I’m particularly fond of words and languages. I studied a little bit of a linguistics degree once, I enjoyed a lot of the subject matter but the course as a whole was not for me. I couldn’t see how what I was learning was going to lead me anywhere so I dropped out. I can’t really see how what I’m doing now is going to lead me anywhere either but at least I’m earning money and not pissing it down the drain at some university. I’m not against studying – I just can’t do it without purpose and a clear goal at the end.
Anyway – words and languages. I’ve always liked patterns. I like looking at how things relate to other things and one of my most favourite topics at uni was etymology – the origins of languages. I like seeing how a word originated, what it originally meant and how different cultures have taken that particular word and made it their own with different nuances and occasionally entirely different meanings.
Like the word ‘bot’ which today in German apparently means message. In archaic German the word ‘bot’ was used to describe a peace offering a family clan would give to another to end a feud, this word ‘bot’ is where we get our current word boat – as the peace offerings were carried on boats and through time the vessel carrying messages became known as the messenger or ‘bote’ in German.
The English word Avocado and the Spanish word abogado – meaning lawyer - both stem from the Aztec word ‘ahuacatl’ meaning testicle.
The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek sarko, meaning “flesh” and phagos, meaning “to eat”. So sarcophagus means flesh eating. This stems from the discovery that limestone helps bodies to decompose faster so coffins were made out of limestone for this reason. To eat the flesh of the bodies quicker. Yum.
Now I come to a word I will not write down. A word that – when mentioned within 5km’s of my mother (hears like a bat I tells you) will result in the speaker being banned from her house for all eternity. Luckily this does not apply to her children or I would not be able to visit.
The ‘c’ bomb.
Now this word has been around for a very very very long time. A word with a similar phonetic base appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics and refers to, surprisingly, the vagina. Similar sounding words appear in early Aztec, indo and African languages. It then appears in Latin on the form of cunnus – meaning sheath. Most European languages today have a form of the word, all with the same meaning, some derogatory, some not. It is believed it was the early Germans who added the T – because they liked T’s at the end of words and this is the reason why the English form of word has the T and the Spanish, Italian and French do not.
Different forms of the word show up in literature – apparently Chaucer used a form of the word in Canterbury Tales, “Pryvely he caught hir by the queynte.” Guess how those ye olde English dudes pronounced the word ‘queynte’
By Shakespeare’s time the word was a lot more derogatory, so he had to use his clever way with words to sneak it in and get a giggle out of only the knowing members of the audience.
HAMLET
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA
What is, my lord?
HAMLET
Nothing.
Hamlet you cheeky bastard. (not in the born of unwed parents way but in the more modern ‘asshat’ kind of way)
I also once heard a story which may have some truth and fits with the Latin word cunnus – meaning sheath. I heard that the c-bomb was once used to describe a spot on a saddle where one could store a sword. Fits doesn’t it?
BTW don’t quote anything I’ve written here as truth, my sources are varied, unconfirmed and untrustworthy.
And yes I know I’ve broken my self-exclusion period. But it’s Saturday somewhere.
like, in the future.
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