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10 Words with Interesting Origins - Etymology

Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today I’ve got a video about a brand new subject. I’m going to talk to you about etymology. So etymology is the history of a word and then its historical development over time of its meaning. It’s basically like the timeline of a word. So you see where it originated from. And then you can see how it evolved and changed over time. It’s something really, really interesting. Often when I learn a new word, I’ll definitely look up its etymology to see which language it originates from, how it used to be used, it’s something a bit nerdy that I do. It’s something that I get a lot of joy from.

Let me know if you get any joy from doing stuff like that. I just like words. So today, I’ve picked ten words with really interesting origins and I’m going to chat about them with you. In the hope that it will inspire you to study a little bit more about the origin of words. And also, at the very least, help you improve your english. Let’s get started. So, number one, is sandwich. So a sandwich, food between two slices of bread. It’s the most common lunch time food in England. Fun fact though, I don’t really like bread. The reason that I don’t like it, I just don’t see the point in it. I feel like sandwiches, the bread dilutes the flavour of the filling so yeah, just give me the filling. Yeah.

So sandwich, sandwiches actually get their name from a man called John Montague who was the fourth earl of Sandwich. So he was an 18th century aristocrat and he used to like to eat his meals at the game tables. He liked to play games like cards. And he didn’t want to get all the pieces and cards dirty with his greasy fingers, so he used to ask for beef between two slices of bread. And it caught on with his friends. They used to say, you know, I’ll have what Sandwich is having. I’ll have a Duke of Sandwich. And in the end it got shortened down to just a sandwich and it’s the food that we know and love today. Or most of us know and love. I just know it, don’t love it.

Yeah, so there is actually a place in the UK called Sandwich, which sounds like a really bizarre name, but actually, that’s where the food originates from. Okay, the next one I think is really interesting. It’s the word nice. And it comes from Latin to not know or ignorance but then over time it started to be used to describe things as agreeable, then delightful. Nowadays we use it mostly as a positive adjective. Okay, the next one, muscle. This actually comes from the Latin word mus for mouse. And basically people used to think that muscles looked like little mice under your skin. So that’s where the word muscle comes from. Okay, the next one, addict. This actually comes from the Latin word to devote or to surrender yourself to something and it was used for slaves. So by saying you’re an addict, you’re saying you’re a slave to something.

Which is quite accurate really. Okay, the next word, clue. It comes from clew, sounds the same, different spelling. Which meant in old English, a ball of thread. This is because a ball of thread could be used to guide somebody out of a maze or a labyrinth. So that was a clue. So that is where clue comes from. The next one, jargon. That is a good word, isn’t it? I love saying jargon. And jargon comes from the old, old French word, jargoun. Hope I’ve said that correctly. Meaning twittering like birds. So basically, when someone’s using a lot of jargon, they’re twittering like birds, it’s not really understandable, and they’re saying a load of rubbish.

Okay, the next one, this could be considered a little bit rude, the next one is avocado, and it comes from the Aztec word, wonder if I can say, ahuakatl. Ahuakatl. You can see the similarity. But this basically meant, testicle, as in the male sex organ. So, avocados are sort of similar shapes. Obviously, you can see a sort of resemblance in shape and texture between an avocado and a testicle. And also, they are considered to be aphrodisiacs, meaning they boost sex drive. So, that is where the word avocado comes from. The next one is whisky. Whisky, that drink that I just cannot seem to like. I always accept it when it’s offered to me and I try and look grown up and say yes, on the rocks please. And then, ugh, no, can’t do it. It tastes like fag butts.

Fag butts, it tastes like fag butts. Fag butts are cigarette ends. Well whisky, is actually shortened from a whisky bay, and that comes from the old English word, usquebaugh, which is derived from two Gaelic words, uisce, meaning water, bethu meaning life. So, they’re saying that whisky is water of life. Which I think some would consider to be very accurate. Not me, I think it’s actually the taker of life.

The next one is the word vagina. Yep, the female organ. And this word is derived from the Latin word for sheath, or scabbard, the thing that would cover a sword. And the word gladius, which means sword, is commonly used as to refer to the male sex organ, the penis. So, the vagina, the sheath, covered the sword, the gladius. Very interesting. The next one, oxymoron. This comes from the Greek word oxus, meaning sharp and moros, meaning blunt. So, sharp blunt, the word itself is an oxymoron.

Which I think is awesome. Ugh, I love languages. Right, that’s it for today’s lesson. I know it was a little bit different, but I just kind of wanted to share one of my passions with you which is etymology and just where words come from. I find it really, really interesting and I think it, if you start to take etymology and the origin and history of words onboard, you can really quickly expand your vocabulary and you can learn to speak in a more meaningful way as well.