On August 23, I appeared on the “Midmorning” show on
Minnesota Public Radio. Many of
you called in with questions, to some of which I could give immediate answers.
But, the origin of several words I did not remember offhand and I promised to
look them up in my database. Since
I mentioned the existence of this column, a few more queries and comments were
sent, but they reached me so late that this extra long edition of the Monthly
Gleanings was moved to the first week of September. And so, without further ado, here are my responses.
First the suffix -ster:
Do foster, holster, and spinster
and roadster.
the last of them is made up of a root (road
originally occur only in occupational terms designating women’s
professions. Some names of men’s
professions undoubtedly had it, but the overwhelming number of such nouns in
Old English was feminine. We can
see this suffix preserved in several modern last names, by far the most famous
of them being Webster (early
“websters,” that is, weavers, like
tapsters, were women). It is not
clear why -ster eventually
acquired a derogatory meaning (cf. rhymester, trickster,
American English (here the best-known examples are gangster
a human being). Holster
of food followed by a suffix,
whose most ancient form is believed to have been -trom.
How persuasive is the hypothesis that the word jazz
traveled the Mississippi River between New Orleans and St. Paul, playing music
for its passengers in the early 1900’s?
Jazz would then come out
as “JS music.” Almost all popular
derivations from acronyms (unless they are obviously such, as is snafu,
(1862, pp. 58-59 and 93), a specialized American version of Notes and
Queries (excellent reading, by the way).
reputation of a peculiar cake called the apee.
Thousands who partake of them have no conception of the origin of their
name. Ann Page,
lately living under another name and business, first made them, many years ago,
under the common name of cakes.
The aged may remember her small frame house in Second-street
A. P., the initials of her name; and from this cause, ever since the initials
have been disused on them, the cakes have continued to be called apees.”
been thought worthy of commemoration in the Historical Magazine,
correctly. It was Mrs. Ann
Palmer, not Price.
of the late Richard Palmer, Sen. ….”
Ann Page? Ann Price?
Chestnut Street? Our
withers are unwrung, for the initials will still come out as A. P.
(the name of a cake of which I, regrettably, have never partaken) is
trustworthy, but it is curious to observe how two contemporary reports differ
in details. When it comes to
anecdotes of older times, most do not bear scrutiny. I think that if jazz had
any connection with the JS steamboat, the word would have been jaycee
The literature on jazz
is rich but inconclusive. The word
surfaced in 1913, not in 1909, as is stated in the Second edition of the OED
origin and its application to music are different issues.
music we associate with jazz appeared in California, spread to Chicago, and
from there to New Orleans. This
fact weakens but does not invalidate the theories that seek the home of jazz
chasser “chase, hunt,” with the implication
“look alive, speed up, make wild movements” and jaser
California musicians knew the traditions and music of the South, the French
origin of jazz should not be
taken for granted, the more so as neither chasser
looks like a convincing source of the English word (the meanings are too
divergent). The idea that jazz
is traceable to Jersey
improbable. Jazz
it does not go back to the names Chas, Jasbo (Brown),
spelled jas, jass, jazz, jasz, jascz,
variants look like attempts to write down a word known only from oral
transmission. The verb jazz
long before it was applied to a certain type of syncopated music.
(compare the thinly disguised meaning of rock ‘n’ roll
razzmatazz, quiz, and whiz.
may have sprung up as did spiflicate
(about which see below), virtually from nothing.
While speaking about universally known words whose origin is
still undiscovered, I mentioned glitch,
which, in my opinion, became popular thanks to its use in computer work.
II. American English glitch
the OED, the earliest occurrence
of it in texts goes back to 1962.
It seems to have emerged with the meaning “a sudden surge of current” in
aerospace engineering and is not an acronym, but its history is uncertain.
conjecture that glitch is of Yiddish
origin (glitsch).
not more persuasive than the derivation of jazz
I was asked whether I know anything about the verb spiflicate
did not cite the verb smifligate,
which I remembered at once. I am
sorry, because now no one, except those with whom I spoke later in the studio,
will believe that I knew it. But I
did. It occurs in Dickens’s Nicholas
Nickleby, and I quoted the relevant passage
in one of my articles. Mrs.
Nickleby, Nicholas’s mother, has been enticed to go to the theater, and two
minor villains (Pyke and Pluck) are there to wait on the silly woman.
so polite were they, that Mr. Pyke threatened with many oaths to ‘smifligate’ a
very old man with a lantern who accidentally stumbled in her way—to the
great terror of Mrs. Nickleby, who, conjecturing more from Mr. Pyke’s
excitement than any previous acquaintance with the etymology of the word that
smifligation and bloodshed must be in the main one and the same thing, was
alarmed beyond expression, lest something should occur.
himself to mere verbal smifligation, and they reached the box with no more
serious interruption by the way, than a desire on the part of the same
pugnacious gentleman to ‘smash’ the assistant box-keeper for happening to
mistake the number” (Chapter 27).
On the radio I only said that the verb is probably a fanciful
formation. Spiflicate
currency in the 19th century, but no other example of smifligate
with a taste for such problems are humbly requested to discover the exact
meaning and origin of the verb smifligate.”
return to me like a boomerang. The
OED suggests that both verbs are
fanciful formations and thus uses the same formula I did.
Another query
was about shenanigans.
Celtic. My sources revealed that
it sounded Celtic to many.
However, its origin is enveloped in absolute obscurity.
traced to Irish, Mexican Spanish, regional English (which does not exclude
Irish as its source), and, most forcefully, to German.
air and fall to earth we know not where.
I think that what I said about uff da,
in this country, is correct.
Strange as it may seem, many common interjections are borrowed bookish
words. Ouch
are of this type. Someone in pain
will not yell (holler): “Ouch!” Uff
hardly a “natural” cry. A letter
to the blog pointed out that da “there”
in uff da may have been added for
emphasis. This is undoubtedly
true. Compare English
conversational this here ~ that there man and their exact analogue in Norwegian (den der
It is no wonder that I was unable to satisfy every listener
on the spur of the moment. There
is little one can say about those words, and who can remember the content of a
huge database? But I regret that I
misheard the word chthonic, even though
the listener spelled it. I only
said that it sounded Greek to me (no pun intended). Not only do I know what chthonic
speaking in my course “Scandinavian Myths” about chthonic deities, that is, the
gods connected with the earth and controlling death. I even feel some pride that I can pronounce it correctly (in
English the first two letters are mute).
Pride (like grace) before the fall. I received a letter explaining the adjective and was touched
by its gentle, forgiving tone.
Thus, with regard to spiflicate and especially chthonic
I could have done much better.
Perhaps next time.
The last question for today is more theoretical, and I’ll
copy its beginning. “How would one
go about tracing the spread of a word?
I’m thinking specifically of the word sandwich.
aware of the origin with the Earl of Sandwich, and even a contemporary mention
in a travel diary. What I have not
been able to find is any information on how the word spread from apparently a
single mention to what seems to be worldwide usage.” The information in the OED
4th Earl of Sandwich
(1718-1792), who once spent twenty-four hours at the gaming table without other
refreshment than some slices of cold beef placed between slices of toast.
is given by Grosley Londres
(1770) I. 262. Grosley’s residence
in London was in 1765, and he speaks of the word as having then lately come
into use.” The earliest citation
with the word sandwich is dated
1762 (it refers to a gathering of twenty or thirty “best men in the kingdom…
supping on a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich”). In the 1771 citation sandwich
turn of the century, uses the low case letter. To her, sandwich
was no longer a proper noun.
The question about the spread of a word (any new word) goes
far beyond the history of sandwich.
should be distinguished: the emergence of the novelty and its acceptance by the
public (its rejection can be disregarded, for if the novelty has not “found
favor” with a relatively wide circle, nothing can be known about it).
words. However hard it may be to
account for the birth of a word, it is sometimes even harder to explain its
unexpected popularity. What is
there in cool that it has
conquered half of the world?
Familiar words from names go all the way from champagne
and capital letters!). In the
history of foodstuffs, prestige and the quality of the product play a role in
the “brand name’s” staying power.
“The best men of the kingdom” added ceremony to “supping on a bit of
cold meat,” and others tried to emulate their superiors. Sandwiches inaugurated
fast foods (precursors of our burgers) and were doomed to success.
chance. Sandwich
It could have shared the fate of the now forgotten apee.
Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins…And How We Know Them. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears here each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to blog.us@oup.com; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.”