Carnival of the Etymologies
[A regular Thursday feature of "Done With Mirrors"]
While looking through Zeitgeist for the top search engine inquiries this past week, I came across Bob Denver, TV's Maynard G. Krebs and Gilligan (whose first name remains a TV trivia mystery), who died Sept. 2.
Since most of the rest of the top search terms have been etymologized here before, I decided to do a Carnival based on the "Gilligan's Island" theme song.
Island is longer than it has to be. The oldest form of the word was Old English ieg, from Proto-Germanic *aujo, which probably meant "thing on the water" and is derived from Proto-Indo-European *akwa- "water."
The Anglo-Saxons began to feel this as insufficient, for some reason, and added a land on the end to make igland. Perhaps this happened by confusion with another Old English word, ealand, literally "river-land," which meant "watered place, meadow by a river."
The final alteration came in the 15th century, when the spelling was modified on the model of isle, which is unrelated to island. It's a Middle English borrowing from Old French, and ultimately it comes from Latin insula "island," a word of uncertain origin, perhaps from the feminine form of a reconstructed adjective *en-salos "in the sea," from salum "sea."
Old English ieg has vanished, but it survives in some old place names, for instance Runnymede, famed site of the signing of the Magna Charta. The spot, in Surrey, was called Ronimede in 1215 when it earned its place in history; it literally means "meadow on the council island," from Old English runieg "council island," the first element of which is identical with rune.
Gilligan was the first mate on the TV show. Mate in the sense of "companion, associate, fellow, comrade" is a 14th century word in English; it was perhaps a soldiers' word picked up on the Continent, since the immediate source seems to be Middle Low German mate or gemate "one eating at the same table, messmate," from Proto-Germanic *ga-maton "having food (*matiz) together (*ga-)," which is etymologically identical with Latin-derived companion (com- "with" + panis "bread").
Mate with the meaning "one of a wedded pair" is attested from 1549; it has been used as a form of address by sailors, laborers, etc., since at least 1450. The meaning "officer on a merchant vessel" is recorded from 1496.
Skipper "captain or master of a ship" is attested from 1390, and like a great many nautical words in English it is borrwed from the languages across the North Sea from England, where people took to the sea much more willingly than the landlubbing Anglo-Saxons did. Its immediate source is Middle Dutch scipper, from scip, the Dutch form of ship.
The Old English form of ship was identical to the Dutch word, with a hard sk- sound at the beginning. But over time the hard sound in English softened to modern sh-, while most of the continental Germanic people kept the hard consonant (though the Germans and Dutch eventually softened it, too). Because there was frequent contact between the English and these neighbors, especially via the Viking settlements in England, the same word sometimes comes down into Modern English in two forms, the native one in sh- and the continental or Scandinavian borrowing in sk-. Ship and skipper are one example pair. Shirt and skirt are another.
The ship word in the modern Germanic languages shows the different ways this sound has evolved: Danish skib, Swedish skepp, Dutch schip, German Schiff. French esquif and Italian schifo are Germanic loan-words. The root meaning of this whole group of words may be "tree cut out or hollowed out," if the word is connected, as some suspect, with the Proto-Indo-European base *skei- "to cut, split."
Millionaire is first attested in 1826, borrowed from French millionnaire (1762). The first in America is said to have been John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). Million is a 14th century borrowing of Old French million (c.1270), from Italian millione (now milione), literally "a great thousand," augmentative of mille "thousand," from Latin mille.
The number was used mainly by mathematicians until the 16th century. The ancient Greeks had no name for a number greater than ten thousand, the Romans for none higher than a hundred thousand. "A million" in Latin would have been expressed decies centena milia, literally "ten hundred thousand." India, however, with its advanced mathematics and theological love of large numbers, had names before the 3rd century C.E. for numbers well beyond a billion.
Wife is Old English wif (prounounced "weef"), which meant literally "woman." It's a general Germanic word (cf. Old Frisian wif, Old Norse vif, Swedish viv, Dutch wijf, German Weib), but its origin is unknown. The modern sense of "female spouse" began as a specialized sense in Old English; the general sense of "woman" is preserved in midwife, old wives' tale, etc. A Middle English sense of "mistress of a household" survives in housewife; and a later restricted sense of "tradeswoman of humble rank" in fishwife.
Movie star, unlike the ancient words above, is pure 20th century. Movie is attested by 1912 (perhaps as early as 1908), a shortened form of moving picture (1896). Star meaning "perform the lead part" (said of actors, singers, etc.) is attested from 1824.
With professor we're back to the Middle Ages, from Latin professor "person who professes to be an expert in some art or science, teacher of highest rank." It's an agent noun from profitieri "lay claim to, declare openly," a compound formed from pro- "forth" and fateri (past participle fassus) "acknowledge, confess." As a title prefixed to a name, professor dates from 1706.
Mary Anne didn't have a title in the song -- in fact, in the first season, she wasn't even named in it. But her role was the classic vaudeville one of the fresh-faced, buxom farm girl.
Farm looks to me like a native Germanic word, but it's not. It's a 13th century borrowing of Old French ferme "lease," and as this indicates its ground sense is of the legal relationship of the owner to the land, not the agricultural use of it. The original sense is retained in the phrase to farm (something) out. The French word comes from Medieval Latin firma "fixed payment," from Latin firmare "to fix, settle, confirm, strengthen," from firmus "firm."
The sense of "tract of leased land" is first recorded in English in 1334; that of "cultivated land" (leased or not) is from 1523.
A native word for "farm" would be thorp, from Old English ðorp "village, hamlet, farm, estate," which is preserved in the many English place names ending in -thorp or -thrup.
Girl appears circa 1290 as gyrle "child" (of either sex). Its origin is unknown; current scholarship leans toward an unrecorded Old English *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilon-, a diminutive of *gurwjoz (represented by Low German gære "boy, girl"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghwrgh-, which also is found in Greek parthenos "virgin." But this is highly conjectural.
Another candidate is Old English gierela "garment." Like boy, lass, lad it is of obscure origin. "Probably most of them arose as jocular transferred uses of words that had originally different meaning," according to "Oxford English Dictionary," lending support to the gierela theory.
The specific meaning of "female child" is from the 14th century; the word was applied to "any young unmarried woman" since 1530.
According to the indispensible Internet Movie Database, Jayne Mansfield turned down the role of Ginger, Jerry Van Dyke turned down the role of Gilligan; while Carroll O'Connor tested for the role of The Skipper, Dabney Coleman tested for The Professor, and Raquel Welch auditioned for the role of Mary Anne.
Raquel? Mary Anne? Not Ginger? What was her agent thinking?
While looking through Zeitgeist for the top search engine inquiries this past week, I came across Bob Denver, TV's Maynard G. Krebs and Gilligan (whose first name remains a TV trivia mystery), who died Sept. 2.
Since most of the rest of the top search terms have been etymologized here before, I decided to do a Carnival based on the "Gilligan's Island" theme song.
Island is longer than it has to be. The oldest form of the word was Old English ieg, from Proto-Germanic *aujo, which probably meant "thing on the water" and is derived from Proto-Indo-European *akwa- "water."
The Anglo-Saxons began to feel this as insufficient, for some reason, and added a land on the end to make igland. Perhaps this happened by confusion with another Old English word, ealand, literally "river-land," which meant "watered place, meadow by a river."
The final alteration came in the 15th century, when the spelling was modified on the model of isle, which is unrelated to island. It's a Middle English borrowing from Old French, and ultimately it comes from Latin insula "island," a word of uncertain origin, perhaps from the feminine form of a reconstructed adjective *en-salos "in the sea," from salum "sea."
Old English ieg has vanished, but it survives in some old place names, for instance Runnymede, famed site of the signing of the Magna Charta. The spot, in Surrey, was called Ronimede in 1215 when it earned its place in history; it literally means "meadow on the council island," from Old English runieg "council island," the first element of which is identical with rune.
Gilligan was the first mate on the TV show. Mate in the sense of "companion, associate, fellow, comrade" is a 14th century word in English; it was perhaps a soldiers' word picked up on the Continent, since the immediate source seems to be Middle Low German mate or gemate "one eating at the same table, messmate," from Proto-Germanic *ga-maton "having food (*matiz) together (*ga-)," which is etymologically identical with Latin-derived companion (com- "with" + panis "bread").
Mate with the meaning "one of a wedded pair" is attested from 1549; it has been used as a form of address by sailors, laborers, etc., since at least 1450. The meaning "officer on a merchant vessel" is recorded from 1496.
Skipper "captain or master of a ship" is attested from 1390, and like a great many nautical words in English it is borrwed from the languages across the North Sea from England, where people took to the sea much more willingly than the landlubbing Anglo-Saxons did. Its immediate source is Middle Dutch scipper, from scip, the Dutch form of ship.
The Old English form of ship was identical to the Dutch word, with a hard sk- sound at the beginning. But over time the hard sound in English softened to modern sh-, while most of the continental Germanic people kept the hard consonant (though the Germans and Dutch eventually softened it, too). Because there was frequent contact between the English and these neighbors, especially via the Viking settlements in England, the same word sometimes comes down into Modern English in two forms, the native one in sh- and the continental or Scandinavian borrowing in sk-. Ship and skipper are one example pair. Shirt and skirt are another.
The ship word in the modern Germanic languages shows the different ways this sound has evolved: Danish skib, Swedish skepp, Dutch schip, German Schiff. French esquif and Italian schifo are Germanic loan-words. The root meaning of this whole group of words may be "tree cut out or hollowed out," if the word is connected, as some suspect, with the Proto-Indo-European base *skei- "to cut, split."
Millionaire is first attested in 1826, borrowed from French millionnaire (1762). The first in America is said to have been John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). Million is a 14th century borrowing of Old French million (c.1270), from Italian millione (now milione), literally "a great thousand," augmentative of mille "thousand," from Latin mille.
The number was used mainly by mathematicians until the 16th century. The ancient Greeks had no name for a number greater than ten thousand, the Romans for none higher than a hundred thousand. "A million" in Latin would have been expressed decies centena milia, literally "ten hundred thousand." India, however, with its advanced mathematics and theological love of large numbers, had names before the 3rd century C.E. for numbers well beyond a billion.
Wife is Old English wif (prounounced "weef"), which meant literally "woman." It's a general Germanic word (cf. Old Frisian wif, Old Norse vif, Swedish viv, Dutch wijf, German Weib), but its origin is unknown. The modern sense of "female spouse" began as a specialized sense in Old English; the general sense of "woman" is preserved in midwife, old wives' tale, etc. A Middle English sense of "mistress of a household" survives in housewife; and a later restricted sense of "tradeswoman of humble rank" in fishwife.
Movie star, unlike the ancient words above, is pure 20th century. Movie is attested by 1912 (perhaps as early as 1908), a shortened form of moving picture (1896). Star meaning "perform the lead part" (said of actors, singers, etc.) is attested from 1824.
With professor we're back to the Middle Ages, from Latin professor "person who professes to be an expert in some art or science, teacher of highest rank." It's an agent noun from profitieri "lay claim to, declare openly," a compound formed from pro- "forth" and fateri (past participle fassus) "acknowledge, confess." As a title prefixed to a name, professor dates from 1706.
Mary Anne didn't have a title in the song -- in fact, in the first season, she wasn't even named in it. But her role was the classic vaudeville one of the fresh-faced, buxom farm girl.
Farm looks to me like a native Germanic word, but it's not. It's a 13th century borrowing of Old French ferme "lease," and as this indicates its ground sense is of the legal relationship of the owner to the land, not the agricultural use of it. The original sense is retained in the phrase to farm (something) out. The French word comes from Medieval Latin firma "fixed payment," from Latin firmare "to fix, settle, confirm, strengthen," from firmus "firm."
The sense of "tract of leased land" is first recorded in English in 1334; that of "cultivated land" (leased or not) is from 1523.
A native word for "farm" would be thorp, from Old English ðorp "village, hamlet, farm, estate," which is preserved in the many English place names ending in -thorp or -thrup.
Girl appears circa 1290 as gyrle "child" (of either sex). Its origin is unknown; current scholarship leans toward an unrecorded Old English *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilon-, a diminutive of *gurwjoz (represented by Low German gære "boy, girl"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghwrgh-, which also is found in Greek parthenos "virgin." But this is highly conjectural.
Another candidate is Old English gierela "garment." Like boy, lass, lad it is of obscure origin. "Probably most of them arose as jocular transferred uses of words that had originally different meaning," according to "Oxford English Dictionary," lending support to the gierela theory.
The specific meaning of "female child" is from the 14th century; the word was applied to "any young unmarried woman" since 1530.
According to the indispensible Internet Movie Database, Jayne Mansfield turned down the role of Ginger, Jerry Van Dyke turned down the role of Gilligan; while Carroll O'Connor tested for the role of The Skipper, Dabney Coleman tested for The Professor, and Raquel Welch auditioned for the role of Mary Anne.
Raquel? Mary Anne? Not Ginger? What was her agent thinking?
Labels: etymology
