wrote a book on this titled, Il Nepotismo di Roma about how the Popes favored their nephews for various posts. (source)
3. A Greek Goddess named Pheme and her actions gave rise to the English word “fame.” If she favored someone, she brought them nobility; if she didn’t, it gave rise to scandals.
In Greek mythology, a Goddess named Pheme, also known as “Fama” in Roman mythology. was known to be the personification of renown. She is known to have listened in on the matters of everyone else and repeated their exploits everywhere, getting louder every time she told someone about it, thus making that person famous.
Virgil, an ancient Roman poet after learning of her in Roman mythology wrote, “had her feet on the ground, and her head in the clouds, making the small seem great and the great seem greater.” This is how we get the word “fame.” (source)
4. The Old English word “godsibb,” which meant a godparent of another’s child who was also their intimate friend, became the etymon for the modern word “gossip.”
The word “gossip” is known to have come from the Old English word of “godsibb” that meant god’s sibling or a godparent. Godparents, who would be close friends of the parent would know the minutest details about their lives. Shakespeare used the word in its noun form as it was, but his contemporary, Thomas Heywood began using gossip as a verb.
But once Shakespeare is known to have made an exception and used gossip as a verb, “I’ll gossip at the feast,” he wrote, just how we use it today. The word feast was used to define an event where long stories about various things were narrated, and where “gossip” happened. By the 19th century, the word “gossip” had evolved to mean what it is today—chattering about the lives of others and often spreading rumors. (source)
5. In the ancient ages, people believed that the phases of the moon caused a person to behave crazily. This belief gave rise to the word, “lunatic” with “luna” being the Latin word for moon.
“Lunatic” which is used to define someone who is insane originated in the 4th century. Astrologers used the term to define someone who acted crazily or got epileptic seizures depending upon the phases of the moon (luna). Aristotle once argued that a full moon brought out the insanity in those with bipolar disorder.
Until the 18th century, people believed that the moon influenced a variety of illnesses. Lawyers used “guilty by reason of the full moon,” as a defense in the courts of England until the 19th century. (1,2)
6. The word “idiot” comes from the Greek word for a person who refused to participate in politics and demonstrated apathy.
In ancient Greece, it was very common for everyone to participate in politics and societal affairs. Those who were not politically involved were considered to be selfish. A majority of the people in Athens willingly took part in politics to some extent. Those who did not were known as selfish and called “idiotes.”
“Idiotes” originates from the word “idios” which means “the self.” An “idiotes” was an ignorant and selfish person. This word was later adapted in Latin as “idiota” which meant someone common, inexperienced, and ignorant. This is how we get the word “idiot” in English. (source)
7. The word “checkmate” comes from the old Persian phrase of “shāh māt” which literally means that “the King is helpless.”
When the Persians modified chess, they introduced the concept of “warning the king” (“check” in modern language). Then they introduced the rule that the king cannot be left in a check position or move in a position that would still give a check making the king helpless. When this happened, the phrase used for it was “shāh māt” which ended the game.
Those who played chess in ancient Persia found the checkmate way of playing chess nobler than the older way of capturing all the pawns of the opposite player (known as “annihilation” or “robado” now). This is how we get the word “checkmate.” (source)
8. “Barbarian” was a word that was first used by ancient Greeks for all non-Greek people who spoke unintelligible things that sounded like “bar bar bar.”
The Greek word “bárbaros” was used to define someone who babbled. To Greeks, the language of all the other foreigners, including Persians and Egyptians, was unintelligible. To their ears, it sounded something like “bar bar bar.” Similarly, the Sanskrit word “barbara” meant to stammer.
Today we use the word “barbarian” to define someone who is rough, brutal, and uncivilized. It was the Romans who transformed the word’s meaning to what it is used for today. (source)
9. The word “bug” in the context of a computer glitch was first used after a moth actually caused a malfunction in one of the early types of computers.
A software “bug” is a term we use to define a glitch in a computer system that is not physical. But the term originated with an actual bug—more specifically, a moth. Computer pioneer, Grace Hopper, was working on the early Mark II and Mark III electromechanical computers.
When Mark II was malfunctioning, they found that a moth had been trapped in a relay causing the problem. Hopper used the term “bug” for that glitch in the computer in the logbook later. The operators who found the moth, including William “Bill” Burke, were familiar with term often used in engineering and taped the moth in the logbook with the note, “first actual case of bug being found.” (source)
10. Originally the word, “nice” had a negative connotation that meant ignorant or stupid from the Latin “nescius.” It was in the 14th century that it began being used to define clothing or conduct that was very luxurious.
“Nice” has been used to mean a plethora of things. In 1967, it was also used to define drug dealers in a song. Before the 14th century, the word “nice” was used to define someone who was stupid, originating from Latin. In the 1300s, it was used to designate a person with excessively luxurious clothing, a very rich person, or a sophisticated conduct.
In the 1400s, “nice” began being used for someone who was shy, something that was very precise, or someone who was finely dressed. One hundred years later, “nice” was used to define polite society. In the 18th century, “nice” was finally used in the sense that we used it today, to mean anything that is good or positive. Around the same time, the phrase “make nice” entered the English language which means to ease a tense situation giving rise to the meaning of the word as it is used now. (source)
11. The word “quiz” was a result of a bet made by a theatre proprietor of Dublin who said he could make a nonsensical word known to everyone in the city within 48 hours.
If Richard Daly, a Dublin theatre proprietor had not placed a bet, we would be using some other word to test someone with questions. As a part of the bet, in 1791, Daly stated that he would make the public define a nonsensical word he would coin. One evening, he made his staff go around the city and write the strange word, “quiz” on random walls. The next day, everyone was talking about it and eventually, it became a part of their language.
But it was only in the mid-19th century that the word evolved to mean what it does today. At first, it meant an odd and eccentric person and was also used to define a kind of a yoyo-like toy. (source)
12. “Nightmare” comes from the Middle English word “mare,” who was a female, evil spirit who produced a feeling of suffocation in a sleeping person or animal during the night.
Remember the sensation of not being able to breathe when you wake up from a nightmare? There is some sense behind it. In around the early 1300s, there was a belief among the people that a female, evil spirit settled on a sleeping person and suffocated them. Since evil is often associated with night, and people were more susceptible to the “mare” or “evil spirit” in darkness, the word “night” was added as a prefix creating the word, “nightmare.”
The belief in evil spirits waned with the modernization of the world and advancement of science which gave rise to the knowledge that it was the sub-conscious mind that made us dream, producing that feeling of being suffocated or even paralyzed in sleep. However, the word “nightmare” continued to be used for not only bad dreams but also dreadful situations. (source)
13. We use the word “bucks” for currency because, during the ancient times, deerskin was a common medium of exchange.
A “buck” means a male, horned animal, especially a deer. In the 17th century, deerskin was used as a medium of exchange to get other items of value. For instance, a cask of whiskey could be bought for “five bucks,” which anciently, referred to deerskin, not money. Centuries later as we shifted to dollars and other currencies, we carried forward the term “bucks” to signify some form of medium of exchange to purchase goods.
Another less-believed theory put forward for the etymology of the word “bucks” is that, at a point of time, young male slaves were traded in exchange for valuable items. They were also referred to as “bucks.” (source)
14. The word “dude” first stood for men who followed the latest fashion trends. The original spelling of the word was “doods.” It was also once used to address those who were clueless.
In the late 19th century, the word “doods” began being used as a form of mockery for young men who were obsessed to follow the latest fashion trends. When young British men returned from their adventures abroad, they sported high-fashion and sophisticated mannerisms in the 18th century. They also developed a taste for macaroni. They were often imitated by other folks by sticking a feather in their caps and called “doodles” shortened from the old song, Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Soon, the name for these fashion-obsessed men was shortened to “doods,” alternatively spelled “dudes.” We now use it very commonly to address people, mainly guys. (source)
15. “Third World” were the words first used to define the countries that were not politically aligned during the Cold War era, unlike what they mean today. Going by that definition, Austria, Sweden and Finland are “Third World countries.”
“Third World countries” were those countries that did not align with the Capitalist NATO (First World) or the Communist Bloc (Second World) during the Cold War era, remaining politically neutral unlike how it is used to define under-developed, poverty-stricken nations today. The term was used solely to demarcate political and economic divisions.
Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer and anthropologist coined the words in 1952 in an article in “L’Observateur,” a French magazine, conveying political non-alignment of certain countries. Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, and Switzerland are “Third World countries” by that definition because they remained neutral during World War II. (source)