Stories Behind Words - Part i

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STORIES BEHIND WORDS

Students appearing for CAT 2006 / GCET 2006 would know by now thatthere are many ways of developing ones vocabulary by the way,there is no option of not developing vocabulary to achieve the levels

desired by these exams.

One of the more interesting ways of learning / remembering words isby knowing the stories behind the words. Some of these stories are sointeresting that if we can remember them, then remembering theactual words becomes very simple.

We will be giving you some of these very interesting stories behindsome very typical words / phrases which are also very commonplace.Along with this, there is a fervent hope that the sincere student wouldgo home and do further home work along similar lines.

Achilles heel (n): small but significant weakness in any person,argument or thing

Achilles was the greatest of the Greek warriors at the siege of Troy. Asa baby, to make him invulnerable, he was dipped into the River Styx byhis mother, but she held him by his heel so it was not submerged inthe water. During the Trojan War the god Apollo told Paris, the princeof Troy, of Achilles weak part. Paris shot him in the heel with an arrow

and mortally wounded him. Consequently, the weak part, the small butsignificant weakness in any person, argument or thing is referred to asthe Achilles heel. Students of Indian mythology would be quick tospot the parallel between this story and the story of Karna in theMahabharata who had his kavach and kundal that protected him fromall harm. When this was gifted away by him, he became vulnerableto the attack of Arjun.

Adams apple (n): the projection of the largest cartilage of the larynx atthe front of the throat, especially in men.

This word is a translation of the Hebrew tappuah haadam, and refers tothe belief that, when Eve gave Adam the forbidden fruit or Apple toeat, a part of it stuck in its throat.As a matter of interest, water is known as Adams Ale or Adams wine.


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Anachronism (n):

This word is derived from the Greek words, ana, meaning backwards,and chronos, meaning time.

This word refers to an error made by someone, like an author orplaywright, who introduces into their work a person or a custom orsomething, which is not in the proper or historical context.

Shakespeare himself was guilty of it. In Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2,Caesar asks Brutus the time and regardless of the fact that theRomans had no clocks, the reply is: Caesar, tis stricken eight.Also, if you watch the epic Hollywood movie Ben Hur closely, especiallythe grand finale of the Chariot Race, you will be able to detect a smallcar in the background. This was filmed inadvertently in the original andwas undetected. Today, even with modern editing technologies being

available, the producers have refused to remove the car, even thoughit is an anachronism.

Assassin (n): a person who undertakes to murder, especially out offanaticism or for reward.

Originally, an assassin was a member of a secret military and religiousorder of Muslim fanatics, active in Persia and Syria from about 1090A.D. to 1272 A.D. Under the leadership of The Old Man of theMountains, they terrorized and killed enemies of their faith, andespecially the Christian Crusaders. Some of them, members of an

Ismaili sect, took the drug hashish before attacking their enemies, sohey came to be known as assassins, from the medieval Latin wordassassinus, which was taken from the Arabic word hashshashin,meaning hashish eaters. The original Assassins were massacred intheir thousands by the Mongols in the mid-thirteenth century. Thosewho actually performed the assassinations were the fedai, a name nowused by Arab guerillas in the form offedayeen.

Days: Our week consists of seven days and their names date far backin history.

Sunday, is the day of the Sun, from the Old English sunnandoeg.Monday, is the Moon day, again from the Old English monandoeg.The source ofTuesdayis very confused. The word comes from the OldEnglish Tiwes daeg, which is a translation of the Latin dies martis,meaning Mars day, but the word Tiw itself is actually from a Norseword that answers to the Latin Jupiter, an entirely different God.


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Wednesday is Wodens day. Woden was the chief God in Anglo Saxon mythology, often identified with the Norse Odin, the supremeNorse deity.The Norse God of thunder, Thor gave his name to Thursday.Fridayis the day of Frigga or Frig, who was the Norse goddess, wife

of Odin and the goddess of marriage and the hearth.With Saturday, we are back to the Romans, to the God Saturn.

Bowdlerize (v): censor, purge, remove, edit

The Reverend Dr. Thomas Bowdler (1754 1825) was a man with amission, to produce a version of Shakespeare from which had beenremoved whatever might raise a blush. In 1818, he published TheFamily Shakespeare, in which he declared, the text had been purgedof all coarse and indecent expressions which cannot be read in afamily. His books are no longer available with us; his name, however,

has been added to our language in bowdlerize, meaning to expurgateprudishly words and passages from a book in the doubtful interests ofmoral purity.

Boycott (n), (v):

Captain Charles Boycott (1832 97) was a bitterly resented agent forthe Earl of Erne in County Mayo in Ireland during the 19 th century. Hedemanded extortionate rents from his tenants, and as a consequenceforced through a large number of evictions. By 1880, the Irish Land

League had had enough of his harsh activities, and in December ofthat year the local people were forbidden to work his land or to haveany dealings, social or commercial, with him. This means of coercion orprotest, by abstaining from using or buying goods or products andrefusing to deal with a person or group, has ever since been called aboycottin honour of the first recipient of this treatment. The word hassince spread to other languages, like the French boycotter, the Germanboykottieren and the Italian boicottare.Foreign (adj):

This word comes from the Latin foraneus, foras, meaning out ofdoors. It was applied to those who lived outside a city, or evenabroad, and became forein in Old French. In contrast, the noundenizen is the Old French word deinzein, deriving from the Latin deintus, from within. A denizen is an inhabitant, while a foreignercomes from abroad.


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Fan (n), fanatic (n):

A fan, in the sense of an ardent devotee of a sport or a team or afamous person, is but a shortened form of the word fanatic, as might

be guessed sometime from their behaviour. Fanatic comes from theLatin fanaticus, inspired by a god or mad. The Romans used thisname for those who were inspired through frequent attendance at atemple, fanum. As happens sometimes even today, such a personoften became, literally, a religious maniac and demonstrated his zealwith hysterical outbursts and exaggerated enthusiasm.

Icon, iconoclast (n), iconoclastic (adj.):

An image or a representation is an icon, or an ikon, especially a

representation of a sacred Christian personage in the tradition of theEastern Christian Churches. Eikon is the Greek word for image orlikeness. An iconoclast is an image-breaker, from the Greekeikonoklastes. The first image-breakers were members of theByzantine Church in the 8th and 9th centuries, who were opposed to theuse and veneration of icons and set about destroying them. Later,during the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestantsadopted the same tactics against the Catholic Church.

Idiot (n):

In ancient Greece, an idiotes was a private person who had noprofessional knowledge and held no public office. As, to be eligible forpublic office, you had to be educated, an idiotcame to mean someonewho was not educated enough to be appointed, until, finally, we reachour own usage of the word as a very stupid person. At one time, anidiothad a technical meaning as a severely subnormal person with anintelligence quotient in the 20 50 range, but this use of the word is nomore accepted.

Laconic (adj.):

Laconia, also called Lacedaemon, is an ancient region of Greece.Through it flows the river Eurotas, now Evrotas, on the banks of whichstood Sparta, the capital. The inhabitants of the region were noted fortheir brusque, concise speech and a famous anecdote is told of themto illustrate this. Philip of Macedon, who was in dispute with theLaconians, warned them: If I enter Laconia, I shall raze Sparta to theground, to which he received the reply, if. And since then, laconichas meant something very concise and pithy.


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Months:

The word month is derived from the Old English monath, meaning

moon. We describe a variety of different periods of times as months.The most frequent daily use is for the twelve divisions of the year inthe Gregorian calendar, from January to December.

Januaryis named after the Roman God, Janus, who was two faced, onelooking back to the year that had died, the other forward to the newyear.February comes from februa, the Roman feast of purification andexpiation, of Sabine origin, which was held on the 15th day of themonth of expiation, Februarius.March is named after Mars, the Roman God of war. Until 1752, in

England, the year actually began on March 25.April goes back to the ancient Greeks, from the shortened form, Aphro,of Aphrodite, their Goddess of love and beauty, later called Venus bythe Romans.May is from the Roman month dedicated to Maia, the mother ofMercury.June is thought to have been named after Juno, the principal Romangoddess, wife and sister of Jupiter. It is possible though that it wasoriginally given its Roman name in honour of theJunius clan.Julywas named after Julius Caesar.Augustwas named after Augustus Caesar

September, which is the ninth month of the year in our calendar, isconfusingly so called from the Latin septem, seven, as it was theseventh month of the Roman calendar.Likewise, Octoberis from the Latin octo, eightNovemberfrom novem, nineDecemberoriginates from decem, ten"

Orange (n):

The name of this colour and fruit is corruptly derived from its originalname. In Arabic it is called naranj, in Persian narang, in Sanskrit

naranga and in Spanish naranja. Through everyday English usage,norange came to be referred to as an orange, and the initial lettern was lost.

Quisling (n): Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian Fascist Leader whofounded the Nasjonal Samlung (National Party), in imitation of theGerman Nazi Party, and was the puppet Prime Minister of occupied


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Norway during World War II. He was executed in 1945, and the Englishword quisling has since become a synonym for traitor.

Richter scale (n):

This is the scale used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes. Itdescribes the amount of energy released at the epicenter of anearthquake and was devised by the American seismologist CharlesRichter (1900 85) in 1935. It is logarithmic in progression, so thateach number represents an energy release of 10 times the previousnumber. Although the scale numbers up to 9, no theoretical upper limitexists.

Salary (n):

The word salarycomes from the Latin salarium, meaning salt rations.Soldiers and civil servants in ancient Roman times received rations ofsalt and other necessities from the state. These were all referred to assalt, and, later, when money replaced them, this money was still calledsalarium, hence salary. If someone is not worth his salt, he is reallynot worth the salary he is being paid.

Umbrella (n):

The umbrella, from the Latin umbra, meaning shade, was used as a

protection against the sun in China, Egypt and other lands in antiquity.It was often also an emblem of rank. Sacred umbrellas were carried bycertain African potentates as the symbol of their sovereignty.

Xy , xylo (prefix):

Any word that begins with xyor xylo has something to do with wood,because it comes from the Greek xulon, wood. So a xylograph is anengraving on wood, insects that feed on wood are called xylophagous,and axylophone is a musical percussion instrument consisting of a rowof wooden bars of graduated lengths that sound a chromatic scale

when struck with small mallets.

Stories Behind Words - Part i

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