When the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 AD, the invaders were “sacking” the city because they were carrying away all the valuables they could fit in a sack.
Every ship has a “fore” and “aft” with the “fore” being “before” because it is in front, and the “aft” in back because it comes “after.”
Nigh / near / next mean close / closer / closest.
“To follow suit” comes from card games where the next card played must belong to the same suit as the previous card.
Someone dressing or acting “emo” is being “emotional” while a “goth” is being “Gothic.”
Supper is when you sup soup, from the French “soupe” denoting bread sopping up broth.
The many different meanings of “draft” all relate to the origin “to draw” meaning “to give motion to by the act of pulling.” A drafty window pulls in air from outside. The first draft of a drawing is pulled into the final draft. A soldier who is drafted is pulled from a pool of people. A bank draft pulls money from an account. A draft beer is pulled from a cask.
Dresser drawers are called drawers because they draw outward.
A “creature” is something that has been “created” and an “animal” is “animated,” from the Latin “anima” meaning “drawing breath.”
“Adios” is literally “to God” and “good-bye” is short for “God be with ye.” “Howdy” is short for “how do ye” or “how do you do.”
Vinegar comes from the French “vin” (wine) plus “aigre” (sour).
A fortnight is fourteen nights, or two weeks.
Something that is “painstaking” literally means that it takes great pains to get right. The Norse phrase meaning “wind-eye” denoting a hole in the wall to let air in became our “window.” “Together” means “to gather.”
“To pare” means to cut down, as in a paring knife. This is also the root of the word “separate” meaning to cut apart.
A pen knife was originally used to cut quill feathers into pens.
A common Latin phrase “caveat emptor” means “buyer beware” but the “-empt” is also present in “preempt” meaning “to buy before someone else has a chance.”
The Roman name for the Moon, Luna, gave us “looney” and “lunatic” because of the belief that full moons affect human behavior.
A secretary is someone who is entrusted with “secrets” related to the business at hand.
When milk curdles, it turns into curds.
A pigeonhole is literally a hole for pigeons; a home for their nests arranged in a series of small boxes such as those found in a post office for sorting mail, or a preconceived notion of what category an item belongs in.
Deluxe is simply “of luxury.”
“Downtown” referred to the market stalls down by the river while “uptown” referred to the neighborhoods above the river where the view was good and risk of flooding was less.
An oval is egg-shaped like the Latin “ovum” meaning egg.
“Solstice” comes from the Latin “sol” meaning sun and “sistere” meaning “to stop.” It’s the point at which the Sun stops moving in one direction and starts moving the other way. Similarly, “equinox” springs from the Latin meaning “equal night.”
