Ampersand

The ampersand or &  is a curious thing in our language that dates back to the 1st century A.D.

Originally, it was a ligature of the letters E and T. What's a ligature? In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components.

Suffice it to say, the ampersand is the most common one we use in English.

"Et" is Latin for "and" - as in et cetera - which is such a mouthful that we feel the need to shorten it to etc. It can actually be further shortened as &c. We are no language lazy.

I suppose if you look closely at the modern ampersand, you might still see the E and T hiding in there depending on the font. 

It is so commonly used that it is now considered more of a logogram than a ligature.

Is it a letter? No.

The dollar sign $ is another possible ligature/logogram. One theory is that it came from a ligature used for "pesos" and the Spanish peseta, but that's confiremed.

The word ampersand itself is a conflation of the phrase "and per se and." I have seen that explained as meaning "and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and" which makes no sense to me. 

The ampersand is something I have never been able to make with a pen. Mine always looked like little pretzels. Start at the bottom right corner, make a line up and to the left or reverse a 3 with a dash through it, from top to bottom twice. 

I just hit Shift-7. 

All this pondering on ampersands came from a curious little book by a wonderfully odd author, Craig Conley, which is logically titled Ampersand.

Flea Markets

Montsoreau Flea Market, Loire Valley, France CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

My wife mentioned that with the weather warming up our local flea market would be reopening soon. This got my word-mind working on why you would want to name a shopping place after those pesky little parasites of the order Siphonaptera ("wingless bloodsucker") that infest dogs, clothing, and especially upholstery on old furniture that might be for sale. It seems like very poor marketing. My wife said she doubted that the etymology was that literal. 

A flea market is usually a street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) merchandise. Being outdoors, they are often seasonal. The line sometimes blurs as these places move indoors or become year-round places. Sometimes "swap meet" or "casual market" is the label. I've seen flea markets mixed with farmer's markets where (hopefully) at least the produce is not second-hand! 

And what happens when a group of street vendors begins to gather in one place? Is that a flea market? Probably not, and especially not if they are selling new items as many street vendor do with t-shirts, art etc.

I still view a flea market as a place selling used goods, from collectibles (books, records, toys etc.), to antiques (from jewelry to furniture) and vintage clothing.

There is now a National Flea Market Association which almost seems antithetical to the whole casual concept.

Where did the "flea" part of the term come from? Certainly markets of a similar nature existed in the Middle East and Asia a very long time ago. But the fleas appellation? 

One American theory is that there was a "Fly Market" in the late 1700s in New York City, located at Maiden Lane near the East River in Manhattan. The location was originally a salt marsh and so flies, fleas and other annoying critters were part of it. That Fly Market was the city's principal market by the early 1800s. But no mention of fleas in the name.

Perhaps, the American term made its way over to Europe, but more likely is that the "flea" term came from France to America. This loan translation is known as a calque. For example, the French “cela va sans dire” is loaned to English as “it goes without saying.” [Sidebar: "It goes without saying" is an odd phrase since we almost always follow it by saying what doesn't need to be said: "It goes without saying that she has plenty of money."]

The accepted etymology for "flea market" is an English calque from the French "marché aux puces" ("market of the fleas"). The first reference to this term appeared in stories about a location in Paris in the 1860s which was actually called the "marché aux puces" because items sold there were previously used and worn and so could very easily have contained fleas.

A vintage travel gear seller at Marché Dauphine, Saint-Ouen, the home of Paris' flea market
by Jorge Royan,  CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Words That Are Their Own Opposites

In Roman mythology, Janus presided over the beginning and
 ending of conflict, including war and peace.

Most people learned in school that an antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. Children learn about opposites at a young age: up/down, in/out, hot cold. Contronyms are somewhat related but quite different.

An example of these words that are their own antonyms is "oversight."  What does this sentence mean?  "The supervisor's oversight led to the procedure's approval." Does it mean that the supervisor was inattentive and so allowed something to be approved that shouldn't have been approved? Or, does it mean that because he was overseeing a procedure properly it was approved?

That's a contronym. You may also see them referred to as an auto-antonym or autantonym, or Janus word - a word with multiple meanings of which one is the reverse of another.

I heard on the news recently that some members of Congress might be sanctioned, meaning a penalty will be imposed upon them. But a sanction can also mean "to give official permission or approval" which is quite different in meaning.

A few others:

Cleave can mean "to cling to or adhere," and also "to split or sever."

Fast can mean "moving rapidly," as in running fast, or "fixed, unmoving," as in holding fast. 

You can weather a hurricane (to withstand or come safely through) but a seaside home can look weathered because it has been worn away by the elements, because weather is a contronym.

Here are some more examples