#ethimology

[maxwell1138]

I wish Star Wars had the same naming complexities that Lord of the Rings has.

In lotr all the names of characters, regions and kingdoms have a meaning and story. There are whole essays on the meaning of the names of characters like Galadriel and Celeborn. In unfinished tales there's a section that discusses the name of the river Gwathló and why it was named like that; Gwath means darkness or shadow, as the river was once covered by tall trees that casted their shadow over its waters, and ló means swamp or marshland, as the Numenoreans who explored the river reached Swanfleet, a marshland from which the river originated. Later the Numenoreans used the forests around the river for timber and deforested the whole region, making the name of the river be outdated due the change on the landscape. And you have to consider that this river had next to zero importance whatsoever, but it still had a whole backstory.

And in star wars we have Coruscant, the jewel of the core world, the biggest metropolis of the entire galaxy, populated by trillions, the center of galactic culture for over a thousand years and we don't even know what its name means. It's just Coruscant, that's it, no background, no ethimology.

[yuknoomyichakkahk]

To my knowledge, prior to the nineteenth century, suksma sarira was never applied to the body of a living human being. In India’s yogic and tantric literature, this has simply been called “the body…

[eyeofthebrainstorm]

I keep seeing post that says "fuck diets" and "diets are bad" and it just fucks me up because I know that the term comes from an ancient Greek word that means "a healthy lifestyle". I'm sad that a word that really signified a gold thing was turned into its opposite. Let's bring the real meaning of diet back.

[useless-catalanfacts]

There are two main hypothesis of why the Catalan Bay, in Gibraltar, has this name.

Documentary evidence suggests that the bay is named after a group of around 350 Catalan servicemen believed to have settled there after having assisted the Anglo-Dutch forces who captured Gibraltar during the War of Spanish Succession on the 4th of August, 1704.

Another hypothesis says that the name came from the Catalan fishermen who went temporarily to the Andalusian coast every year.

[vixxgot7shineecats]

Slave:

From Old French sclave, from the Medieval Latin sclavus, from the Byzantine Greek σκλάβος , which, in turn, comes from the ethnonym Slav, because in some early Medieval wars many Slavs were captured and enslaved. 

Slavery existed before written history and in many cultures. It was once institutionally recognized by most societies, but has now been outlawed in all countries,the last being Mauritania in 2007. However, it continues through such practices as debt bondage,serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, human trafficking and forced marriage.Accordingly, there are still an estimated 20 million to 36 million slaves worldwide

[luceirosdegolados]

I guess the name of Primarch Adrien Victus could be even more symbolic but I honestly don't see how.

[snipwits-blog]

Today I Learned...

That the word "Thespian" means "Actor/Actress" and comes from "Thespis" a greek poet from the 6th century who come up with the concept of acting.

[achaosofdesire-blog]

Are you fit for purpose?

That's a question that seems to be being asked about nearly everything and everyone these days, so you'd better have your answer ready. This rather prim phrase began life in the field of consumer protection law, characterizing a manufactured product that does what it was designed to do. The implication for the consumer is that if something isn’t fit for purpose, you can take it back and get a refund or a replacement. The expression was occasionally used metaphorically in British English in the early 21st century, but what really made a wider public aware of it here was the announcement in 2006 by John Reid, the newly appointed British Home Secretary, that his government department was 'not fit for purpose' – meaning that it was no good at doing its job. That unprecedented criticism hit the headlines, and opened the way for the use of 'fit for purpose' in an almost unlimited range of applications. A recent random search I did turned up buildings, budgets, educational courses, streetlights, railway stations, hostels for the homeless, acts of parliaments, cattle sheds, soldiers, soil and washbasins, all described as fit for purpose – or, more often than not, as not fit for purpose. So, perhaps it's time for you to ask yourself, 'Is my English fit for purpose?'