# Your favorite unexpected etymology
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 22, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641 "2013-06-22T17:12:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/1 "2013-06-22T17:12:43Z")
Mine is a recent discovery: _Umbrella_ combines the Latin _umbra_, “shadow,” with the French diminutive “-ella.”
Umbrella = “Little shadow,” to shield one from the sun.
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### Author:  [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/2 "2013-06-22T18:15:17Z")
Hippopotamus = river horse - from the Greek hippos = horse, potamius = riverine
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### Author:  [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/3 "2013-06-22T18:18:39Z")
German for hippopotamus is nilpferd = Nile horse (nil pferd)
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### Author:  [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/4 "2013-06-22T18:24:36Z")
malaria - bad air
decimate - This was unexpected when I first learned it because of the change in the connotation over time. It’s usual meaning now is to to drastically reduce or obliterate something. Originally, it meant to kill one out of 10 (10 percent).
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### Author:  [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/5 "2013-06-22T18:32:38Z")
> [@Koxinga](#):
>
> Mine is a recent discovery: _Umbrella_ combines the Latin _umbra_, “shadow,” with the French diminutive “-ella.”
>
> Umbrella = “Little shadow,” to shield one from the sun.
This follows for the Spanish _sombrilla_, _sombra_ meaning shadow.
Or you may chose a _paraguas_ para=for, agua=water (rain.)
When we are using a parasol we are using an implement _para_=for, _sol_=sun.
But it seems we use them interchangeably.
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/6 "2013-06-22T18:45:30Z")
The word [porcelain](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/porcelain) means, ultimately “of a young sow,” from a kind of weird association: porcelain is similar in texture to Cowry shells, which kind of resemble sow’s vulvae. Bam. Thread over.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/7 "2013-06-22T18:52:29Z")
In the words of Johnny Carson, I did not know that.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/8 "2013-06-22T18:53:59Z")
Barbarian: originally a Greek word for foreigners who didn’t speak Greek. Supposedly when they talked it sounded like they were just saying “bar bar bar”.
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/9 "2013-06-22T19:41:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Barbarian: originally a Greek word for foreigners who didn’t speak Greek. Supposedly when they talked it sounded like they were just saying “bar bar bar”.
I’ve had people show skepticism about this one, but to me it’s completely believable. I’ve had several (ex-) friends do that irritating “ching chong chong ching” imitation of…some Asian language in the middle of anti-Asian rants.
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/10 "2013-06-22T19:50:14Z")
That the words pen and pencil are unrelated. Pen from penne (feather), and pencil from penis.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/11 "2013-06-22T20:13:00Z")
Mine was unexpected, but only for me I’m guessing. It was one of those lightbulb moments just a few years ago when I realised that **cigarette** was actually derived from the original word cigar…as in _little cigar_ or something? :smack:
The fings ya learn every day eh? 😃
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/12 "2013-06-22T20:20:05Z")
“Bad” originally meant “homosexual.” It came to mean what it does now by the same process that the sentence “That’s so gay” among young people came to mean “That’s really bad”:
> **[bad | Etymology, origin and meaning of bad by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/bad)**
>
> BAD Meaning: "inadequate, unsatisfactory, worthless; unfortunate;" late 14c., "wicked, evil, vicious; counterfeit;"… See origin and meaning of bad.
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/13 "2013-06-22T20:22:00Z")
> [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](#):
>
> The word [porcelain](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/porcelain) means, ultimately “of a young sow,” from a kind of weird association: porcelain is similar in texture to Cowry shells, which kind of resemble sow’s vulvae. Bam. Thread over.
Ain’t no way I can top that, but until I read it, my answer was that _insane_ literally means “unclean.” It has the same root as _sanitary_.
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/14 "2013-06-22T20:31:37Z")
“Cosmetic” comes from the Greek word “kosmos” meaning “order”, the same root as the word “cosmos”.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/15 "2013-06-22T20:48:51Z")
Not exactly favorite, but I was surprised to learn the other day that all the various uses of the word “check” in the English language come from the game of Chess (and thus ultimately, from the persian word for “king”). I would’ve thought it would’ve been the other way around.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/16 "2013-06-22T21:06:22Z")
[Vanilla](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=vanilla&searchmode=none) is “little vagina” (in the sense of “little sheath”, thouhg, not “little female body part”).
I am going to keep all of my vanilla in porcelain from now on.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/17 "2013-06-22T21:24:35Z")
The name for the bird “Canary” derives from the Canary Islands - which were named for the wild dogs that used to roam on these islands (or possibly for some other reason that still amounts to naming the islands for some kind of dog [Canary Islands - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands#Etymology))
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/18 "2013-06-22T21:46:29Z")
“Chicago” means “stinky onions.”
And apparently “fiddle” and “violin” come from the same root word.
“Flute” and “flatulence” come from the same word meaning “to blow.”
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/19 "2013-06-22T21:58:06Z")
“Australia” and “Austria”, which are so often confused, have names derived from compass directions, but different directions. “Australia” comes from the Latin “Terra Australis”, meaning “Southern land”; “Austria” comes from the German “Österreich”, meaning “Eastern kingdom”.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/20 "2013-06-22T22:13:06Z")
The verb **escalate** is a back formation from “escalator”, which started as a brand name for a moving staircase.
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