Punctuation's Weird Backstory | Otherwords

Todays Word

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Language is an attic crammed with memories. What you find there are not just literal objects. Much of what’s stored away has meaning layered upon meaning.

A shell, for instance, may not just be a shell. It might recall that wistful afternoon on the beach when you met someone, shared a smile, and hesitated to ask for their number. (And now it is your regret-shell.)

Words, too, gather significance over time. This week, we’ll explore words that work double shifts. They mean what they mean, and then some. Use them any way you like: literally or figuratively (but figurative is more fun).

lace-curtain

PRONUNCIATION:

(LAYS-kuhr-tuhn) 

MEANING:

adjective: Aspiring to or pretentiously displaying middle-class respectability.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the lace curtains once fashionable in middle-class homes. Earliest documented use: 1824.

NOTES:

The expression arose in 19th-century America, often among Irish immigrants themselves, to draw a class line between the lace-curtain Irish -- those striving for middle-class refinement -- and the shanty Irish, who were poorer and lived in simple one-room cabins. The term has traces of both classism and ethnic prejudice from that era.

Today, the term survives as a light jab at anyone decorating their life a bit too finely while hoping no one peeks behind the curtain. Also see iron curtain.

USAGE:

“[Bill] Cunningham begins his story at his middle-class Catholic home in ‘a lace-curtain suburb of Boston’.”
Lucy Scholes; Style of His Own; The Independent (London, UK); Oct 14, 2018

Todays Word

Roi fainéant

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lithograph of a Merovingian Roi fainéant.

Roi fainéant (French pronunciation: [ʁwa fɛneɑ̃] "do-nothing king", "lazy king") is a French term primarily used to refer to the later kings of the Merovingian dynasty after they seemed to have lost their initial powers of dominion. It is usually applied to those Frankish rulers approximately from the death of Dagobert I in AD 639 (or, alternatively, from the accession of Theuderic III in 673) until the deposition of Childeric III in favour of Pepin the Short in 751. 

The appellation goes back to Einhard, who is most notably the author of Vita Karoli Magni, the biographer of Charlemagne; he described the later Merovingian kings as kings "in nothing but in name":

There was nothing left the king to do but to be content with his name of king, his flowing hair, and long beard, to sit on his throne and play the ruler, to give ear to the ambassadors that came from all quarters, and to dismiss them, as if on his own responsibility, in words that were, in fact, suggested to him, or even imposed upon him. He had nothing that he could call his own beyond this vain title of king and the precarious support allowed by the mayor of the palace in his discretion, except a single country seat, that brought him but a very small income.

Latin original text

— Einhard (translated by S. E. Turner, 1880)

During the century of the rois fainéants, the Merovingian kings were increasingly dominated by their mayors of the palace, in the 6th century the office of the manager of the royal household, but in the 7th increasingly the power behind the throne who limited the role of the king to an essentially ceremonial office.

The last Carolingian ruler, Louis V, was also in his turn nicknamed le Fainéant ("the Do-Nothing"), because his effective rule was limited to the region around Laon.

References

• M. Christian Pfirter, "La Gallia sotto i franchi merovingi: vicende storiche" in Storia del mondo medioevale, vol. I, 1999, pp. 688-711.
• Marie-Nicolas Bouillet, Alexis Chassang, "Rois fainéants" in Dictionnaire universel d’histoire et de géographie, 1878.
• Jean Verseuil, Les rois fainéants - De Dagobert à Pépin, Paris, 1946.

Todays Word

suf·fix

noun

/ˈsəfiks/

1.        a morpheme added at the end of a word to form a derivative, e.g., -ation, -fy, -ing, -itis.

"for the last few decades, we've appended the suffix ‘gate’ to basically any scandal"

verb

/ˈsəfiks/

1.        append (something), especially as a suffix.

"it is mandatory that ‘Limited Liability Partnership/LLP’ is suffixed to the name"

 

In English, suffixes can be broadly categorized into inflectional and derivational. Inflectional suffixes primarily change a word's grammatical function (like tense or number) without changing its core meaning, while derivational suffixes can change a word's part of speech or create a completely new word with a different meaning. Additionally, suffixes can be grouped by the word class they modify, such as noun suffixes, verb suffixes, adjective suffixes, and adverb suffixes. 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

1. Inflectional Suffixes:

• These suffixes alter the grammatical form of a word, indicating things like tense, number, or possession.
• Examples include:
• -s/-es: plural nouns (e.g., cats, boxes) and third-person singular verbs (e.g., runs).
• -'s/-s': possessive nouns (e.g., John's, the cats').
• -ed: past tense verbs (e.g., walked).
• -ing: present participle/gerund (e.g., running, walking).
• -er: comparative adjectives (e.g., bigger).
• -est: superlative adjectives (e.g., biggest). 

2. Derivational Suffixes:

• These suffixes change the meaning or part of speech of a word.
• Noun Suffixes:
• -ment: (e.g., enjoyment, government).
• -ness: (e.g., happiness, kindness).
• -ion: (e.g., action, decision).
• -er/-or: (e.g., teacher, actor).
• -ist: (e.g., pianist, scientist).
• Verb Suffixes:
• -en: (e.g., broaden, soften).
• -ify: (e.g., simplify, classify).
• -ize: (e.g., legalize, modernize).
• Adjective Suffixes:
• -ful: (e.g., helpful, careful).
• -less: (e.g., fearless, endless).
• -able/-ible: (e.g., eatable, understandable).
• -ous/-ious: (e.g., joyous, ambitious).
• Adverb Suffixes:
• -ly: (e.g., quickly, slowly).
• -ward/-wards: (e.g., backward, upwards).
• -wise: (e.g., clockwise, otherwise). 

Todays Word

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writing on the wall

PRONUNCIATION:

(RY-ting ahn thuh WAWL) 

MEANING:

noun: A clear sign of impending decline or disaster.

ETYMOLOGY:

From write, from Old English writan + wall, from Old English weall, from Latin vallum (rampart), from vallus (stake). Earliest documented use: 1663.

NOTES:

In the Biblical story told in Daniel 5, the haughty King Belshazzar throws a big party. While everyone is feasting, a disembodied hand appears and writes a warning on the wall. The term is also used in the form handwriting on the wall.
The moral of the story: At a party, read the room. Also, read the doom.

USAGE:

“My mother, her sister, and parents arrived in 1934 from Germany; my grandmother saw the writing on the wall early. Nobody else in her family was persuaded that Hitler’s rise was not a temporary aberration, and they stayed behind.”
Liora Moriel; The New Revisioning; The Jerusalem Report (Israel); Jun 26, 2023.

Todays Word

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Ozymandias

PRONUNCIATION:

(oz-uh-MAN-dee-uhs)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A megalomaniac tyrant, especially one whose arrogance is undone by time.
2. A symbol of the impermanence of power and pride.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Ozymandias, the first part of the throne name of Ramesses II of Egypt (1279-1213 BCE). Earliest documented use: 1878.

NOTES:

The modern sense of the word comes not from Egyptian hieroglyphs, but from English verse. In his 1817 sonnet “Ozymandias”, Percy Bysshe Shelley describes a shattered colossal statue in a desert. The statue’s pedestal bears an inscription boasting of the ruler Ozymandias’s might and achievements (“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”).

However, these “works” have long since vanished, leaving only the decaying broken statue surrounded by “lone and level sands,” a potent symbol of the transience of power and the ultimate futility of human pride.

I propose that when someone is sworn into any position of power, from some future president of the planet to the mayor of a village with more goats than people, they be presented with a copy of this poem. Framed in a gilded frame, if that helps.

Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

USAGE:

“Tweaking the collective nose of the [NHL] league has usually invited a biblical wrath of the Ozymandias on Sixth Avenue.”
Bruce Dowbiggin; Morning Sickness Plagues Toronto Station; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Sep 3, 2010.

“Many start to believe that they are invulnerable even as their mortal powers begin to fade. The Ozymandias of Oz [Murdoch].”
Great Bad Men as Bosses; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 23, 2011.

Todays Word

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bunny boiler

PRONUNCIATION:

(BUH-nee boy-luhr)

MEANING:

noun: A person who is dangerously obsessive and vengeful, especially when spurned.

ETYMOLOGY:

After a character in the 1987 film Fatal Attraction who boils a pet rabbit belonging to the family of a married man who has an affair with her but then spurns her. Earliest documented use: 1990.

NOTES:

As the playwright William Congreve said in 1697: "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." In Fatal Attraction, that fury came with a pot of boiling water.

While the term is vivid shorthand for obsessive behavior, it often reflects a double standard: strong emotional reactions in women are pathologized, while similar behavior in men may be cast as tragic or intense.

USAGE:

"Heigl plays Tessa, a Malibu supermom who turns bunny boiler after her stubble-bearded hubby David (Geoff Stults), a Wall Street hotshot turned California microbrewer, dumps her for his new lover Julia."
Peter Howell; This Revenge Thriller Is Easily Forgettable; Toronto Star (Canada); Apr 21, 2017.

Todays Word

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devil’s tattoo

PRONUNCIATION:

(dev-uhlz ta-TOO)

MEANING:

noun: A rhythmic tapping of fingers, knuckles, or feet.

ETYMOLOGY:

From devil, from Old English deofol, from Latin and Greek diabolus (accuser or slanderer), + tattoo (a series of hits, as on a drum), from Dutch taptoe (shut the tap). Earliest documented use: 1755.

NOTES:

They say an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Well, an idle hand does a devil’s tattoo on any available surface, usually as a sign of impatience, agitation, or deep thought. The tattoo here is a homonym with the skin tattoo which comes from Polynesian languages (Tahitian, Tongan, Samoan, Marquesan, etc.).

USAGE:

“My neighbour, you see, is a writer, and a reasonably serious one at that. Three to four hours, I tell you, almost motionless but for the fugitive fingers tapping a soundless devil’s tattoo on the keys of his laptop.”
Jack Ross; Troubling Our Sleep; Ka Mate Ka Ora (Auckland, New Zealand); Sep 2009.

Todays Word

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chef’s kiss

PRONUNCIATION:

(chefs KIS)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A gesture made by kissing one’s fingertip(s) and thumb and spreading them outward.
2. Something or someone considered excellent or perfect.

ETYMOLOGY:

Alluding to a stereotypical Italian chef’s gesture upon tasting a flawless dish. Earliest documented use: 1975

NOTES:

The term is from the Italian gesture al bacio (as good as a kiss), typically made by a chef to express culinary triumph. It was popularized in the post-WWII US through food ads.

USAGE:

“This look was another smash hit in my opinion. Overall, this outfit was a chef’s kiss.”
Abby Jarrett; Star Wars and Nip Slips?; The Battalion (College, Texas); Feb 12, 2024.

See more usage examples of chef’s kiss in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

Todays Word: Eponym

 From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

Subject: Eponyms derived from fiction

In this week’s A.Word.A.Day I asked our readers what fictional character they would like to turn into an eponym. Here’s a selection from the responses.

My candidate for eponym is (Kenneth) Widmerpool, the main character in Anthony Powell’s 3,000-page, 12-novel cycle, A Dance to the Music of Time. He is a spectacularly, wonderfully, exuberantly loathsome character who reinvents himself so many times, so many ways, that it staggers the imagination. Nobody much likes him, with good reason, but by sheer force of will, he achieves great success -- for a while. I once had a Solomon Islands eclectus parrot baby I named Widmerpool, but he escaped the house. So, a Widmerpool would be a laughable, ridiculous figure who surprises you. A little, but only a little, like Trump.
-Ben Silverman, Playas de Rosarito, Mexico (bajabensilverman gmail.com)

Spock: Logical, not emotional.
After Mr. Spock of Star Trek.
-Oberon Zell, Asheville, North Carolina (oberon mcn.org)

Tom Parsons: Someone who consistently works against their own best interests; a happy conformist who is making it clear to everyone that he’s happily conforming, to keep himself safe from the judgement of other conformists.
Everybody who reads 1984 thinks they would be Winston Smith and not Tom Parsons. Until the cage of rats.
“He loved Big Brother” is the most soul-crushing final line in literature.
-Bill Young, Vernon, Connecticut (billsplut gmail.com)

Yossarian: A person who seems paranoid but isn’t, because people really are out to get him.
After Capt. John Yossarian in Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22.
-Jim Distelhorst, Edmonds, Washington (jim.distelhorst gmail.com)

Marlowe: To investigate someone or something of dubious character. After my favorite character in fiction, the down-at-the-heels private detective Philip Marlowe.
-Tom Furgas, Youngstown, Ohio (tofu4879 gmail.com)

Leibowitz: To study diligently.
After the monks in Walter M. Miller Jr’s classic sci-fi novel A Canticle for Leibowitz who spend centuries preserving the work of Isaac Edward Leibowitz, the patron of their order.
-David Santangelo, Stevens Point, Wisconsin (dcsantangelo2005 comcast.net)

Rick Blaine: to do the right thing in a difficult situation -- despite great personal cost.
After Rick Blaine, owner of Rick’s American Café in the film Casablanca, who did the right thing in giving up Ilsa to support the work of Laszlo fighting the Nazιs.
Example: President Biden rick blained when he withdrew his candidacy in the 2020 election, and threw his weight behind Kamala Harris, hoping to achieve a Democratic victory over Donald Trump.
-Brenda J. Gannam, Brooklyn, New York (gannamconsulting earthlink.net)

Snopes: A person lacking either conscience or ethics who achieves power and riches for his own needs.
In his book The Hamlet William Faulkner creates the quietly cunning Flem Snopes, who quietly but effectively gains control of the riches and property of an entire community. Gradually but surely squeezing out more ethical competitors, he smothers what is good and traditional in the local culture. (All three volumes of the Snopes Trilogy are challenging reading in any decade, but perhaps very well-suited for the present!).
-Dave Campbell, Dayton, Washington (museumofdave gmail.com)

Scout: An extremely good-hearted, empathetic, thoughtful, confident, and highly intelligent tomboy in the best and most positive sense of the word. After Scout, one of my favorite characters in fiction, in To Kill A Mockingbird from Harper Lee.
-Gary Vollmer, Kassel, Germany (gary.vollmer arcor.de)

Javert: A person who sticks wholly to the letter of the law, for whom everything is only black & white and who has no real kindness or forgiveness for anyone who’s made a mistake.
After the police inspector in Les Misérables. There are no second chances with a Javert. Of course, in the end, a Javert always self-destructs, even though we may not be around to see it.
-Margaret Breuer, Sarasota, Florida (mabreuer0519 gmail.com)

Granny Weatherwax: a confident woman who defends others as needed. After Granny Weatherwax, a character from Terry Pratchett’s wonderful Discworld.
-Lauren Mulcahy, Cape Town, South Africa (gorlockza yahoo.com)

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When my wife and I are watching a comic scene on television or at a play and the main character gets into a pickle that grows ever more absurdly worse as the scene progresses, we often say, “Oh, boy. I can’t watch. That’s too Lucy.” The reference is to the many antics and ridiculous lengths of the late comedienne Lucille Ball on the television hit from the 1950s, I Love Lucy, such as the infamous scene (video, 3 min.) in the chocolate factory’s wrapping department.

We also use the eponym to describe an appliance that goes awry, like so many did in Lucy’s home. For example we had a “Lucy toaster” that would pop the finished toast high up in the air, requiring a bit of acrobatics to catch it before it hit the ground. And we had a “Lucy washing machine” that tended to get so badly out of balance it would walk across the room and ooze prodigious amounts of soap bubbles out from around the lid. I think Dickens would approve.
-Terry Stone, Goldendale, Washington (cgs7952 bellsouth.net)

Kirkify: To talk an overwhelmingly powerful adversary to death when all else fails. From Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise. (video, 9 min.)
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

I have Sherlocked, but it was when I was looking for something for my wife who had been on the couch feeling ill. I checked everywhere, tearing the couch apart, searching on and under the coffee table, in the refrigerator?! Finally, I announced that it had to be under the couch since it was nowhere else. With a flourish, I checked and there it was!
-Steve Reinheimer, Lake Placid, New York (sreinheimer gmail.com)

Hermione: A very clever person.
After Hermione Granger, a character in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
-Vivaan Jain Tomar, 11 years old, Mumbai Maharashtra (vivaanjaintomar gmail.com)

Gamgee: A true and loyal friend who would do anything, including facing real dangers, for a friend.
After Sam Gamgee, a friend of Frodo Baggins in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sam sacrificed much, even risking death to help Frodo complete his mission.
-Christopher Laryck, Niagara Falls, Canada (seigeehcj gmail.com)

Where does punctuation come from?!

Todays Word

 A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

pecksniff

PRONUNCIATION:

(PEK-snif)

MEANING:

noun: A hypocritical person who pretends to have high moral principles.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Seth Pecksniff, a character in Charles Dickens’s novel Martin Chuzzlewit (serialized 1843-1844). Earliest documented use: 1844. The adjectival form is pecksniffian.

NOTES:

Pecksniff sounds like a man who moralizes in public and misbehaves in private. Which, spoiler alert, he does.

But Pecksniff, seriously? If a character’s name is Pecksniff, his moral downfall feels less like a character arc and more like a destiny. With a name like this, you have given them no hope. They’re doomed from page one. See nominative determinism.

It’s not just Dickens. The Harry Potter world has Voldemort (from French vol de mort: flight of death), 101 Dalmatians has Cruella de Vil, and so on. Heroes, on the other hand, get regular names like Oliver Twist or Harry Potter.

USAGE:

“But these ideological pecksniffs now face blowback from a growing ‘freedom to read’ movement, with gutsy local activists defying the screeching, self-appointed censors in communities across America.”
Joe Conason; To Fight Right-Wing Book Bans, Read Banned Books!; Creators Syndicate (Los Angeles); Oct 11, 2024. 

Todays Words

 A.Word.A.Day

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Everyone likes going places. One might call it a vacation, another a holiday, and some just call it escaping the inbox. But what if your travel plans were dictated by the _literal_ meaning of the word? Here’s what your itinerary would look like, etymologically speaking:

• journey: A day trip (from French jour: day). About 20 miles max in those days
  
• travel: Torture (Latin trepaliare: to torture). Because travel in those days wasn’t exactly a trip to Disneyland
  
• holiday: Perhaps a pilgrimage, because holiday is, literally, holy day. Well, you could worship the sun
  
• pilgrimage: A foreign trip (Latin peregrinus: foreign)
  
• visit: Go see a place (Latin videre: to see). So if you attend a concert, would that be an audit? (Latin audire: to hear)
  
• trip: Dancing in the backyard (Old French triper: to hop, skip, leap, dance)
  
• vacation: Vacate the home? Also, the wallet? (Latin vacare: to be empty)
  
• tour: Spinning in circles? (Greek tornos: lathe)

Good thing etymology isn’t destiny. A word is not limited to its roots or what it meant originally.

This week we’re taking you on a, well, let’s call it a jaunt (origin unknown). We’ll explore places, far and wide, that have become metaphors in the English language. Such words are also called toponyms, from Greek topo- (place) + -nym (name).

What are your favorite places to visit, whether down the road or across the globe? Do you have a location that you return to again and again? Why? Tell us via our website or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Include your home base (city, state).

And wherever you go, may your journey be less “trepaliare” and more “trip”!

alsatia

PRONUNCIATION:

(al-SAY-shuh)

MEANING:

noun
1. A sanctuary.
2. A lawless place.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Alsatia, an area north of River Thames in London, once out of the reach of law. Earliest documented use: 1676.

NOTES:

Once upon a Thames, Alsatia was a holy hideaway: a monastery-turned-sanctuary (Whitefriars) north of the river in London. But what began as a sacred refuge slowly turned into a safe haven for debtors, criminals, and general ne’er-do-wells.

The name Alsatia is a Latinized nod to Alsace, a border region in France that once had a similarly lawless reputation thanks to the centuries of tug-of-war between France and German states. One might say it was a region that couldn’t decide whether to say bonjour or guten tag, so it said neither and punched you in the face.

By the late 1600s, the term Alsatia had morphed into a metaphor for any unruly place where laws were more like suggestions and sanctuary came with a side of shenanigans.

USAGE:

“‘[The] state has set out to create an Alsatia -- a region of executive action free of judicial oversight,’ said Lord Justice Sedley.”
Paul Lashmar; Law Lords Slam Crime Agency for Freezing UMBS Payments; The Independent on Sunday (London, UK); May 27, 2007.

“Maggie always appeared in the most amiable light at her aunt Moss’s; it was her Alsatia, where she was out of the reach of law.”
George Eliot; The Mill on the Floss; William Blackwood and Sons; 1860.

Todays Word

 A.Word.A.Day

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fubsy

PRONUNCIATION:

(FUHB-zee) 

MEANING:

adjective: Short and stout; stocky.

ETYMOLOGY:

From fubs (chubby person), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1780.

USAGE:

“Biggs was a fubsy pudding of a character with a hairpiece that could only have been ordered by dialling 1-800 Toupees.”
Woody Allen; Mr Biggs and the Boychick; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jun 23, 2007.

Todays Word

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Wordsmith.org

Long before cars, buses, and airplanes, there were boats. Evidence of sea voyages dates back 50,000 years, such as the early migrations to Australia that required crossing open water. This reliance on boats makes sense when you consider that two-thirds of the the planet’s surface is water.

Seafaring hasn’t just shaped human history, it’s also left a lasting wake in our language. Countless everyday phrases have nautical origins, even if we rarely notice their roots on dry land. From learning the ropes (learning to do a job) to going overboard (taking things too far), the language is buoyed by maritime influence.

This week we’ll dive deep into words of nautical origins.

trimmer

PRONUNCIATION:

(TRIM-uhr) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. One who adjusts beliefs, opinions, and actions to suit personal interest.
2. A person or a tool that clips, shortens, neatens, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From trim, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old English trymman/trymian (to arrange, strengthen, etc.). Earliest documented use: 1513.

NOTES:

In sailing, to trim the sails is to adjust them for maximum advantage based on the wind’s direction. A sailing ship’s trimmer monitors the wind and fine-tunes the sails accordingly -- kind of like a political weather vane, but with actual responsibility. It’s easy to see how the term evolved to describe someone who shifts positions out of self-interest, keeping an ear to the wind and a foot in both camps.

Interestingly, trimmer also had another nautical meaning: a worker who arranged coal or cargo to keep the ship balanced.

The term gained political prominence when it was applied to George Savile, Lord Halifax. Reclaiming the label, he published The Character of a Trimmer (1688) under a pseudonym, defining a trimmer not as an opportunist but as someone who ensures stability: “One who keeps even the ship of state.”

USAGE:

“Overton particularly disliked him as a political trimmer, prepared to cut his conscience to the prevailing fashion.”
Frank McLynn; The Road Not Taken; Bodley Head; 2012.

“Stanley Kunitz: ‘Most of all, I love being alive. I love the natural world -- and caring and creative people -- and the seekers of justice and truth. Whom do I disdain? Bigots, reactionaries, self-righteous people, zealots, trimmers, bullies, and manipulators.”
Bill Moyers; Fooling With Words; William Morrow; 1999.

See more usage examples of trimmer in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.