# Your favorite unexpected etymology **URL:** \ **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:** 7
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/121 "2013-06-28T08:32:15Z")
For the sake of completion, \*hysterical \*should be mentioned, although I guess it’s one that everyone already knows. From Greek “hystera”, meaning womb (also the source of “uterus”), originally describing a neurotic condition in women thought to be caused by disturbances of the womb, then somehow coming to mean “very funny”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/122 "2013-06-28T11:25:23Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Hey, now that I have you guys here, a question. > > The color brown is called _marrón_ in Spanish, _marroi_ in Euskera, _marró_ in Catalan. RAE very helpfully if a bit redundantly tells is it comes from the French _marron_, “a chestnut-colored edible chestnut” (that’s the _marron_ in _marron glacé_). Does the English maroon come from the same or a different root? At least when I’ve heard Americans describe something as “maroon”, it was a different color. I’m sure it’s the same. Maroon is a deep, dark red with lots of brown in it (and maybe a touch of blue). Color terms notoriously shift spectral ranges over time, and as they pass from language to language. Some come to mean very different colors in different languages. I can’t recall examples offhand, bit they’re easy to look up – for example, a few basic Indo-European roots where the same root came to mean different colors. I think even the Germanic “black” and the Romance “blanc-” (white) might be an example. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/123 "2013-06-28T14:02:50Z")
“Logistics” is unrelated to “logic” - it’s derived from the same root as “lodge.” (It was originally a military term for the process of moving and housing troops.) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/124 "2013-06-28T15:02:01Z")
The word “trivia” combines _tri_ and _via_, basically meaning “three roads”. The _trivium_ were the three “lower” branches of liberal arts study in medieval universities, consisting of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The four “higher” branches, the _quadrivium_, were mathematics, geometry, astronomy, and music. Over time, _trivium_ evolved into _trivia_, minor factual details not of significance. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/125 "2013-06-28T20:17:13Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I’m sure it’s the same. Maroon is a deep, dark red with lots of brown in it (and maybe a touch of blue). > > Color terms notoriously shift spectral ranges over time, and as they pass from language to language. Some come to mean very different colors in different languages. I can’t recall examples offhand, bit they’re easy to look up – for example, a few basic Indo-European roots where the same root came to mean different colors. I think even the Germanic “black” and the Romance “blanc-” (white) might be an example. Purple/_púrpura_ (the same root, not the same color) and maroon/_granate_ (very different roots, and the word which would be the same root is a different color, which is what brought the question to mind). But even the way we’d describe colors is different: the closest I’d come to describing a color as “having brown in it” is some grey-brown mixes. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/126 "2013-06-29T00:25:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Hey, now that I have you guys here, a question. > > The color brown is called _marrón_ in Spanish, _marroi_ in Euskera, _marró_ in Catalan. RAE very helpfully if a bit redundantly tells is it comes from the French _marron_, “a chestnut-colored edible chestnut” (that’s the _marron_ in _marron glacé_). Does the English maroon come from the same or a different root? At least when I’ve heard Americans describe something as “maroon”, it was a different color. OED says absolutely. the same. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/127 "2013-06-29T00:33:13Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Likewise for hiccup, which is occasionally spelled hiccough, because, you know, it sounds somewhat like a cough. Apparently. Untrue. Hiccough was a later spelling. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/128 "2013-06-29T07:56:37Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > The word “admiral” comes from the Arabic expression for a naval supreme commander: _amir-al-bahr_ = “lord of the sea”. The Arabic term is believed to have been encountered by the Crusaders, possibly as early as the 11th Century, and adapted by them into the Medieval Latin _admiralis_; which morphed into “admiral” or near equivalent, in various European languages. “Admiral” is a “cut-short” version of the Arabic expression – signifying literally vis-a-vis same, just “lord of…” So… Amir-al-Bahr Ackbar… ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/129 "2013-06-29T08:44:30Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Untrue. Hiccough was a later spelling. What’s untrue? That’s what she’s saying. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/130 "2013-06-29T11:47:08Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Untrue. Hiccough was a later spelling. > [@WotNot](#): > > What’s untrue? That’s what she’s saying. :smack: Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/131 "2013-06-29T17:38:27Z")
> [@goldmund](#): > > Quick, half drunk post about something I heard a couple days ago, thought “hey, I know how that works”, and cited without reading. You got me. 😛 Fair enough… ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/132 "2013-06-30T18:42:04Z")
I just learned something about New Mexico, where I’ve lived for almost 14 years (I think this counts as etymology). New Mexico was not named after the modern country of Mexico. [According to Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico)\*: > [@](#): > > The name New Mexico, or Nuevo Mexico, is often incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the modern United Mexican States (Mexico). New Mexico was given its name in 1563 and again in 1581, by Spanish explorers believing there were wealthy Indian cultures similar to those of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire.[8][9][10] The United Mexican States (Mexico), formerly known as New Spain, was given its name centuries later in 1821. \*I know, not the best source. The three sources they list are: [8] David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (Yale University Press New Haven and London, 1992), 79. [9] Joseph P. Sanchez, The Rio Abajo Frontier, 1540-1692: A History of Early Colonial New Mexico (Albuquerque: Museum of Albuquerque History Monograph Series, 1987), 51. [10] Stewart, George (2008) [1945]. Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States. New York: NYRB Classics. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-1-59017-273-5. “There was Francisco de Ibarra, a great seeker after gold mines. In 1563 he went far to the north…when he returned south, Ibarra boasted that he had discovered a New Mexico. Doubtless, like others, he stretched the tale, and certainly the land of which he told was well south of the one now so called. Yet men remembered the name Nuevo México, though not at first as that of the region which Coronado had once conquered.” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/133 "2013-06-30T20:48:03Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > I just learned something about New Mexico, where I’ve lived for almost 14 years (I think this counts as etymology). > > New Mexico was not named after the modern country of Mexico. [According to Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico)\*: > \*I know, not the best source. The three sources… Cool! I believe it. The “urban” indigenous architecture of the Pueblo and Hopi cultures is striking, and there is hardly anything like it south of there (an exception is [Paquime](http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/560)) until you get down to the Aztec – i.e., “Mexica” – architecture in the Valley of Mexico (City). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/134 "2013-06-30T22:34:56Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > So… Amir-al-Bahr Ackbar… Seeing as “Akbar” means “great” in Arabic, his name could be translated as “the Great Lord of the Sea”, an apt title for a 5-foot bipedal cephalopod. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/135 "2013-07-01T20:12:20Z")
\*Cartoon \*and \*carton \*both come from _cartone_, the Italian word for cardboard. \*Cartoon \*originally referred to a full-size drawing on cardboard that an artist would make in preparation for painting a mural or portrait. In 1843 London, artists were asked to submit proposals for paintings depicting great events from British history, to adorn the walls of the new House of Parliament. A public exhibit of these cartoons was held, to bring some culture to the masses. The satirical publication _Punch, the Comic Weekly_ then printed a series of _Mr. Punch’s Cartoons_, drawings depicting embarrassing events in British history – starting with the way Parliament showed compassion to the crippled and hungry by [giving them an art exhibit](http://www.punchcartoons.com/product_info.php?products_id=90). The readers of \*Punch \*loved the new feature, but not being artists, most of them didn’t know what a \*cartoon \*was, so they assumed that it referred to a humorous drawing. _Punch_, and other so-called comic weeklies (called \*comics \*for short), printed more and more cartoons, which sometimes took up a substantial portion of the publication. Eventually, the word \*comics \*began to be used to refer to any printed compilation of cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/136 "2013-07-01T22:36:52Z")
The word “negotiate” comes from the Latin “negotium”, which means “business”. OK, straightforward so far. But the Latin “negotium”, in turn, comes from “neg” + “otium”, or “not leisure”. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/137 "2013-07-02T01:20:37Z")
“Winnebago” means “[murky water](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Winnebago)” or “[person of dirty water](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=potawatomi)”. In the late 70s I attended the Univ. of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (aka UW-Zero), located on the western shore of Lake Winnebago. The legend I heard was that “Winnebago” meant “stinky water”. [The Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnebago#History) says > [@](#): > > In 1634, the French discovered the Winnebago Indian tribe on the shores of Green Bay, Wisconsin, inhabiting the area stretching to Lake Winnebago. Although “Ho-Chunk” is the people’s own name for themselves, their Algonquian neighbors called them “Winnebago”, which means “people of the filthy water”. This term was used by the Algonquians because Lake Winnebago had a strong fish odor in the summer. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/138 "2013-07-02T12:52:27Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Yeah, [maybe it’s not right.](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bistro) Hmmm. Maybe the Russians were calling for the proprietor. \ “Bistro, bistro!” Kinda like some toff calling, “Garçon!” Speaking of “toff” . . . > [@Askance](#): > > Pomegranate is also involved in the Australian term Pom for an English person. It started off as Immigrant which (as so many early inhabitants were Cockneys) became the rhyming slang Jimmy Grant, then Pomegranate, then Pommie, then Pom. I swear to God Cockneys must have the most convoluted brains in the world to come up with that rhyming slang stuff. And, just to contribute to the thread. sangria, the Spanish wine punch, derived its name from the dark red color’s resemblance to blood. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/139 "2013-07-02T14:05:46Z")
The name “penguin” was originally applied to the extinct Great Auk (_Pinguinus impennis_), and was used for the S. Hemisphere birds because of the physical resemblance and flightlessness. It _might_ come from the Welsh for “White head” but that’s debatable. Similarly, “puffin” was the name of the Manx Shearwater (_Puffinus puffinus_) and was applied to the Puffin because of nesting similarities. The Puffin genus is _Fratercula_ , “friar”, because of the colouring like a monk’s robes. And that brings us to cappuccino, so-called because it has the colour of a Capuchin friar’s brown robes. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/140 "2013-07-02T14:55:19Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Hmmm. Maybe the Russians were calling for the proprietor. \ “Bistro, bistro!” Kinda like some toff calling, “Garçon!” Speaking of “toff” . . . But is that how the Russians say/said _subito_/_snell_? I would expect them to say something like _сейчас!_ because it would roll off the tongue easier and sound more demanding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641.md?page=8)