r/etymology

Last time I posted here, someone pointed out that my "Origin and Meaning" section

contained neither the origin nor the meaning. He was right. Noah was showing up as

Germanic. Noah.

So instead of arguing I spent the week shipping the whole thread:

- Real meanings and etymology now, with the dictionary source cited right under each one

- Added official birth records from England, Scotland, Ireland and France, so you can

see where a name is actually popular right now

- A "% of babies" view, name days (with an explanation, because nobody knows what

those are), fictional characters, similar-sounding names

- Every section shows a small badge for where its data comes from

The idea behind the site is simple: name sites mostly copy meanings from each other

and cite nothing. I want the one where you can check every single fact yourself.

Free, no accounts.

Round 2. What's the first thing you'd check to decide whether you trust a site

like this?

I’m currently learning Arabic and found out alcohol stems from Arabic “al-kuhl” (meaning powder, which also is where we get the makeup “kohl” from) and was wondering what other loan words we get from Arabic.

“Algebra” comes from Al-Jabr. “Al-Jabr” itself comes from part of a book published in around 820 in Baghdad titled “The Concise Book of Calculation by Restoration and Balancing”. It means restoration or a reunion of broken parts. In the 1100s it was eventually translated into Latin to what we now spell as algebra.

If you brush with a brush, comb with a comb, and mop with a mop, why do you sweep with a broom? As in, why don’t you broom with a broom?

Firstly, I assume that such adoption has taken place, and isn’t just an Anglophone convention. But I’m curious about when the world moved towards this common word. I imagine that every country and culture has its own creation myths and related names for the world. When did that convergence on “Earth” occur, how did it happen, and are there any curious stories to relate?

And if not, it bloody well should be.

The prefix traces back to a root meaning to bar or obstruct, which is clear enough in embargo but far less obvious in embarrass and embroil.

Isn't that interesting?

So I'm currently playing the Horizon games, and it got me thinking about how much language changes over time, even without weird sci-fi stuff happening. First off, has anyone else played? I love this game for so many reasons.

Discussion I'd like to open here is how much do you think language would truly change in a post apocalyptic world? Do you think it would be slower without ways to spread information quickly? How much do you think it could change in a single generation?

Personally I think English wouldn't sound like English anymore by the time of the events of Zero Dawn, and I think it would only take a couple generations.

This was literally a shower thought just moments ago. If one who stops is a stopper, someone who robs is a robber, someone who plans is a planner, etc, why is someone who shows not a showwer? Instead we spell it shower, which is where I had this thought.

Speak Spanish, German, and English, and am learning Portuguese. To my mind, all of these words have very similar meanings.

Pena (Spanish/Portugues) = pain, pity, shame

Peinlich (German) = awkward, embarrassing

Pain (English) = that which hurts, or something annoying

Similar meanings, but do they share a root somewhere back there in the mists of time? Or is it a case of linguistic convergent evolution?

Thanks!

I've been thinking recently that quite a lot of county names in my native language (Indonesia) are heavily influenced by travelers, colonizers, and traders. Are there other examples of this and what is this phenomenon called?

I was doing some worldbuilding and trying to come up with a name for a city. I settled on Telogia, but googled it to make sure. Turns out it's the name of an unincorporated community in Florida.

But I looked, and I can't actually find out where it came from. There are few sites that even mention Telogia Creek, and the ones that do just claim that it's a Native American word for palmetto. Which is not very specific, there are a lot of Native American languages. So, which one?

The 1st century AD, when this dude, Pliny the Elder, an author/ naturalist/ philosopher and whatnot, believed that if you got bit by a rabid animal (say, a dog), you should be eating a part of said animal in order to, well, get cured.