# Obvious word etymologies you realise after the millionth time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2015, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958 "2015-02-06T09:00:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/21 "2015-02-06T20:24:46Z")
> [@Nuveena](#): > > It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the frozen potato brand Ore-Ida is short for Oregon and Idaho. I had a lot of those. Palmolive, Lestoil… ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/22 "2015-02-06T22:02:36Z")
I had a light bulb moment when I put together the fact that Eminem comes from his real name’s (Marshall Mathers) initials, M and M. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/23 "2015-02-06T22:22:05Z")
Lottery and drawing lots. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/24 "2015-02-06T22:36:20Z")
I think I was in my 30s before I figured out that a “drawing room” wasn’t a place you went to get out the pencils and crayons, although I knew of course that no drawing went on but I didn’t understand why it was called that. Then it was explained as the room you withdraw to from the dining room after dinner (dinner–dining–get it?) so the servants could clean up. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/25 "2015-02-06T22:50:20Z")
It took me 30 years to realize why Abba is called Abba-- and why it’s usually in all caps: ABBA. It also took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that “shnozz,” what people often think of as the Yiddish work for nose, is just the word “nose” with an “sh-” tacked onto the beginning. Like, “nose, shnose,” who cares what it looks like as long as you can smell. The way native Yiddish speakers pronounce the word, the vowel is in between a long O and a short A. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/26 "2015-02-06T22:52:22Z")
I was a trivia geek early in life (like age 8 or so), so I knew both that New York was the Empire State and that the Empire State Building was the then-4th-tallest building in the world. I figured out that the Empire State Building was a building in the Empire State, and not a “state building” named Empire for whatever reason, about 20 years later when I walked in the building and saw [this mural in the lobby](https://www.google.com/search?q=empire+state+building+lobby+mural&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&biw=1073&bih=937&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=HjPVVMSzJcbOaOaLgMAI&ved=0CB0QsAQ#imgdii=_&imgrc=ciMsFNg9jTwKNM%253A%3BMyzpH64LQ_U2zM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ffc05.deviantart.net%252Ffs71%252Fi%252F2010%252F252%252Ff%252F9%252Fempire_state_building_lobby_by_don82159-d2yedj9.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgalleryhip.com%252Fempire-state-building-lobby-mural.html%3B1600%3B2133). (Of course, practically half of the replies to this thread are news to me. :o) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/27 "2015-02-07T05:17:30Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Before > After > Be Fore > Aft er > > Fore, Aft. How nautical. 😕 That’s not the etymology of [those](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=before&searchmode=none) [words](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=after&searchmode=none), though. ( ‘after’ actually splits before the t, since -ter was the old comparative form, so more like ‘off’ + ‘er’ = ‘more off’ which is pretty neat in itself.) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/28 "2015-02-07T05:39:39Z")
I mentioned this one a few years back in one of these threads Submarine=Under Water Duh ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/29 "2015-02-07T05:46:54Z")
Re-member - to put together the pieces of something again aquamarine - a semi-precious stone named “sea water” I was teaching a religious education class at my UU church and going into the different words to describe types of beliefs - theist, deist, gnostic and explained the a- prefix, and I saw the lightbulbs switch on over the kids’ heads when they jumped ahead to atheist and agnostic. It was a pretty awesome moment. Sometimes I like to play games in my head where I think of a Latin or Greek root and try to come up with as many words based off it as possible(ex: spiro, “to breathe” - inspire, expire, respire, transpire, aspire, and yet, spire, as in church spire, comes from a completely different root, which means a plant shoot or stem). Occasionally, it makes me get up and open a dictionary to check the etymology. On trying to come up with as many words from -dict- (meaning word or speech - dictator, dictionary, indict, addict). Wait, addict? What do addict, addicting, and addiction have to do with word or speech? I checked the etymology, and in Roman law, an addict was a person who gave a sworn oath selling himself into slavery, usually to pay a debt. An addict is a willing slave. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/30 "2015-02-07T05:54:39Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > (ex: spiro, “to breathe” - inspire, expire, respire, transpire, aspire, Well, now I know why this thing is called a [spirometer](https://edc2.healthtap.com/ht-staging/user_answer/avatars/267503/large/open-uri20120703-32305-1e1gkur.jpeg?1386589766). ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/31 "2015-02-07T06:01:25Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > spiro, “to breathe” - inspire, expire, respire, transpire, aspire Also ‘spirit’. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/32 "2015-02-07T06:50:53Z")
Repair is originally “re-pair,” I think. Reconnect two parts which rightly belong together. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/33 "2015-02-07T07:01:20Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > I was teaching a religious education class at my UU church and going into the different words to describe types of beliefs - theist, deist, gnostic and explained the a- prefix, and I saw the lightbulbs switch on over the kids’ heads when they jumped ahead to atheist and agnostic. It was a pretty awesome moment. I wish a nonbeliever would be called a “nontheist”, or even an “antitheist”, and leave “atheist” to the people who actually don’t care whether or not there’s a deity. So my word for them is “shrugnostic”. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/34 "2015-02-07T07:08:49Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Before > After > Be Fore > Aft er > > Fore, Aft. How nautical. And if you take away the nautical directions, fore and aft, you’ve got BEER both before and after! Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/35 "2015-02-07T09:12:40Z")
> [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > When I was learning Italian, I thought the word for lawyer, avvocato, was such a weird word. I immediately thought of the fruit, avocado. I was talking to my cousin, a lawyer, saying what a weird word Italians have for lawyer. Of course, he knew it meant an advocate. Per Wiki anyway, the “avocado” , for the fruit, originates from the word for the same in the Nahuatl language of parts of Mexico: _ahuacatl_. This was corrupted over many decades via Spanish ultimately into English – avocado, resembling the word for lawyer in Italian as above; also in Spanish (_abogado_). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/36 "2015-02-07T09:26:27Z")
Steken writes: \> Repair is originally “re-pair,” I think. Reconnect two parts which rightly belong \> together. No. See here: > **[repair | Etymology, origin and meaning of repair by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/repair)** > > REPAIR Meaning: "to mend, put back in order, restore to a sound, good, or complete condition," mid-14c., reparen, from… See origin and meaning of repair. phouka writes: \> Re-member - to put together the pieces of something again No. See here: > **[remember | Search Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=remember)** > > The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/37 "2015-02-07T10:31:21Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > I also seem to have trouble recognizing “baby talk” etymology. It was quite awhile before I figured out that “tummy” is literally the word “stomach” in baby talk, and I never realized until recently that the word “sissy” means “sister”. To “pee” is just the initial letter of “piss”. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/38 "2015-02-07T10:33:43Z")
Breakfast. To break fast. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/39 "2015-02-07T13:15:14Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Breakfast. To break fast. > > Duh. I always have to think that when I when I have to write it, otherwise I spell it breakfest, which is how it sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958/40 "2015-02-07T13:51:36Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I wish a nonbeliever would be called a “nontheist”, or even an “antitheist”, and leave “atheist” to the people who actually don’t care whether or not there’s a deity. So my word for them is “shrugnostic”. There’s also “[apatheist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism).” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-word-etymologies-you-realise-after-the-millionth-time/711958.md?page=3)