From The Spamfiles

It’s spam day!

Yeah, that email address just screams peace of mind.

Soooo. Is this from the AARP or this Explore Life thing? I mean, obviously it’s not really from any of those. I’m just confused at what it’s pretending to be. How do people fall for these scams?

It’s all the emojis that really sell this as being legitimate. Along with the circle R after UPS. It’s totally fake without that.

Well, why don’t you get back to me when iCloud ® succeeds to attempt payment.

Pushy perver. I can’t even.

Language Of Confusion: Armed, Part II

More words that are from the Proto Indo European ar-, to fit together. As usual, they will be weird.
 
It might surprise you that art is from the same place as arm, but it is. It showed up in the early thirteenth century meaning skill, moving on to mean skill in learning or science, then human workmanship, and finally in the seventeenth century creative arts. Yes, it really took that long! It comes from the Old French art and classical Latin artem, which could mean a work of art or a skill. That’s then from the PIE ar-ti, which is from ar-, to fit together. Art… fits together!
 
Obviously artist is from there, though with a slightly different origin. It showed up in the late sixteenth century from the French artiste and Italian artista, which is from the Latin ars, from ar-. There’s also artisan (though very specifically not artesian) which showed up in the mid sixteenth century meaning a craftsman, coming from the Italian artigiano, and Vulgar Latin artitianus. That’s from the classical Latin artitus, from the verb artire, also from ar.
 
Article is pretty old, having shown up in the thirteenth century, meaning the separate parts of anything written, then the grammar usage in the sixteenth century, and finally a composition in a journal in the eighteenth century. It comes from the Old French article, and classical Latin articulus, which meant article but also a joint, and that’s from ar. Then we have articulate, which showed up in the late sixteenth century meaning speech divided into parts, then clear and distinct. And that just happens to also be from articulus, too.
 
Artifact is fairly recent, having shown up in 1821 meaning something modified by human art. It’s from the Italian artefatto, which is a mix of the Latin arte, by art, and factum, done. An artifact is done by art, and then in 1885 people started to use it in archeology, and now we have that. Artificial stayed closer to the original meaning, and it’s older too, having shown up in the late fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French artificial, classical Latin artificialis, which can be traced to ars and ar-.

The takeaway here is that artifact and artificial are closely related, and artisan and artesian are absolutely NOT.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Encyclopaedia Britannica

What Fresh Hell

Should have known they’d try to inflict AI on me.

Getting rid of it was ridiculous. You have to go into the registry.

Language Of Confusion: Armed, Part I

Yep, going right into another multiparter. So many words are connected! Usually in stupid ways!
 
The words we’re looking at this time are all descended from the Proto Indo European ar-, to fit together. Some of these might make sense, but I assure you, most will leave you scratching your head. The first we’re looking at is actually arm, which I believe I’ve gone over before years ago, but am too lazy to check. There are two versions, the limb as well as a weapon, and both are ultimately from the same place. Your limb comes from the Middle English arm, Old English arm, Proto Germanic armaz, and finally ar-. The weapon has a slightly different origin, being from the Old French armes and its verb form armer, which are from the classical Latin armare, to arm, which is also from ar-. In other words, arm started out as the same word, traveled through two separate languages, and came back together in English.
 
Many other arm- words are also from the same place. Army showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French armée, classical Latin armata, armed, which of course is from armare. Fun fact, armata is also the origin word for armada, which came to us from Spanish. Then there’s armor, which also showed up in the fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French armeure and classical Latin armatura, from arma, weapons, which is of course from armare.
 
Armistice has a fairly similar origin. It showed up much more recently, in the early eighteenth century from the French armistice, which was a mix of the Latin arma and the back half of solstice. Armament showed up a bit earlier, in the mid seventeenth century, from the classical Latin armamentum, which means armor or implement, and yes, is from armare.
 
And it wouldn’t be etymology if we didn’t look at some words that are just weird. Armoire showed up in the later sixteenth century from the French armoire, Old French armarie, and classical Latin armarium, a cabinet or cupboard, which is from arma. Because an armoire could be used to hold tools—or implements—and those tools can be weapons. But there’s one more word we’re going to look at, one that does make sense when you think about it: armadillo. It showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Spanish armadillo, which is from the word armado, armed, and that’s from amare, too. Because an armadillo is armed with a shell, we call it that.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
University of Texas at Arlington
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary

April Goals

Okay, now it’s April??? The year is a quarter done?????? That’s just wrong.
 
March Goals
1. Finish my editing for the new book. I think I’m down to eight hundred notes left. Eep.
I should be done by the time this posts. Fingers crossed.
 
2. Get the last chapters of the web serial ready to post.
Also very close to being done. Just the epilogue left now.
 
3. Work on something fun that isn’t editing. I definitely need it.
Wouldn’t you know, this is the one I didn’t have time to do.
 
Would have been nice to have some free time, but those notes were eternal. I added something like six thousand words of description, so yay?
 
April Goals
1. Actually take some time to rest and creatively recharge.
 
2. Update the etymology page. Ugh.
 
3. Figure out what I want to work on next. Something old? Something new?
 
What do you want to do this month?

Language Of Confusion: Acting!, Part VI

And now, for the final part of our look at the Proto Indo European root ag-, to drive, draw out, or move [https://www.etymonline.com/word/*ag-]. Of course I saved the weirdest for last.
 
First, strategy, which is fairly new for a word, not having shown up until 1810, just three years after strategic, though stratagem showed up back in the late fifteenth century. The words are direct translations of the French stratégie and stratégique, which is from the Greek strategia and strategikos, same translations, from the word strategein, general. That word is actually a mix of stratos, army, and agos, leader, and agos is from agein, to lead, which is from ag-. The leader of an army has to use strategy, so that’s why we have strategy.
 
But that’s not weird enough. Purge showed up in the fourteenth century meaning clear of charge or suspicion, then to cleanse a person or soul of defilement. It comes from the Anglo French purger, Old French purgier, and classical Latin purgare, to clean. That’s a mix of the Old Latin purus, pure and our old friend agere, to act. To purge is to act to get something pure.
 
We can still go weirder. Cache showed up at the end of the eighteenth century meaning a hiding place, then anything stored in a hiding place a few decades later. It was actually slang from French Canadian trappers, from the French cacher, to hide, which is from the Vulgar Latin coacticare, to store up or collect. That’s from the classical Latin verb coactare, to constrain, which is related to cogere, to force together, which we talked about weeks ago as being the origin of cogent. The co- means together and the rest is agere, so it’s to force together. And cache is related to cogent.
 
Somehow that’s not the only word related to cogent. Squat showed up in the mid fourteenth century meaning to crush or flatten (despite not being related to squash), and then for some reason it also started to mean the posture of someone hunkering down, and then in the nineteenth century, someone squatting on land that isn’t theirs. It’s from the Old French esquatir/escatir, with the es- from ex-, out, and quatir, from the Vulgar Latin coactire, to be forced, which is also from cogere. To squat is to force out. Despite not meaning force or out now.
 
And last but not least: examine. Examine! It showed up in the fourteenth century meaning to test someone, then a little later also meant to scrutinize. It’s from the Old French examiner, from the classical Latin examinare, to examine, or, more literally, to weigh. That’s thought to be from exigere, to demand, the origin word for exact, as well as essay and assay, with the ex- meaning out and the rest meaning agere (so it’s also rather close to squat!). Examine is… to act out???
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Fordham University
BrightHub

Windy Day

We’ve had some wind lately.

It was supposed to be staked to the ground, but apparently the wind was stronger than the earth.