Word Facts for Mar. 5-11, 2011
Word origin for the weekend of Mar. 5-6, 2011: dungaree - In Hindi, dungri is a kind of rough calico that is often used to make durable work clothing. Imported to England, the cloth was dyed blue, the preferred color for manual laborers. (thus our phrase "blue-collar workers") Thus colored, the cloth resembles denim, and the word "dungarees" is sometimes used interchangeably with "blue jeans."
Word origin for Mar. 7, 2011: password fatigue - Do you have password fatigue? Most modern users, it would seem safe to guess, do... worn to a frazzle by having to memorize passwords to enter various closed sites. Coined on the analogy of mental fatigue and battle fatigue, the phrase turns up in computer magazines in the mid-1990s.
Word origin for Mar. 8, 2011: laissez les bon temps rouler - Visitors to New Orleans or fans of zydeco music know the phrase laissez les bon temps rouler, which is the French equivalent of an African-American expression from the South, "Let the good times roll." Both phrases have entered common American speech, and although it is not definitively known which one preceded the other, each exhorts us to relax and have a good time. Happy Mardi Gras!
Word origin for Mar. 9, 2011: congregation - The word for an assembly of people, and specifically an assembly of churchgoers, comes from the Greek gregos ("flock") and the Latin con ("with" or "together") ... the origin lays bare the metaphor of clerics as pastors - shepherds, that is - and of the Good Shepherd.
Word origin for Mar. 10, 2011: Dalmatian - The breed of dog with white coat and black spots was first imported in England in 1810 and traveled from there to the United States, where it soon became one of the more popular varieties of dog, and remains so today. It was originally bred in Croatia, where it was called dalmatinac - that is, from Dalmatia, a coastal region along the Adriatic Sea.
Word origin for Mar. 11, 2011: diaper - In medieval times, a "diaper," whose root is the Greek word aspros ("white") was any kind of white, loosely woven linen such as a farm worker might wear on a hot day. It came to be used for a garment for babies only in the nineteenth century, and then mostly in the United States. In Britain and other English-speaking nations, the preferred term remains "napkin," often shortened to "nappy."
Word origin for Mar. 7, 2011: password fatigue - Do you have password fatigue? Most modern users, it would seem safe to guess, do... worn to a frazzle by having to memorize passwords to enter various closed sites. Coined on the analogy of mental fatigue and battle fatigue, the phrase turns up in computer magazines in the mid-1990s.
Word origin for Mar. 8, 2011: laissez les bon temps rouler - Visitors to New Orleans or fans of zydeco music know the phrase laissez les bon temps rouler, which is the French equivalent of an African-American expression from the South, "Let the good times roll." Both phrases have entered common American speech, and although it is not definitively known which one preceded the other, each exhorts us to relax and have a good time. Happy Mardi Gras!
Word origin for Mar. 9, 2011: congregation - The word for an assembly of people, and specifically an assembly of churchgoers, comes from the Greek gregos ("flock") and the Latin con ("with" or "together") ... the origin lays bare the metaphor of clerics as pastors - shepherds, that is - and of the Good Shepherd.
Word origin for Mar. 10, 2011: Dalmatian - The breed of dog with white coat and black spots was first imported in England in 1810 and traveled from there to the United States, where it soon became one of the more popular varieties of dog, and remains so today. It was originally bred in Croatia, where it was called dalmatinac - that is, from Dalmatia, a coastal region along the Adriatic Sea.
Word origin for Mar. 11, 2011: diaper - In medieval times, a "diaper," whose root is the Greek word aspros ("white") was any kind of white, loosely woven linen such as a farm worker might wear on a hot day. It came to be used for a garment for babies only in the nineteenth century, and then mostly in the United States. In Britain and other English-speaking nations, the preferred term remains "napkin," often shortened to "nappy."
Labels: 2011, babies, church, coinage, computer, greg, history, holidays, languages, music, page-a-day, teunis, visitors, words
posted by Flami at 6:32:00 PM
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