That's all I've got, so far, for linguistic commentary on the U.S. election results. According to the OED, the etymology of ballot is < (i) Middle French ballotte (French †ballotte) small ball (beginning of the 15th cent. as †balote), small coloured ball placed in a container to register a secret vote (1498) or its etymon […]
"Lost in Translation? Understandings and Misunderstandings about the Ancient Practice of 'Sacred Prostitution'", Ancient Origins: Ishtar was sometimes called the Goddess Har since she was the mother of the harlots. These “harlots” were not prostitutes as we know them, but priestesses and healers. These harlots were holy virgins serving goddesses such as Ishtar, Asherah, or Aphrodite. […]
Subtitle: "A cautionary note on the application of limited linguistics studies to whole populations" A prefatory note on "anthropology". In the early 90s, I was deeply involved in the first ancient DNA studies on the Tarim mummies* with Paolo Francalacci, an anthropologist at the University of Sassari. Sardinia. Paolo was deputed to work with me […]
I forget who it was and for what reason, but a week or two ago, someone said "Thank you" in Hakka to me. That got me thinking about all the different ways to say "thanks" in Sinitic languages. Here's a map of Sinitic topolectal equivalents for MSM (Modern Standard Mandarin) "xièxie 謝謝 / 谢谢" (“thank you”). […]
For those who do not read Literary Sinitic / Classical Chinese, this will give you a taste: 惡惡（恶恶） Forgive me for not telling you right away how to read these characters. In truth, they are many different ways to pronounce them, and they all mean something different. I will only go fairly deeply into two […]
For the past week or so, Jef Mallett's Frazz has been exploring etymology and semantic drift. The current sequence starts on 10/10 (or maybe earlier):
[N.B.: If you don't have time to read through this long and complicated post, cut to the "Closing note" at the bottom.] Lately when I do Google searches, especially on obscure and challenging subjects, AI Overview leaps into the fray and takes precedence at the very top, displacing Wikipedia down below, and even Google's own […]
These are two premodern words for Chinese watercraft that have worked their way into the English lexicon. Their etymology, however, is not as straightforward as it might seem. "Language Matters | Where did English get the words ‘sampan’ and ‘junk’ from? Probably Cantonese and Javanese: Scholars are split on the roots of ‘sampan’ and ‘junk’, […]
In a comment on "Trump's rhetorical 'weave'", J.R. Brewer wrote: This thread has had the side effect of causing me to learn (at least taking wiktionary at face value and not digging deeper into other reference sources) that the "weave" of "bob and weave" etc. is a homophone etymologically unrelated to the "weave" meaning "create […]
"Five common English words we don’t know the origins of – including ‘boy’ and ‘dog’", Francesco Perono Cacciafoco*, The Conversation (7/4/24) [*See the author's extraordinary academic profile here.] The author begins by describing the act of naming items in the world, the etymological study of words, the comparative method, the relationship of English to Germanic […]
"Significant energy source found under US-Mexico border", KXAN 6/23/2024 [emphasis added]: Researchers have found a significant source of geothermal energy underneath the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande, which could lead to promising clean energy development in the rural region. […] “There’s a thin, 10- to 15-mile-wide region that runs parallel or along the Rio […]
By now, we have conclusively traced the path of the domesticated horse from the area around the southern Urals and Pontic Steppe through Central Asia to East Asia. It's time to pay more attention to another equid, this one not so glamorous, but still redoubtable in its own formidable way: Equus asinus asinus. Samira Müller, […]