The thing I love about language is the fact that, to me, words are such a fun construct; they can be thrown around and smashed together, only to be pulled apart. That’s the beauty of language, but so seldom do we pause to think about how we got the words that we use so often. Because of that, I have decided to start a series celebrating how we got the words we have, also called etymology.
Distract/distracted: Distract comes from a practice in medieval France in which all four limbs of a debtor were tied to running horses, eventually causing the condemned and their entrails to fall out, thus giving a literal meaning to “distracted.”
Ardent: Ardent is a direct loanword from Latin, coming from the Latin word ardere, meaning to burn. This burn however is now metaphorical, describing how one is ever so passionate, or consumed (as if by a fire) by whatever they desire. Speaking of passion… or in this case
Zeal: Zeal derives from the name of a group of Jewish extremists, Zealots, who sought to establish a worldwide theocracy under Jewish rule. English simply took the first half of the word to describe someone who is very passionate about something, albeit not murderously so.
O.K.: The exact origins of O.K. are murky, however the generally accepted explanation is that the phrase originated as a campaign slogan for the future eight president, Martin van Buren. Van Buren had received the nickname Old Kinderhook, of which OK was simply an abbreviation of. The slogan “Vote O.K.” was shortened to O.K. to describe something that was pleasant, good, or fine.
Mark Twain: Mark Twain was not a person; it was the nom d’plume of writer Samuel Clemens, who penned literary masterpieces such as Huckleberry-Fin under the name. The name originates from a nautical term used to measure two increments of six feet called a mark(measure of six) twain(two.) The name was likely acquired via Clemens previous experience on steamboats on the Mississippi river.
That concludes the first weird etymologies. Tune in next time for a bit of post Halloween mischief!