2. Stamina
1670’s – From latin: stamen: “rudiments or
original elements of something”. Plural:
stamina
First recorded on 1726
"congenital vital capacities of a person or
animal"
3. Taboo
1777 – From Tongan(Polynesian language of the
island of Tonga) Ta-bu: “sacred”
From Hawaii:
Tabu: “sacred, prohibition, holy”
From Tahiti:
Tapoo: “restriction, sacred”
The noun and verb are English innovations first
recorded in Cook's book.
4. Clue
Derivation from the medieval word clew that
means “ball of thread”
Classic mythology: the hero Theseus was given a
ball of thread to help him find his way out of the
labyrinth of Minos. By following the trail of
thread he left behind him he was able to
navigate his way to the exit.
The word clue then became associated with
anything which might hint at the solution.
5. Engineer
From the Latin ingenium, the same word
ingenious comes from.
Not from the word engine.
6. Serendipity
“A fortunate happenstance or a pleasant
surprise”
First noted use in the English language was by
Horace Walpole (1717-1797) in a letter where he
say he coined it by seeing it in the Persian fairy
tale ‘The Three Princesses of Serendip’, whose
heroes “were always making discoveries, by
accidents and sagacity, of things they were not
in quest of”.
7. Disaster
From Greece
Dis: “bad”. Aster: “star”.
The ancients used to blame calamities on
unfavourable planetary.
8. Ferret
From old French: furet diminutive of
fuiron, means “thief”
From Latin: furionem (related to furonem
that meant cat and was also related to
“robber”)
In allusion to the animal’s slyness and
craftiness)
11. Muscle
From Latin root meaning “little mouse”
Apparently people used to think muscles
looked like little mice under their skin.
12. Devil
From Latin diabolus “accuser, slanderer”
From old English deofol “evil spirit, a
devil, false god, diabolical person”
Jerome re-introduced Satan in Latin bibles,
and English translators have used both in
different measures.
13. Guess
From Danish gitse, getze “to guess”
From Proto-germanic getan “to get”
The prehistoric sense evolution then would be
from "get," to "take aim at," to "to estimate."
Meaning "to hit upon the right answer" is from
1540s.
Spelling with gu- is late 16c., sometimes
attributed to Caxton and his early experience as
a printer in Bruges.
14. Abandon
Mettre sa forest à bandon was a feudal is a law
phrase from the 13th cent that means “to open it
freely to any one for pasture or to cut wood in”
hence the later sense of giving up one's rights for
a time, letting go, leaving, abandoning.
Etymologically, the word carries a sense of "put
someone under someone else's control."
Meaning "to give up absolutely" is from late 14
15. Bachelor
From French bacheler that means “ knight
barchelor or young man, unmarried man”
The meaning in English expanded in the early 14
century to "young unmarried man”
Bachelor party as a pre-wedding ritual is from
1882
Bachelorette: from barchelor with French ending
“ette”. Comes from French bachelette which
means “young girl”
16. Apology
From Greek apologia that means “speaking
in defense”.
To apologize was originally to defend
one's words or actions, not to express
regret for them.
It acquired the modern meaning in the
18th century.
17. Malaria
From Latin phrase mal aria which means
“bad air”
It was used to describe the atmosphere
around the swamps in Rome
18. Nostalgia
From Latin Nostos (which translates to
something like “returning home”) and
algos (pain)
Nostalgia’s meaning would be “The pain of
returning home”
