Call me a nerd, but I’m a big fan of etymology. I like to know where a word came from and appreciate its historical journey. For anyone not in the know, etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history. Word origins are not only educational, but they’re also often wacky, historically intriguing, and humorous. As a registered word nerd, I recently read this book, Origins of the Specious, by word mavens Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman to learn more about this oddity we call English.

Origins of the Specious provides a swath of stories about common word misconceptions. The language is engaging and anecdotal as it dissects seemingly complex myths and origin stories. It’s witty while being incredibly well researched. They poke holes in widely assumed origins, like the idea the Caesarian section was named after Julius Caesar (it wasn’t) or that the “GI” in GI Joe once stood for “government issue” (it didn’t).

If you aren’t typically the type to dig in on a book about words, I’ve culled through Origins of the Specious for you. Here are five of my favorite topics and stories from the book. 

My Top Five Word Origins

“Niche”

This word has always perplexed me. Everybody has their own preferred manner of pronouncing ‘niche’. Some say ‘NEESH’ while others say ‘NITCH’. In my experience, the traditional thinking is that ‘NEESH’ is somehow the more proper, or at least more bougie, pronunciation. Turns out that those of us who still say ‘NITCH’ aren’t as wrong as people might think. 

“We borrowed ‘niche’ from the French in the seventeenth century, but the French had borrowed it in turn from the Romans (it ultimately comes from the Latin nidus, meaning nest),” write O’Conner and Kellerman. The word made its leap to English in a 1610 play by the poet Samuel Daniel, where it was originally spelled as ‘neece’. It has undergone several spelling changes since then. It didn’t become our modern ‘niche’ nor spark pronunciation debates for quite some time. “The earliest pronouncing guide for ‘niche’, from a 1907 entry in what would become the first edition of the [Oxford English Dictionary], lists only ‘NITCH’.” The ‘NEESH’ version was not officially recorded until ten years later, and even then it was labeled as an alternative to ‘NITCH’. 

The lesson here is that English words are messy. One manner of pronunciation may be correct on paper while another is the predominant oral choice. Then over time the two become so confused and muddled that neither can be necessarily incorrect. It’s nice to know that sometimes, like with ‘niche’, both pronunciations can be equally valid. 

“Xmas”

I’ve always been a touch wary about using this term as a replacement or abbreviation for Christmas. The book says it well, “the usual suggestion is that ‘Xmas’ is a secular plot, an attempt by the ungodly to x-out Jesus and banish religion from the holiday.” This is the impression I have always had and, since Christmas is my favorite holiday, I was eager to find out whether this negative connotation was true. 

Origins of the Specious provides a wonderfully merry etymology. “The first recorded use of the letter X for ‘Christ’ was back in 1021” and the book says, if you’re upset about it, to “blame the monks in Great Britain who used the X while transcribing classical manuscripts into Old English.” … “Christos, the Greek word for Christ, begins with the letter chi, or X. It’s spelled in Greek letters this way: XPIΣTOΣ. In early times the Greek letters chi and rho together (XP), and in more recent centries just chi (X), were used in writing as an abbreviation for ‘Christ’ Sometimes a cross was placed before the X and sometimes not.” Goes to show that some words and phrases we use today are simply the results of clerical decisions. Not everything has to be an anti-religious plot.

“Crap”

Here’s a humorous one for all you potty mouths. Perhaps you’ve heard the story that ‘crap’ came about as a tribute to “a Victorian plumbing magnate” named Thomas Crapper. This widely-known story would make ‘crap’ an eponym. An eponym is a word for a word named after a person. This term has been around since the classical age. O’Conner says, “legend has it that Athens was named for the goddess Athena and Rome for the mythological Romulus.”

Thomas Crapper was in fact a real person and actually was a plumbing expert in London. However, he lived from 1836-1910. Origins of the Specious cites that “‘crapping’ meant to defecate at least as far back as 1846 when Crapper was barely out of diapers”. Some sources say, though not conclusively, that the term dates back as far as the 1600s. It’s possible that Crapper’s work may have helped spread the use of “crapper” as a term for the toilet itself. During World War I, American soldiers would see the word written on British toilets and subsequently brought the word home as a noun for ‘toilet’. The likelihood of this story is dubious, as “the word was already in use in 1911, when it meant a lavatory or bathroom and not the fixture itself.”

Bonus toilet-themed fun fact: O’Conner debunks another toilet-themed eponym. Many believe that the word ‘commode’ was named after Roman emperor Commodus invented the first toilet. Sadly, this too is not true. “The word ‘commode’ comes from the Latin commodus, which means convenient”.

“Call a spade a spade”

Though it can be a useful idiom, I was skeptical of this one for fear of it being a racial slur against African Americans. However, Origins says, “that there’s actually nothing bigoted about calling a spade a spade.” 

Authors first used ‘spade’ as a term for an African American “during the flowering of African-American art and literature known as the Harlem Renaissance. The word in this sense is thought to come from the color of the spades suit in a deck of cards.” That said, it’s still regarded by many as inappropriate and should, in my opinion, both before and after reading Origins of the Specious, be used with caution. O’Conner concludes by noting, “though it wasn’t meant to be hateful in the early examples, dictionaries now label the term offensive, especially when used by [white people].”

Before the idiom made use of spades, it was originally incarnated as “call a fig a fig” or “call a trough a trough”. The ancient Greeks would use them to describe a plainspoken person. Back then, “figs and troughs had double meanings” and served as humorous double entendres for sexual innuendos. According to Origins, “the expression evidently first appears, minus the figs, in the writings of the first-century Greek historian Plutarch, who attributes it to Philip of Macedon.” Then, during the Renaissance, “the Dutch scholar Erasmus translated the words of Plutarch, Lucian, and many other Greek writers into Latin.” “In his translations of Plutarch and Lucian, he mistook the Greek word skaphe (“trough”) for the similar skapheion (a digging tool), and translated it into Latin as ligo (“spade”).”

We owe this one, much like ‘Xmas’, to a clerical mishap. That’s alright with me though, I don’t think a ‘trough’ has quite the same ring as a ‘spade’.

“Nicknames”

I love nicknames. I appreciate their subtle meanings and how they can be used in creative writing. As for the term itself, ‘nickname’ has an interesting history. Origins cites, “It’s derived from an extremely old word, ‘ekename’, which first appeared in print in 1303 … The pronunciation of the phrase ‘an ekename’ was misunderstood as ‘a nekename’, which in turn led to the modern word ‘nickname,’ first recorded in the seventeenth century.” Unsurprisingly, like many other word evolutions, we got our current term as a result of people mistaking and misusing the existing term. 

Have you ever stopped to wonder where certain engrained nicknames came from? O’Conner and Kellerman, like myself, seem to have pondered this question. They identify the connection between ones like “‘Ned’ (for Edward), ‘Dick’ (for Richard), ‘Hal’ (for Harry), and an especially odd one, ‘Noll’ (for Oliver).” Turns out, during medieval times, “people added an affectionate ‘mine’ before first names starting with a vowel”. So, with this in mind, we can see that ‘Noll’ came from ‘Mine Oliver’ and ‘Ned’ came from ‘Mine Edward’. The rule also extended to female names, such as with ‘Ellen’ becoming ‘Nell’. Unfortunately, the origin of ‘Dick’ remains a mystery.

Bonus fun fact about names: Many people believe that “Aaron” and “Erin” derived as male and female equivalents of the same name. Turns out that “Erin” came from “the Irish Gaelic word for ‘peace’ and a poetic name for Ireland.” Meanwhile, Aaron is, of course, a biblical name that came “from the Hebrew word for ‘enlightened’.”

Does Any of This Matter Nowadays?

People abuse the English language at every turn in our current social landscape. We throw grammar and spelling to the wind more often than yesterday’s news. We use autocorrect and most people would admit they’ve come to rely upon it. (I know that I use it more often than I’d like) Many people still find it nerdy to care about words. It all goes back to the classic idiom, “too cool for school.”

Some people simply can’t be bothered with memorizing grammar rules. So, in our modern world, is there any reason to care about the sanctity of words, their usage or histories? 

It’s not exactly fashionable to advocate for proper adherence to usage and pronunciation. Frankly, most people don’t care. I personally see the value in both sides of the usage divide. I love words and I try to use them correctly. That’s part of the beauty of English. We have a word for just about everything, so why not use the right one? At the same time, though, the beauty of English (and language in general) is that it’s so messy, constantly evolving, and we are capable of understanding each other even when we aren’t speaking properly. Learning word origins might not help you every single day or improve your spelling, but it can certainly be helpful from time to time. 

How Learning About Etymology Can Benefit You

To me, learning word origins isn’t only entertaining. Etymology tales like these make one more deeply understand and appreciate the words and sayings we use. It’s almost like having an inside joke with someone where you both start cracking up over some word or phrase. From then on, you have a much deeper connotation for that phrase because you have a story attached to it. There’s a deeper meaning behind those words for you now. By learning the stories behind words via their etymology, we enrich our perception, understanding, and appreciation of words.

Paying attention to definitions and correct pronunciations can be rather useful in shaping our ability to comprehend wordplay, sarcasm, and puns in comedy. By knowing the definitional or historical difference between two words, you’re more likely to appreciate puns and certain sarcasm. Of course, puns put off many people rather than entertain them. But puns and wordplay were a sign of intelligence and wit during Shakespeare’s day. And while today, some see pun-work as lazy or stupid, it’s amazing how one can entirely miss out on a good joke when they don’t understand the wordplay. (Side note: If you actually do enjoy puns, I recommend this book, The Pun Also Rises. It’s similar in structure to Origins of the Specious, but all about puns.

Reading up on Latin and Greek roots can improve your ability to write interesting characters and give them meaningful names. Look at the characters in Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is prolific at infusing roots and stems of thematic words into character names. Most of these examples are widely known but I mean, the way Voldemort draws on French roots for “flight of death” is simply awesome. That kind of creative nuance doesn’t happen without paying deliberate attention to the meaning of words. 

Conclusion

If nothing else, these etymology stories make for good bar fodder. They provide fun conversations with people who enjoy fun facts. Now you can impress somebody next Christmas by illuminating them on the origin of “Xmas”. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I agree. However, sometimes, a word can be worth a thousand words. 

If these five word origins tickled your curiosity, you can find Origins of the Specious on Amazon, Kindle, and probably at your local bookstore. Same goes for her other books on etymology, Woe Is I and Words Fail Me. In the meantime, feel free to check out my other “Top” lists, including my “Top 10 Films of the Decade” and my “Top 5 Cold Opens in ‘The Office'”.

Michael

Sources: O’Connor, Patricia and Stewart Kellerman. Origins of the Specious. Random House, 2010.