Discovering Words

By Julian Walker

For centuries English has assimilated words from other languages. Julian Walker offers a treasury of word histories, showing the variety of ways in which the words we use have evolved. The book is arranged into subjects, within which a selection of words are traced back through the stages by which they came to be part of the English language, and through more recent changes over time in form and meaning. Historical dictionaries such as Johnson's and Webster's are referenced throughout, especially where there has been disagreement over the histories and 'proper' form of words. 'Discovering Words' provides an enticing introduction to the subject of etymology, showing how the words we use hold the histories of human interaction and communication.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jan 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9780747813095

Julian Walker

Julian Walker is a social development practitioner, with a background in social anthropology and research interest related to urban spatial rights, gender and social identity. He is an Associate Professor at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit of University College London, where he is the Co-Programme Leader of the MSc Social Development Practice, the Director of the DPU's Training and Advisory Services, and the Director of the DPU's Gender Policy and Planning Programme.

Book preview

Arts and Communication

Bulletin. The Latin word bulla, meaning ‘bubble’, possibly originally in imitation of the sound, has been the root for several English words. In Medieval Latin it came to mean ‘seal’ and as such entered Middle English as bulle. In Latin this meaning extended into the entire document to which the seal was attached, as in the Papal Bull which nullified Magna Carta. A small document became the Italian bulleta, which provided a further diminutive, bulletino, which came through French to English in the seventeenth century, when it was often spelt ‘bolletine’; by the early eighteenth century the spelling was established as ‘bulletin’.

Cinema. The abbreviated form of ‘cinematograph’, this word is an anglicisation of the French cinématographe, the word used by the brothers Lumière to describe their invention in 1896. The Greek word kinema means ‘movement’, giving the adjective kinemato-, to which is added graph, meaning ‘drawing’. The abbreviation ‘cinema’ was not used until 1910, but in some cases the spelling ‘kinema’ was preferred, perhaps in an attempt to give respectability to a popular medium by referencing the Greek origins of the word. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary gives ‘kinema’ as a British variant spelling, and anyone looking up ‘cinema’ in the 1979 compact version of the OED will be referred to ‘kinema’.

Critic. Webster linked ‘critic’ to ‘crime’, but the connection to ‘crisis’ made in his entry for ‘critical’ would have been closer. The Greek word krisis means a ‘sifting’, thus figuratively an ‘act of discrimination’, appropriately carried out by a ‘critic’. The date of its adoption into English, at the end of the sixteenth century, would seem to indicate that this was one of the inkhorn terms loved by some scholars and hated by others, and thus itself subject to the opinions of ‘critics’. A number of forms were used: criticus from Latin, critique from French, as well as ‘critic’ and ‘critick’. Johnson tried to fix the spelling with the by then fairly out-of-date form ‘critick’, but it did not stick.

Dialogue. The supposition that the di in dialogue means ‘two’ is misleading; the Greek root dia meaning ‘through’ or ‘between’ provides a component of many more English words than di. Thus, a ‘dialogue’, properly speaking, may be between any number of people. However, probably by association with di as ‘two’, early on in its use in English the idea took hold of a ‘dialogue’ being a conversation between specifically two people. ‘Dialogue’ comes from the Greek dialogos through Latin dialogum to French dialogue. It first appeared in English in the fifteenth century. The dia- prefix, meaning ‘through’, also appears in ‘diagram’, ‘dialect’, ‘diaphragm’ and ‘diarrhoea’.

Easel. In art-school life classes an ‘easel’ can be either something the student stands at or a bench to sit astride, with the drawing-board propped in front, in which case it is called a ‘donkey’. The Latin asinus became the Old English assa and the Middle English asse, meaning ‘ass or donkey’; the diminutive form asellus became in Dutch ezel, ‘little donkey’, and specifically the artist’s ‘easel’. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the spelling varied, including ‘easel’, ‘easle’ and ‘ezel’. The spelling may have adapted to include the sense of ‘ease’ that the apparatus brought to the artist’s task. A number of combination words also use the word ‘horse’ to describe something acting as a frame or

Reviews for Discovering Words

[clicksclan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quick and interesting read. Could have done with going into greater detail for some terms; didn't actually explain what an 'inkhorn term' was but used it repeatedly.Noticed a couple of typos, in particular where it talked about alternative forms 'drived and drived' which is frustrating because I want to know what the alternative form was.Referenced several other books I'm familiar with (and have read recently) - Bill Bryson and David Crystal.