Word Facts for Mar. 19-25, 2011
Word origin for the weekend of Mar. 19-20, 2011: Purim - The most festive of Jewish holidays, "Purim" (from the Hebrew word meaning "lot" - in the sense of "destiny") commemorates deliverance from a plot by the Persian vizier Haman to annihilate all the Jews of the Persian Empire. It is celebrated with public recitations from the Book of Esther, the exchange of gifts of food and drink, singing and masquerading, and giving charity to the poor.
Word origin for Mar. 21, 2011: an offer you can't refuse - One of the best-known lines in movie history comes from the 1972 film The Godfather, when the Mafia kingpin played by Marlon Brando says of an adversary, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." Said adversary does refuse, which earns him a world of hurt - and which puts the line into the vernacular almost immediately.
Word origin for Mar. 22, 2011: Asperger's syndrome - Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician, first identified the syndrome that bears his name, a form of autism, in 1944. He wrote several papers about the syndrome, arguing that obsession often accompanies greatness. "It seems that for success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential," Asperger wrote. "The necessary ingredient may be an ability to turn away from the everyday world... with all abilities cannibalized into the one specialty."
Word origin for Mar. 23, 2011: Tuscany - How is that "Tuscany" and Etruria are the same words? The answer is that different peoples of ancient Italy called the people we know as "Etruscans" different things: some Truri, some Tusci or Thusci, some Etusci, some Etruri. In the late days of the Roman Empire, the Italian province came to be called Toscani, meaning "belonging to the Tusci," and so "Tuscany" it now is in English.
Word origin for Mar. 24, 2011: excuse my French - Do the French swear more than Americans or Britons? No. In 1936, back in the days when "bloody" - short for "by God's body" - was not spoken in polite company, a comic writer (Michael Harrison) wrote: "[It was] a bloody sight better (pardon the French!) than most." The phrase spread rapidly throughout British slang and came into American English during World War II, when hundreds of thousands of Americans were stationed in England.
Word origin for Mar. 25, 2011: book - Before paper, parchment, or vellum were widely used in northern Europe, scribes wrote on sheets of bark from the beech tree, which takes forms such as buch in German and boek in Dutch. In Old English, the word arrived as bok, the origin of the modern word "book."
Word origin for Mar. 21, 2011: an offer you can't refuse - One of the best-known lines in movie history comes from the 1972 film The Godfather, when the Mafia kingpin played by Marlon Brando says of an adversary, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." Said adversary does refuse, which earns him a world of hurt - and which puts the line into the vernacular almost immediately.
Word origin for Mar. 22, 2011: Asperger's syndrome - Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician, first identified the syndrome that bears his name, a form of autism, in 1944. He wrote several papers about the syndrome, arguing that obsession often accompanies greatness. "It seems that for success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential," Asperger wrote. "The necessary ingredient may be an ability to turn away from the everyday world... with all abilities cannibalized into the one specialty."
Word origin for Mar. 23, 2011: Tuscany - How is that "Tuscany" and Etruria are the same words? The answer is that different peoples of ancient Italy called the people we know as "Etruscans" different things: some Truri, some Tusci or Thusci, some Etusci, some Etruri. In the late days of the Roman Empire, the Italian province came to be called Toscani, meaning "belonging to the Tusci," and so "Tuscany" it now is in English.
Word origin for Mar. 24, 2011: excuse my French - Do the French swear more than Americans or Britons? No. In 1936, back in the days when "bloody" - short for "by God's body" - was not spoken in polite company, a comic writer (Michael Harrison) wrote: "[It was] a bloody sight better (pardon the French!) than most." The phrase spread rapidly throughout British slang and came into American English during World War II, when hundreds of thousands of Americans were stationed in England.
Word origin for Mar. 25, 2011: book - Before paper, parchment, or vellum were widely used in northern Europe, scribes wrote on sheets of bark from the beech tree, which takes forms such as buch in German and boek in Dutch. In Old English, the word arrived as bok, the origin of the modern word "book."
Labels: 2011, books, food, greg, history, holidays, languages, page-a-day, presents, teunis, visitors, war, words
posted by Flami at 2:12:00 PM
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