June Casagrande Author of "Mortal Syntax" and "Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies"

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June Casagrande was born in March and lives in a small house. She wrote a grammar/humor book called "Mortal Syntax" and, before that, one called "Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies." She sincerely hopes you buy a million copies of each.
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Now THAT'S Etymology

by June Casagrande

October 26, 2009, 7:58 am

I've never found word origins very interesting. Every once in a while, I'll wonder how we ended up with a word like "shampoo," so I'll look it up to see that it comes from a Hindi word meaning "to massage."

But for the most part, in those moments when I'm feeling both intellectually curious and energetic enough to do something about it, I'd much rather learn about chemistry or geology or modern French or credit default swaps than the points A, B, and C that one of our words passed through. (It probably has to do with my aversion to history and linear time in general.)

Today, however, I make an exception. It's a passage I came across in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" in a chapter about corn.

"The shelled cobs were burned for heat and stacked by the privy as a rough substitute for toilet paper. (Hence the American slang term "corn hole.")

Now that's etymology.

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Eric Nichols says:

I'm surprised!

I would have thought a veteran word-surgeon such as yourself would have been fascinated with origins. :)

Here's a little excerpt from my "Opus of Amateur Radio Knowledge and Lore" that touches on some technological etymology (and at times entomology. :) )

"....At one point in tyme...I mean time...radio and electronics were synonymous. Electronics is actually a rather recent word, and it originally referred to electricity not confined to normal physical conductors. This generally meant that branch of electricity dealing with “free electrons” such as encountered in devices such as vacuum tubes. (See Electrons: The tools of the trade). In fact, radio is a relatively recent word itself, preceded by the more poetic term, wireless. To be honest, clueless would have been a more apt term at the time than wireless. About all anyone knew about wireless was that it didn’t require wires.
“Honey, will you warm up the clueless set? Rudy Vallee is on soon!”
The term radio, on the other hand, presupposed at least a faint clue as to what was going on. It indicated that something was being radiated from one location and intercepted at another. Since the use of wires is required for both the radiation and interception of radio signals, it’s ironic indeed that it was ever called wireless. In reality, the evolution from wired to wireless telegraphy (or telephony) only involved the reorganization of said wires. To be fair, there is a little more to it. Wireless implied that there was a gap between the talker’s wires and the listener’s wires. As with most things, hindsight is 20/20. If we were to rename wireless using what we know now, we probably would have named it “wire gap” or “wire chasm” telegraphy. Or even “broken wire” telegraphy.

Eric

Mon, 10/26/2009 - 8:28am

Eric Nichols says:

p.s. I always thought

p.s. I always thought that shampoo was just something less than real poo.

eric

Mon, 10/26/2009 - 10:47am

Chris Rodell says:

Brain barnicle

Thanks, June. That one's gonna stick. You've contributed to another round of exasperated eye rolls from friends who just can't stand it when I bring up that irresistible sort of trivia.

Keep on truckin'!

Chris

Tue, 10/27/2009 - 9:40am

June Casagrande says:

Thanks, Chris and Eric!

Someday I may be mature enough that I don't giggle with delight at terms like "corn hole."

But I certainly hope not.

Chris: Hardly recognized you from the photo! So dignified and parental. Unlike the guy in the beard pic, that's not a guy to whom one might say "corn hole."

: )

Tue, 10/27/2009 - 10:48am