I will give an etymological history of a word or just point out an interesting word I have run across...feel free to add any interesting words you would like to share...and add the Source-page number and quotes...(just kidding)...

What word comes from the German term "milchdieb" or milk thief?

Interesting word of the day: Gormless...a truly dull-mind...

[ 09-05-2001: Message edited by: profchallenger1 ]

I think it is butterfly, Prof... but I can't remember why.(My dim and distant memory is longer than some....)
Can you find where 'poetaster' , meaning a bad poet, comes from?? Isn't it a strange word?

Way to go Ren33! That was tough, but on a random search I managed to get it right off on an eytomological page! That word is really different in many languages, which is why I had it on that European language quiz. Smetterling is a lot different from milchdieb.
Let's see if we can't find anything else exotic today. I'll be back.

Very good- tis "butterfly" indeed...the little dastard!

Poetaster...or poet-taster must be a flavour from Ben Jonson's writings..

Interesting slang- What is "Belch water"?

Well that's like soda or fizzy water.
Here in Hong Kong, there used to be 'Makee learnee Boys"......????? (Any ideas?)

Yes Belch water is my favorite drink...hint on that word- ren...

Interesting origin of the word "hello" comes from the French- "hola" meaning...to __________?

Makee learnee boy was an apprentice.

Was that a term used by the British soldiers or sailors in reference to young Hong Kongers...wonder how the term was derived?

No , I think it was a term used by the Chinese (I think it must be like 'pidgeon') to mean that the boy was working (making) while learning, probably used by tailors or woodworkers etc... who were craftsmen.
To add to that (the subject of made-up words), I had a Chinese domestic helper (formerly called an Amah, which comes from 'mother'). She was very ingenious in getting me to understand her needs. She once told me that we needed a new 'chicken tailee on a stickee'. I puzzled over this and gave up , till she showed me the old feather duster, that was a bit ragged!!! How clever!

[ 09-09-2001: Message edited by: ren33 ]

3 cool words? Hendiadys, hysteron proteron, and hyberbaton...

All three words sounds and appears to be hysterica alogicons...

Run that by me again love....

Hendiadys,
hendiadys is when you put two words together with 'and ' that would normally be expressed by an adjective and a substantive, such as 'grace and favour' instead of gracious favour.
hysteron proteron,
1.A figure of speech in which the natural or rational order of its terms is reversed, as in bred and born instead of born and bred.
2. The logical fallacy of assuming as true and using as a premise a proposition that is yet to be proved.
hyberbaton...
A figure of speech, such as anastrophe or hysteron proteron, using deviation from normal or logical word order to produce an effect.
PS what's an anastrophe??:
Inversion of the normal syntactic order of words; for example, “Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear” (Alexander Pope).
A bonus for 10 Prof? (Well I did look them up....)

[ 09-23-2001: Message edited by: ren33 ]

As I looked up Prof's words, I guess I had better contribute...
I fell to thinking ..... so many words from the art world come from French and Italian names.Look:
Caricature: A form of portraiture in which the features are exaggerated or distorted. Usually acreditted to Annibale Carracci who defended it as a counterpart to idealisation (too much of that around in his day.)
Daguerreotype: The earliest method of photography..(lovely word eh?). From Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, who invented it.
There are lots lots more, but I found this one : Eidophusikon
Any ideas???
It is not from anyone's name, but it is from the art world.

very good..there is one guy who uses these words a lot...Adorno...

ok word of the day- a "Wheal"- some sort of blemish...can we hunt down the origin?

This is one of the best places I have found to get new words and comes automatically to your mail box everyday. Also with word origins and pronunciation.

To subscribe or unsubscribe A.Word.A.Day, send a message to wsmith@wordsmith.org with
"Subject:" line as "subscribe <Your Name>" or "unsubscribe".

Quite a few little gems.

Cheers

Possibily related to wale or weal on the flesh , itself related to LATE OLD ENGLISH walu ridge of land ;also raised line in a fabric. ( Says the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology edited by Onions,Friedrichsen and Burchfield)

Concise Dictionary of English Etymology by W.Skeat doubts that and links the word to Anglosaxon hwéle and to Welsh chwiler :a maggot, wheal, pimple.

Skeat claims weal and wale are different words and mean "a mark of a blow".

His final conclusion: "difficult and doubtful".

Which brings us back to where we started.

Poetaster ? After a word coined by Cicero hilosophaster *
To be found in Erasmus already.1521.
By the way has anyone visited :www.word-detective.com?

* Could phaster be related to Latin fari :to talk ;to chat?
In the sense of French:bla-bla-bla??

Yes,,I also have his books...he has taken the most interesting of word origins and questions asked via email and created a "book"...actually that was the reason why I started this thread....It might interesting and constructive if we started something similar in this site as well...

An interesting eponym was created using the sad fate of Mithridates 4 Eupator....Do you know what it means to "mithridate" ?