Bobblehead

Yesterday, I glanced at the car idling next to me while waiting for the traffic light to turn green. My eye was caught by a bobblehead doll of Sarah Palin installed on the dashboard. What struck me upon reflection was not the political statement, but the origin of the word.

A bobblehead doll is designed to nod its oversized head on a spring when it is agitated by motion. The verb to bobble has two current meanings: (1) to move with continual bobbing, and (2) to mishandle or fumble the ball in sports. The former applies here.

The core is the verb to bob, in use since the 14th century. The Oxford English Dictionary says that it is apparently onomatopoeic, expressing short jerking or rebounding motion. The OED goes on to define to bob as, “to move up and down like a buoyant body in water, or an elastic body on land; hence, to dance; to move to and fro with a similar motion, esp. said of hanging things rebounding from objects lightly struck by them.”

The fishing bobber is a cousin; bobsled is not. The bobsled came from the bob meaning to cut short, as in a bobtail horse. The original bobsled was used to haul logs, and it consisted of two short sleds linked together to move in unison. A long sled fully loaded would have snapped in the middle when bouncing over bumpy terrain; two short sleds would bob merrily along.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Nincompoop

On last Tuesday’s show, Sue from Elk Rapids asked about the word nincompoop. It’s always irritating when research runs up against a brick wall, but it no longer surprises me or frustrates me as much as it once did. Aging and mellowing, I suppose. The meaning is secure: an idiot or a fool. The etymology is not.

“Origin unknown” is the standard label, but there have been some guesses. For instance, the last element (-poop) referred to the buttocks or rump in the very early 17^th century. That, in turn, eventually was applied to excrement. The English word seems to have come from a Dutch word (poep) that meant ordure. The Dutch used it as a slang term to refer to migrant workers from northern Germany. “Foreign crap” eventually softened to “foreign fool.”

The first element (nincom-) is harder to pin down. Samuel Johnson ascribed it to the Latin phrase, non compos mentis, unsound of mind, but the Oxford English Dictionary rejects that on the basis of earlier spellings such as nicompoop. The OED suggests that there may be a link to the word ninny or to a specific French word, nicodème, slang for a simpleton or naïve person.

The word comes from the proper name Nicodemus, mentioned in the Gospel of John as a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Curious but cautious, he visited Jesus under cover of darkness to ask a few questions about his teaching. During the exchange, he comes across as a man who takes words far too literally – therefore, a bit of a fool. [ See the passage here.]

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Mosey Along, Wench, But Look Out For That Masher

These three words (mosey, wench, and masher) came up on Tuesday’s program. Mosey is one of those words that has reversed meaning over the years. Originally, it meant to leave quickly, to make haste. Now it means to amble, to wander around in a leisurely manner. No one is quite sure where it came from, but one suggestion is that it originated in the second syllable of the Spanish vamos, let’s go.

Wench shares the reversal feature of mosey. Originally, it had an innocent meaning: a girl, maid, or young woman. Then it transferred to a woman of the working class, a servant girl. Finally, it took on negative connotations: a woman of loose morals, a mistress, found most often in a bar or brothel.

Masher also did a turnaround. It started out meaning a dandy, a fashionable young man of the late Victorian or Edwardian era. When the word crossed the Atlantic and came to America, it signified a womanizer, a man who makes unwelcome sexual advances to women. Take that, you cad!

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Left in the Lurch

Stan asked about the phrase, left in the lurch. In particular, he wondered how it was connected to a ship lurching in a storm.

A drunk can lurch down the street and a ship can lurch in rolling waves, but there is no connection to left in the lurch. That comes from an entirely different lurch. That lurch means left in a difficult or vulnerable position.

It probably came from a game akin to cribbage, a game called lorche. To have your marker stranded less than halfway home when your opponent’s marker had crossed the finish line was to suffer a humiliating defeat.

In turn, that probably came from a Germanic word (lurz) that meant left-handed, a term used to convey deception, clumsiness, and uselessness. I discussed the longstanding prejudice against left-handedness at length in my article, My Right Hand Man Has Two Left Feet.

The phrase appears in Thomas Nashe’s Have With You to Saffron Walden in an incredibly long sentence: “But being restored to the open air, the case with him was little altered, for no roof had he to hide his noddle in or whither he might go to set up his rest, but in the streets under a bulk he should have been constrained to have kenneled & chalked out his cabin if the same minister had not the second time stood his friend, and preferred him to a chamber at one Rolfe’s, a sergeant’s in Wood Street, whom (as I take it) he also procured to be equally bound with him for his new cousin’s appearance to the law, which he never did, but left both of them in the lurch for him, and running in debt with Rolfe beside for house-room and diet, one day when he was from home, he closely conveyed away his trunk forth of doors, and showed him a fair pair of heels.”

In his book about collective nouns, An Exaltation of Larks, James Lipton incorporated the staggering and bucking meaning of lurch to produce the pun “a lurch of buses.”

SIDEBAR: Ships Slammed by Storms & Waves

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Clastic

During the recent rescue of the miners in Chile, Denise heard a TV commentator discussing various types of rock and the drilling procedures required to punch through them. The word clastic caught Denise’s attention, and she asked for some information.

Clastic rocks are fragments of pre-existing rocks. They may range in size from a grain to a boulder. The parent rock may be broken apart over time by erosion or weathering or crushing. The word comes from the Greek κλαστοσ (klastos), meaning broken. To serve as a specific example, pyroclastic rock is rock fragmented by volcanic action.

The word clastic also applies to anything that may be taken apart, like an anatomical model. For example, the model of an eye might be found in an optometrist’s examination room or a model of the brain may be found in a physician’s office. If it breaks into parts for instructional purposes, it is clastic.

The word part –clast is often used in the sense of destruction. A biblioclast destroys books, especially the Bible. Dendroclastic refers to the breaking or destruction of trees. An iconoclast destroys sacred images; the word idoloclast is also used. A mythoclast debunks myths.

When she broke my heart, she became a cardioclast.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Fluke

Ron Jolly of WTCM wondered why we didn’t hear of any Lake Michigan whale sightings in July. As he put it, “Question is, why the delay? Global warming? Tea partiers? Nestle's Ice Mountain bottling plant?”

I responded, “Perhaps it was just a fluke. [Pause for groans.]

Fluke comes from an Old Norse word meaning flat. It was used to name a flat fish, probably the flounder. It was also a parasitic worm, so called because it resembled a flounder. In addition, it was also the name of a variety of kidney potato.

A second fluke was defined by Admiral Smyth as one of “the broad triangular plates of iron on each arm of the anchor, inside the bills or extreme points, which, having entered the ground, hold the ship.” It was also the barbed head of a lance or arrow. From there, by analogy, it came to mean the two parts that constitute the large triangular tail of the whale.

A third fluke was a billiard term, a successful stroke made by accident or chance. Hence, fluke meaning a lucky stroke, an unexpected success, or a piece of good luck.

SIDEBAR: Lake Michigan whales

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Pep Rally

A local high school held a pep rally before a football game this weekend, inspiring a neighbor (and a student at that school) to ask, “where did that come from?”

Rally started as a British military term, a rapid reassembling of troops for a renewed attack. By the time the Americans borrowed the term in the 19^th century, they had given it a more pacific meaning: a mass meeting to inspire enthusiasm, especially a political event. In our day, it is usually in reference to a sporting event.

Pep as a freestanding word is now considered a bit quaint, a synonym for vim, vigor, animation, enthusiasm, vivacity, ebullience, zeal, energy, and other words in that neighborhood.

It is probably a shortened version of pepper, the hot pungent spice. The analogy is that a stimulating spicy addition to food serves the same purpose as stimulating fans to hunger for a victory.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Minutes

Mike from Cadillac asked about the origin of minutes, the notes taken during a meeting. I had no instant answer, but I did say that there were two possibilities: the minute referring to time (min’-it), and the minute meaning tiny (my-newt’). That turns out to be a distinction without a difference.

The minute referring to time had its origins in Babylonian mathematics and astronomy, which used sexagesimal fractions – based on the number 60. Later, the Greeks and Romans adapted the system. So we call 1/60^th of an hour a minute.

The minute meaning small is actually the same word with a different pronunciation. Originally, it was said of food chopped into fine particles or of something insignificant or trivial.

By the 15^th century, the word in plural form was being used to describe a brief summary of a meeting.

SIDEBAR: How to take minutes

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Young Turks

The phrase “young turks” came up on the last program.

The Young Turks referred to a reform movement in the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. As such, they butted heads with monarch Ottoman Sultan, whose power they sought to limit by establishing constitutional rule.

They issued a formal proclamation in 1908. Among other things, it called for universal suffrage, the right to form political parties, a disregard for religious affiliation and nationality when considering advancement, free education, and increased attention to the infrastructure of the country.

Eventually, the term was expanded to any individuals within a society or political party eager for progressive change.

SIDEBAR: Rod Stewart, Young Turks

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:

Arbutus Press

or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Mass

Greg Burk wrote, “Had a friend up the other week, and we were discussing words with many varying meanings . . . and one that intrigued me was MASS:

1.) the scientific use of mass - physics, weight, bulk, etc.

2.) referring to a large number of people or things.

3.) celebration of a religious ceremony.

Seems to have a lot of diverse uses. Do you have any thoughts or wisdom related to this word’s origin and uses ?”

Here’s the core of the problem: there are 4 nouns spelled m-a-s-s. Two of them can be eliminated immediately: mass, from a Gaelic word for regard or respect, and mass, an extremely rare word (from the Dutch) meaning mask.

The remaining two are germane to your question.

(1) Mass as the name of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist probably came from the prayer of dismissal at the end of the Eucharist.

Celebrant: Ite, missa est. [Go, it is ended.]

Congregation: Deo gatias. [Thanks be to God.]

(2) Mass as a dense aggregation, something signifying bulk or a large quantity, came from the Latin massa, lump, bulk, parcel of land, or dough. The scientific and population meanings, along with many others, derive from this source.

SIDEBAR: an interesting site — 50 Best Blogs for Linguistics Students

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Ragamuffin

Greg brought up the word ragamuffin. Today, we take it as the name for a little boy who is shabby in appearance, usually in need of a shower, and spirited almost beyond endurance.

The raga- segment meant shaggy, and it was originally applied to a devil, traditionally shaggy or ragged in appearance. The –muffin element is disputed, although there is universal agreement that it does not refer to the pastry of the same spelling. Some commentators think that it came from fynn, meaning a fiend.

On page 73 of his Word Origins and How We Know Them, Anatoly Liberman cites E. W. Provost, the author of a dialectical dictionary. He notes that in the Cumberland dialect, Auld Muffy was a reference to the Devil. It is related to the French maufé (hideous and deformed), also used in the Middle Ages as a name for the Devil. That seems to be a definitive explanation.

The word ragamuffin achieved wide currency after appearing in William Langland’s Piers Plowman. In that work, Ragamoffyn was the name of a specific devil. So, starting as a deformed demon and ending as a snot-nosed little kid, the word has had quite a journey.

SIDEBAR: RagaMuffin

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Ivory Tower

Margaret asked about the term ivory tower. It is often used of academics who seem to be out of touch with practical reality. The pursuit of hypotheticals isolates them from the pursuit of gritty survival in the real world. They are seen as aloof, even uncaring. The same term is sometimes applied to politicians. Instead of seeing what’s in front of their noses, they live in a dream world.

It’s easy to see why a tower can be used as a symbol of isolation. A tower thrusts up and leaves the earth behind, as it were. When attached to a castle-like structure, a tower is cut off from the rest of the building. In fact, it was sometimes the place where cells were constructed to hold prisoners: think of the Tower of London. There’s nothing more isolated than a dimly-lit cell hidden away in a remote tower.

Ivory poses a bit of a problem: why ivory instead of granite or limestone tower, for instance? Compared to those materials, ivory may be seen as delicate. It has been used for centuries in carvings and decorations, not as a study primary building material. Perhaps that aura of frangibility and delicacy is the point.

We can pinpoint the first known use of ivory tower as a symbol of aloofness and removal. It occurs in the poem Thoughts of August by Charles-Augustin Saint-Beuve. In it, he contrasts Victor Hugo, seen as down-to-earth and in the middle of the fray, with Alfred de Vigny, characterized as sheltered and removed from reality. The relevant line is, “. . . and Vigny, more discreet, As if in his ivory tower, retired before noon."

The image appeared in English in C. Brereton’s and F. Rothwell’s 1911 translation of Henri Bergson’s essay, Laughter: An essay on the Meaning of the Comic. Then, in 1916, Henry James began to write a novel that he never finished, Ivory Tower, examining the aloof and uncaring millionaires of the Gilded Age.

What I find puzzling is that the metaphorical use of ivory tower started life as a compliment. I don’t know why it reverted to an insult. We find a reference to ivory in the erotic poem, Song of Solomon, Chapter 7:

• 1: How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. 

• 2: Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
• 
3: Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. 

• 4: Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.

It is also used as a compliment in reference to Mary, the Blessed Mother, in a Marian litany, a portion of which reads:

• Mystical Rose
• Tower of David
• Tower of Ivory
• House of Gold
• Ark of the Covenant
• Gate of Heaven

SIDEBAR: Henry James, Ivory Tower

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

The Role of Thunder Rolls

Roger asked why we speak of a thunder roll. He associates roll with breakfast pastry or with something wound around a spool, such as a roll of tape.

There are two nouns spelled r-o-l-l, and they have different meanings. Roll¹ came from a French term meaning a scroll of parchment. It was a descendant of the Latin rota, a wheel. Under its aegis comes roll call, a roll of toilet paper, a roll of film, a jelly roll, a roll of body fat, a French roll, an honor role, and so forth.

Roll² came from a French word meaning to rotate repeatedly. It, too, is connected to the Latin rota, wheel, but it developed different meanings. This roll is used in thunder roll, drum roll, a roll of the eye, a roll in the sack, a roll of the dice, on a roll, a roll bar, etc.

But I digress: back to a thunder roll. Thunder evokes the sound of a rolling wheel, which has a reverberating and rumbling quality.

SIDEBAR: The Varying Sounds of Thunder

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Pneuma

During the last show, the subject of silent initial letters came up. Examples included mnemonic and psychiatry. Then Richard from Traverse City called and asked about the word pneumatic.

Pneumatic comes from a Greek word, πνεuμα (pneuma), that means wind or breath. In ancient Greek, it signified one’s spirit, the life force, breathed into us by the gods.

It evolved into “relating to or operated by means of wind or air; especially containing or operated by air or gas under pressure.” The move to machinery operated by compressed air, such as a pneumatic drill, was a small step.

Other words containing the same root include

• pneumathemia, the presence of air in the blood; air embolism.
• pneumatico-hedonistics, the branch of study that deals with spiritual or mental pleasures (as distinguished from those of the body).
• pneumatics, the branch of physics that deals with the mechanical properties (such as density, elasticity, and pressure) of air and other gases.
• pneumatism, a belief in the soul, spirit, or life force.
• pneumatize, to provide with air-filled cavities.
• pneunatogram, a record of respiratory movements or air flow.
• pneumatomachy, opposition to the Holy Spirit.
• pneumatophobia, dread or abhorrence of the spiritual.
• pneumaturia, the passage of air or gas in the urine.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Stationery/Stationary

Byron from Charlevoix asked about stationary and stationery—specifically, whether there was any connection between them.

Stationery has become the preferred spelling when speaking of writing materials. That includes paper, envelopes, leather business card cases, appointment books, scissors, and desk accessories of all kinds. The OED connects it with stationer, originally the name of a bookseller.

Stationary means fixed in place, not moving. It comes from a Latin word that meant standing, especially in a military posture.

There does seem to be a connection between the two words. The OED says that the original form may have been stationary ware, where stationary functioned as an adjective. Eventually, it became a stand-alone noun, and the -a- may have become an -e- because of the word stationer.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Toast

In discussing a vaguely related concept, the idea of proposing a toast during a celebration came up on yesterday’s program. Why toast, of all things? As it turns out, since the 15^th century at the very latest, it was customary to place a piece of toast in wine, ale, or even water to enhance the taste. I can’t imagine dropping a crouton in my Manhattan, but tastes change over the centuries.

A cookbook from 1430 recommended sprinkling saffron, ground pepper, sugar, and salt on oiled bread before toasting it over the fire. Nutmeg was also often an ingredient.

By 1700, literal toast had been transformed into a rather belabored metaphor. The belle of the ball or banquet, a young lady, was considered a savory who improved the taste of the celebratory beverage at hand. She was the toast. In Way of the World, Congreve has this line: “More censorious than a decayed Beauty, or a discarded Toast.”

This is not to be confused with toast meaning someone dead, finished, or in serious trouble. This use appeared in the film Ghostbusters when Bill Murray exclaimed, “This chick is toast!”

SIDEBAR: Toasts for All Occasions

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

The End

I was asked about the word eschatological this morning. It’s the adjective form of eschatology, the branch of theology that deals with the four last things, as they’re called: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

The word is based on two Greek terms – εσκατοσ (last) and λογια (study of). In popular terms, it refers to the end time or the end of days.

Based on the common use of the same root, there are some related words.

• eschatocol: the concluding section of a charter
• eschatologist: one who studies or treats of eschatology
• eschaton: the divinely ordained climax of history

SIDEBAR: The timeline

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Casino

Many senior centers sponsor bus rides to casinos. I’m not sure that it’s the best way for Granny to spend her pension check, but the word itself caught my eye.

Ultimately it tracks back to the Latin word for a house or cottage, casa, with the -ino acting as a diminutive. The original casino was an Italian summer cottage. The word also designated a public room used for social purposes, such as dancing. Today, it refers to a building dedicated to aleatory pursuits — gambling.

The root casa also led to the names of two liturgical garments. The cassock originally referred to a long coat worn by horsemen. The chasuble started out as a large round sleeveless cloak with a hood. In both cases, the garments covered the wearer like a little house.

SIDEBAR: liturgical vestments

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Nib

Mike from Cadillac asked about the origins of the word pen (< L. feather) and the word pencil (< L. little tail). The answer brought up the word nib—the split end of a pen used to apply the ink.

Nib probably came from a word that sounded much like neb. Clusters of northern European languages such as Frisian, Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish had similar words, all meaning the beak of a bird. This evolved into the concept of a point or a projection:

• the tapered point of a pen
• the bill of a bird or the proboscis of an insect
• the short handles that project from the shaft of a scythe
• the pole of an ox cart
• a pointed extremity
• a small projection on the underside of a roofing tile

A second branch of the same word focuses on the idea of lumps.

• a small lump or knot in wool or raw silk
• fragments of shelled cocoa or coffee beans; there are also licorice nibs
• a speck of extraneous matter in a coat of paint or varnish

Nib is also slang for a person of superior social standing or wealth. I recall my mother using the word in a slyly mocking manner by referring to a pretentious person as “His Nibs.” That use of nib seems to have no connection (or at best, a tenuous connection) to what was discussed above. The OED relegates it to nib³.

SIDEBAR: Neil Cowley Trio plays His Nibs

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Pitch

Charles Cage wrote, “I’m confused. You use a tuning fork to test pitch. But a pitch fork moves hay. A pitch pipe coordinates voices, but offers no help in keeping my birch bark canoe from leaking. The President gets the first pitch in baseball.”

You get the idea. Charles was focusing on pitch and its multiple meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary lists two nouns and two verbs.

Pitch¹ comes from a Greek word meaning a tarry substance. It is used to designate

• a substance used to caulk the seams of ships and to waterproof wood
• a resin that exudes from some coniferous trees
• asphalt or bitumen

Pitch² includes

• an inclination or slope
• the angle of a mining stratum
• the steepness of a roof
• the slope of a flight of stairs
• the downward angle of the slope of a plough
• the inclination of the teeth of a saw
• the angle between the relative wind direction and the plane
• the forward plunge of a ship
• theaction of pitching of a spacecraft around a lateral axis
• the action of throwing a ball to a batter
• in cricket, the point where the ball first strikes the ground after being bowled
• a lofted approach shot in golf
• a quantity of something thrown, such as hay
• a proposed plan
• patter or spiel designed to sell things or ideas
• the highest or extreme point
• the degree of highness or lowness of a sound
• the density of typed or printed characters on a line
• the distance between the successive convolutions of the thread of a screw

The verb uses of pitch mirror the nouns above.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org

Abstemious or Temulent?

Kathy from Martinsburg, West Virginia, recently came across a word new to her. The word is abstemious, and it refers to temperate use of food and drink. It requires self-control, and later it was extended to habits and lifestyles that range beyond the table. It came from the Latin, where ab- signified “away from,” and temetum meant intoxicating liquor.

The only other word that I have found containing the same root is temulent, now rarely used. It meant drunken or intoxicated. 17^th century variations were temulently, temulentness, temulentious, and temulentive.

Shifting beverages, a related word is vinolent, addicted to wine. Charles Wheelwright translated a line from Aristophanes as, “. . .the vinolent propensity of the Athenian females.” Happy hour in the agora, polloi!

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org