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Your
Etymological Queries Answered
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From
Eric:
The word sniper has been in the news recently. What is its origin?
Why does the presumably related verb to snipe have a very different meaning, at least in everyday usage?
As you might have guessed, a sniper is one who snipes.
To snipe is to shoot at from a distance and while under cover, and it
comes from the noun snipe. What is a snipe, you ask?
Why, it's a bird! Don't you remember camping as a child and having the
adults gather all the kids to go snipe hunting at dusk (which usually
ended up being only a walk in the woods)? Well, it
is apparently from real snipe hunting that the verb and then the noun in this
sense arose. Sniper dates from 1824 and the verb from 1782. The
bird's name is first recorded about 1325. It appears to be of Germanic
origin, with apparent cognates in Icelandic and Norwegian.
Snipe was
also used as an abusive term, as in this quotation from Shakespeare's Othello
(1604): "For I mine
owne gain'd knowledge should prophane, If I would time expend with such [a]
Snipe." Further, the verb took on a figurative sense by the late
19th century: to verbally rebuke or criticize (to "shoot" at with
words).
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From
Margie Newtown:
Can you give me the etymology of the word
camouflage?
This is one of those not so common words that
came to English from French rather recently: World War I, to be exact.
It comes from the French verb camoufler "disguise", which the
French derived from Italian camuffare "disguise,
trick", perhaps with the influence of French camouflet
"snub", which was earlier "smoke blown in someone's
face". Camouflet shows up in English (1836) referring to a
bomb used to blow in the wall of a besieged room/building, the result being
that the occupants are buried. Etymologist Robert K. Barnhart
believes that the Italian camuffare comes from Medieval Latin muffula
"manipulation".
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From
Glenn:
Origin of the term crab
apple?
The crab apple is actually the wild apple,
source of all domestic apples grown today. There are two thoughts about
the origin of crab in this sense. The first notes that the
Scottish form is scrab or scrabbe, seemingly from a Norse
source, as there is Swedish skrabba "fruit of the wild apple
tree". This would suggest that crab and crabbe are
aphetic forms of a much older word. The other possibility is that it
derives from crabbed, which itself means, etymologically, "crooked
or wayward gait of a crab" and the several figurative senses that follow
from that (disagreeable, contrary, ill-tempered, or crooked). One of
those senses might have been applied to the fruit of the crab apple: not
right, not pleasant, ill-flavored (because crab apples are very sour and
astringent). Whatever crab apple's
origin, it dates from 1712, while the term crab "crab apple"
dates from the early 15th century. Crabbed dates from about 1300.
Feeling crabby now? That dates from the late 18th century. Thomas
Paine used it in his Common Sense: "The
narrow and crabby spirit of a despairing political party."
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From
Tom Brady:
For as long as I can remember (which is a very
long time) I've enjoyed a salad made from shredded cabbage, vinegar, carrots, and
mayonnaise; usually with ham, baked beans and corn sticks. Delicious! The
salad was always called coleslaw, but I have no idea of the origin, or ethnicity of the word.
First we must
mention that cole is a generic term for members of the Brassica
family, such as broccoli and cabbage. Most of the European languages
adopted it in one form or another, from Latin caulis "stalk,
cabbage". So, back to cole slaw. It derives from
Dutch koolsla, an aphetic form of kool-salade, and no, that
does not mean "cool salad"! The kool element is the
Dutch form of our cole. So cole slaw is
etymologically "cabbage salad". It apparently entered
English via America from the Dutch in New York and thereabouts. The
first record of it is from 1794.
There is a form that arose through folk etymology: cold slaw.
"Folks" were simply not familiar with the word cole and
so substituted it with what they thought was the proper word, cold
(as most cole slaw is served cold or at room temperature).
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From
Gary Foster:
What is the etymology
of bogey (or
sometimes bogie)
as in "one over par" in golf. I did search your site and looked
elsewhere, but have not found
anything on the origination of this golf term or any others (such as birdie or
eagle). Any
insight will be appreciated. Thanks.
Here's the story we found regarding
bogey:
One popular song
at least has left its permanent effect on the game of golf. That song is
"The Bogey Man". In 1890 Dr. Thos. Browne, R.N., the hon. secretary
of the Great Yarmouth Club, was playing against a Major Wellman, the
match being against the "ground score", which was the name given to
the scratch value of each hole. The system of playing against the "ground
score" was new to Major Wellman, and he exclaimed, thinking of the
song of the moment, that his mysterious and well-nigh invincible
opponent was a regular "bogey-man". The name "caught on" at
Great Yarmouth, and to-day "Bogey" is one of the most feared
opponents on all the courses that acknowledge him (1908).
As for birdie,
meaning a score of one under par, that one is slightly more
complicated. The word bird came to be used figuratively,
based on the ability of birds to fly, and to fly perfectly and
noiselessly, to any accomplished or smart person (1839). From there
it came to be applied to the great accomplishment of shooting one under
par, and it was familiarized to birdie. Bird dates in
print with that meaning from 1911, and birdie from 1921. Eagle
is apparently simply bigger and better than a birdie An eagle
is, of course, two under par.
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