help! I went to the barber and he took out my tonsils!

[labdude]

OK, seriously. I need help with a word origin.

Tonsils-those thinks in the back of your throat.
tonsilor-a person who cuts hair.

how are these words related. My dictionary dosen't say anything about the word origins.

thanks

[sailor]

You think they have to be related just because they sound similar? Not necessarily

[ZenBeam]

Neither Britannica.com nor my dictionary have tonsilor as a word. IANALS (I am not a Latin scholar) but from looking around, Tonsil is from latin tonsillae. Maybe you're thinking of Tonsorial, pertaining to a barber? Comes eventually from Latin tonsus, a different word, meaning to shear or clip.

If you like this sort of thing, did you realize pen and pencil come from different root words? Pen is from feather (penna), pencil is from penis.

[sailor]

OOps , hit that "submit"button too soon.

If you go here http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm you can see the origins of the words are from different latin words

[surel]

Hmm I don't know about the entymologies but I do recall that barbers used to be surgeons of a sort. The red and white barber pole symbolized bandages and blood. They mostly did blood-letting since that was such an approved treatment of the time, but if you needed your tonsils out perhaps an old-fashioned barber could do that.

"If I slip while I am shaving I may cut you to the quick
You can use me as a doctor for I also heal the sick"
-- Man of La Mancha

[tracer]

ZenBeam wrote:

pencil is from penis.

Hence the reason a male dog's organ is shaped that way.

[Doug Bowe]

Hmm I don't know about the entymologies but I do recall that barbers used to be surgeons of a sort. The red and white barber pole symbolized bandages and blood. They mostly did blood-letting since that was such an approved treatment of the time, but if you needed your tonsils out perhaps an old-fashioned barber could do that.

"If I slip while I am shaving I may cut you to the quick
You can use me as a doctor for I also heal the sick"
-- Man of La Mancha

--For the record barbers in the U.S. added blue as a patriotic gesture.

[scr4]

--For the record barbers in the U.S. added blue as a patriotic gesture.

But the Japanese have copied even this pro-American (and anti-Japanese) gesture. They claim blue stands for venous blood.