A.D. and B.C.

One of our young members is taking a History class and asked about A.D. and B. C.

A. D. is abbreviation for "Anno Domini," in the year of our Lord

B. C. has been corrupted from Latin "Anno Ante Christum," in the year before our Lord

It should be A.A.C. instead of B. C. (before Christ)

If you go to a museum {like the Huntington Library in southern California) you will see that several centuries ago the scribes used A. A. C.

In proper English you always put A .D. first and B. C. last-- A.D. 1998, but 104 B.C. You should always use the periods -- I have seen just AD and BC. Saves a computer key stroke or so I suppose -- and memory.

If you look at American legal documents before about 1950 you will often find at the bottom, "In the year of our Lord 1936" etc. As you go back into the last century--it appears on business transactions even---not just legal papers.

This country has "fallen away" from that and you rarely see this notation at the bottom of a document.

There is a movement to NOT use B.C. and A.D by certain University types -- they want to use something like "in the current era" or C.E. Sounds "stuffy".

Sometimes people are educated beyond their intelligence.

Words ain't what they used to be

The dictionary can't seem to decide what "ain't" is a contraction of.(I ended that one with an of--that's really good English too).

"I ain't got no" is heard a lot. Winston Churchill used ain't once---just to emphasize a statement.

It would seem, by most "word smiths", that ain't is a contraction of:

are not is not am not have not has not

Actually they have no idea and that is why "ain't" will never be a word to use in polite conversation.

My grandfather Barber said "Hain't". My grandmother only said ain't. Hain't seems to be one of those quaint words that is disappearing from several dialect areas--MO, Iowa, Arkansas, etc.

The British have a penchant for adding "Hs" where they do not belong and also making them silent in odd places. If the "H" was still on the word, but was silent when spoken--you still had to use "An" in front of it. The Brits are funny. We still have some left over words from 300 years ago, i.e. Herb still has the H but you don't say it.

The British would say 'omer for Homer and then turn around in the same breath and say, "High say old boy."

I have a theory--I think that ain't came from hain't and the H was dropped in England and kept in the Tenn. mountains by Elizibethen speaking colonists.

Then you could say "have not it" or "I have not got it". Because the British love to drop words and letters--the sentence slowly moved from "I have not got it" to "I h'ain't got it" on to "Hain't got it" and finally---

"Sam have you got the pitch fork?"

"Hain't", says Sam.

"Tisn't" is a little easier--"It is not". That is pretty clear.

There is also "shan't". And in Quaker speak "Thou shan'st". And even Shain't. A contraction of "shall and ain't". Boy that is an oxymoron!

My grandfather went through the 4th grade and my grandmother the 8th. Maybe that is why she did not say "hain't".

Ain't the English language a lot of fun?

We have more words than any other language on Earth--We even beat out the Chinese. I forget the number, but no other language is even close--in the hundred thousand range as I recall.

APL

This is mostly for the software Weekly Word folks.

In about 1971 I took a computer programming course in APL (A Program Language). It was a cumbersome language and took a big old IBM 360 to run it. Filled up half a room.

I picked up a magazine yesterday evening and there was an article listing ODD things in the software world.

APL was picked as a name on purpose--if you transpose the letters it spells the German word "alp", which in its base form means "nightmare". Evidently the APL writers figured the computer language was a nightmare. Software writers love inside jokes.

An Apple a Day . . .

Hanging around doctor’s offices like I have been doing lately reminded me----

An apple a day keeps the Doctor away!

Earliest written record dates from the late 13th Century when the English language was not quite as "frozen" as it is today--'course it is only a "slushy cone" now. We add words all the time.

Ate an Apfel
Avair gwain bed
Makes the doctor
Beg his bread

Kind of interesting--we already had dropped the Saxon "the" form and yet Apfel was still spelled the German way (as it is in German today).

It would seem that the "v" in "avair" was an "f", rendering "afor".

It would also seem that the "w" in "gwain" was almost silent--making it "gain" for "going". The Germans still say "gehen".

Samuel Clemmons used "gwine" in Tom Sawyer for "going".

The seeds of an apple contain a cancer fighting agent from one of the cyanids--I suppose you have to eat the core as well in order to keep the Doctor away.

Bikini

From one that Tom did ("Cat in Bag/Pig in Poke)

(Footnote 2, totally unrelated: learned while channel surfing tonight that the bikini, designed by a French automotive engineer, was originally called the "atom" for the smallest piece of matter. Just thought I'd pass that one along for fun.)

Tom

 Fred added:

Hence Bikini Atoll in the south Pacific.

I had a high school buddy that went into the Navy and was one of the "lucky" ones to lay off Bikini and watch the Atomic bomb destroy the atoll thru darkened glass. He was on the old Appalachin (not sure I spelled that right).

Maybe we ought to do some Words on east coast Indian names--there are hundreds of place names in New England and on down the coast.

Of course when investigating the words--it gets really weird!

And if I do some words, all of you will think I have gone off my nut! Some of them trace to certain European origins dating back to 500AD to 850AD--I won't give away the countries yet. Christopher Columbus who? 1492 what?

Fred

Tom wrote back to Fred:

On Bikini -- this wasn't in the little news clip I saw, but if I remember right, the skimpy swinsuit came out about the time of the atoll explosion, and "bikini" was a buzz word, so the marketers just latched on to it for their new product (maybe because it had been named the "atom").

Also - was it an A-bomb or H-bomb? I was thinking the Bikini bomb was the first H-bomb.

Fred replied:

I believe you are right it was a n"H"--not sure though.

When the bombing was over aircraft took photos and the center was almost gone except for a "string" so it sort of looked like a skimpy "bra" from the air. I have some photos someplace in my pile of junk at home.

Fred

Bimbo

We have all heard someone say, "She is just another bimbo." right?

I just discovered that the word "bimbo" was used on the waterfront in Portugal as far back as the 14th Century to describe a young boy that hung around the wharf and would do odd fetch and carry errands for sailors.

Usually the boy would be between 10 and 13 and would be "unlettered" and maybe not too bright. And probably did not have a family--slept wherever he could.

Now, I wonder how the word 'bimbo' got into the English speaking world and how did the gender change?

Another word mystery--anyone not too busy right now?

Bonnie Blue Flag

I goofed--the "Bonnie Blue Flag" is for the EAST side of the Miss. River. The west side was part of the Louisiana Purchase--why am I have such a time spelling the state? When you read it--just read it as east. I don't know where I was--in never--never--land I guess.

I'll break down in a minute and dig out a map & see how to spell Louisanna and Missipp??? Dang Indian and French words anyhow. As Becky says, "It's all Greek to me!"

I am off to Oklahoma for the weekend. Yvonne is going to a Family Reunion--in fact she is already there. I get to see the whole fam damily. Going to be hot--103 it said on Pointcast web site: [www.pointcast.com].

Bridal Veils

I was thumbing thru an old book at home this last weekend and ran across the reason that brides wear a veil.

It seems that back about 1000 years ago when wives were picked out by the parents in India--mostly for economic reasons or social climbing reasons--a veil was worn by "ugly" brides so that the groom would not run away. This tradition was passed on to Western civilization and brides now wear a veil--even when they are very pretty.

The bridesmaids were originally "guards" in Egypt to keep the bride from running away.

Caboose

The LVRJ paper said this morning that there were 350,000 people here for New Year's Eve.

There was a double stabbing, they found a body in Lake Mead, several arrested for having too much bubbly, several car wrecks, and miscl. odds & ends.

WE stayed home. I couldn't even stay awake long enough to welcome in the new year.
==========================================
I have always loved trains. As a boy I used to count cars. My grandmother's house was one street away from the RR tracks, but there was a 10 acre field between us ant the right of way. She had a window that I could see the field towards the east and the tracks. As a little kid I would watch and count and look at the different names on the box cars.

When WW2 came along I would look at tanks, jeeps, airplane parts, and all kinds of stuff. Sometimes a Troop train would come through. The new GIs would be on their way to Ft. Riley or Ft. Leonard Wood for training. They rarely stopped at Lineville , Iowa. Allerton, Iowa was where the train took on water and coal,

Kind of funny--the lineville. Depot was on the Iowa side and the RR "outhouse" was on the Missouri side of the "line". There were no municipal sewer systems in those days--come to think of it there still are none in Lineville, Iowa nor in Lineville, Missouri.

I always loved the Caboose and I sure miss them. Trains now don't use a caboose.

CABOOSE--an old Dutch word for a sailing ship's galley.

Since the Caboose had a little stove and often a bunk--the conductor and the two brakemen often cooked (or at least heated) their food on the "monkey stove". They were often on the road for 3 to 4 days, depending on the run.

Tom added: I always loved train, too. As a little kid in West Virginia, we lived on Back Street (little town only had two streets - Front and Back; richer folk lived on Front Street). We faced the river, and the RR tracks were on the other side. I loved to watch the old steam locomotives hauling what seemed like miles and miles of coal cars. As for the caboose - when we lived in Virginia (about 1984-86 or so), most states had gotten rid of the caboose requirement since computers had taken over so many RR functions and the living quarters was no longer needed. But VA still had the requirement, so trains crossing VA had to stop at the state line, add a caboose, then stop again when they left the state and drop it off. I think Virginia had since changed its law, though.

200-Pound Rodent Capiberra

Help!

We are trying to think of the name of the 200 pound rodent that lives in the rainforest in Brazil. It looks like a big fat rat without a tail.

One of the admins. and her husband took a tour of Peru and then down to the beginning of the Amazon and then boated down it for two days. They saw one of these big rats swimming in the river--she can't remember its name and I have seen it many times on the Discovery channel.

Anyone know? (several people answered with Capiberra)

Rodent = a family of warm blooded animals that are noted for their gnawing habits. They have large front teeth; rats, mice, beaver, etc.

Rodere-Latin = to gnaw

Radere-Latin = to scrape

from radati-Olde Sanskrit = "he gnaws"

Gnawen—Saxon = to chew (pronounced gah-nah-venn)

Capital and Capitol

I was following one of the San Jose City buses the other day and since I was so close, I read the sign on the bus. It read, "Welcome to San Jose, the Capital of Silicon Valley."

That in itself was not so interesting except the bus pulled onto the on-ramp for the "Capitol Expressway".

Capital comes from the Latin word "capitulum" meaning "chief city".

Capitol on the other hand meant "capitollium" which was the Temple of Jupiter—a building.

So through long usage in English, the word Capital has become the seat of government, i.e. Washington D.C. is our Nation’s capital.

However the capitol buildings are where the politicians meet.

Caput is derived from Capital and means "chief" or "Head". So in Italian, "Capo de tuti Caput" is the head of the Mafia or Family---the Godfather. "Caput" can also mean town—but I think in slang.

Our word "cap" as in baseball cap, came from the same source. So did the German "Kopf"--your head. (General Schwartzkopf—black head—one of his ancestor’s must have had coal black hair).

(The General’s father, Col. Schwartzkopf, was the chief (caput) investigator on the Lindberg Kidnapping back in the ‘30s).

In Saxon head was "houbit" and slowly drifted into "heafod". Somewhere along the way, the "f" and the "o" disappeared and it became "head". The letter "b" and the letter "f" often became exchanged. So were the letters "b" and "v". The English love to shorten words even today.

When writing with a quill in old German script, often the "b" and the "v" looked just alike—only by context could you tell. "V", "F", "W" also are often juxtaposed, i.e. Volkswagon. In German it would be "Folks Vagon" or "people’s car".

The tops of marble columns are called "capitals", i.e. Ionic capitals, Doric capitals, etc.

As the British would say, "What a capital idea old boy!"

Carat

Tis the season for extra words -- here's one I ran across (didn't run over, as Lynn did the poor guide in NO!)(Actually, Mickie found it -- credit where etc!) It's in a Mignon Eberhart novel, Three Days for Emeralds, so I'll just quote:
"... the word 'carat' came from some seed..."
"Sure. A carob bean. All carob beans seem to be the same weight. I believe the word started in the South African diamond mines. However, if you must be specific, a carat weight 3.086 grams."

This special word is dedicated to all of you who received diamonds for Christmas -- and to all the rest of us, too! Happy New Year!

Churchill’s Heritage

Winston Churchill's middle name was Spencer--he was a cousin to Princess Di's grandfather--they both had royal blood going back to the German George's I, II, & III.

His mom was the Spencer actually. She just gave him her nee name.

Fred

>Cocoa>

Our Weekly Word Club is now 18 months old. It was started in Phoenix at IFT. We have added lots of new members. The 'Word' is presented each week by one of the members--Fred, Tom M., and Rick A. contribute mostly. Scott B. has contributed and Yvonne B. has sent in one set of 8 words. Becky H. has asked for explanations for a couple of odd words.

We need some more members involved--if you can't find an "odd" word to write to all of us about--come up with some weird American English or English word and one of the members will find out about it. I was kind of burnt out on coffee this morning. I was at a Job Fair last night until 8:00 trying to interview people for four openings we have and the HR people kept feeding me coffee---to keep me awake I guess.

So--this morning I got a cup of hot chocolate.

It seems that when Samuel Johnson was making his famous Dictionary back in 1755, he listed cocoa, the drink, and coco the tree as being from two different sources.

He was correct. Somehow the two words got confused thru the years. (Justas I always use "thru" instead of "through").

Cocoa comes from the cacao tree in tropical America. Hershey is the largest single user in the world. Cacao comes from Nahuatl [Aztec--cacahuatl--cacao bean]. Chocolate comes from xocolatl--Aztec for "article of food made from cacao".

The "coco palm" originated in the East Indies and is a Portuguese word for "goblin". This refers to the "three holes" in the coconut. It sort of looks like a monkey face to me, but I guess Goblin works. No relation to the Aztec words at all.

Got to finish my cup of xocolatl before it gets cold.

Gobs of Cobs>

Moore, Ray wrote:

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