What's in a word? (part 4)

If you've already read part 1, part 2, and part 3 of this series, you'll know how this goes. For those of you newer to the blog, these posts are where I explore the etymology behind some very interesting words. This week, I have another ten words with unexpected histories to share with you. As before, information is taken from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Arena

Source: Latin | First recorded: 1620s

The first arenas were sandy spaces, and this is reflected in the original meaning of the Latin root, "harena" (which literally means a sandy place). Sand was commonly used by Romans in their amphitheatres to cover the ground, as it soaks up blood well and is easily replaced with new sand when needed—remember that one of the most popular entertainments in the Roman empire was bloodsports. The word "arena" develoved in the 17th century to describe the purposes of these sand-strewn areas as places of combat, and this expanded over time to include locations of any sort of contest.

As society's tastes in sport and entertainment have evolved, the spaces in which they take place have remained largely recognisable. We may not cover modern football stadiums in a layer of sand anymore, but arenas are still where we gather in droves to watch athletes put on a show.

Gossamer

Source: Middle English | First recorded: 1300s

The word "gossamer" was first used to describe a very specific type of substance: the filmy cobwebs that can be seen stretched across the stubble of harvested fields in the autumn. If you consider the way that cobwebs float gently on a breeze, or how they glisten dewy and light in the morning sun, it seems obvious that the word would still be used in a more modern world to describe light, gauzy fabrics and fairies' wings.

But why "gossamer"? Where does that come from? It seems to be derived from the words "goose" and "summer" ("gos" and "sumer" in the parlance of the time). And that leads us to a new question: what is goose summer? One likely explanation is that it refers to a warm, summery period in late autumn, which many of you may have heard called "Indian summer". Geese are in season at that time of year, so goose summer. I rather like that phrase, and may have to start bringing it back in my own vocabulary—if any of you start hearing me talk about goose summers in the next couple of months as autumn progresses, you will know why.

Charade

Source: French | First recorded: 1776

In modern usage, the word "charade" has two meanings: one is as the name of a party game where we frantically mime things at each other, and the second is to describe a sort of situational fabrication. Now, if I know my audience, I'm fairly sure that at least one of you has at least once in your life wondered which meaning came first, the game or the fabrication. As it happens, a charade was originally a party game, but probably not the one you're thinking of. The original 18th-century parlour game of charades was delivered via clever riddles filled with rhyme and wordplay to convey the intended word; the name "charades" was likely derived from the Provençal word "charrado", meaning to chatter or prattle. The game developed a "dumb" variant where the answer had to be communicated through gesture rather than riddle, and that is now the dominant version of the game that we are more familiar with.

Attraction

Source: Latin > Old French | First recorded: circa 1400

The original meaning of the word "attraction" is not one we still use, and it may not be what you expect. From about 1600 it was used to describe both magnetic force and the more social magnetism of an interesting person, and the first recorded use of it to mean a sort of exhibition dates back to 1829 (and quickly got picked up by the French, which is where we got the work in the first place).

But before all that, for the first two centuries of its existence, the word was "attraccioun", and it was strictly medical. This first definition was the act of drawing diseased material to the surface of the body, based on the Latin for drawing or pulling together. Certainly not a common usage in today's medical parlance, but I can see how it connects with the way we do use it!

Hostile

Source: French? > Latin > Proto-Indo-European | First recorded: late 15th century

Our English word "hostile" may have been taken more or less unchanged from French, or it may have come directly from the Latin "hostilis"; in either case, the meaning is that of something related to an enemy. However, the earlier Latin word "hostis", from which "hostilis" was derived, while often used to describe enemies, actually meant a stranger or foreigner. Going further back, the Proto-Indo-European root encompasses not just strangers, but also the guest/host relationship; it is also a forebear of English words including hospitality and hotel. The diverging etymological history here thus shows an interesting link between stragers as friends and as foes.

Candidate

Source: Latin > Proto-Indo-European | First recorded: circa 1600

We have used the word "candidate" in English for centuries to describe people who are in the running for a position, either by election or by appointment (nowadays, most often the former). The word is a direct anglicisation of the Latin "candidatus", which at the time meant a person seeking an office, but had originally, and more literally, referred to a white robe; in ancient Rome, the men who ran for public office donned togas that were a fine, bright white as a symbol of their pure intentions (and probably also how wealthy and powerful they were with such a laundry bill). Looking at the definitions of the Latin and Proto-Indo-European precursors to "candidatus"—making something bright or white, shining—we can easily imagine how well these gleaming togas would have stood out in a crowd.

Album

Source: Latin | First recorded: 1650s

There are many things which have gone by the name album. In the Classical period, an album was a white board upon which important public notices would be written. In the 16th century, German academics started using albums to collect their colleagues signatures. From there, the concept expanded to include souvenirs and celebrity autographs. By 1859, English speakers were using albums to showcase sets of photographs, and as musical technology developed in the 20th century the sleeves of records also took on the title of an album, followed by the audio contents of the sleeve.

But why "album" in the first place? To answer, we have to go back to that first type of album, the public notice board. The literal meaning in Latin is "white", which is related to the words albino (a person of abnormally pale complexion) and Albion (an ancient name describing England, possibly referring to the chalky cliffs along the southern coast). An important follow-up question, then: did the Beatles know this?

Escape

Source: Latin > Vulgar Latin > Old French | First recorded: circa 1300

When English picked up the word "escape" from the French in the medieval period, the action was defined in the same way it is now, i.e. freeing oneself or fleeing from something unpleasant (the noun form took another hundred years to make an appearance). The French, some time before this, had plucked the word from Vulgar Latin, turning "excappare" into "eschaper". This is not especially interesting or surprising. The part that is interesting is how it developed in Latin in the first place: the prefix "ex-", which means out of, was combined with "cappa", which means mantle. And that means that the Latin term for escaping is literally translated as getting out of your cape. What an image! This is a definition that really tells a story. A man running, being pursued; the pursuer grabs his cape, capturing him—but no! The man slips out of his cape and into the night, leaving his erstwhile captor with nothing but cloth.

Algebra

Source: Arabic > Latin | First recorded: 1550s

The concept of algebraic mathematics was developed by medieval Arabic scholars, so it from them that we also get the name for the subject. When European writers started importing these ideas, they called them "algebra" based on the Arabic term "al jabr", referring to the act of reuniting pieces of something broken—a reasonable description of one part of solving algebraic equations. Al-Jabr is also a shortening of Al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa’l-muqabala, the title of a highly influential mathematical treatise written by Muhammed ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in the 9th century (the full title translates into English as The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing). It was this work that brought algebra into Europe, along with the Arabic numerals we still use today.

Domino

Source: Latin? > French | First recorded: 1801

The singular "domino" came into the English language to decribe the tiles used to play the game dominoes, which had become popular throughout Europe during the 18th century. How the game came to be named that, however, is less clear. One plausible theory is that the tiles, initally black with white pips, were being compared to a priest's hooded cloack, which in French was also called a domino; this form of domino was derived more certainly from the Latin "dominus", meaning a lord or master. Other possible sources of the name include monochromatic costumes for the Venice Carnival, or colourful woodcuts popular among the French peasantry.

The Chinese created a game called "dominoes" by the 13th century, well before the Europeans, but their game is substantially enough different that it is unknown whether it was an influence on European dominoes or if the two games developed separately but were given the same name later.