Origin of Simple Words

Senna

Maybe I'm just really slow, but I only just realised that "Breakfast", is the Break you take from fasting all night i.e. Break-fast.

Any other simple words with obvious means that aren't easily connected?

I await a thread full of replies reducing my language abilities to that of a 5 year old child.

mikemac1

Whist up OP!

Comes from fuist in Irish. Which then comes from éist which is to listen

See, who said you never use Irish?:)

kneemos

Catatonic comes from cats being relaxing.

Hownowcow

Smashing as in "That's smashing", comes from the Irish "Is maith sin" (say it quickly).

kneemos

Together comes from to get her and when you do it becomes together.

Sunnyisland

kneemos wrote: »

Catatonic comes from cats being relaxing.

I thought that was a part of a car :rolleyes:

kneemos

realies wrote: »

I thought that was a part of a car :rolleyes:

Catatonic converter?

OldGoat

It's said that the jazz word "Dig" stems from the gaelic word for understand, "Thig".
Lots of Irish emigrants around the States in the early jazz days would have been Irish speakers. When asked at work "Do you understand?" They would reply "Tuigim". This evolved into "Do you dig?".

SouthTippBass

Fortnight = Fourteen nights.

The Backwards Man

Dogs are called dogs because that's what they look like.

Mr Benevolent

kneemos wrote: »

Catatonic comes from cats being relaxing

...with a gin and tonic.

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

NothingMan

Movies... because the pictures move. I know it's stupidly simple but I remember thinking "ah yeah" when it first clicked.

OK, comes from Oll Korrect - in the late 19th century there was a trend of spelling words wrong ironically. At least that's what QI says and thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.

holystungun9

kneemos wrote: »

Catatonic converter?

That's Ketamine to you and me.

Hownowcow

Deleted User wrote: »

OK, comes from Oll Korrect - in the late 19th century there was a trend of spelling words wrong ironically. At least that's what QI says and thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.

I heard another version.

When ships docked in New Orleans they couldn't be unloaded until they were secure. Once secure they were in French "Au quay", from which came OK.

Míshásta

OldGoat wrote: »

It's said that the jazz word "Dig" stems from the gaelic word for understand, "Thig".
Lots of Irish emigrants around the States in the early jazz days would have been Irish speakers. When asked at work "Do you understand?" They would reply "Tuigim". This evolved into "Do you dig?".

Nah, I very much doubt it. Etymologists don't accept it. I think that theory comes from an Irish-American who claimed they were links between many American slang terms and Irish. He had no qualifications in the subject - 'twas all just speculation. Just because too terms sound similar doesn't mean they are connected.

A more interesting example.

"Budweiser" comes from the Irish "Bod Oisire" which means "Oyster Penis". It got its name from the effect of drinking too much of that piss masquerading as beer. The genitals shrivelled up to very small dimensions.

Karl Stein

'Gallop' is the actual sound of a horse running.

Gallop, gallop, gallop.

snubbleste

Taoiseach comes from a man being shocked upon tasting tea leaves.

Antar Bolaeisk

I've always thought watch (as in the one you wear) was a bit of a strange one. I suppose it's derived more from the 'To keep an eye on' meaning than the 'to actively view' meaning.

The Backwards Man

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

I've always thought watch (as in the one you wear) was a bit of a strange one. I suppose it's derived more from the 'To keep an eye on' meaning than the 'to actively view' meaning.

In olden times, someone 'watched' the sundial so they knew when it was dinnertime, suppertime, Bosco time etc.

Columbia

'Goodbye' comes from 'God be with you'.

The word 'whiskey' comes from the Irish/Scottish word 'uisce/uisge beatha', meaning 'water of life'.

Gyalist

Míshásta wrote: »

Nah, I very much doubt it. Etymologists don't accept it. I think that theory comes from an Irish-American who claimed they were links between many American slang terms and Irish. He had no qualifications in the subject - 'twas all just speculation. Just because too terms sound similar doesn't mean they are connected.

The book is How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads.

gramar

Senna wrote: »

Maybe I'm just really slow, but I only just realised that "Breakfast", is the Break you take from fasting all night i.e. Break-fast.

Any other simple words with obvious means that aren't easily connected?

I await a thread full of replies reducing my language abilities to that of a 5 year old child.

....and brunch takes the br for breakfast and the unch from lunch and gives you a handy little mid-morning snack that is neither breakfast nor lunch! I wouldn't go around saying it too loudly though. People will think you're a w**ker.

Dicky Pride

OP has 9gag on his phone

Frank Black

The word engine is derived from the Latin word ingenium which means ingenious.
Similarly Engineer is also derived from this word and means 'one who is ingenious'.


As an Enginner, I've often had to explain this to people who insist on asking me what is wrong with their car when I've told them what I do.

kneemos

Sheep comes from scottish sheep dogs who were always called Shep.

bradyle

Naggin comes from an Irish word naigín for a small wooden pail that can hold two drinks. I learnt this after an English colleague had no idea what I was talking about when I told him we’d need a few cheeky naggins to get through our week long H&S course

Mr.Prodston

I believe diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.

kneemos

kneemos wrote: »

Catatonic converter?

For a long time I thought they were called paralytic converters.

It made sense - of a sort

JD DABA

Balzac

This herbs name derives from its earlier use as a means to freshen the scrotum.

IK09

The word "****fáced" as slang for "drunk" dates back to the 1960s, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist before that. In fact, it's present in a Scottish dictionary from 1826 -- which bizarrely defines it as "Having a very small face, as a child."

Ash.J.Williams

kip- to sleep or a sh1thole house

from kip house, where dublin prostitutes from Monto would sleep during the day

--Kaiser--

kneemos wrote: »

Together comes from to get her and when you do it becomes together.

OldGoat wrote: »

It's said that the jazz word "Dig" stems from the gaelic word for understand, "Thig".
Lots of Irish emigrants around the States in the early jazz days would have been Irish speakers. When asked at work "Do you understand?" They would reply "Tuigim". This evolved into "Do you dig?".

Jazz also comes from 'deas', which is Irish for excitement. A lot of American slang can be traced back to Irish immigrants, and there were quite a lot of us (in 1850's New York about a quarter of the population were Irish). Some other words taken from Gaelic (fadas and whatnot missing):

Swell - from 'souil' which happy
Snazzy - from -sneasach' meaning stylish
Doozie - from 'duasoir' or prize-winner
Dogs (for feet) - from 'dochas'
So long - from 'Slan' for good bye

RayM

Countryside - The unlawful killing of Piers Morgan.

© Stephen Fry

Ghost Buster

Before we started laying and cultivating hedgerows as a means of land devision we had a small native mammal called a hog and a much larger one of the same name. When the smaller prickly mammal successfully adapted to living within this new artificial environment we adapted its name to 'hedgehog' which helped clear up enormous confusion in the pork butchers profession.

--Kaiser--

Míshásta wrote: »

Nah, I very much doubt it. Etymologists don't accept it. I think that theory comes from an Irish-American who claimed they were links between many American slang terms and Irish. He had no qualifications in the subject - 'twas all just speculation. Just because too terms sound similar doesn't mean they are connected.

A more interesting example.

"Budweiser" comes from the Irish "Bod Oisire" which means "Oyster Penis". It got its name from the effect of drinking too much of that piss masquerading as beer. The genitals shrivelled up to very small dimensions.

OK, fair point. But if you've got a better etymology for the phrase 'So long' then I'd like to hear it

Tar.Aldarion

upsidedown comes from the up side, being down.

The word "verbing" comes from the Irish habit of turning any noun into a verb..

eg. "I was so blackboarded last night that I ended up coffee-tabling that girl back at the house".

Tzetze

Evening. That period between day and night where they are brought equal/level.
Probably was always very obvious to most people, but it's something I was very slow to realise.

Tzetze

Tzetze wrote: »

Evening. That period between day and night where they are brought equal/level.
Probably was always very obvious to most people, but it's something I was very slow to realise.

*lightbulbs flashing*


Not as slow as I am.:)

I am pie

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

OK, fair point. But if you've got a better etymology for the phrase 'So long' then I'd like to hear it

shalom - Yiddish
so lange - German idiom

..and various others from:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=so+long

I am pie

I am pie wrote: »

shalom - Yiddish
so lange - German idiom

..and various others from:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=so+long

ps....looking on this tool you can see that claims that the Irish invented the word 'Jazz' are highly dubious and that given the geographic origins of the music, the patois origin of the word is significantly more likely.

--Kaiser--

I am pie wrote: »

shalom - Yiddish
so lange - German idiom

..and various others from:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=so+long

I still think the Irish one is a better bet. Especially if you consider the massive amounts of Irish in the US around the time the phrase began to appear

denhaagenite

Coleslaw comes from kool sla which means cabbage salad in Dutch

JD DABA

History comes from the French word 'Histoire'

dsmythy

http://www.etymonline.com/

/thread :P

Iomega Man

Bog....from the Irish word for "soft" (Simples!!).

I am pie

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I still think the Irish one is a better bet. Especially if you consider the massive amounts of Irish in the US around the time the phrase began to appear

German one edges it for me, large Germanic diaspora in the US as well.

grenache

[Deleted User] wrote: »

OK, comes from Oll Korrect - in the late 19th century there was a trend of spelling words wrong ironically. At least that's what QI says and thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.

Stephen Fry is wrong! It comes from old German. "Oll Korrect" literally means "all good".

--Kaiser--

grenache wrote: »

Stephen Fry is wrong! It comes from old German. "Oll Korrect" literally means "all good".

You're completely wrong.
In a list of proposed etymologies, your one doesn't appear, because 'Oll Korrect' is not German at all

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_etymologies_of_OK