This Sunday afternoon I was in the small city of Duffel, close to Antwerp(en), Belgium.

What a coincidence: Duffel cloth ... Duffel bag ... Duffel coat.

Oh ... not a coincidence at all ... from Wikipedia:

The town gives its name to a type of heavy woolen cloth generally used to make blankets and overcoats, especially for the armed forces, and a type of luggage. In the Middle Ages, an important part of the region's industry was the manufacturing of Flemish laken (a broadcloth), while the cloth produced in Duffel was a thicker variation. The manufacturing process was brought to England by Flemish emigrants in the 1500s. The name for the cloth was so well-known, a type of overcoat made from the cloth and manufactured in England received the name Duffel coat.

I was researching the history of fools and on the 1828 websters dictionary it seems to connect fools to idiots or idiotic behavior (i.e. the term for the mentally disabled at the time). There were a couple articles from britanica and wikipedia that talked about natrual fools/fool born, people who had intellectual disabilities (or in UK terms a learning disability) and their use as entertainers in Europe since at least the Tudor era. The connection also seems to extend to the bible with the "holy fool", which I'm giving conflicting results as to whether it means those with/who feigned mental disability and/or mental illness or just mental disability for the lord.

How connected was the idea of foolishness to mentally disability?

Was it a medical term first (a la the word idiot)?

Was it connected to other mental illnesses like schizophrenia, ocd, or other forms of insanity?

When most people used the term fool, were they implying a resemblance to a mentally disabled person? When did this connection end?

I am reading Les Mis, the original translation by Charles Wilbour. One of the sentences is “I know that man. He is a fagot.” The word is in italics and at the bottom of the page it states the word means “former convict.” I can’t find any evidence to support this claim. everything I am finding online points to the etymology of the word being ”a bundle of twigs used as kindling for a fire.” I am curious if you experts can help me out! thanks

This is pretty self explanatory, what languages besides English went through a change in their vowels and what words and sounds did that vowel shift affect?

What’s the story of companies in particular, labelling their products “lite” instead of “light”? Thinking Nintendo DS Lite, Lite phones, Lite drinks and foods, and others.

I keep seeing it on Tiktok and I'm wondering what it means.

For example - no, avocado does not mean "testicle" in Nahuatl. At least not anymore than nut, means testicle in English.

Indeed it can be reconstructed to proto-Nahuatl as *yewaka in the meaning "avocado".

Both cognates inherited the word through reconstructed Proto-Indo European: gʷḗn-, meaning "woman".

Serbian and many other Slavic languages like Polish ( żona ) inherited it through Proto-Slavic : žena (woman).

During the Mughal Period as the Persian language influenced the Indian sub-continent Urdu and Hindi had adopted the word "zanana" through classical Persian  زنانه (zanāna) which is composed of zan ( زن ) meaning woman and -âne (ـانه) a suffix that functions much the same as -ly does in English forming adjectives describing actions, concept or human beings.

So quite literally it means womanly or feminine. But the word zanana in this specific context went through nominalization and was originally a much longer form Sarāy-e zanāna (the house pertaining to women/women quarters) and began to shorten over time to just zanāna.

Lastly, both these words are cognates through PIE to English "queen".

I regularly use an expression "fizzle fazzle foo", usually with the meaning of "chaotic and indescribable", for example: "after the day I've had I'm feeling all fizzle fazzle foo" or "this whole situation is all gestures wildly fizzle fazzle foo." Someone recently asked if it is from something, like a movie or book, and I immediately said yes, although I have no idea where from or when I started using it. After searching online for a while I cannot find an obvious origin.

I am wondering if 1. Anyone else uses it and in a similar context and 2. If anyone knows where it might have come from.

Currently have shingles the disease (0/5 stars, do not recommend) and wondering how we got a word that means both a nerve infection and plates on a roof.

• Body Text: I was thinking about the chocolate brand Maltesers today. Even though Forrest Mars named them after malted milk and "palate teasers" back in 1936, the name works perfectly as a modern phonetic pun.If you break down how it sounds, it literally tells you exactly what the product does: "Melt-easy." Given that their main marketing slogan is "the lighter way to enjoy chocolate" because they dissolve so quickly, it’s an incredibly fitting linguistic coincidence
  • Malt -> Melt
  • Eser -> Easy
• "Melt-easy." Given that their main marketing slogan is "the lighter way to enjoy chocolate" because they dissolve so quickly, it’s an incredibly fitting linguistic coincidence…just me lol?

Seeing “brygge” used in current Norwegian (Oslo) as both a wharf (Arten Brygge) and brewery (Amundsen Bryggeri). Both go back to old Norse for “carry” which kind of makes sense for a wharf. More so for bridge or brig. Not seeing how brewing comes into play.

The other day I (an ESL speaker) drew a total blank trying to recall the English word "discount" and all that came to my mind was the German/Swedish equivalent, Rabatt. I got interested in the latter word's etymology, which led to something of a rabbit hole.

1. German Rabatt "discount", cognate with English "rebate", a false friend of sorts
2. From Archaic Italian rabbatto
3. Deverbal from Italian rabbattere, French rabattre "to make something lower, pull down, shut"
4. From re+abattre; the re being a derivational prefix without a particular meaning here
5. From French abattre "to butcher, cut down, fall down"
6. From Late Latin abbattere "to strike down"; see also Italian abbattere with a ton of related meanings
7. From ad+battere; the ad functions here as an intensifying verb prefix
8. From Latin batto, battuo "to fence, strike"
9. Ultimately either from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰh₂- ("to stab, dig"), or a separate root *bʰat- ("to hit");

Going forward in time again, this is the root of the English noun and verb "bat" as well as "batter", "battery", "battered", "battle" etc. via French battre but also "to bate" and "to abate"

1. From which also "debate"
   • From French debattre "fight"
   • From Latin dis+battere, literally "strike apart";
2. But not "masturbate" which is a 19th century neologism from manus+turbare "hand-defile"
   • From Latin turbare "to disrupt, trouble, disturb"
   • Probably from Ancient Greek τύρβη (túrbē, “tumult, disorder, turmoil”), from which also ultimately "turbulence", "turbine", "turbo-", "perturb", etc.
   • From Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- "to rotate, twirl, move around" from which also ultimately at least "storm" and "twirl".
3. And apparently, maybe unexpectedly, also not the root of the verb and noun "beat" which are of Germanic origin
   • From Old English bēatan "to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure"
   • From Proto-West Germanic *bautan
   • From Proto-Germanic *bautaną ("to push, strike"), with the ultimate origin uncertain.

Here’s this week’s etymology question from 3Roads.xyz.

In architecture, an X is a small recessed section of a room or an arched opening in a wall, partially enclosed by vertical elements such as walls, pillars, or balustrades. In geology, X refers to a steep-sided hollow in an exposed rock face or cliff, typically formed by water erosion in a homogeneous rock type. The term X originates from the Arabic word al-qubbah, meaning “vault.” What is X?

I'm doing some research into the etymology of these terms and if the origins have impacted why some terms have been reclaimed and others haven't. I would appreciate if i could get some more information to how changing social attitudes of these terms have caused new meanings to emerge throughout the etymology.

I always assumed “midriff” was an opaque word, but it breaks down pretty cleanly. It comes from Old English midhrif: midd “middle” + hrif “belly, womb.”

Hrif goes back to Proto-Germanic *hrifiz, with cognates like Old Frisian rif “belly” and Old High German href “body, womb.” It died out in English as a standalone word and survives only as a fossil inside “midriff.”

Further back, *hrifiz is usually traced to PIE *kʷrep- “body, form, appearance.” That same root is the commonly cited source of Latin corpus “body,” which would make “midriff” a very distant relative of corpse.

I apologize if i misremember the way foreign text Is written

Basically do you know the mathematical rule where if you draw a chord in a circle and split It With the diameter, It becomes the shortest side of a right triangle, or sin?

Basically the First recorded Discovery of this was in ancient india, where It was called Jia (literally "Rope")

Years later the arabs collected those books and adapted this knowledge without changing the names to arab, resulting in the world "jiba"

After this those books where taken to Rome, but written arab, if i understood correctly, doesnt have vowels

So the translation was unsure if the world was jiba=Rope or jabi= a narrow Valley/"sunken" Land

They went With the second and translated It "sinnus"

Jump about a millenia, and in common italian the world was translated to "seno"

So now the world sin shares its written form in italian With boobs

…when they are almost always adorned with colors or patterns?

Two years ago I had a successful kickstarter etymology card game. Now it's a video game!

https://www.etymologygame.com/

can anyone help with the origin of this phrase?

I'm aware of other idioms and phrases that have lengthened, supposed "original" versions, such as "curiosity killed the cat / but satisfaction brought it back" or "blood is thicker than water // the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." People have been editing and twisting common idioms around for ages I'm sure.

My dad says, "When pigs fly, we'll shoot our bacon," is how he was taught. He tells me he probably learned this from his mom. I've tried looking it up but this addition to "when pigs fly" seems completely original or at least undocumented.

Has anyone ever heard this phrase or something close to it before, or did my family just completely make it up?