ETYMOLOGY
101
The origin of: potpourri
In everyday usage, potpourri has
a positive connotation. It can refer to either a medley or
assortment of anything (a potpourri of ethnicities), or a
mix of flowers, herbs, and spices kept in a jar to provide
a welcome scent. It may thus come as a surprise to learn the
word literally means “rotten pot.” The original
French pot pourri (pot
“pot” + pourri, past
participle of pourrir “to
rot”) was a stew made with a variety of meats and vegetables
slowly cooked together, and was borrowed from a traditional
Spanish dish called olla podrida.
Why the stew was referred to as rotten is not very clear,
but may have to do with the fact that stews were often made
from anything available, especially ingredients not typically
mixed together.
The origin of: ounce
I discovered more than I bargained for while accidentally
stumbling on this word in my New Book of Word
Histories. It appears our system of weights
and measures is far more complicated and arcane than most
of us realize. Because the Romans used a system of measurement
based on twelve parts, ounce comes to us
from the Latin uncia, meaning “a
twelfth part,” by way of Middle French unce.
The word inch also comes from uncia by way
of the Old English ince or ynce.
Etymologically, both ounce and inch
should refer to a twelfth part of something, so why does our
pound contain 16 ounces? The reason is due to the development
in medieval Europe of two separate systems of measurement.
The first system
originated in Troyes, France, an important medieval commercial
hub. Today, the only unit of measurement still used from this
system is the troy ounce (ozt), which is slightly larger than
our standard ounce (see table on page 3). It is only used
to measure precious metals, precious stones, and medicine.
The second system,
used today in the United States and in many parts of Canada
and the United Kingdom, is the avoirdupois system
(from Old French avoir de pois,
“goods of weight”). After 1485, it was the standard
system of weights used in England for all goods—except
those covered by the troy ounce—until metrification
(conversion to the metric system) took place in the latter
part of the 20th century. The reason this system of weights
contains a 16 ounce pound may originate from a 1590 decree
that differentiated the weights of troy and avoirdupois pounds
(but failed to give any type of conversion factor between
the two).
* The reason we
abbreviate pound lb. is because
the Latin word for pound is libra.
A pound sterling (abbreviated £) indeed used to be a
pound of silver.
* The abbreviation
for ounce, oz., comes from the Italian
word for ounce, onza.
Source: The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories,
Wikipedia, The
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (1971), Online
Etymology Dictionary, http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/weight.htm.
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WELL
I'LL BE!
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS YOU NEVER
ASKED
Why does some old-school writing contain the letter
“f” in place of the letter “s”?
This has always confused me. Take a look at the first sentence
of the Declaration of Independence and you will see the following:
When
in the Course of human events, it becomes necefsary
for one people to difsolve
the political bands which have connected… |
The character in place of the lower case ‘s’ is
not an ‘f’ but what is called a “long”
or “medial” s (represented as ? ). The long s
dates back to medieval times and was used for centuries, often
to spruce up manuscripts with additional expressive strokes.
The long s is perhaps most familiar to us from its extensive
usage in the 18th century, when Copperplate handwriting (a
type of calligraphic script that uses a sharp, pointed nib
pen) was popular.
Strictly speaking,
the long s should only appear at the beginning or in the middle
of a word, while the terminal, short, or round s (the one
we use today) should end it. A quick read over a period manuscript
shows, however, that this rule was not always closely followed.
The long s persisted
into the 20th century in the German script Fraktur (commonly
called Old German print), which is today typically associated
with (continued on page 3, column 1)
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