# Your favourite etymology trivia! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 27, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124 "2012-04-27T13:27:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/81 "2012-05-03T17:54:11Z")
The giant panda (or panda bear) was originally called the “particolor bear.” Then, naturalists, noticing some similarities to another critter known as the [panda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda), decided that it wasn’t a bear at all, but a relative of the panda. This resulted in the renaming of the particolor bear to “giant panda,” and the “panda” to the “lesser panda” or “red panda.” Then, 100 years later, they realized. . . Oops! We had it right the first time! Shazam! It really is a bear! (The word “panda” itself appears to be the local name for the red panda, and I have no idea what it means in that “local” language.) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/82 "2012-05-03T18:35:42Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > Vomitorium > > From the decadent days of Rome: these were actual rooms constructed for upper class people where they could go puke after binge eating. > > Actually it’s just latin for “entrance to the amphitheatre”. Cecil disagrees with you about the [purpose of a vomitorium](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2421/were-there-really-vomitoriums-in-ancient-rome). They were not built as (or used as) a place to puke. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/83 "2012-05-03T18:36:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > IIRC, “pumpernickel” was German slang for a Peasant. Pumpernickel bread was semi-black bread, peasant food. It’s not a comment on the bread’s indigestability (I think pumpernickel is pretty edible, myself, but maybe the original product wasn’t so nice as the one I buy in my local supermarket), but on its humble origins, with a classist poke at those origins. Here’s Wikipedia on its etymology: > [@](#): > > Etymology > > The philologist Johann Christoph Adelung states that the word has an origin in the Germanic vernacular where Pumpen was a New High German synonym for being flatulent, and Nickel was a form of the name Nicholas, commonly associated with a goblin or devil (e.g. “Old Nick”, a familiar name for Satan), or more generally for a malevolent spirit or demon. Hence, pumpernickel is described as the “devil’s fart,” a definition accepted by the Stopes International Language Database,[2] the publisher Random House,[3] and by some English language dictionaries, including the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.[4] The American Heritage Dictionary adds “so named from being hard to digest.” A variant of this explanation is also given by the German etymological dictionary “Kluge” that says the word pumpernickel is older than its usage for the particular type of bread, and may have been used as a mocking name for a person of unrefined manners (“farting nick”) first. The change of meaning may have been caused by its use as a mocking expression for the (in the eyes of outsiders) unrefined rye bread produced by the Westphalian population. > > The Oxford English Dictionary does not commit to any particular etymology for the word. It suggests it may mean a lout or booby, but also says “origin uncertain.” The OED currently states the first use in English was in 1756. > > An incorrect folk etymology involves Napoleon, who, while invading Germany, was served dark German rye bread. He wouldn’t eat it and said “C’est pain pour Nicole!”… it was bread for his horse, Nicole.[5] This story allegedly is a hoax perpetrated by a columnist and friends who, when challenged and confronted with evidence to the contrary, confessed to the fabrication.[6] However the contrived “pain pour Nicole” etymology seems to be the most popular in English-speaking countries; it is retold by thousands of sites on the World Wide Web. The OED is consistent with what I’ve stated (although noncommital) > **[Pumpernickel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpernickel)** > > Pumpernickel (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}English: /ˈpʌmpərnɪkəl/; German: \[ˈpʊmpɐˌnɪkl̩\] ⓘ) is a typically dense, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with sourdough starter and coarsely ground rye. It is sometimes made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye grains ("rye berries"). > At one time, it was traditional... ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/84 "2012-05-03T19:14:48Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > LSD is “lysergic acid diethylamide,” but the initials derive from the German name for it _lyserg saure diethylamide_ My favorite one of these is R.I.P., which didn’t originally stand for “Rest In Peace” in English, but the Latin equivalent of this, “Requiescat in pace”. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/85 "2012-05-03T19:59:53Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I don’t think so. The German Scheiss is the root; the double s morphed into t in English. You have that backwards. Proto-germanic “t” sometimes morphed into “ss” or “ts” in German. See [High German consonant shift - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift) and search for “\*t→ss” ---
**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:** [May 3, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/86 "2012-05-03T20:16:40Z")
> [@newme](#): > > You have that backwards. Proto-germanic “t” sometimes morphed into “ss” or “ts” in German. > > See [High German consonant shift - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift) and search for “\*t→ss” Quite right. “ **Shit** ”: “Old Norse _skita_, Old English _scitan_, etc., the regular Germanic verb, and the corresponding noun, etc., originally ‘separate’ (as in Latin _excrementum_, from _cernere_ ‘separate’, cognate to Greek _crino_ ‘separate, judge’, Old English _sceran_ ‘cut, shear’, etc, also Sanskrit _apa-skara-_ ‘excrement’), cognate to Lithuanian _skeisti_ ‘separate, divide’, Latin _scindere_, Greek _schizo_ ‘split’, etc., from Indo-European _skei-d-_ beside Irish _sceithim_ ‘vomit’, Gothic \*skaidan \*‘separate’, etc.” – Buck 1949, p. 276 ---
**Author:** ![scamartistry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/87 "2012-05-05T12:37:53Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:82, topic:620124”] Cecil disagrees with you about the [purpose of a vomitorium](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2421/were-there-really-vomitoriums-in-ancient-rome). They were not built as (or used as) a place to puke. [/QUOTE] That was exactly my point. Read the post again. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/88 "2012-05-05T12:59:58Z")
The words “tavern” and “tabernacle” both come from the same Latin root – _taberna_, meaning “hut” or “tent.” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/89 "2012-05-05T16:24:46Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > That was exactly my point. > > Read the post again. Sorry, but even upon my third re-read of your post, I don’t see anything about vomitoriums not being used for vomiting. All I see is your reference to the etymology. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/90 "2012-05-05T16:52:06Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:89, topic:620124”] Sorry, but even upon my third re-read of your post, I don’t see anything about vomitoriums not being used for vomiting. All I see is your reference to the etymology. [/QUOTE] Does this look familiar? > [@](#): > > Actually it’s just latin for “entrance to the amphitheatre”. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/91 "2012-05-07T17:02:16Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Does this look familiar? Exactly. I read that as a reference to the etymology, not a reference to how a vomitorium was actually used. But we’re cleared up now. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/92 "2012-05-07T17:36:41Z")
OK, since this one has been bumped: The word “torpedo” entered the language as the name of the [electric ray](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_ray). (At the time, ‘electric’ had not yet been coined.) “Torpedo” has the same origins as “torpor” and referred to the numbing feeling that they caused, which would later be found to be electric in origin. From there, “torpedo” evolved to mean (sea-based) mines. (“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”) The spar-mounted bomb attached to the CSS Hunley was also described as a 'torpedo." Somewhere along the way, and probably by WW I, the word “torpedo” was dropped in favor of “mines,” and “torpedo” was then used pretty much exclusively to describe the self-propelled water-based projecticle that we all know and love. Well, there was a small side-track to the [Bangalore torpedo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_torpedo). I recall seeing some war movie where people were drawing numbers or something to determine who would be on the “relay” team to install the next segment as each relay member was gunned down. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/93 "2012-05-07T20:40:50Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:89, topic:620124”] Sorry, but even upon my third re-read of your post, I don’t see anything about vomitoriums not being used for vomiting. All I see is your reference to the etymology. [/QUOTE] FWIW, the “actually” to me implied that the previous paragraph wasn’t the actual meaning of the word, and that what was being presented after the “actually” was. Otherwise, the “actually” serves no purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/94 "2012-05-08T17:44:03Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Also, regarding “trivia”, my dictionary says it is from Latin “trivialis”, meaning “belonging to the streets; common”, which does come from \*trivium \*meaning a junction of three roads. So perhaps Bryson was right? Just on the strength of the assertions, the plausibility seems to be a toss-up. _Trivium_ does have both those meanings – ‘the streets’ in antiquity and then in Medaeval times ‘the first three liberal arts’. I can see the term arising out of either of those senses, so what else besides competing assertions do we have? ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/95 "2012-05-09T01:42:26Z")
Robert Hughes, who wrote the book I’m reading, must be a fan of this sort of thing. This morning I read that “car” and “carpenter” both come from the Latin word for a common two-wheeled cart. Back then, when your car (carpentum) broke down on the famous Roman roads, you’d call for a carpenter (carpentarius), not a mechanic. ---
**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:** [May 9, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/96 "2012-05-09T05:27:13Z")
Huh. I know that “carrus” came into Latin from Gallic – pretty unusual for a Celtic root to pass over to Romance and then become so ubiquitous. ---
**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:** [May 9, 2012, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/97 "2012-05-09T10:33:53Z")
Actually, it was quite common for Celtic words to pass into Latin after the point that Rome ruled much of what’s now France, which was then inhabited by Celtic speakers. Many such words came into Latin through Roman soldiers serving there, and later many of those soldiers were in fact born there. Etymological dictionaries will often speak of such words being borrowed into “Vulgar Latin,” which just means that you won’t see those words in formal writing of the first century A.D. (approximately). Such words slowly became part of standard Latin though, so within a couple of centuries they were standard over all the area where Latin was spoken, and now they are common in Romance languages. English actually has several dozen words that went from Celtic to Vulgar Latin to Late Latin to French to English. It’s not really true that “car” was derived from “carpenter.” It’s sort of the other way around. “Carrus” was a Latin word borrowed at some point from Celtic. Eventually it ended up in English as “car.” “Carpenter” also came from a Celtic root apparently, probably the same root as “car.” “Carpentum” meant a vehicle in Latin. There was a derivative of it that meant maker of vehicles. Later this word meant one who could build things, and later it just meant someone who built things in wood. So this was another example of the Celtic to Vulgar Latin to Late Latin to French to English path. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/98 "2012-05-09T12:08:14Z")
One way to detect that someone who speaks Spanish is from Spain is how often we use the word _vale_, meaning “OK”, “I hear you”, “gotcha” or, if inquiring, “do you agree/understand?” The last word in El Quijote is _vale_, but it’s not there because Cervantes was satisfied with his book: it’s because he used a writing style more direct (and, while not epistolary, more similar to how one would write letters) than the novels of chivalry he was mocking; in this case _vale_ is a word of Latin origin which was used to close letters. > [@Zyada](#): > > On the flip side, honeymoon in various languages is a direct translation of the word “honey” and “moon” > > Lune de miel in French, miel luna in Spanish, etc. The Spanish is _luna de miel_. What you came up with sounds in Spanish like moon hunny would sound in English. ---
**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:** [May 9, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/99 "2012-05-09T12:19:54Z")
I’m lost. So many of these don’t sound convincing, have been proven incorrect, or are just doubted, that I have decided not to believe any of them, as that seems the safest approach. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124/100 "2012-05-09T13:15:21Z")
“Mammoth” as an adjective means “large,” like the extinct beast. However, the word comes to English by way of the local (far-flung Russian Empire) language word for “earth” (as in the ground, not the planet). It was believed by the locals that, since the bones had been dug from the earth, that it must have been a burrowing critter–just a very large one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-etymology-trivia/620124.md?page=6)