The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

Quizzes

In Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (often erroneously referred to as Alice Through the Looking Glass), Humpty Dumpty tells Alice:

However, as the greatest joy a human being can achieve in this sorrowful world is to get one up on his or her fellow man or woman by correcting their English, and as I have spent far too long consulting dictionaries, here’s a list of some common English words and what the dictionaries say they actually mean:

Burgeon – To bud

Blueprint – The absolutely final plans that are sent to the factory

Backlash – The small period of inactivity when a system of cogs is reversed

Celibate – Unmarried

Compendium – Brief summary

Condone – Forgive

Coruscate – To glow intermittently

Decimate – To reduce by 10 per cent

Enormity – Crime

Effete – Exhausted

Fulsome – Over the top

Jejune – Unsatisfying

Noisome – Annoying

Nauseous – Causing nausea

Pleasantry – Joke

Pristine – Unchanged

Refute – To utterly disprove

Restive – Refusing to move (obviously)

Scurrilous – Obscene

Swathe – The area of grass cut with one stroke of a scythe

As you will have learnt from the preceding stroll through the English language, it’s almost impossible to guess where a word has come from or where it’s going to go to. So here, just to puzzle­ you, are a series of quizzes in which you have to guess where a word has come from or where it’s going to go to.

We shall start with some names of famous people. Except that I haven’t given you the names, I’ve given you the etymological meaning. So, for example, if I were to write God of war and man of peace, the answer would be me, Mark Forsyth, because Mark comes from Mars, the Roman god of battles, and Forsyth is Gaelic for man of peace. Got that? Good. Let us begin. (Answers below.)

Politicians of the last hundred years

1. Blessed, handsome and crooked (US President)

2. Courageous cabbage (European politician)

3. Noble wolf who lives in a hut (Second World War)

4. God loved the ugly-face (US President)

5. Blessed one from Mosul (Second World War)

Music

1. God loves a mud-caked, travelling wolf (composer; clue: wolves)

2. My little French lady (female pop star; clue: my lady)

3. Loud war in the vegetable garden (composer; clue: he wouldn’t have heard it anyway)

4. Tattooed javelin-thrower (female pop star; clue: another word for javelins)

5. The dwarf in the priest’s garden (male rock star; clue: middle­ name Aaron)

Glamour

1. Victorious goatherd (actress; clue: baby goat)

2. Christmas councillor (actress; clue: odd name as she’s Israeli)

3. Cruel twin (actor; clue: a kind of missile)

4. The moon at the ford of blood (supermodel; clue: ----ford)

5. He who listens among the cows (TV; clue: cow---)

Writers

1. Little Richard’s husband (nineteenth-century novelist)

2. Good Christian (twentieth-century novelist)

3. Virile wonder (seventeenth-century poet)

4. Pants-maker in a peaceful land (fourteenth-century poet)

5. Tiny foreign snake (twentieth-century novelist)

And the answers are:

Politicians of the last hundred years

1. Blessed, handsome and crooked = Barack Hussein Obama

Barack is Swahili for blessed. Hussein is Arabic for handsome. Obama is Dholuo for crooked.

2. Courageous cabbage = Helmut Kohl

Nobody is quite sure what the hel means, but mut is definitely brave and kohl is cabbage.

3. Noble wolf who lives in a hut = Adolf Hitler

Adolf is edel wolf, which means noble wolf, and so far as anyone can tell, a hitler is just somebody who lives in a hut.

4. God loved the ugly-face = JFK

John comes from the Latin Johannes which comes from the Hebrew y’hohanan, which means Jahweh has favoured. Kennedy comes from the Irish O Cinnéide, which means ugly head.

5. Blessed one from Mosul = Benito Mussolini

Benito means blessed and Mussolini means muslin, because his ancestor was probably a merchant who dealt in muslin. However, muslin – mussolina in Italian – gets its name from Mosul in Iraq, where it was believed to be made.

Music

1. God loves a mud-caked, travelling wolf = Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolf gang is German for a travelling wolf, Amadeus is Latin for loved (ama) by god (deus), and Mozart comes from the Allemanic motzen meaning to roll about in the mud. It was originally an insulting term for somebody dirty.

2. My little French lady = Madonna Ciccone

Ma donna is Italian for my lady. Ciccone is an augmentative of Cicco; but Cicco is a diminutive of Francesco. So it means little Francis, and Francis means French.

3. Loud war in the vegetable garden = Ludwig van Beethoven

Lud means loud, wig means war, and a beet hoven is a garden that grows the vegetable beet.

4. Tattooed javelin-thrower = Britney Spears

Britney was a surname meaning British. Britain comes from prittanoi, which means the tattooed people. Spears is a shortening of spearman.

5. The dwarf in the priest’s garden = Elvis Presley

So far as anybody can tell, Elvis comes from Alvis, a dwarf in Viking mythology. Presley is a variant of Priestly and means one who lives in land belonging to a priest.

Glamour

1. Victorious goatherd = Nicole Kidman

Nicole is the feminine of Nicholas. Nicholas is from the Greek nike laos. Nike means victory (as in the trainers) and laos means people. A kidman is a man who looks after the kid goats.

2. Christmas councillor = Natalie Portman

Natalie is related to natal and comes from the day of Jesus’ birth, or dies natalis. A portmann in Old English was a townsman elected to administrate the affairs of a borough.

3. Cruel twin = Tom Cruise

Thomas comes from the Semitic toma meaning twin, and Cruise comes from the Middle English crus meaning fierce or cruel.

4. The moon at the ford of blood = Cindy Crawford

Cindy is a variant of Cynthia, which was an epithet of Artemis and meant moon. Craw or cru was Gaelic for blood, and ford is ford.

5. He who listens among the cows = Simon Cowell

Simon is often and justifiably confused with the identical ancient Greek name Simon, which meant snub-nosed (as in simian). However, our Christian Simon comes from a different root: Symeon. It’s from the Bible and the Hebrew shim’on, which means listening. Cowell is just cowfield.

Writers

1. Little Richard’s husband = Charles Dickens

Charles is from the German karl, which meant either man or husband. Dickens is a diminutive of Dick, which is short for Richard.

2. Good Christian = Agatha Christie

Agathos was ancient Greek for good. Christie means Christian.

3. Virile wonder = Andrew Marvell

Andreios was ancient Greek for manly. Marvell means marvel.

4. Pants-maker in a peaceful land = Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey comes from the Latin Gaufridus, which in turn comes from the Old German gewi, land, and fridu, peaceful. Chaucer is from Old French chaucier meaning man who makes chausses. Chausses could refer to almost anything worn on the lower half of the body.

5. Tiny foreign snake = Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn is a double-diminutive of Eve, so it’s tiny Eve. In the Bible, Eve – hawah – is said to come from Hebrew havah, she who lived; however, this looks rather like a folk etymology and the word is suspiciously similar to haya, which is Aramaic for serpent. Waugh probably comes from wahl, which is the Old English for foreigner.

Now, a quick trip around the capital cities of the world. Can you make out the modern names from the original meanings? For example, if I were to say Place of the Bad Smell, you would immediately realise that I was referring to the Objibwa Shika Konk, which developed into our Chicago. To make it guessable, we shall stick to capital cities.

Europe

Merchant harbour

Place by an unfordable river

Wisdom

Smoky bay

Black pool

Africa

Three cities

Victorious

New flower

The place of cool waters

End of an elephant’s trunk

Asia

Muddy confluence

Modern

Garden

Anchor

Father of a gazelle

The Americas

Good winds

I saw a mountain

Peace

Place of many fish

Traders

And the answers are:

Europe

Merchant harbour – Copenhagen

Place by an unfordable river – London

Wisdom – Sofia (although Athens is named after Athena, goddess of wisdom, so give yourself half a pat on the back for that)

Smoky bay – Reykjavik

Black pool – Dublin

Africa

Three cities – Tripoli

Victorious – Cairo

New flower – Addis Ababa

The place of cool waters – Nairobi

End of an elephant’s trunk – Khartoum

Asia

Muddy confluence – Kuala Lumpur

Modern – Tehran

Garden – Riyadh

Anchor – Ankara

Father of a gazelle – Abu Dhabi

The Americas

Good winds – Buenos Aires

I saw a mountain – Montevideo

Peace – La Paz

Place of many fish – Panama

Traders – Ottawa

And for those familiar with London, can you guess the Tube Station from its origin?

Forge

Horse pond

Beer gate

Lace collar

Skin farm

Road to Ecgi’s weir

Padda’s farm

Dominican monks

Stream in a sacred wood

Sacred place that welcomes strangers

Forge – Hammersmith

Horse pond – Bayswater

Beer gate – Aldgate (ale gate)

Lace collar – Piccadilly

Skin farm – Hyde Park

Road to Ecgi’s weir – Edgware Road

Padda’s farm – Paddington

Dominican monks – Blackfriars

Stream in a sacred wood – Waterloo

Sacred place that welcomes strangers – Walthamstow

And finally, some multiple choice. What is the true derivation of each of these words?

Clue

a) A ball of yarn

b) A skeleton key

c) A love letter

Karaoke

a) Japanese for singing under water

b) Japanese for howling

c) Japanese for empty orchestra

Slogan

a) An Algonquian prayer

b) A Celtic war-cry

c) Russian for repetition

Boudoir

a) French for sulking room

b) French for gun room

c) French for Peeping Tom

Grocer

a) One who buys in gross

b) One who grows his own

c) One who is grossly fat

Hotbed

a) A medieval form of torture

b) A Victorian medical treatment

c) A covered flowerbed

Bollard

a) Tree trunk

b) Cricket ball

c) Dr Cornelius Bollard

Kiosk

a) Aztec word for umbrella

b) Turkish word for palace

c) Burmese word for hut

Quarantine

a) Forty days

b) Asking time

c) Pseudo-prison

Bigot

a) Old English for By God

b) Old French for thorn

c) Old German for stone wall

Thesaurus

a) A riddling lizard from Greek mythology

b) A treasure chest

c) The book of Theseus

Beetle

a) Little biter

b) Little bean

c) Little bee

Aardvark

a) Swahili for grandmother

b) Dutch for earth pig

c) Croatian for Jesus

Pundit

a) Hindi for wise man

b) Irish for counsellor

c) Eskimo god of riddles

Winging it

a) Flying when the engine has failed

b) Eating only the chicken wings (and not the breast)

c) An actor learning his lines in the wings

Quiz

a) Latin for who is?

b) Hindi for unclaimed property

c) Chinese for escape

The answers:

Clue

a) A ball of yarn

Karaoke

c) Japanese for empty orchestra

Slogan

b) A Celtic war-cry

Boudoir

a) French for sulking room

Grocer

a) One who buys in gross

Hotbed

c) A covered flowerbed

Bollard

a) Tree trunk

Kiosk

b) Turkish word for palace

Quarantine

a) Forty days

Bigot

a) Old English for By God

Thesaurus

b) A treasure chest

Beetle

a) Little biter

Aardvark

b) Dutch for earth pig

Pundit

a) Hindi for wise man

Winging it

c) An actor learning his lines in the wings

Quiz

a) Latin for who is?