10 things about me…
- My favorite website is the Online Etymology Dictionary.
- I read the OED for fun. No, I don’t have my own copy. But my birthday is coming up!
- One of my favorite foods is squash (in particular, kabocha). The word squash comes from the Algonquian word askutasquash, which literally means “the green things that may be eaten raw,” from askut – “green, raw” + asquash – “eaten”. (The -ash is a plural affix like in succotash.) It was first recorded in 1643.
- When I was little I fell asleep in this position all the time. My dad thought it was funny to take pictures of it. This happens to be on halloween. (Where I was… a pumpkin = squash. I needed lots of padding.)
The verb sleep comes from the Germanic root meaning “to be weak, to sleep”. It might have a connection with the adjective slack.
- I love salad. The word salad comes from a latin term meaning “salted vegetables”… salt and salad have the same root. The phrase “salad bar” appeared first in 1979.
- I also love yoga. But here’s a confession: I haven’t been to a real class in over 3 months! I just keep doing podcasts and my own flow. Yoga comes from Hindi and from Sanskrit yoga-s, literally “union, yoking”, from the base *yeug- “to join” (like jugular).
- I am a Quaker and a Libertarian. How’s that for a puzzle? Puzzle comes from the word pusle which means “bewilder, confound” or also “perplex” (like how nuzzle comes from nose).
- I drive a Honda Civic and it’s manual. Car comes from a Latin word meaning “two-wheeled Celtic war chariot,” and before that it came from a word meaning “to run”. Mine is actually a 4-wheeled salad chariot… but close enough.
- I sang in Carnegie Hall with my choir when I was 10. Hall comes from a base meaning “to hide, steal”. “Hall of Fame” was first used in 1901 in reference to Columbia College.
- I am procrastinating from writing the Geometry test that I have to give tomorrow. Geometry comes from words meaning “earth”, “land”, and “measure” = “measurement of earth or land”.
What’s your favorite word?