Embark on a vocabulary journey
Where did the word caterpillar come from? Everyday words, curious origins
Published on December 20, 2024
Image: Snapwire
Thanks to etymology, the science that studies the origins of words, we can learn how and when certain terms began to be used and why they are popular today. Did you know that the concept of brunch has existed since the 19th century? And that we owe the word clue to the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur? Would you like to discover these and other curious origins of common words we use on a daily basis? Keep reading!
Nightmare
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The night part in "nightmare" is self-explanatory, but what about "mare"? You may be interested to know that a mare is not only a female horse but also a term that comes from Middle English and means "suffocating evil spirit." Back in the 13th century, a mare was thought to be a female goblin or ogre that lay on sleeping people and suffocated them.
People were so convinced that a physical being caused this distress that a nightmare was believed to be an actual monster until the 16th century. Eventually, people realized that the crushing, suffocating feeling was an emotional reaction to a bad dream. Isn't that what a nightmare feels like—panic, shortness of breath, suffocation? Fortunately, we have a perfect word to describe it!
Curfew
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Didn't you hate it when you were young and your parents set a curfew for you? Surely you didn’t know that this custom comes from the sounding of a bell reminding medieval Europeans to cover their fires at night. Today, a curfew is imposed by parents on rebellious teenagers or during periods of emergency or conflict as a way of keeping people off the streets at night.
However, in the Middle Ages, the curfew was the time when people were reminded not to set their own homes on fire. Back then, an evening signal bell would give the order "Cover fire!" But what exactly does curfew mean? Well, the term curfew is an Old French word brought to England by the Norman conquerors, which comes from cuvrir, "to cover" and feu, "fire."
Scavenger
Image: Benjamin White
A long, long time ago, before there were machines, a scavenger was a person who swept the streets. Their job was to remove trash and dirt from the roads. Some of them may have pocketed items they found while pushing around their brooms, but that’s not what gave rise to the modern concept of a scavenger.
For that, the English language has tax collectors to thank. In London, those tasked by the crown with collecting a form of tax called scavage from foreign merchants were called scavagers. By the 16th century, the word was modified by adding an "n," mutating it to scavengers, used to describe people who combed through looking for useful items. Later, the concept was borrowed for animals such as vultures and hyenas.
Silly
Image: Annie Spratt
If someone called you silly today, you would be offended, but a medieval Englishman would have been pleased. The word is an alteration of the earlier term seely, from an Old High German root meaning "luck, happiness." Therefore, the Old English sense of seely was "happy, fortunate, blessed by God."
In the later Middle Ages, the term developed into "holy," then "innocent, defenseless, deserving of pity." So, what happened? How did we go from a positive term to one with a more negative connotation? The simple explanation is that people often regard goodness and simplicity as a lack of intelligence, which is why, since the late 16th century, the primary sense of silly has been "foolish."
Vaccine
Image: Diana Polekhina
We all know that vaccines save lives, but few know where the term comes from. Believe it or not, its origin is in the animal world. In the 18th century, English physician Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who had come into contact with the virus causing cowpox did not contract smallpox, a more serious disease. In 1796, he deliberately infected a couple of children with small amounts of cowpox and proved his theory.
Two years later, Jenner reported his findings in an article written in Latin in which he referred to cowpox as variolae vaccinae, derived from vaccus, meaning "cow." Thus, at the dawn of the 19th century, the term vaccine, used at the time to refer to cowpox material used for injections, later evolved into other nouns and verbs such as vaccinate and vaccination.
Amateur
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Today, for some reason, the word amateur has a negative connotation. However, in its origins, it had a much more positive meaning. Borrowed from French in the 18th century and ultimately derived from the Latin word amator, meaning "lover," it was originally used to describe a person who loves or is fond of something, as well as a person who practices an art or sport as a hobby rather than professionally. In other words, an amateur does something for love rather than for money.
Interestingly, the word aficionado, a synonym for "amateur," started out as a term for an aspiring bullfighter and later came to refer to a devotee of bullfighting. Aficionado is a Spanish word meaning "to inspire affection" and is now used to describe any ardent follower of an activity.
Sarcasm
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The words of a sarcastic person can be sharp and painful, and this may be because the term sarcasm hides the idea of biting into the flesh. The word came into English in the mid-16th century from French, and is based on Greek sarkazein, meaning "to tear flesh," which also came to mean "to gnash the teeth" or "speak bitterly."
Interestingly, the word sarcophagus has a similar history. The original Greek term meant "flesh-eating" and is a combination of sarx, meaning "flesh," and -phagos, meaning "eating." Sarcophagi were originally made of a type of limestone that the ancient Greeks believed consumed the flesh of any dead body in contact with it.
Clue
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Without clues, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot would not be the detectives we know and love. The word clue is a modern spelling of the Old English term clew, meaning "a ball of thread." How did we go from a thread to our modern sense of clue? Well, it derives, no less, from the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.
After killing the bull-headed monster, the Greek hero manages to escape the labyrinth thanks to the ball of twine that Princess Ariadne gave him to find his way out. From this ancient story, a clue became anything that you can follow to reach a solution.
Brunch
Image: Rachel Park
Brunch conjures an image of a contemporary urban lifestyle. Although we all picture a cool New Yorker coining the term in the 20th century, it actually came into being in 19th-century Britain. Back then, many upper-class families would give their servants Sundays off, during which the servants would prepare a buffet that included breakfast and lunch dishes. Hence, brunch is a combination of the words breakfast and lunch.
Don’t believe us? An 1896 article in the "Fashionable and Seasonable" section of the English satirical magazine Punch stated: "Nowadays to be fashionable, we have to go ‘brunching.’ An excellent compound word, introduced, by the way, last year by Mr. Guy Beringer in the now-defunct Hunter's Weekly magazine, indicating a combination of breakfast and lunch." Later, in the 1930s, the practice became popular in the United States.
Caterpillar
Image: Niv Singer
If you own a garden, you’ve probably seen a caterpillar or two eating away at the leaves of your precious plants. If not, you might remember the blue smoking character from Alice in Wonderland. But do you know where the peculiar name of this furry insect comes from?
The term caterpillar first appeared in English in the form catyrpel, probably an alteration of the Old French word chatepelose, which literally means "hairy cat." The extended form -piller is believed to come from the Old English word piller, meaning "a plunderer or ravager." Given the damage that caterpillars do to plants, it is likely that this influenced how the word is now spelled.
