Autumn

The season of autumn falls into place in the Northern Hemisphere this week (in 2022 on the 22nd, though sometimes it is on the 23rd). The word "autumn" has a bit of a convoluted etymology. I have written about this particular word origin before. (see this post and another) but I keep finding little additions and so I write again.

"Autumn" is derived from Latin autumnus, and archaic auctumnus. It might have come from the ancient Etruscan root autu. It all these forms it is associated with the passing of the year. Two alternative etymologies I found are the Proto-Indo-European h₃ewǵ- ("cold") or *h₂sows- ("dry").

It was used as the Old French word autompne  and automne in modern French and autumpne in Middle English. It was rarely used during the Medieval period, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.

Before the 16th century, the season was usually called "harvest." That sense is still common in the Dutch herfst, the German Herbst and the Scots hairst. 

The use of harvest for the season gradually fell out of usage as people moved from rural life to working and living in towns. "Harvest" came to mean only the actual activity of reaping crops. "Autumn", as well as "fall", gradually became the replacement words for the season.

Though "fall" as a season is now associated primarily with English speakers in North America, its origins go back to old Germanic languages. The derivation might be from the Old English fiæll or feallan or the Old Norse fall. However, these similar words have the meaning "to fall from a height." 

The use of it for the season comes in 16th-century England. It seems to be a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year." and refers to the falling of leaves from deciduous trees. 

When 17th century Englishmen began emigrating to the new North American colonies, "fall" came with them, though it would become nearly obsolete in Britain.

The oddest usage I found was the word "backend" which had once been a common name for the season in Northern England. 

gams, gambits, gammons and gambling

Classic gams
Mitzi Gaynor

Mary Tyler Moore

The word "gams" to mean "legs" is an old usage. You don't hear it used much these days though it was common in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

This plural noun refers to human legs, especially related to the shapeliness of a woman's leg, and appears in the late 18th century. It was probably a variant of the heraldic term gamb, which represented something closer to an animal's leg and may have come from Old Northern French gambe which did mean "leg."

Seemingly unrelated is a rare use of gam to mean in American English usage of the mid-19th century for a social meeting or informal conversation that was originally related to whalers at sea.

I took a guess that gam might be connected to gambit. That word's origin is uncertain but might be from the dialect gam meaning a "game." Dictionaries also mention it may be a shortened form of "gammon" So then I look that up. It can mean in Britain a side of bacon and more recently is used as an insult - which seem irrelevant. But it can also mean the winning of a backgammon game before the loser removes any men from the board. 

I only knew "gambit" as meaning an action, or opening remark, usually a bit risky in the effort to gain an advantage. You hear it used in the game of chess, as when someone makes an opening move in which they sacrifice a piece to get a possible advantage later. 

This tenuous connection to everything I've written above gets a bit closer when you see that the origin (mid-17th century Italian) from an earlier gambett, from Italian gambetto, which literally means "tripping up," comes from gamba meaning - once again - "leg." Full circle.

Did you watch the Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit, or read the book? 

Several examples of gambits in that story

and very nice gams on the lead actress, Anya Taylor Joy.

And finally, we have gamble which everyone knows means taking a risky chance, most often on a game. This word from the early 18th century comes from the obsolete verb gamel "to play games."

Pompadour

Madame Pompadour without a pompadour hairstyle, 1758)

The pompadour is a hairstyle. Not many people get a hairstyle named after them. In modern times, I can only think of the "Rachel" named for the Rachel Green character on TV's Friends and played by Jennifer Aniston. 

Back in the 18th century, Madame de Pompadour was a mistress to King Louis XV and his political advisor. The hairstyle is named for her, But the name for this hairstyle has nothing in common with the hairstyle of Madame de Pompadour. She wore her hair back rather than up, and without the extra volume on the top. The name for the hairstyle wasn't coined until after her time.

In the 1890s, the Gibson Girl look used the style. The 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, references Jay Gatsby as having had a pompadour in his youth. It came back in vogue for women again in the 1940s.

Betty Grable 1942     Link

The men's version appeared in the 1950s and early 1960s, worn by early country, rock and roll and movie stars such as Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Ritchie Valens, James Dean, and Tony Curtis. 

Elvis  1954   Link

It had a revival in the 2000s with celebrities including John Travolta in Grease, Justin Timberlake, David Beckham, Rihanna, Bruno Mars and others.

Silhouette

18th-century silhouette portrait

A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object, or scene represented as a solid shape of a single color, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouette is usually presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all. 

The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister. In 1759, he was forced by France's credit crisis to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy. His austere economies caused his name to be attached with anything done or made cheaply.

These outline portraits were popular prior to the advent of photography. They were cut from black cards and were the cheapest way of recording a person's appearance. 

Apparently,  Étienne de Silhouette enjoyed making such drawings and used them to decorate his chateau.

Modern silhouette of Johannesburg skyline - CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Decibel

A decibel (dB) is a unit of measurement that came from the need to describe the efficiency of telephone circuits. It would replace "transmission units" which were from the telegraph days. It was decided that they wanted to use a name that connected to the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell and created the unit of a "bel." The bel is seldom used, as the decibel was the proposed working unit.  "Deci" denote one-tenth of the "bel" measurement. The new measurement was proposed in 1924 by the Bell Telephone Laboratories. 

In a non-technical sense, most people just think of a decibel as a way to measure the loudness of a sound. Breathing is 10 decibels; conversations in a restaurant is about 60; a motorcycle at 25 ft is 90 dB; live rock music is about 108 - 114 dB.

Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago, 1892 Link

bloomers and cardigans

The term "bloomers" to mean an article of women’s clothing isn't used much these days. Amelia Bloomer was a 19-century Women’s Rights activist.

She ran a newspaper, Lily , that changed the way women viewed themselves and encouraged women to stand up for their rights which included and included radical dress reform.  

In those days, women wore restrictive corsets and dresses fitted with huge skirts and Amelia championed a new style of clothing for women. The baggy trousers known as pantaloons was a style she campaigned for and they became known as "bloomers."

"Bloomer" dress of the 1850s

The knitted garment known as the cardigan is still used today. Cardigans are open-fronted sweaters with variations. Most have buttons but there are ones that are tied and worn like a robe. There are also ones with zippers and newer fashion trend with no buttons or zipper and hanging open.

The clothing word originates from James Brudenell, an Earl and military hero who fought in the Crimean War and led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in 1854. Fighting in a harsh Russian winter, Brudenell used his own money to get his soldiers knitted woolen waistcoats. 

So shouldn't they be called "brudenells?"  Not a very catchy name. But he was the Earl of Cardigan, so that was what they became known as in that time and still today. 

Cardigan CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

It Is Eponyms Week: Dunce and Boycott

Eponyms can be a discovery, invention, place, etc., that is named (or thought to be named) after a person. It is a mid-19th century word coming from the Greek epōnumos (given as a name, or giving one's name to someone or something) from epi  "upon" + onoma "name."

I have written about a number of examples of eponyms before and this week we'll add a few more.

Don’t feel like a dunce for not knowing that this word is an eponym. I didn't know until recently. Oddly enough, it is named after a very intelligent man. John Duns Scotus was a philosopher, linguist and theologian in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. His metaphysical teachings lived on with followers who long after his death were known as Dunsmen or Duns.

During the Renaissance, the Duns were considered a kind of crazy group and Duns Scotus' teachings fell out of favor. They often wore pointed hats because Scotus thought the hats could be a funnel for knowledge. The hats, and the Duns themselves, became representative of idiocy, and soon the terms “dunce” and “dunce cap” were used to describe any fools or misbehaving children.

I also would not have thought that the verb boycott (meaning to abstain from using, as in "boycotting a product or company") came from a person's name. Charles Boycott (like Duns Scotus) would not be thrilled to see his name live on in the current usage. He was an unscrupulous landlord in the late 19th century. He was known for charging exorbitant rents to his tenant farmers and evicting them if they couldn’t pay. As a result, people avoided renting from him. Boycott was boycotted!

Motley Crue

Mötley Crüe playing at a Sweden rock festival in 2012.

MÖTLEY CRÜE seems like a good band name for an origin story. You may have heard the expression a "motley-looking crew" not referring to the band. In fact, there were motley crews on board ships a long time before there was a band with that name. 

Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. 

Mötley Crüe has sold over 100 million albums worldwide with seven platinum or multi-platinum certifications, nine Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, 22 Top 40 mainstream rock hits, and six Top 20 pop singles. 1989's Dr. Feelgood is Mötley Crüe's only album to reach number one.

The band experienced several short-term lineup changes in the 1990s and 2000s, including Lee's departure in 1999 and return in 2004. Their current lineup has been the same as the original since then.

 

The band members maintained and advertised hedonistic lifestyles and androgynous personae. Considered to be hard rock and heavy metal on their first two albums, Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983), with their third album, Theatre of Pain (1985), they were part of the early glam metal category.

"Motley" means "of great variety." It was once used to describe the appearance of a court jester for the many-colored outfits. A "motley crew" of sailors would be one with great diversity in ages, experiences, races or nationalities.

Guitarist Mick Mars suggested the name based on some referring to a previous band he had played with called White Horse as being "a motley looking crew." He wrote it as "Mottley Cru" but the band changed it to cure avoiding the standard spelling. Neil suggested adding two umlauts (those pronunciation dots over the letters) just to be different and wanted them to be shown in metal to suggest the metal nature of their music. He was inspired by the use of the umlauts on the label and caps of the German beer Löwenbräu which they were drinking at the time.    

Studio Albums

1. Too Fast for Love (1981)
2. Shout at the Devil (1983)
3. Theatre of Pain (1985)
4. Girls, Girls, Girls (1987)
5. Dr. Feelgood (1989)
6. Mötley Crüe (1994)
7. Generation Swine (1997)
8. New Tattoo (2000)
9. Saints of Los Angeles (2008)

Official website www.motley.com

Flotsam and Jetsam

 

Unfortunately, most flotsam and jetsam end up on beaches - NOAA photo

You probably have heard the words flotsam and jetsam (and probably heard them together) in some book or movie. Today, it is sometimes used to mean "odds and ends." But in maritime law, each word has a specific meaning.

Both terms describe two types of marine debris.

Flotsam is defined as debris in the water that was not deliberately thrown overboard. This happens with an accident or shipwreck. The word flotsam derives from the French word floter meaning "to float."

Jetsam describes debris that was deliberately thrown overboard by a crew of a ship. This might have been done to lighten the ship's load if it was sinking. Jetsam is a shortened version of jettison which means throw or drop (something) from an aircraft or ship, and more broadly to abandon or discard someone or something that is no longer wanted.

Zuzu's Petals

"Zuzu's petals" is a phrase from the 1946 movie It's A Wonderful Life which since its release has become a Christmas-season film classic.

The petals belong to Zuzu Bailey, the youngest daughter of George Bailey the main character. Early in the film, Zuzu shows a flower that she brought home from school and became upset when the petals started to fall off. Her father pretended to reattach them but actually just slipped the lost petals into his pocket.

By the end of the movie, after considering suicide, George has been shown what the world might be like if he had never been born. Given a second chance by God, aided by the angel Clarence, all the changes he had seen in the world were undone. His first realization that his world had been returned to him was when he found that Zuzu's petals were once again in his pocket.

The unusual name, Zuzu, is sometimes used as a short nickname for Susan. But Grimes, who played Zuzu in the film, has another origin story. She says it came from a Nabisco cookie called Zu Zu Ginger Snaps. It was a widely advertised product in magazines of the period. If that sounds farfetched, remember that near the end of the film, George runs up the house stairs and when he meets his little daughter he says “Zuzu, my little ginger snap!“

The phrase has become a kind of shorthand way of reminding people of the hope that things can be mended and made better.

"Zuzu's petals...Zuzu... There they are!"

groggy

You are most likely these days to hear the word "groggy" to describe someone who is tired or has a hangover. Its origin story is not far off from that sense.

The story of groggy begins far from alcohol. It starts with grogram, the name of a coarse, loosely woven fabric made entirely or partly from silk. There was an 18th-century English Admiral, Edward Vernon, who was reputed to have been in the habit of always wearing a grogram cloak. This unique look earned him the nickname "Old Grog" among the sailors under his command.

In the 18th century, sailors in the Royal Navy in the West Indies were customarily given a daily ration of rum. Admiral Vernon was disturbed by the damage to the physical and moral health of his men this rum created. In 1740, he ordered that the rum should be diluted with water. The decision wasn't popular with the sailors, who supposedly dubbed this new mixture "grog" after the Admiral.

The word grog eventually became a general term for almost any liquor that led to people who moved with the unsteadiness characteristic of someone who has had too much grog. You might wake up groggy in the morning without even drinking the night before.

Pirates made a nice modification of the Navy grog which was really just watered down rum. They called the drink bumbo and mixed rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg. The Royal Navy's later grog recipe includes lemon juice, water, rum, and cinnamon. In the Caribbean, I have been served a much fruitier grog that had water, light rum, grapefruit juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, cinnamon, and honey.

Though I could not find an origin for the word "bumbo" I did find variations. Bumbu was commonly used during election campaigns in colonial British America as a way to entice voters to a candidate. The practice was known as "swilling the planters with bumbu." (Why "planters?") 

The not-a-pirate and respectable George Washington was particularly noted for using this technique. His papers state that he used 160 gallons of rum to treat 391 voters to bumbu during campaigning for the Virginia House of Burgesses in July 1758. At almost a half-gallon per person, there were surely some groggy voters from that campaign.

Aha! and A-ha

There is some version of the interjection "Aha!" in nearly all Indo-European languages. 

The simple Ah! appears in the mid-15th century as an expression of surprise, delight, disgust, or pain. It does not appear in Old English where the closest equivalent expression would be "La!" 

In Old French, there was "ah! oh! woe!"

The interjection "Ha!" is also a natural expression of surprise, distress, etc., and is found even earlier that Ah! in most European languages including Latin and Old French. Still, not in Old English which did, however, have the laughter expression "ha-ha."

The more modern Aha! is a way of expressing understanding, realization, invention, or recognition. "Aha! Now I understand this!" It can also mean surprise, exaltation, or contempt. "Aha! Now we've got you!"

a-ha in concert in Madrid, Spain, 2010
(L-R Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, Paul Waaktaar-Savoy)

Combing today's word origin with a band origin brings us to A-ha. This Norwegian synth-pop band (usually written as a-ha) formed in Oslo in 1982 with three members: Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards and guitars), and Morten Harket (vocals).

They achieved their biggest success with their debut album Hunting High and Low in 1985 which hit number one in Norway, number 2 in the UK, and number 15 on the US Billboard album chart. It had two international number-one singles: "Take On Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." The album earned the band a U.S. Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist. 

When the three left Norway for London to try to make a career in music, they tried unsuccessfully to find a good Norwegian band name that would also be pronounceable easily in English." They jettisoned that idea when Morten spotted a song called "A-ha" in Guitarist Waaktaar had written a song in his notebook called "A-ha" and Morten thought it was "a terrible song but a great name." There is no greater meaning to the name, but the idea that their music might create "understanding, realization, invention, or recognition" certainly was a good thing.

The band released studio albums from 1986 to 1990 and had single hits including "Hunting High and Low", "The Living Daylights", "Stay on These Roads", and "Crying in the Rain."

Their studio album, Memorial Beach (1993), failed to achieve the commercial success of their previous albums, and the band went on hiatus. 

They reformed after a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998 and released a sixth album, Minor Earth Major Sky, which was the number-one album in Norway and Germany. Their following was much greater in Europe than in America. 

For Americans, they might be best remembered for their music video for "Take On Me" which was played heavily on MTV and still is popular. In fact, it has a billion and a half views on YouTube. It used the rotoscoping animation technique. I've written about the video in much more detail on another site. 

pathos, ethos, logos

In the fourth century B.C., the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle posited three modes of persuasion that we still employ. Aristotle’s “rhetorical triangle” is ethos, pathos, and logos. It appears in many forms of persuasion - from political speeches to advertising.

We use the word "pathos" when referring to something (experience, art) that evokes compassion, pity, or perhaps a kind of sympathetic pity. It comes from the Greek word páthos meaning "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition.” Related words include empathy (the ability to share someone else’s feelings) pathetic (which can be an insult but in its original usage was more about things that move us to pity), sympathy and apathy (when feelings are absent). 

In the persuasive ad market, pathos can be a positive emotion (Look how happy this family is using our product!) to a negative response (Are you in pain? Try our product for relief). Have you seen commercials to donate to help children with life-threatening diseases or to save abandoned pets? Pathos. 

The ethos approach is used to convince an audience by offering reliability, honesty, and credibility. In advertising, this usually means a respected authority figure or celebrity giving a product or brand a testimonial or endorsement. That is why many doctors or doctor-like figures are used to endorse health products.

The word comes from Latin and earlier from Greek ēthos "nature, disposition’, customs." That last meaning may seem off, but ethos can also mean the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community, as in "the liberal ethos of the 1960s has been lost."

Logos appeals to logic and reason by using statistics, facts, figures and scientific reasoning. Aristotle liked the rationality of this approach. 

But the Gospel of John identifies the Christian Logos, through which all things are made, as divine (theos), and identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos - though there is none of the facts, figures or science in that early use of the term.

Logos also comes from Ancient Greek meaning literally ''I say.'' The word is frequently translated as some variation of logic or reasoning. Originally, it referred to the actual content of a speech and how it was organized. 

Logos should not be confused with logo, which is most commonly used to describe a symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify itself. That word is an abbreviation of logogram or logotype and appeared in English in the 1930s. There is also the computer language LOGO written in all caps.