The Literal Meaning Behind Certain Words.

I was thinking about this today. There are certain words in the English language, and we hear them so often, we forget what the words actually stand for. Let me give some examples.

Farewell: Usually, when you think of farewell, you think of good bye. But looking at the literal meaning, it means "fare well," as in "I wish you luck, fare well young traveler," etc. See what I mean.

Goodbye: Well, this is pretty simple one, but you get the idea.

Disease: This one has to be my favorite when it comes to a literal meaning. Disease literally means "dis ease" as in stress is a contributing cause to disease. When you are stressed etc, your body is affected in many detrimental ways. If one has a healthy state of mind, then one will have a healthier state of body for the most part.

Those are some examples to get us started. I will add some more if I can think of any. Do you have any to share?

Hello. I was once perplexed over the word "aboriginal", thinking "ab" as in abnormal, and felt that since aborignals were natives to certain countries, this was a misnomer. However, upon looking it up:

"Ab" means "from" in Latin. "Origin" means just what it seems to - the place where something begins. Therefore "aboriginal" means "from the origin" or those people native to a region.

Aboriginal specifically means "autocthonous." It is used precisely for indigenous populations.

Read more: wiki.answers.com...

So, some things are not always what they seem. I love words though; root words and derivatives. Fun to ponder.

I like the oft innocently used word "cowpoke."
2

The most current one is ELE-nin

I like when a word sounds like something, or is synonymous to a person. Such as a Dentist named Dr. Achen ! (a real dentist here in town)

I''ve often thought of the word "understand" as standing under some source of higher consciousness. (Not to mention, we often use the icon of a light bulb above a person's head to represent this 'ah-hah moment.')

This is a fun game. Say more of them!

Ok, I got another, call on me, teacher...

REMEMBER, as in-- it was a 'member' of your conscious thought... you lost the connection... then you RE-membered with it.

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


I understand what you mean.

But what am I standing under?

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


Fantastic topic! The etymology of words is something I nerdgasm over often.

For the previous questions about "understand" - if it ever made sense, that sense has been lost, according to Michael Quinon of World Wide Words:

"Understand has had our modern sense right from the time it was first recorded, in the ninth century. It seems to have originated in one of these subsidiary senses which is now lost to us. After rather more than 1100 years, it’s very hard to be sure exactly what was in people’s minds."
www.worldwidewords.org...

Different slant on your original idea... If something can happen before-hand or be at-hand - is there a future-tense?

Confusion

a anglo saxonic deturpartion stemming from a chinese man's name, said man who was anything but "confused" as the meaning now stands.

I learned the other month that the word "Arena" literally means "sand" in Latin. Kindof an interesting one.

Another odd one: You know the English name Garfield, right? That fat orange cat of comic page lore? "Gar" was an old english word for spear. So the (previously) unremarkable name Garfield really began by signifying a field of spears.

Here is one that struck me this morning, Breakfast.

Break the Fast by eating?

What got me thinking about this is the thought that there are some folks who would believe that since they cannot eat during their sleep cycle that they are actually fasting! Most probably couldn't wait to get up to eat after such a long fasting! Of course some folks are that way about nicotine too!

Originally posted by polarwarrior
reply to post by SolarE-Souljah

 

I understand what you mean.

But what am I standing under?

Knowledge. You are standing under the Know Ledge. When you understand something, it is because you happened to stand under that particular ledge or shelf of knowing-- and so experience the 'ah-hah' moment via the outpouring of information from the Universe. Don't you love the feeling when you suddenly 'get it?' (Whatever it is you might have been puzzling over.) After searching for the answer, suddenly in a flash of insight, you 'understand' !

Related to that... Insight means 'sight with the eyes of the mind' or mental vision, understanding...

Do you think that someone actually fell off a "Band-wagon"? I bet he was drunk!

Originally posted by Greensage
Do you think that someone actually fell off a "Band-wagon"? I bet he was drunk!

HAHAHA... that's awesome! I bet you're right, and the original story is lost to us, but the term spread far and wide.

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


I re - member (see what I did there ? ) when I first heard the Enigma album 'Return To Innocense' and all I could think was it should be 'Return To Inner Sense'

Not sure if this counts just thoufght it was nice.

Woody

My native language is not English, but I always enjoy good word-plays in different languages. Speaking about dentists, it reminded me one funny thing - in Estonia we have a dentist named dr. Hell. But "hell" means "gentle" in Estonian. So, it´s a good example of relativity and how meaning of words can shape our expectations :-)

To add interesting English word: "flower", flow-er, someone and something who flows.

Originally posted by new_here

Originally posted by Greensage
Do you think that someone actually fell off a "Band-wagon"? I bet he was drunk!

HAHAHA... that's awesome! I bet you're right, and the original story is lost to us, but the term spread far and wide.

His wife probably made sure of that! LOL

Goodbye is shortened for "God, be with ye."

Originally posted by AngelHeart
Goodbye is shortened for "God, be with ye."

Oh wow, I like this one! It is funny how in today's world you hear lots of folks say, "Never say Goodbye". How freaky!


here is one I thought of while posting on another thread:
'Beforehand', sounds like a slap in the face, and 'backhanded' does too only the other direction! People used to slap a lot in the past.