The interesting Etymology thread

iamstop

Etymology is the study of the origins of words.

I've always had an interest in where words come from and evolved from. Maybe this will be the word version of the map thread. Maybe not.

Try to link your source.

I'll kick off with this one:

Groggy
It originated in the 18th century with a British man named Admiral Vernon, whose sailors gave him the nickname “Old Grog” on account of his cloak, which was made from a material called “grogram”, a weatherproof mixture of silk and wool. In 1740, he decreed that his sailors should be served their rum diluted with water, rather than neat. This was called “grog”, and the feeling experienced by sailors when they’d drunk too much of it was thus called “groggy”.

https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/14-fascinating-word-origins-english-language/

Boycott origin is the surname of a land agent in mayo who was ostracised from the community iirc

Capt'n Midnight

Butterfly does not come from Flutter By. But it should.

Yurt2

The word bungalow comes from the Gujarati word for Bengali ('bangalo'), and was used shorthand for the type of houses built by non-Indians in the Bengal region of India.


The word riding (as in Tipperary North Riding / Tipperary South Riding) comes from the Danish word for thirds 'thridding'. Yorkshire, which had a strong Danish influence which can be still heard in the Yorkshire dialect, was divided into three 'ridings': North / East & West. For some reason it escaped whoever divided Tipperary in half that it meant 'thirds' originally, but it stuck until the start of this century when the county was merged for administrative purposes.

peasant

Zeitgeist is German (obvs) and means the mood/thinking/spirit of the time

Himbeergeist on the other hand has nothing to do with the mood of the raspberry...it's Schnaps (spirits)

Schnapps on the other hand is not peachy or raspberry -y ...it's ****e

Yurt!

Yurt! wrote: »

it stuck until the start of this century when the county was merged for administrative purposes.

We prefer to say 'reunified', since it was a full county from 1715 and only divided in the Victorian period. That's very interesting about the etymology of riding.

The etymology of Tipperary itself: we were always taught in school that Tiobraid Arann means 'The well of knowledge', but actually it's not quite that. It means the 'Well of the River Ara'. Árann is, I think, an old Irish word for the kidney, which might be the source of that river, which flows through Tipperary town.

Ah, I'm a bit homesick now.

dxhound2005

Third was Thrid and Bird was Brid up until a few hundreds years ago.

The English rivers Avon (there’s more than one) are from the old pre Roman Celtic name for river.

What’s the name of that river. ** Roman pointing at a river **
River? ** confused Celt **
Ok we will call it that. ** Roman takes notes**

The name for river in modern Welsh is Afon. And in Irish it is Abhainn (the bh in this case is sounded like a W but in most other cases bh sounds like a V in Irish so the roots are the same).

Yurt2

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

We prefer to say 'reunified', since it was a full county from 1715 and only divided in the Victorian period.

Mr Lowrychev, tear down this wall!

EmmetSpiceland

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The English rivers Avon (there’s more than one) are from the old pre Roman Celtic name for river.

What’s the name of that river. ** Roman pointing at a river **
River? ** confused Celt **
Ok we will call it that. ** Roman takes notes**

Ah yes, that’s the river beside the forest of Your Finger You Fool.

dxhound2005

Shannon is not from Sean Abhainn, Old River. It is from Sion Abhainn ,River of Wisdom.

One which might sound Aboriginal is Nullarbor. But it was coined by an Englishman from the Latin for No Trees.

KevRossi

Senegal possibly come from the Wolof 'Sunu-gal' which is what the first locals said when the Portuguese asked what the name of the country is. It literally translates as 'That's our canoe'.

It possibly also comes from the Wolof word Teranga which translates roughly as 'homeliness or hospitality'.

Or the Berbers, who had been trading with the area that is today Senegal for thousands of years before the first Europeans, referred to it as Zeranga, and would have passed this on to the Portuguese.

indioblack

When the Union army expanded at the start of the American Civil War the need for a large number of uniforms meant that manufacturers produced inferior quality clothing made from a material known as "Shoddy".

souter

nice comes from sh1t.
It's convoluted but basically it was the negation of knowledge, i.e. science, which comes from old latin scire to divide which (probably) shares a cognate with sh1t, dividing the body from the waste.
So nice meant not-science means ignorant. Which developed from a perjorative to a positive over the course of several centuries (not scientistific -> ignorant -> innocent -> idyllic).
Some of the paths here: https://www.etymologynerd.com/blog/nice-etymology

Nice.

Yurt2

The late-Latin name for Scotland (Scotia) comes from a derogatory word the Romans used for Gaelic raiders 'Scoti'. The Romans didn't distinguish Gaels from either Ireland or Britain, and in fact the word Scotia was almost exclusively used to refer to Ireland as the raiding Gaels predominantly came from our island. Scot+land = land of the Irish.

The modern Gaelic word for Scotland 'Alba 'derives from the same Celtic root as the name Albion (what we sometimes call England when they're being a*sholes again).

The old Latin name for Scotland 'Caledonia,' is thought to be initially derived from the Brythonic (precursor language to Welsh) word for tough: 'caled'. Caledonia > 'land of the tough tribes.' This is what Brythonic people called the northern tribes of the Iron Age. The Caledonians didn't call themselves that (we don't know what they called themselves), only the proto-Welsh. Caledonia was generally used by ancient authors to refer to anything to do with inland or northern Britain, so not strictly Scotland either.

So in summary:

- Scotland actually means land of the Irish
- The Gaelic word for Scotland actually means England
- The old Latin word for Scotland came from the Welsh because the Scots were too busy eating Mars bars to name where they lived.

Confused? Try telling a Scotsman nobody bothered to name their country properly.

LarryGraham

Despite me wanting it to be true, fcuk does not originate from the Fornication Under Consent of the King urban legend.

A classic backronym as acronyms have only been used in the English language from 19th or 20th century. The word backronym is a portmanteau of the words back and acronym. Acronym has Ancient Greek origins meaning end or peak name. The word portmanteau is also a portmanteau in French combining to carry and cloak. It was introduced to the English language by Lewis Carroll and at the time a portmanteau was a type of suitcase with two equal sections ("two meanings packed into one word").

Anyway, back to fcuk. Unfortunately this has an unknown origin due to its common use over a long period of time. It has cognates in many languages meaning various things like strike, copulate and breed.

Thepillowman

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Shannon is not from Sean Abhainn, Old River. It is from Sion Abhainn ,River of Wisdom.

One which might sound Aboriginal is Nullarbor. But it was coined by an Englishman from the Latin for No Trees.

Here in Clare we were told the river was named after the Godess Sionna not sure if the spelling is correct. Granddaughter of Lir or maybe it was his Daughter.

dxhound2005

Her name meant Wise, related to sionnach for the cunning fox I think.

silliussoddius

Yurt! wrote: »

The late-Latin name for Scotland (Scotia) comes from a derogatory word the Romans used for Gaelic raiders 'Scoti'. The Romans didn't distinguish Gaels from either Ireland or Britain, and in fact the word Scotia was almost exclusively used to refer to Ireland as the raiding Gaels predominantly came from our island. Scot+land = land of the Irish.

The modern Gaelic word for Scotland 'Alba 'derives from the same Celtic root as the name Albion (what we sometimes call England when they're being a*sholes again).

The old Latin name for Scotland 'Caledonia,' is thought to be initially derived from the Brythonic (precursor language to Welsh) word for tough: 'caled'. Caledonia > 'land of the tough tribes.' This is what Brythonic people called the northern tribes of the Iron Age. The Caledonians didn't call themselves that (we don't know what they called themselves), only the proto-Welsh. Caledonia was generally used by ancient authors to refer to anything to do with inland or northern Britain, so not strictly Scotland either.

So in summary:

- Scotland actually means land of the Irish
- The Gaelic word for Scotland actually means England
- The old Latin word for Scotland came from the Welsh because the Scots were too busy eating Mars bars to name where they lived.

Confused? Try telling a Scotsman nobody bothered to name their country properly.

And the word Gael comes from a Welsh word for raider or barbarian.
The endonym for Wales is Cymru which has the same origin as Cumbria and Cambridge, meaning fellow countrymen.

Knacker is an interesting one.

I've posted this before, but it's perhaps a useful explanation for people not familiar with its etymology.

Knacker is a common pejorative term with a very interesting history.

It can be traced to the 1570s, where it relates to harness-makers, and describes anyone who helped farmers with horses (harness-making, castrating, or getting rid of carcasses)

It can be traced back to the Old Norse word hnakkur, meaning a saddle. Saddles are fitted just behind the horse's neck, of course, and hnakkur is itself related to the Norse word hnakki, meaning the back of the neck.

Interesting, isn't it? It's a bad slur to use against someone, but its history is rich. It's a highly pejorative, offensive word; but it's interesting to consider how well the link to horses has been preserved in the traveller community.

silliussoddius

I always thought knackers disposed of dead animals, particularly horses.

Pherekydes

late Middle English: from Old French ethimologie, via Latin from Greek etumologia, from etumologos ‘student of etymology’, from etumon, neuter singular of etumos ‘true’.

That's the etymology of etymology.

Or etymology².

Padraig Mor

The Cork term 'langer' which is variously applied to both men and their genetalia originated from Cork soldiers in the British Army serving in India and their exposure to the Langur monkey. This monkey has a long tail so it was originally quite a compliment to bestow on a man as it suggested the chap was generously endowed.

RobertKK

Haggart.

In rural Ireland beside the farmhouse there is often a small piece of land next to the house called a haggart.
It come from the Vikings/Norse and means a hay yard - where hay was stored.
Some do spell it haggard but haggart is the correct spelling.
The Norse word is heygarthr.

I guess topical - The word Vaccine is meant to have come from the Latin word for cows - Vacca.

It comes from the discovery that people who got cow pox were much less likely to get small pox. And thus the world of vaccines.

Though there is some disagreement over whether it was actually cows - or horses - that were used in reality.

In the 14th Century ships arriving in Venice were sometimes required to spend 40 days sitting in the port to prevent the spread of plague. The italian for this "Quaranta Giorni" is often cited as the history behind the word "Quarantine".

dakar

Helicopter is an interesting one.

It’s not really heli-copter, but helico-pter, spiral wing.

dakar

Also pregnant is etymologically pre-gnant in Latin.

(prae - before) (gnasci - to be born)

New Home

RobertKK wrote: »

Haggart.

In rural Ireland beside the farmhouse there is often a small piece of land next to the house called a haggart.
It come from the Vikings/Norse and means a hay yard - where hay was stored.
Some do spell it haggard but haggart is the correct spelling.
The Norse word is heygarthr.

I wonder, is that what originated the surname Hegarty, too.

Capt'n Midnight

Pherekydes wrote: »

late Middle English: from Old French ethimologie, via Latin from Greek etumologia, from etumologos ‘student of etymology’, from etumon, neuter singular of etumos ‘true’.

That's the etymology of etymology.

Or etymology².

Tolkein used the old Anglo-Saxon orþanc enta geweorc "cunning work of giants" for the name of the giant tree shepherds in The Lord Of The Rings.


It's the root of Entymology.

MacDanger

LarryGraham wrote: »

A classic backronym as acronyms have only been used in the English language from 19th or 20th century. The word backronym is a portmanteau of the words back and acronym. Acronym has Ancient Greek origins meaning end or peak name. The word portmanteau is also a portmanteau in French combining to carry and cloak. It was introduced to the English language by Lewis Carroll and at the time a portmanteau was a type of suitcase with two equal sections ("two meanings packed into one word").

And the French word for a portmanteau word is "mot valise" (word suitcase)

RobertKK

RobertKK wrote: »

Haggart.

In rural Ireland beside the farmhouse there is often a small piece of land next to the house called a haggart.
It come from the Vikings/Norse and means a hay yard - where hay was stored.
Some do spell it haggard but haggart is the correct spelling.
The Norse word is heygarthr.

That's a good one. We call it the "haggart" but in a text message etc would spell it "haggard". i always thought it was called this because the land is exhausted due to being over-grazed, poached or whatever. So it's haggard, like a tired person would be.

But the term 'that wan looks haggard' probably emerged later, and I assume it comes originally from the source you describe.

Here's a somewhat similar one. In Armagh there is an open-air market in the "Shambles yard", you have a "Shamble square" in Manchester and a "Fishamble street" in Dublin. A shamble is an obsolete word for an open-air slaughterhouse, and it became a synonym for a marketplace.

That great bible of etymology, etymonline.com, gives this:

Shambles: early 15c., "meat or fish market," from schamil "table, stall for vending" (c. 1300), from Old English scamol, scomul "stool, footstool" (also figurative); ... In English, sense evolved from "place where meat is sold" to "slaughterhouse" (1540s), then figuratively "place of butchery" (1590s), and generally "confusion, mess" (1901, usually in plural).

A Tyrant Named Miltiades!

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

We prefer to say 'reunified', since it was a full county from 1715 and only divided in the Victorian period. That's very interesting about the etymology of riding.

The etymology of Tipperary itself: we were always taught in school that Tiobraid Arann means 'The well of knowledge', but actually it's not quite that. It means the 'Well of the River Ara'. Árann is, I think, an old Irish word for the kidney, which might be the source of that river, which flows through Tipperary town.

Ah, I'm a bit homesick now.

You must be the only Tipp person I've come across who doesn't dislike their opposite riding. It's a common refrain with my North Tipp mates "sure, that's South Tipp for you, what do you expect?" when something strange happens in south Tipp (a not infrequent occurrence, tbf).

We have a similar issue in Limerick where West and East Limerick dislike each other and both really dislike the city. (them west Limerick boyos are nothing but hoors etc).

When the British first started settling in the Native American lands around the Appalachian Mountains, they quickly developed towns and counties and created laws etc. that one had to abide by. Some of the more puritanical townships banned drinking, so anyone who was fond of an auld drop would sneak off into the hills to make their own booze.

These settlers were, predominantly, Ulster and Scottish protestants who were loyal to William of orange, aka King Billy. The more fanatical of his followers were known as the Billy Boys, and it was usually those lads who wanted to be off in the mountains making their own version of poitín using the crops available to them. So, we have the Billy Boys, out in the hills, making their own gargle. This is (apocryphally) the origin of hillbilly / hillbillies.

As a side note, they could only do this on the nights where there was enough light to navigate their way through the terrain. They'd have to navigate through the darkness and could only do it when there was enough moonlight showing the way, hence the name moonshine.

dxhound2005

The "word" alot is on the way to becoming standard. Sometimes spelled allot on the internet. First noted in print around 1960. Like complaints about people using Loose instead of Lose it is really only a mistake (until it becomes standard), which can be identified in written English.

Noun
alot (uncountable)

(nonstandard, proscribed) Alternative spelling of a lot
Usage notes
This spelling of "a lot" is frequent in informal writing but not generally accepted by arbiters of English usage. Others view it as a legitimate contraction. Some occurrences of alot in print may be typographical errors.

1993, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English calls alot “substandard” and notes that it is “increasingly found in informal correspondence and student writing” and “has as yet received no sanction in print except on the op-ed and sports pages.”

1996, The American Heritage Book of English Usage states that “alot is still considered an error in print” but notes that standard words have formed by fusion of the article with a noun, such as another and awhile, and suggests the possibility that alot may, like them, eventually enter standard usage.

2004, Jack Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style (entry dated 2004) flatly states this to be a two-word expression.

2004, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage also compares alot to awhile. It states alot to be “still regarded as nonstandard” and notes 50 appearances in the British National Corpus, “almost entirely from three sources: e-mail, TV autocue data, and TV newscripts.” It suggests that some usages of alot in typewritten use are to be considered merely typos of the standard a lot though its appearance in handwriting and typescript is “more significant, as the shadow of things to come.”

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You must be the only Tipp person I've come across who doesn't dislike their opposite riding. It's a common refrain with my North Tipp mates "sure, that's South Tipp for you, what do you expect?" when something strange happens in south Tipp (a not infrequent occurrence, tbf).

We have a similar issue in Limerick where West and East Limerick dislike each other and both really dislike the city. (them west Limerick boyos are nothing but hoors etc).

South Tipp is the sophisticated Tipp.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

You must be the only Tipp person I've come across who doesn't dislike their opposite riding.

That's only a myth; there's a bit of healthy rivalry alright, but the two Tipps have been riding one another for years.

silliussoddius

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

That's only a myth; there's a bit of healthy rivalry alright, but the two Tipps have been riding one another for years.

Like two North Tipp first cousins.

nibtrix

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Tolkein used the old Anglo-Saxon orþanc enta geweorc "cunning work of giants" for the name of the giant tree shepherds in The Lord Of The Rings.


It's the root of Entymology.

Love that!

In a similar vein, people who don’t know the difference between entomology and etymology bug me in ways I can’t put into words.

ARX

Pherekydes wrote: »

late Middle English: from Old French ethimologie, via Latin from Greek etumologia, from etumologos ‘student of etymology’, from etumon, neuter singular of etumos ‘true’.

That's the etymology of etymology.

Or etymology².

Metymology.

Pintman Paddy Losty

The Irish word for a Black person is Duine Gorm, which translates directly as blue person.

I've heard two reasons for this. First explanation is that the devil is sometimes referred to as Duine Dubh, so blue was chosen instead of black to differentiate.

Potentially a more interesting explanation is that the southern coast of Ireland traded with and experienced piracy from North African Berbers, also known as the Taureg people's. The Taureg are often referred to as the blue people for the indigo dye coloured clothes they wear. They are much darker skinned than Irish so potentially that is how referring to Africans/black people became known as Duine Gorm, referring to their clothing.

Anyone know which if either is true?

The devil was around in Ireland long, long before African pirates were a thing, so I'd say the first is true, or more true at least.

Another personal favourite that never dawned on me until recently. My Norn Irish-born mate was referring to all the kids at a birthday party a couple of years back, and called them the "wee ones" in his hybrid Derry/Kilbarrack accent.

Of course, up North they pronounce "ones" as "uns", so wee ones comes out more like "wee 'uns", which, in the correct accent, comes out with a bit of a drawl on the ai sound.

It hit me like a bolt of lightning out of the blue that was the origin of the word "wains"

EmmetSpiceland

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

The Irish word for a Black person is Duine Gorm, which translates directly as blue person.

I've heard two reasons for this. First explanation is that the devil is sometimes referred to as Duine Dubh, so blue was chosen instead of black to differentiate.

Potentially a more interesting explanation is that the southern coast of Ireland traded with and experienced piracy from North African Berbers, also known as the Taureg people's. The Taureg are often referred to as the blue people for the indigo dye coloured clothes they wear. They are much darker skinned than Irish so potentially that is how referring to Africans/black people became known as Duine Gorm, referring to their clothing.

Anyone know which if either is true?

Never heard that one, P.

I do remember hearing from our fifth form teacher, in junior school, that the first interactions us Irish had with people of colour was via the slave trade and the slaves were from sub-Saharan Africa.

These individuals were said to have a slightly blue tint to their skin when the sun shone brightest. Would be interesting to hear the real reason.

silliussoddius

Deleted User wrote: »

The devil was around in Ireland long, long before African pirates were a thing, so I'd say the first is true, or more true at least.

Another personal favourite that never dawned on me until recently. My Norn Irish-born mate was referring to all the kids at a birthday party a couple of years back, and called them the "wee ones" in his hybrid Derry/Kilbarrack accent.

Of course, up North they pronounce "ones" as "uns", so wee ones comes out more like "wee 'uns", which, in the correct accent, comes out with a bit of a drawl on the ai sound.

It hit me like a bolt of lightning out of the blue that was the origin of the word "wains"

Yeah, there was also Donn from mythology who was a dark figure (hence the name). I wonder why dubh was used, although it may be referring to dark instead of black. Then diabhla is also used, which obviously linked to dia, diablo etc.
Speaking of dia, it has a similar back ground to Zeus and Deus which come from an old word for celestial or sky, add a word for father and you have gods like Jupiter and Dis Pater.

mikhail

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Tolkein used the old Anglo-Saxon orþanc enta geweorc "cunning work of giants" for the name of the giant tree shepherds in The Lord Of The Rings.


It's the root of Entymology.

Orthanc is the name of Saruman's tower (þ is a th sound). And I see orc in geweorc. I wonder if he really strip-mined that phrase?!

One of my etymology go-tos is the idea that a lot of the animals have Germanic names (e.g. cow in English, ku in German) but their meat has Romance names (e.g. beef in English, beuf in French).

Alun

mikhail wrote: »

One of my etymology go-tos is the idea that a lot of the animals have Germanic names (e.g. cow in English, ku in German) but their meat has Romance names (e.g. beef in English, beuf in French).

I think that distinction arose after the Norman conquest in England where the olde English speaking Anglo Saxons were the ones who farmed the animals, whereas it was the French speaking Normans who ate them?

TheValeyard

Crap.

Thought to have come from Thomas Crapper. He founded Thomas Crapper & Co in London, a sanitary equipment company. Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating ballcock. He improved the S-bend plumbing trap in 1880 by inventing the U-bend.

Actually most likely to have an etymological origin with a combination of two older words: the Dutch krappen (to pluck off, cut off, or separate) and the Old French crappe (siftings, waste or rejected matter, from the medieval Latin crappa). In English, it was used to refer to chaff and also to weeds or other rubbish. First recorded use in 1846.

The Normans apparently didn’t like chickens.

KevRossi

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

The Irish word for a Black person is Duine Gorm, which translates directly as blue person.

I've heard two reasons for this. First explanation is that the devil is sometimes referred to as Duine Dubh, so blue was chosen instead of black to differentiate.

Potentially a more interesting explanation is that the southern coast of Ireland traded with and experienced piracy from North African Berbers, also known as the Taureg people's. The Taureg are often referred to as the blue people for the indigo dye coloured clothes they wear. They are much darker skinned than Irish so potentially that is how referring to Africans/black people became known as Duine Gorm, referring to their clothing.

Anyone know which if either is true?

The 'blue men of the desert' certainly is/was a thing. Their robes used to be dyed with indigo from the Indigofera plant. It originated in India and was handled across much of North Africa, becoming a sign of status amongst Tuareg and various Berber ethnic groups. The dye ran into the skin and tinged it blue against the olive complexion of the Tuareg.

It has generally been replaced by synthetic dyes that do not run, so the effect isn't seen as much today. I spent time in the Sahel with them 30 years ago and it was fairly common back then. The traditional indigo dyed robes are effectively 'Sunday best' clothes these days and most people would rarely wear them.

Tuareg's are a very interesting bunch, the men wear a head covering and would almost never take it off in the presence of strangers, the women tend to go bareheaded or with a light covering. The women are also far more highly empowered compared to most other ethnic groups in the area, but on the other hand they have a very strong clan and caste system. Their way of life has changed almost totally in the past 50 years.

Badly Drunk Boy

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

The Irish word for a Black person is Duine Gorm, which translates directly as blue person.

I've heard two reasons for this. First explanation is that the devil is sometimes referred to as Duine Dubh, so blue was chosen instead of black to differentiate.

Potentially a more interesting explanation is that the southern coast of Ireland traded with and experienced piracy from North African Berbers, also known as the Taureg people's. The Taureg are often referred to as the blue people for the indigo dye coloured clothes they wear. They are much darker skinned than Irish so potentially that is how referring to Africans/black people became known as Duine Gorm, referring to their clothing.

Anyone know which if either is true?

Many years ago, I remember watching a documentary that had the thesis that the Irish weren't Celts but Atlanteans, a race connected to others by for centuries the sea. He talks about the 'daoine gorm' from north Africa, with the blue make-up/markings on their heads. The three or four episodes have often been repeated on TG4.

Actually, I just found some of it on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C3GfVCqSN4

LarryGraham

mikhail wrote: »

Orthanc is the name of Saruman's tower (þ is a th sound). And I see orc in geweorc. I wonder if he really strip-mined that phrase?!

One of my etymology go-tos is the idea that a lot of the animals have Germanic names (e.g. cow in English, ku in German) but their meat has Romance names (e.g. beef in English, beuf in French).

There are loads of examples of word pairs with similar meaning in the English language. A lot of these are due to the "common" sounding variant having an Anglo-Saxon/Germanic origin with the "posh" variant having a Norman/French origin.

We could imagine a hypothetical Alfie and Henry.

Alfie a mindful, fair-haired fellow buys a drink at the inn for all his brotherhood. He then goes to his bedroom. His behaviour proves he's a friendly and hearty chap.

Henry a pensive, blonde gentleman purchases a beverage at the tavern for all his fraternity. He then retires to his chamber. His manner proves he's an amicable and cordial guy.

It's amazing how the outcome of a decisive battle almost 1,000 years ago still has this impact the English language today. To me, these word pairs are probably the most distinguishing features of the language.

nibtrix

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Another personal favourite that never dawned on me until recently. My Norn Irish-born mate was referring to all the kids at a birthday party a couple of years back, and called them the "wee ones" in his hybrid Derry/Kilbarrack accent.

Of course, up North they pronounce "ones" as "uns", so wee ones comes out more like "wee 'uns", which, in the correct accent, comes out with a bit of a drawl on the ai sound.

It hit me like a bolt of lightning out of the blue that was the origin of the word "wains"

I thought it came from the word “weans” ie children old enough to be weaned from breast feeding?

https://www.etymonline.com/word/wean