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They’ve done the math, now for the aftermath.
In an attempt to take my mind off things, I’ve been studying Greek. It helps to understand manifestos. Mathematics, I discovered, comes from two Greek words: ‘mathema’ (knowledge) and tekhne (technical). So the ‘math’ bit refers to knowledge, hence ‘polymath’: someone who knows a lot – a smartarse. (more…)
The word ‘gallivanting’ came up the other day and I thought, “Great! That’s Word of the Week taken care of.” But on further investigation, it turned out that ‘gallivanting’, for all its syllables and connotations of wanton behaviour, is a rather one-dimensional word with very little to say for itself. A word of no known origin but possibly derived from ‘gallant’. How disappointing.
But just as I was about to close the book on ‘gallivanting’, another word caught my eye; a word that is synonymous with ‘gallivant’. “Surely not ‘stick’!” I hear you cry. No, not stick. Not yet. The word that caught my eye was ‘gad’.
Gad, like gallivant, conjures up images of dandies prancing about from place to place, possibly on a horse, possibly not, generally being irresponsible. It has its spin-offs too: gadabout (one who gads) and gadfly (another one who gads).
“What about the stick?” I hear you sigh. Stick with it, it’s coming.
The verb ‘to gad’ seems to have been popular in the 1400s, when it meant ‘to hurry’. It derived this meaning from the noun ‘gad’, which was a pointed stick for driving oxen. That’s right, specifically for driving oxen. How you distinguish a pointed stick for driving oxen from any other pointed stick is anyone’s guess.
“Hey, Waulter!” (Waulter was a popular name in those days). “Hey, Waulter! Drive that ox for me, will you?”
“Sorry, Godefryd. No can do. I haven’t got my gad with me.”
“Well, can’t you just use that long, pointed stick over there?”
“Pfff! Naive. That’s a beehive poking stick.”
Back in the Dark Ages, Germanic tribes developed a fondness for words involving lots of Gs and Ds and the occasional Z and they all meant something thin and pointy. In some cases it was a rod, in others it was a nail or a spike. From these came the word ‘gad’, but also ‘yard’. The yard-arm of a ship is so called because of its shape, not because of its length. Let’s face it, if it was only a yard long the ship would probably fall over or something.
Clearly words containing Gs and Ds weren’t the origin of the word ‘stick’, though. That was the German ‘stecken’, which meant to stab or prick. In other words, what you might do with a gad, rather than the gad itself. But there is a point at which the bloodline of the two words merges. Both have their roots in the Latin ‘instigare’, which meant (you guessed it) instigate or (you may not have guessed) goad. And from goad it is but a short step to gad.
So why is this joke funny?
Q: What’s brown and sticky?
A: A stick.
A stick isn’t sticky, unless you’ve stuck it in a beehive. But because sticks were used for sticking into things, the verb ‘to stick’ came to apply to anything that was fixed in place, whether that was through the use of drawing pins or glue.
If you’re a stickler for the correct use of these words, though, you might be disappointed to learn that ‘stickler’ has no ancestral relationship with ‘stick’ and, therefore, no place in this article. Sorry about that. I just thought it was interesting that ‘stickler’ comes from the 16th century word ‘stickle’, which meant to mediate, not from ‘stick’ which didn’t.
More interesting than gallivant anyway.
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As Shakespeare once wrote, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be. And don’t go getting those two words muddled up either!” He later cut the second sentence, which is a shame, because confusion still reigns in some quarters.
A few weeks ago the annual census of new baby names was published, revealing that, for the four hundredth year in a row, the boy’s name Oliver and the girl’s name Olivia were among the top five most popular names for UK newborns. What is this fixation with olive farming?
Not so popular was Adolf, which, for the 80th year running, did not feature in the list. And with good reason. No-one wants to name their offspring after an enemy of the people. But there is one notable exception. (more…)
To create the optimum atmosphere for watching the Rugby World Cup Final tomorrow, I’ve been putting together a playlist of classic tunes from 2003, the year England last won it. It features two of my favourite songs of all time, Milkshake by Kelis and United States of Whatever by Liam Lynch.
What do I like about them? Well, among other things, the way they use the word ‘like’: ie, not as in “what do I like about them?” but as in, like, a figure of speech that just sort of happens, kind of thing. It’s time we tackled this.
(more…)
Photo by Thick and Thin from Pexels
Hands up everyone who thinks this blog ain’t what it used to be. Rose-tinted spectacles, my friend. If you look back through the archive or buy the book, you’ll find it’s always been rubbish. Anyway, read on.
Why does some rain fall harder than other rain? Anyone who was caught in the rain yesterday evening will, no doubt, have pondered the same question. It was one of those downpours that causes people to use words like “Biblical” and make jokes about building an ark.
Regular listeners to radio phone-in shows will be familiar with the phrase “Not her/his real name.” This occurs when they’re talking about some sensitive issue, like gender neutral toilets or bad feet or one as a result of the other, and someone calls or writes in wishing to comment without being identified.
So the presenter will give them a pseudonym. For example, “Sarah Evans (not her real name) writes…” Which raises all sorts of questions. All sorts. (more…)
There’s something spooky going on. Earlier this week I was offered a Werther’s Original by my friend Nick and we were extolling the virtues of this caramel flavoured confection. This naturally led on to us finishing the packet while discussing similar ‘old man’s car sweets’ like Murray Mints and Humbugs. Beautiful. I haven’t had a Humbug in years, nor even heard the word.
So imagine my surprise when I turned on the radio on Thursday morning to hear that Boris Johnson had caused a furore on the floor of the House by using the very same word that I’d spent several minutes discussing on Monday! Was this some sort of voodoo? Could my casual discourse somehow be influencing the Prime Minister? (more…)
What’s Freddie Mercury got to do with the Rugby World Cup? I’ll tell you.
Let’s begin with a coincidence: that being that on a day of worldwide protests against climate change, the Rugby World Cup has kicked off in Japan. Why is that a coincidence? Because rugby scrums contribute more to the degradation of the planet’s atmosphere than just about any other feature of sport you care to mention. And that includes Nigel Farage playing chess.
