Otherwise known as a “Cockamaime”. (Slang, NY)
I forgot my old favourite: “nostalgia” means, at root, “the pain of returning (home).”
The analysis I saw of this was that it was more along the lines of “playing the villain”, and referred to Marconi having taken credit for creating radio.
A quick search shows that Tesla demonstrated a better version several years before. He was finally vindicated (post-humously), and the Marconi patents voided.
Something I learned today – apparently “fiasco” (an abject high profile failure) in Italian literally means “bottle”. There seem to be different stories floating around on what one has to do with the other, including the idea that when Renaissance glass makers attempted some intricate piece of work but failed, they’d take the resulting defective piece of blown glass and literally make a bottle out of it.
A very straight-laced co-worker used the word “snafu”* in a little. I asked her if she knew the etymology. She didn’t, so I told her. She was very embarassed, but agreed it is a useful word.
*SNAFU–Military acronym slang for situation normal: all fucked up.
On the other hand, those delicate flowers will often substitute “fouled” for “fucked.”
And the inevitable:
TARFU - things are really fucked up
FUBAR - fucked up beyond all recognition
JANFU - joint Army/Navy fuck-up
I remember Tony Randall, as a guest on a late night talk show, decades ago, pointing out that the origin of “emergency” is childbirth: the emergence of a baby.
Doubtful. This sitesays it arises from “unforeseen occurrence requiring immediate attention,” from the 1630s, from emerge.
No specific connection to babies mentioned.
This sitediscusses it (with wandering topic), dismissing the idea that the word originally refers to fluids emerging from the body. No discussion of babies there.
Emerge means to come into view, to become visible. An emergency is a condition that quickly comes into view, quickly becomes apparent. As opposed to some lingering condition, or something expected happening (like a woman’s period - she’s bleeding, but it is expected, not an emergency).
Maybe she didn’t know she was pregnant. 
In a science fiction novel that I’m not naming to avoid (fairly minor) spoilers, a society calls itself “The Emergency” (or “The Emergents”), which had multiple meanings - the society arose in response to a emergent disaster, the society is now emerging out into the galaxy, and if you met them, you’re in an emergency (because they are very dangerous folks).
I’d be intrigued if it also referred to “emergent behavior” (connected to chaos theory/complexity theory)
I posted from my recollection of what Randall said, and I’ll admit that I didn’t look it up anywhere to verify it, but I don’t think your cites are adequate to completely dismiss the claim.
Um, no. That site provides a definition, and says the word derived from emerge in the 1630s. It says nothing about what was emerging that led 17th century speakers to coin the word emergency. (Actually, you appear to have accidentally copied the definition from your second cite, who got it from etymology.com. Dictionary.com, in your first link, offers a slightly different definition: “a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action.”)
So what? That’s just some guy posting on the Internet, like you or me. The fact that he hadn’t heard about the childbirth connection is neither here nor there.
Lots of things come quickly into view that aren’t emergencies: a racecar; a mother playing peek-a-boo with her baby; lightning.
I’m not saying that the childbirth connection to *emergency *might not be fanciful or flat out wrong, but it has always made a certain amount of sense to me. It may not be possible to determine whether it is true or not, but the evidence you have presented does nothing to persuade me it’s wrong.
Fairly sure that a children’s annual I had circa 1966 featured a story in which “Snafoo Electric” was a computer manufacturer. Someone either didn’t know the etymology or successful got crap past the radar.
Just saw this one on Top Guns on the H2 Channel:
American soldiers were called “doughboys” in WWI because the large buttons on their khaki uniforms made them look like gingerbread men!
The reason GIs were called “dogfaces” in WWII becomes evident, I think, once you look at the cartoons of Bill Mauldin:
http://www.warriortospiritualwarrior.com/photos/Bill%20Mauldin’%20Willie%20&%20Joe.jpg 
I’d always imagined that they got that nickname because they were considerably better-fed than their allies, to the point of being at risk of becoming plump. Perhaps I was mixing-up the World Wars there. Thanks for correcting my misapprehension.
The Spanish word for a female wild hog, that is, a female jabalí, is jabalina. I figure javelina and javalina (I’ve seen both) might not so much come directly from jabalí as be creatively-spelled jabalinas (modern spelling hadn’t been fixed yet, etc etc).
Just ran across this one: “gorilla” comes from Γόριλλαι, which appears to a name attributed to a “tribe of hairy women”.
Also, the vowel sound is apparently unique to English.
(Cite: The Story of English, which claims that the sound, also found in the word “nurse”, is “virtually unknown” in any other language.)
I guess you’re talking about R-colored vowels:
It’s rare but not unique.