Words, Meanings, Language & Quotes

ratoon [ra-toon] NOUN  A sprout or shoot from the root of a plant, especially a sugarcane, after it has been cropped. ORIGIN Ratoon “a sprout from the root of a plant” is likely anglicized from Spanish retoño “sprout,” which is based on the verb retoñar “to sprout again in the fall,” from re- “again” and otoño “fall, autumn.” Spanish otoño and English autumn together come from Latin autumnus, which is of uncertain origin, even stumping expert linguists! Among the few proposals are connections to the Etruscan language, to Latin augēre (stem auct-) “to increase,” or distantly to English sere “dry, withered” (compare archaic English sere month “August”). Old English ​​hærfest “autumn” is the source of modern English harvest. Ratoon was first recorded in English circa 1630. EXAMPLES  Sugarcane is one of the few crops that has seen an increase in planting area. But across Maharashtra, large fields of sugarcane ratoons—the new cane that grows from the stubble left behind from the pr...

Teepoy noun a small three-legged table or stand What is the origin of teapoy? Teapoy “a small three-legged table or stand” is adapted from Hindi tīpāi, with a spelling change likely because of the association with tea. Hindi tīpāi, however, is not related to tea; instead, tīpāi comes from Persian sipāya “three-legged stand.” The phonetic change from Persian s to Hindi t is due to a replacement of the Persian word for “three” with its Hindi cognate tīn, while the instrument sitar “a lute with a small, pear-shaped body” preserves this Persian numeral. Sipāya is a compound of Persian sē “three” and pāy “foot,” which are distant relatives of English three and foot, Latin trēs and pēs, Ancient Greek treîs and poús, and Sanskrit trí and pád. Teapoy was first recorded in English in the 1820s. How is teapoy used? In front of the fireplace were placed three cane stools with a long, low, mahogany teapoy. Richard often sat there, his pipe in hand and browsed through his books and ancient manuscri...

SANGUIVOROUS   (adjective) feeding on blood, as a bat or insect. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SANGUIVOROUS? Sanguivorous “feeding on blood” is a compound of the combining forms sangui- “blood” and -vorous “devouring.” Sangui- derives from Latin sanguis, of the same meaning, but the story does not stop there. Continuing a common pattern in the Indo-European language family, the Romans had two words for “blood”—sanguis and cruor—and while sanguis implicitly referred to blood inside the body, cruor referred to blood outside the body, particularly in violent contexts. In this way, it should come as little surprise that cruor is distantly related to English raw (Old English hrēaw) and Ancient Greek kréas “raw flesh,” while sanguis may be a compound of the Proto-Indo-European roots for “blood” and “to pour.” While cruor survives today to some extent in modern Romance languages, it is sanguis that serves as the root of most Romance words for “blood,” such as French sang, Italian/Portuguese ...

"There's a saying that the food in India changes every 100km and yet we're still using this umbrella term popularised by white people who couldn't be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes," blogger Chaheti Bansal said August 11, 2021  The food blogger said that that while she did not want the word "curry" to be cancelled entirely, there needed to be an end to its use by "people who don't know what it means". (Source: pixabay) In a viral Instagram post, Indian-American blogger Chaheti Bansal called on people to “cancel the word ‘curry'”, deemed a universal term for Indian dishes in the West. In a recipe video for Rajasthani dish ‘Gatte ki sabji’, Bansal said that the term “curry” has been misused by “white people” to name any dish made in India. Stating that one can “still unlearn”, she said, “There’s a saying that the food in India changes every 100km and yet we’re still using this umbrella term popularised by white people w...

Mickle [mik-uhl] adjective great; large; much. ORIGIN Mickle is often found in the expression “many a little makes a mickle,” which sometimes appears instead as “many a pickle makes a mickle” or “many a mickle makes a muckle” and points to how a vast number of small quantities can form a great quantity. Mickle has many cognates in other Indo-European languages that pertain to greatness, whether literal size or figurative influence—from mickle’s Latin cognate, we have magnify and magnitude; from its Greek cognate, we have megabyte and megalomania; and from its Sanskrit cognate, we have maharajah “a ruling prince,” and maharishi “a respected teacher of mystical knowledge.” The adjective much originated as a shortened form of mickle likely in the 12th century and is not related to Spanish mucho, which derives instead from the Latin word for “many”—the same word that gives us multiple and multitude. USAGE [M]ight never any man bethink of bliss that were greater in any country than in this...

[ ahr-i-tey ] noun the aggregate of qualities, as valour and virtue, making up good character. ORIGIN Not every word has a direct translation in other languages, and arete falls into this category; though it is frequently translated as “excellence,” using “excellence” alone ignores all the nuances, such as bravery, intellect, and productivity, that arete implies in the original Greek. You may also know that Ancient Greek had multiple words for “love,” and “love” alone can’t fully communicate how philia is a type of brotherly love, how eros signifies passion and desire, or how agape refers to the love between spouses or for fellow humans. These translation issues also arise with philosophical terms such as pathos, which can be translated succinctly as “feeling”–its intended meaning in compounds such as apathy, empathy, and sympathy. However, pathos is more than another word for “emotion”; it refers to the feelings of pity, sorrow, or compassion that result when hearing, seeing, or lis...

noun Any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place. ORIGIN Hegira, “a flight to a more desirable or safer place,” comes from Medieval Latin hegira, a Latinization of Arabic hijrah “emigration, flight, departure,” a derivative of the verb hajara “he departed.” Hijrah specifically refers to the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution in July c.e. 622. The Arabic form hijrah (more fully al hijrat) for Muslims marks the beginning of the Muslim Era. Hegira entered English in the late 16th century; the spelling hijra in the late 19th. USAGE After The San Francisco News assigned [John] Steinbeck to write a series about the pathetic living conditions of the Dust Bowl refugees in California’s San Joaquin Valley, he actively began The Grapes of Wrath, his touching 1939 novel about the hegira of these Oklahoma sharecroppers. BRENDA WINEAPPLE, "JOHN STEINBECK, BARD OF THE AMERICAN WORKER," NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 6, 2020 [T. S.] Elio...