February 2010
1 post
Cliché →
bobulate:
Seth Godin on clichés:
In printing, a cliché was a printing plate cast from movable type. This is also called a stereotype. When letters were set one at a time, it made sense to cast a phrase used repeatedly as a single slug of metal. “Cliché” came to mean such a ready-made phrase. The French word “cliché” comes from the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make a...
November 2009
10 posts
Broke
Many banks in post-Renaissance Europe issued small, porcelain “borrower’s tiles” to their creditworthy customers. Like credit cards, these tiles were imprinted with the owner’s name, his credit limit, and the name of the bank. Each time the customer wanted to borrow money, he had to present the tile to the bank teller, who would compare the imprinted credit limit with how...
Ostracize
“Ostron” is a Greek word for pottery. Periodically the Greeks would hold an election to determine if someone was a danger to their community. Everyone would write their votes on broken pieces of pottery (“ostron”) and if the vote was successful, the person was banished or “ostracized.”
Threshold
Originated in the middle ages when houses with stone floors were covered with threshings (left overs from grain milling) to keep the floor warm and to prevent it from being slippery. As threshings were added during the winter, they would be scattered and thinned near the door, so people added a wooden board to hold the threshings in — a threshold. The word later became synonymous with any...
Muscle
From the Latin mus (mouse) plus cul (at the bottom, underneath). Translates to the little mouse that runs beneath the skin when you flex.
Bulimia
From the two greek words “bous,” meaning ox, and “limos,” meaning hunger. Bulimia therefore roughly translates to, “the hunger of an ox.” Presumably because those suffering from bulimia are always battling their binge eating.
Avocado
The Aztecs called them ahucatl, their word for testicle. It is unclear whether they chose this word because of the avocado’s resemblance to that particular body part, or because the Aztecs believed the fruit to be an aphrodisiac. The spanish are responsible for altering the word to the modern, “avocado.”
Quarantine
Derived from the french word for the number forty, quarante, and the suffix -aine, which loosely translates to “-ish.” When a ship would come into port that was suspected of carrying an infectious disease, it was placed under “quarantaine,” meaning it was not to have any contact with the shore for a period roughly 40 days. It later evolved to mean any isolation based on a...
Assassin
During the Crusades, there was a secret sect of muslims who saw it as their religious duty to terrorize and kill their Christian enemies. Many of these murders and other crimes were carried out under the influence of hashish (form of marijuana). These people began to be known as “hashshashins,” which means “those who use hashish.” The word eventually evolved into assassin.
Toxin
After Hercules defeated the Hydra (Serpent beast, who after removing one head, two would grow back) he dipped his arrow points in its blood, creating poison arrows.
We get the modern definition of toxin, from the Greek word for bow, which is “toxon.”
Clue
In Greek mythology, the founder of Athens, Theseus, was to be placed inside the Labyrinth where he was sure to die at the hands of the Minotaur. The daughter of the king who was to kill Theseus had fallen in love with him and was determined to help him survive the Labyrinth. No person had ever successfully navigated out of the Labyrinth, but Ariadne, the princess, knew Theseus could solve the...