Bethlehem

Did you know that Bethlehem can be found in the UK?

Near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire is a village called Bethlehem.  It has a great Christmas fayre, with nativity plays and tableaux, crafts stalls and Christmas decorations.  Many people travel there every year to post their Christmas cards.  The tiny part-time Post Office has to open long hours during December in order to meet this high demand.

So next year, why not take a trip to West Wales, and amaze all your friends and family with Christmas cards postmarked Bethlehem...

Images:
Seren Bethlehem (2009) [online], http://www.s4c.co.uk/dysgwyr/rhaglen/seren-bethlehem (Accessed 5th January 2011). 



Juliana

Spat (Word of the week)

A short word this week and one you probably have come across before, but I bet you don't know quite how many different meanings this one little word has picked up over the years.

The earliest use of the word spat seems to originate from anglo-norman and means the spawn of an oyster or other shellfish and in the mid 17th century it was occassionally used to mean the eggs of bees!

At the same time it was also beginning to be used to mean a spatula for spreading on medical ointments or creams.

It also used to be used to mean clap or applause.

Spat turns up in the US in the early 19th Century to mean a brief arguement or quarrel.

It has also come to mean a sharp blow or slap or the sound of a blow or slap.

There's more....

Used in the plural spats - it is an abbreviation of spatterdash a early 19th century gaiter, which is worn over the top of a shoe and reaches slightly above the ankle, protecting the wearer from muddy splashes when walking on a wet day.

And finally, in aeronautics it has come to mean a covering that goes above the wheel of an aircraft - a 'spatterdash' for a plane - a bit like a mudguard in a car.

So there you go, one short four letter word, with many many different meanings!

Sources:
Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2 volumes) 6th edition, 2007
Chambers Concise Dictionary, 1989
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=spat
http://www.wordswarm.net/dictionary/spat.html


Von

River Avon - so good they named it twice

Tautology is the needless repetition of a concept in a word or phrase. For example : a beginner who has just started (you can't be a beginner if you've been doing something for a long time).

Tautology happens frequently in place names when languages are mixed. In this blog I'm going to have a look at some of the more interesting examples that can be found all over the world, but I thought we'd start close to home with the River Avon. There are actually a number of River Avons in Britain and they basically mean River River. The word Avon comes from the Welsh word Afon, meaning river, which itself most likely origates from the Celtic word Abona, also meaning river.

Sources:
http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/River_Avon,_Bristol
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Avon

Von

Funest (Word of the week)

So, a quick question for everyone to start us off today:- When is fun no fun at all? The answer? When its funest of course!

Funest is an adjective that first appeared in the mid 17th century. It originates from the French funeste and means:

• causing or warning of death or evil. Something that is fatal, disasterous or dreadful.

So, as you can see, no fun at all. This is because the French funeste is derived from the Latin funus meaning funeral, death or corpse.

To finish off, I've got another question for you, along with a bonus word. Knowing what funest means what do you think a funambulist is? Someone who walks with a funeral procession? A walking corpse? No, it actually means tight-rope walker or rope dancer. Bet you didn't see that one coming! That's because it doesn't derive from funus, instead it derives from funis (rope) and ambulare (to walk). See it all makes sense now...

Sources:
Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2 volumes) 6th edition, 2007
Chambers Concise Dictionary, 1989

Von

Belladonna

Belladonna, a pretty name for a deadly plant.  This word literally means beautiful lady in Italian, because Italian women used the juice from this plant as a cosmetic.  The Italians have a good eye for beauty.  After all, it was there that the theory of ideal beauty in Renaissance art was first formed during the Middle Ages. 

Atropa Belladonna was first introduced to England in 1597 in a book on botany.  The genus name Atropa is taken from Atropos, the Greek Fate who cuts the thread of life, possibly referring to the plant's deadly nature.  It is also called Deadly Nightshade, and its seductive berries are fatal to children.

The plant is still used in homeopathic remedies - for inflammation of the throat, earache, headaches, boils, fits, labour pains, fever, spasma, nausea, vertigo, increased sensitivity in the senses and is even given to children to reduce teething pain.  Although all parts of the plant are poisonous, it has been used for centuries to heal infections and inflammations.  In the Middle Ages, this was considered magic, and women who used it were accused of being witches.  Today, however, it is recognised as a useful plant for healing, albeit with a strictly controlled dosage.
This plant, like a femme fatale, is beautiful and inviting.  You pick it at your peril.

Sources:
Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), Chambers.
Locke, Dr. Andrew & Geddes, Dr. Nicola (1995) The Complete Guide to Homeopathy, Dorling Kindersley.
Mabey, Richard (1996) Flora Britannica, Chatto & Windus.


Juliana

valetudinarianism (Word of the week)

Its Wednesday, so it must be Word of the Week. Did you see what I did with the alliteration there? I figured it'd help remind me to post on Wednesdays :)

Anyhows, I decided to go for a word that seemed very appropriate right now since I've come down with what seems to be plague, although it could possibly be a cold I guess...So our word this week is:

valetudinarianism
a noun in use in the early nineteenth century, meaning a tendency to be in poor health or to be unduly concerned with one's health.

This derived from the early eighteenth century noun: valetudinarian, which meant a person in poor health or a person who unduly worries about their health. The word comes from the Latin valetudinarius meaning in ill health.

Interesting how the Latin based valetudinarianism has disappeared from our vocuabulary but we use instead, hyperchondriac, which comes from Ancient Greek.

Sources:
Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2 volumes) 6th edition, 2007
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/valetudinarianism
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hypochondria

Von (who now returns, coughing and sniffling, to wallow in her pit of self pity).

Lewis Caroll and Humpty Dumpty

Just a quickie. From time to time we're going to throw in 'quotes we like'. Just a small snatch of text from a book or a line in a poem that plays with words in a way we enjoy. I thought we'd start off with a quick quote from Lewis Carroll, who seemed to have a great deal of fun twisting and playing with words. In fact, I'm sure we'll come across him again as we bloggificate.

This particular quote is a line from Through the Looking Glass.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, "It means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

For some reason it seems like a good quote to start off our 'Quotable Quotes' with :)

Von

Llandudno

That Saint Tudno was a busy bloke, and well travelled too!  Not only did he have a town named after him in North Wales, but there's a place near Cape Town in South Africa that bears his name.

In 1903 a Mrs Wege, wife of one of the VIPs in the newly created township in Kleinkommetjie Bay near Cape Town, realised the striking similarity between her new home town and Llandudno in North Wales (having just been on holiday there), so suggested that the new town be named Llandudno after the Welsh original.  Like Llandudno's Great Orme and Little Orme in North Wales, the South African Llandudno has rocky outcrops either side of the bay.

Today, Llandudno, South Africa, is a popular holiday destination for the inhabitants of Cape Town as it's only a few hours away, with it's pretty beach and unspoiled countryside.  The town is still small, and has no retail outlets and no street lamps.  But unlike Llandudno, North Wales, I doubt you can have a tour around the rocky promontory in a 1960s British Leyland bus.

Sources:

Maude, Sue (2003) 'Early History', Llandudno.  Available from: http://www.llandudno.co.za/area-guide/llandudno-history/early-history.html (Accessed 3rd January 2011).

Images:

1960s British Leyland Tour Bus at Llandudno (2010), blogger's own.

Juliana

Quiz (Word of the Week)

So this week’s word is a fairly common word, one that you already know the meaning of and that’s only four letters long, so, scrabble score aside, what’s so interesting about the word quiz?

Well first of all, it started life meaning something somewhat different than it means now.

Now quiz is a noun or verb that means:-

• The act of questioning
• A set of questions to be answered, specifically a questionnaire, examination or a test of knowledge for entertainment between individuals or teams.

As a verb it means to question or interrogate. In North America it is used in relation to testing a class of students by asking questions needing short factual answers.

These meaning all started to appear round about the mid 19^th century, but the word quiz has been around since the late 18^th century when the meaning was slightly different. Back then quiz could mean the following:-

• an odd or eccentric person or a person of ridiculous appearance
• a person who makes practical jokes, a prankster.
• A practical joke or hoax. A piece of witticism or banter.

So the word has evolved over time. But there’s something else interesting about the word quiz. Way back when, I was reading a graphic novel called Preacher in which one of the characters relates the story about how the word quiz originated. The story went along these lines:

In 1791 a man called John Daly, who owned a theatre in Dublin made a bet that he could create a nonsense-word that people would start to use all over the city within 2 days. In order to win the bet he got theatre staff to go around Dublin that evening and write the word quiz on all the walls they could find. Of course the next day the word was on everyone’s lips as they all tried to work our where this sudden rash of graffiti had come from and what it meant and within a short period of time it became part of the language.

I originally assumed that this was an invented story, written by Garth Ennis the author of Preacher, but when I looked into it further I found out that although, disappointingly the story has generally been decided to be made up, it first appeared in a book in 1875 in a book called “Gleanings and Reminiscences”. Unfortunately there is evidence that the word was already in use before 1971 meaning an eccentric person. But still I think its interesting all the same.

So, quiz may be a mere, 4 letter word that everyone knows the meaning of these days, but it has a fascinating history and has changed along the way.

Sources:

Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2 volumes) 6th edition, 2007

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/196

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-qui1.htm

Further reading:

http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/PreacherEnnisDillon.html
this is an interesting article about Preacher for anyone who wants to do some background reading :)

Von

Wenglish

Let me introduce you to Wenglish, a dialect widely spoken in the South Wales Valleys.  Wenglish is a mix of Welsh and English.  Sometimes english words are spoke in a 'welsh' manner - such as an emphasis on the second syllable, loveLEE and tiDEE.  The word tidy has extra meaning in Wenglish - not just clean and neat, but also nice, well and good.

I grew up in South-East Wales and was never taught Welsh at school or spoke it at home, or so I thought...
But when I went to university, I used some words that confused my English friends (which included Von).  I then found out that I was using Welsh words without even realising it!  Some of these words were poggy, coopy, looksee and cwtch. 
Poggy means messy, tangled, as in "I need a brush, my hair's all poggy". 
Coopy means to crouch down, as in "Coopy down and pick that pen off the floor". 
Looksee is another way to say 'look', as in "Looksee out there! E's washing 'is car again!"  It is also used at the end of a sentence for emphasis, as in "You're late again, looksee!"
Now cwtch is an important word.  The nearest translation is 'hug'.  But it's far more than that.  It's a hug full of love and warmth and goodwill.  Welsh mothers would wrap their children tightly in their shawl, so that mother and child were completely enveloped in a warm cocoon.  That's a cwtch.  No other word comes close.  An oft heard phrase from my elderly aunts is "Gis [give us] a cwtch" as they advence on you with open arms outstretched.

If you want to know more about Wenglish, I recommend two small books by John Edwards, Talk Tidy: The Art of Speaking Wenglish and More Talk Tidy, both of which are available on amazon. 


Juliana

Whoops-a-daisy!

In the film Notting Hill, Hugh Grant's character says "Whoops-a-daisy" to which Julia Roberts' character replies "No-one has said 'whoops-a-daisy' for fifty years". 

That's not quite true.

I still hear this expression used.  Granted, not very often, and rarely by anyone under forty.  But only yesterday, I spilt a glass of water and found myself saying "Whoops-a-daisy!" and I'm not quite forty yet!

One variant of this phrase is oops-a-daisy, also used after an accidental trip or spillage.  This is perhaps most commonly used and an early mention of it was in 1862 in Clough Robinson's The Dialect of Leeds and its Neighbourhood. 

Another common variant is upsy daisy, usually used when picking up babies and toddlers.  This phrase was used by Jonathan Swift in a letter published in The Journal of Stella in 1711.

So help bring this wonderful phrase back.  Pass it on, use it the next time you slip, trip or spill a drink.  Say "oops-a-daisy" and see what happens...

Sources:
Martin, Gary (1996-2010) 'Ups-a-daisy.' The Phrase Finder.  Available from:  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/ups-a-daisy.html (Accessed 3rd January 2011).


Juliana

January - the doorway into the New Year

A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month, well okay the second day, but its close enough I hope.

I thought I’d have a look at where our words for the months come from and starting with January seemed a logical way to go about it, especially it being the New Year and all.

So January – the word derives from the Roman God Janus. He was known as the God of gates or doorways – the Roman word for door being ianus. He could see forwards into the future and back into the past and had two faces, one young and one old.

In Rome his temples had two doors which were closed only when the Empire was not at war.

There is also a four-faced version of Janus known as Janus Quadrifrons, with each face representing one of the four seasons.

Many countries use variations of the name Janus for the first month of the year (in the Gregorian and Julian calendars). Some examples include:

Januari – Dutch

Januar – Danish

Janeiro – Portuguese

Janvier - French

However some countries use different words for the first month of the year, for example:

In Japanese January is Ichigatsu, which literally means first moon.

In Czech it is Leden, meaning ice month and in Turkish it is Ocak.

Sources:

The Dictionary of Mythology by J.A. Coleman, 2008 (ISBN: 9781841934242)

Omniglot Months of the Year in many languages: http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/months1.php

And yes, I admit I started on Wikipedia for this one!

Von