A Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is an internationally recognized program addressing threatened species and habitats and is designed to protect and restore biological systems. The original impetus for these plans derives from the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As of 2008, 189 countries have ratified the CBD, but only a fraction of these have developed substantive BAP documents.
koalabear on
May 6th, 2008 6:56 pm
I’d assume words like boomerang and billabong
would have went back to England from Cook’s voyages.
words 4 review:
“Snafu”
“Fubar”
Example for both;”The situation down here on Wall Street is ‘Snafu’. As the investmnets bankers are all ‘Fubar’ now.”
Regards
matalexwolf on
March 23rd, 2008 6:32 am
Hey,
I recal a large brownish-black Kangaroo is called a Wallaroo, from Aboriginal Wolaru.
matalexwolf on
March 21st, 2008 7:44 pm
Hey Marina, how are you?
Just so you know, the ‘Kangaroo’ vid did not come through on the gmail (subscribed….)… all good with itunes Pod Cast, which usally follows after……….otherwise best ever……… hooker followed no problemo…:)…….all good…..
Also, in London Town this past few days, amazing buildings, walking around with the woofers and friends, came across docks and so on, then came the question:-
how come Key and Quay, sound the same but spelt so differently….and, have such different meanings?????? through me side ways a little…..and found best ever ie cram seller on the TowerBride…..strawberries and cream )……..
its just a matter of time before you make the number one slot in zee holllywood fashion!! you get all votes back here in Blighty for top position…… sexy + intelligent = yay! Marina X
Marina, there is a park, trailhead, and natural spring located on (dry) Soda Lake just off of I-15 south of Baker, California that has the name (are you ready for this?) Zzyzx. I stopped to check the place out and take a hike a few years ago. It’s either within the boundaries of, or contiguous with, the Mojave National Preserve, one of my favorite stomping grounds.
Here is Wikipeda’s entry:
“Zzyzx, California is a settlement in San Bernardino County, California, formerly the site of the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa and now the site of the Desert Studies Center. The area is also the location of Lake Tunedae, one of the refuge habitats of the endangered Mohave tui chub.
“The name Zzyzx, pronounced /ˈzaɪzɨks/, was given to the area in 1944 by Curtis Howe Springer, claiming it to be the last word in the English language. Springer made up the word’s pronunciation. He established the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa at the spot, which was federal land that he had no permission to use. He used the springs to bottle his water and provide drinks for travelers through the hot desert. Curtis also imported animals from around the country to attract more families to visit his ranch. He used Zzyzx until 1974, when he was arrested by the United States Marshals for misuse of the land as well as alleged violations of food and drug laws, and the land was reclaimed by the government.
“Since 1976, the Bureau of Land Management has allowed California State University to manage the land in and around Zzyzx. A consortium of CSU campuses use it as their Desert Studies Center.”
Marina, no doubt there are other placenames that are bizarre like this one. Perhaps some of my fellow students could provide more. If you collected a few, it could make for a very interesting lesson.
Your TA (True Admirer)
LividEmerald
toopieare on
March 20th, 2008 8:23 am
Word request.. I was playing a game of scrabulous (scrabble), and someone threw in a word: “cwm” which was accepted by the computer. It turns out it isn’t an acronym and is an actual word which (gulp) can be pronounced. Could you tell us more about this odd little word “cwm”? Thanks, you’re doing MANkind a great service!
I love Scrabble, but I’ve never played the online game Scrabulous. If they put it the Las Vegas casinos, they could change the little sign on the south end of the Strip to read: “Welcome to Scrabulous Las Vegas.”
(FYI: I’ve lived in Las Vegas since 10/6/95)
hey Marina i have a word request
when somone says want to take a break from all the work
they want to get PAMPERED or take a break
whats going on here ?
hardondictionary on
March 20th, 2008 7:24 am
The word “shmuck” and why calling someone that is really not nice.
porin on
March 20th, 2008 6:01 am
Also please explain the word capodaster to me. It’s a gadget used to play the guitar.
porin on
March 20th, 2008 5:53 am
I LIKE YOUR LIPS. SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE WORD “LIPS”
cuteguy on
March 20th, 2008 3:14 am
i dont if you would consider looking up for the word GORGEOUS as in yourself marina u know for your next lesson after “kangaroo”
danne123 on
March 20th, 2008 3:09 am
I am a big fan of Whiskey. Do you know where the word come from?
Right after I posted that comment I went to look what shout outs was about and that parody came up. Now that’s ironic, no, wait it’s a coincidence. Either way it was funny.
Oops. I put my request on the second latest video. anyway
Now just because I hear this in conversation with my friends so much i have to ask. Where do we get the word masturbation? It’s suspiciously similar to mastication(if that’s even how it’s spelled). You know I never knew “Mrs.” didn’t have a correct spelling.
Here’s something to consider.
If I say, “When I am next to you, I feel like I am next to nothing.”
Does that mean that I am practically nothing compared to the other person, in which case this is a complimen?
Or does that mean that I consider the other person a real “nothing,” in which case this is an insult?
Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with philology!
I just thought of a way to really challenge Marina. Give her a word, say, the Greek word “smaragdos,” and ask her what current English word can be traced back to it. In this case, the answer would be “emerald” [see my user name!].
It seems philology requires that we go back in time in order to see how words evolved in forward time. To find a word’s point of departure, we must use the present day word as the point of departure for our etymological voyage to the past….
(I feel a WTF coming on..)
Has anyone noticed that if you look up the word “philology” in the dictionary, it is broken down into the syllables phi + lol + o + gy? Notice that in terms of word count, lol is balanced by three letters on the left (phi) and three letters on the right (ogy). In the name of Libra, did anyone else notice this hilarious balance? I’m LOL on this one!
buzzword replied on March 20th, 2008 8:08 pm:
you are a lonely man
hyde247 on
March 19th, 2008 11:13 pm
what about the phrase ” jack of all trades “. by the way “cafeteria” is an every day word from the spanish word “cafeteria” meaning coffee store.
Hyde
ignoranceisbliss27 on
March 19th, 2008 10:53 pm
Well first off, I just want to say “wow” honestly, i wouldn’t have thought you to be such a knowledgeable as you actually are. So I apologize for kind of pre-judging you, but I think that you’re fricking amazing! Okay, the “word” i was wondering about is actually the phrase “a shoe-in” as in something definite to happen. Thank you though for helping me increase my vocabulary! I feel smarter after having seen your videos!
dastheboss2 on
March 19th, 2008 10:29 pm
Ahh 4 years of high school english and I have learned more in a hundred+ episodes of an internet show. Isn’t public school great. By the way keep up the good work Marina I have learned so much.
Of course the word English should always be capitalized. However, capitalizing the name of languages is not the rule in all languages. In French, for example, language name are always lower case, as in anglais, grec, russe, allemand, etc. [English, Greek, Russian, German, etc.]
But, yes, Marina is an educational godsend. Perhaps she can participate in the GED program?
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 19th, 2008 10:54 pm:
wtf?!?
David Firestorm on
March 19th, 2008 10:22 pm
Loved how you stayed with the first theory.
When the Legend becomes Fact, print the Legend.
You should hear the one about the phrase fuck you or should I say pluck yew (hint hint :P.
pikilegends on
March 19th, 2008 10:07 pm
Hello hotforwords,
I am a uncle now since last week. i was playing with my nephew and you know know how we all say silly things to babies to try to get them to laugh. yea he is a little young and all but its still cute. I found myself playing the peek-a-boo game with him and wondered how that saying came to be. does it have something to do with ghosts? no cant be maybe just words someone put together that sounded…fun? i dunno but can you find out for me? yea my word is Peek-a-Boo.
I think this one is pretty self-explanatory isn’t it? Peek-a-boo is composed of “peek” [a brief look or glance] and “boo” [an expression meant to startle or frighten]. “Peek” comes from Middle English, “piken” [14th Century], and “boo” comes from Middle English “bo” [15th Century]. In the game, you cover the baby’s eyes. When the baby “peeks” at you, you say “boo” as if to frighten it. Of course, it’s just a game. As for the connecting “a” between “peek” and “book”–it’s hard to say the two words without making an “a” sound in-between unless you pause between the words to avoid it.
While I spent about an hour searching, I only found two words besides Kangaroo associated with Cook and those were Taboo & Tattoo. I did however learn a great deal about Captain Cook and his associate Joseph Banks who was a Philologist much like you. (In all honesty I had never known this word before you and this is the only other person I’ve ever seen with the title.)
The most interesting thing I found was the study of Polynesian travel and origins based on the language used by each island tribe. Amazing - Here is a small excerpt about the topic below:
“While language studies support the theory of Cook and Banks that the Polynesians originated there, these studies did not shed much light on the precise location of the original homeland, or on the migrational routes followed in entering and then spreading over the Pacific, nor could they say anything about how the Polynesians had been able to sail so far into the ocean. During the late 1800s and early 1900s a major effort was mounted to examine the traditions of epic voyages told by the islanders themselves in hopes that they could provide the clues needed to reconstruct the Polynesian migration.
Scholars working in New Zealand, for example, found a wealth of traditions about the discovery of their land, and the coming of colonizing canoes from Hawaiki, the legendary homeland which these scholars identified with the Society and Cook Islands. In contrast, those working in Hawai’i found in Hawaiian traditions a wealth of tales connecting Hawai’i with Kahiki, which, arguably, is the Hawaiian way of pronouncing Tahiti. These are not just about single voyages, but tell of the adventures of chiefs and priests who sailed repeatedly back and forth between the two centers. One of the best known of these legends is that which tells of eight different voyages made by Mo’ikeha, a chief who lived (according to genealogical reckoning) sometime around the 12th century, and his sons.
Professional anthropologists began to study the Polynesian problem in earnest during the period between the two world wars. Through surveying the remains of stone temples and other structures, and comparing the cultural traits and physical characteristics of the islanders, these anthropologists sought to shed further light on Polynesian origins, but with little success. Without a program of sub-surface archaeology to work out the routes, sequences, and chronologies of settlement, and without a method for finding out how the Polynesians could have sailed and navigated over such a great expanse of ocean, Polynesian studies were stalled.”
Thank you for the interesting lesson and I look forward to learning the additional words attributed to Capt. Cook.
Peter
aka pstawicki
mychanellife on
March 19th, 2008 9:08 pm
where does the term “happy as a clam” come from?
BillyB replied on March 19th, 2008 9:21 pm:
I live on an Island, surrounded by the sea and I’ve never seen an unhappy clam, they always seem to be smiling, but a very good question none the less. Cheers
Which is happier, a clam or a lark? In French, they say “gai comme un pinson,” which refers to a finch (or, more specifically, a chaffinch, a common European finch, Fringilla coelebs). So I guess European finches are happy, too. When speaking of sadness, do any expressions incorporate animal names, as in “sad as a ____”?
Marina, I speak French and have some good French dictionaries. If you have any etymological questions (French is usually traceable back to German, Celtic, Latin, or French dialects like those from Bretagne or Languedoc) that stem from, or pass through, the French language, you can e-mail me, and I’ll look it up for you. I’ve seen all your videos, and I truly enjoy them.
BillyB on
March 19th, 2008 8:23 pm
Boing . Boing no More
dank1313 on
March 19th, 2008 8:20 pm
hi teach,
what about the word… SHIT? wonder where it came from… I hear people say ” who gives a SHIT”, ” I dont give a SHIT”, ” that SHIT sucks”, “SHIT happens” and sometimes when i ask people “whats up” they say “SHIT.” So Marina whats up with that SHIT?
dank1313 replied on March 19th, 2008 8:23 pm:
O and it would be really cool to see my screen name on one of the people who requested this word orgin. Or could u actually do a interesting segment on this word…
SHIT = Doesn’t that mean Sexy Hot Interesting Teacher? If so, then this word comes out smelling like a rose!
vivarin on
March 19th, 2008 8:17 pm
My word request is actually a bunch of words…
I want to know the origins of the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What’s the significance? THANKS!
I’m sure some Latin-knowing Italian, or some Norse-knowing Norwegian, will come up with an answer for you.
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 19th, 2008 11:01 pm:
much like lividemerald, you can find that out yourself by simply googling the days… most are latin (or maybe greek, i can never remember) but they’re mostly names of gods that were tweaked to mean different days of the week. unless i’m completely stupid, then please, somebody correct me…
By the way, Hollywood, enamored as it is of comic book characters, is supposedly bringing “Thor” to the silver screen in the near future. May I suggest they release the film on a Thursday?
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 20th, 2008 9:58 am:
first off i have to say this: “HA!” nice … but i haven’t heard of the bringing of thor to the silver screen at all, but if they release it on any other day other than thursday, they’re retarded as all hell and i wouldn’t see it because of that!
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 20th, 2008 7:41 pm:
truth be told, i’ve never really gotten into comic books and haven’t heard of thor in anything else other than the grecian or latin god of something… idk though, it sounds kinda interesting though…
Most surviving stories relating to Germanic paganism either mention Thor or centre on Thor’s exploits. Thor was a much revered god of the ancient Germanic peoples from at least the earliest surviving written accounts of the indigenous Germanic tribes to over a thousand years later during the last bastions of Germanic paganism in the late Viking Age.
The name Thor has the same origin as the word thunder, just as German Donner, Dutch donder, Swedish tordön (can also be “dunder”), and Danish and Norwegian torden (with the suffix -dön/-den originally meaning “rumble” or “din”).
Thor gave his name to the Old English day Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, known in Modern English as Thursday. Þunor is also the source of the modern word thunder.
“Thor’s Day” is Þórsdagr in Old Norse, Hósdagur in Faroese, Thursday in English, Donnerstag in German (meaning “Thunder’s Day”), Donderdag in Dutch (meaning Thunder day), Torstai in Finnish, and Torsdag in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.
The day was considered such an important day of the week that as late as the seventh century Saint Eligius reproached his congregation in Flanders for continuing their native practice of recognizing Thursday as a holy day after their Christianization.[17]
Hence my remark about a Norse-knowing Norwegian offering some etymological assistance, the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the film be released on Thursday, and my question, “…doe this news elicit thunderous applause?”
As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the stoy!”
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 21st, 2008 11:10 am:
holy… dear… mother… fucking… ass raping… god… umm… i feel upstaged and out done!!! but you’re really into thor and origins of gods aren’t you? that’s really cool. i thought that thor however was also a grecian… maybe i’m confusing him with another… i am a fan however or artemis and athena! (fyi, i wikipedia-ed greek gods already…) i love wikipedia! but i’ll definitely have to check out thor on the big screen…
In the vein of cool tools of the trade, I hope Hollywood really nails the incredible image of Thor’s hammer.
I’m not an expert on mythology, but I’ve always been interested in it (Greek, Roman, Norse), and twist it around in weird ways for my own fiction (which I haven’t had time to do for a couple of years, sadly).
Marina is looking very Pulchritudinous
whats going on here ??
hahntsak on
March 19th, 2008 7:53 pm
could you do Rx? does it have any connection with doctors writing them in chicken scratch.
blue hornet on
March 19th, 2008 7:31 pm
To answer the homework assignment:
Did Cook bring “platypus” and “koala” into the English language? If not, where did those names come from?
I know that “compound” (as it relates to a group of buildings, such as “the Kennedy compound”) comes from the Malay word “kampong”. Did Cook bring that word to us as well?
And what about “amok”? Who brought that one to us? I know it came from the Pacific rim, but I don’t know where.
I absolutly L-o-v-e your lessons!! So I am trying to quit smoking and it led me to think…where did “Bum a smoke” come from?? Love to find out.
Have a wonderful day!
Etymology is the study of word origins, and it can therefore have a loose association with single or multi-word expressions. Maybe Marina should consider a “sister” web site, or a division of this one, in which she addresses idiomatic expressions and the like.
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 19th, 2008 11:03 pm:
isn’t it a little self explanatory? burn (setting something on fire) a smoke (a common name for cigarettes)… if anyone else has a different opinion or actual fact, please enlighten me!
I think minkymel wrote BUM a cigarette, not BURN a cigarette. Yes, “um” and “urn” are visually very similar. Bum can mean “to obtain by begging.” So I don’t think bum has any particular connection with cigarettes linguistically. You could bum anything off someone. But, of course, it’s a popular expression.
ignoranceisbliss27 replied on March 20th, 2008 10:16 am:
oh shit! oops… i thought it was burn. damn eyes keep lying to me! oh well, what can ya do, right? but true about the bumming issue.
i got a question , where comes the word ” chocolate ” do you know
p
l
e
a
s
e
tell me where it comes from
p
l
e
a
s
e
fenix2011 on
March 19th, 2008 5:31 pm
“leech” or the word “pussy” I know that pussy is a “baby cat” but some people use it for other meanings for example one part of The woman’s reproductive system or a person who is a “coward”
Thanks
bsc.1971 on
March 19th, 2008 5:26 pm
Could you please break down the word Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis ?
It’s easy to break down: pneumono [pneu + mono + ultra + microscopic [micro + scopic] + silico + volcano + coniosis. Without looking at a dictionary, I would assume the word has something to do with inhaling tiny volcanic silica and developing a lung disease. Most likely, pneumono is a combinative form of a word that also gives us pneumonia. A lot can be surmised from breaking down words, although what is surmised may not always be correct. I assume you know the word’s actual meaning.
flavious on
March 19th, 2008 4:49 pm
I have a question for you. I heard that the word testify comes from the roman habit of grabing their balls when they accused another roman of some wrongdoing. Is this for real?
whathappenha on
March 19th, 2008 4:16 pm
Hey Marina, where does the word “teacher” come from, I know you know because you are a really good one. when you answer send me a kiss.
biglittle55 on
March 19th, 2008 4:13 pm
Hi Marina,
1.) The word “Tomboy” refers to a young girl who is not very girly, does stuff and plays sports etc. like a boy..where did the term come from?
2.) The word “Uncle”, what is the origin of this word?
3.) The word “UNCLE!!!” is used sometimes when people are play-fighting or wrestling. and the one opponent makes the other say “UNCLE” to be proclaimed the winner. How did this originate?
hot for words you are so sexy can you teach my school someday would you be able to show us where porn comes from
wordprocessor on
March 19th, 2008 3:51 pm
always wondered where the word CUNT derived from and why women hate it so much and some dont mind it at all. do you mind the word. investigate!
please
runawayscott on
March 19th, 2008 3:35 pm
You are a fantastic teacher and absolutely gorgeous, I don’t suppose i could convince you to come teach on Long Island at my school?
runawayscott replied on March 19th, 2008 3:44 pm:
PS
I would be interested to know where the word arquebus comes from. I know it’s an old type of firearm but I’m curious to know where the name comes from.
From my Petit Robert (French dictionary). Arquebuse is a variation of hacquebute (1475); from Middle High German: hakenbuhse [circumflex on the a, trema/umlaut on the u], which is composed of buhse [trema/umlaut on the u] meaning “canon” [cannon or gun barrel] and haken [circumflex on the a] meaning “a crochets” [grave accent on the a] [hook]. There is some Italian influence on the word, but my dictionary doesn’t go any further. My suspicion is that we get the word either directly from the German or that it was passed along to us by the French, and we just dropped the final “e” off the word in English.
tohellwithit2745 on
March 19th, 2008 3:26 pm
hey, what’s the origin behind “money” and “intelligence”
azpol on
March 19th, 2008 3:15 pm
HI I would like to know what the word porn comes from and what it can mean?
The word was coined in 1769. It can be traced to porne [circumflex over the "e"] which means a prostitute in Greek, plus the Grek suffix graphos, which means to write.
philolorgy on
March 19th, 2008 3:05 pm
Teacher;
I can’t download again! Both here and on YouTube, I get like four seconds of video, then nothing.
Is that enough Marina for a good education
I always wondered how to understand “23 Skidoo.” Would hotforwords please help me?
legator on
March 19th, 2008 2:38 pm
Marina! When I saw that your last word investigation was to be “Kangaroo” I had visions of you hopping around and enticing us dear students until our eyes popped out of our heads. Unfortunately you weren’t hopping, but i thoroughly enjoyed the video anyway. My word request is ‘infatuation”.
Thank You,
Lorenzo
tired rook on
March 19th, 2008 1:59 pm
My english teacher in school gave us a list of words to learn. One of them was enthrall. when i looked it up, it meant both to delight and fascinate someone as well as to enslave someone. It seems that it originally meant to enslave someone from the word thrall, but how in the world did it come to mean to delight someone???
el professor replied on March 19th, 2008 11:34 pm:
A thrall is an Anglo-Saxon slave. Slaves becomes slaves by becoming captured. Captivated is a synonym for captured and when we are captivated by something, say a theatrical presentation, we are enthralled.
delawear on
March 19th, 2008 1:52 pm
Dear Teacher
What is the origin of word LAZARUS ooh yeeah I love this word
Thank U for your lessons Kissssss for ya!!
LAZARUS LAZARUS LAZARUS!!!!!!!!!!
dragonsfang1 on
March 19th, 2008 1:26 pm
Hey the sexiest teacher I have ever seen who is Too HOTFORWORDS,
Since you are sending out cards for April Fools Day, what is the origin of “April Fools Day” ?
That’s a good question. In French, they say “Poisson d’avril!” which translates as “April fish!”
I wonder how other languages name the first day of April?
Charles on
March 19th, 2008 1:13 pm
Hi Marina,
Where did the phrase “best man” come from? Why isn’t the “best man” the groom?
How about the phrase “under the weather” meaning one is ill. How did that originate?
Love all your videos.
hoasamzidan on
March 19th, 2008 11:54 am
Dear Marina,,
it’s really my first time to “discover” your broadcast and as a matter of fact i really love it & love your style in “teaching” ….. i wish my professor was as good as this
now the word that i always wanted where did it come frome is (WEED)
thanks for your patiance
Regards,,
Hosam Zidan
km on
March 19th, 2008 11:20 am
hey marina, how does ‘koala’ originate?
ermion on
March 19th, 2008 11:17 am
Hey can you please tell us where the word ‘HOT’ came from and nice website
According to my dictionary: it comes from Middle English, which took it from Old English “hat” [long vowel symbol over the a]. This is “akin” to Old High German “heiz” which means . . . hot, and is related to the Lithuanian word kaisti, which means . . . to get hot.
There you go, another mystery solved by someone OTHER THAN our trusty HotForWords.
It’s by captain James Cook in 1717 in English-language.
infovore on
March 19th, 2008 10:34 am
According to some apocryphal accounts the origin of the name Yucatan (the Mexican peninsula) is also based on a similar misunderstanding. When the spaniards got there -around 1517- and asked for the name of the place they received an answer that sounded to their ears like Yucatan. The real meaning of the answer they got in Mayan language was something like: ‘I don’t understand you’ or ‘I’m not from here’.
James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in Marton, (near modern Middlesborough), Yorkshire, Britain. He commanded three voyages of discovery for Great Britain, and sailed around the world twice. Captain Cook’s voyages lead to the establishment of colonies throughout the Pacific by several European countries. He is considered one of the world’s greatest explorers.
Cook was an apprentice to a shipping company at age 18, and joined the British Navy at 27 in 1755. In 1768, the Navy appointed him leader of a scientific expedition to Tahiti to observe a solar eclipse by Venus. He also had secret orders to seek a southern continent geographers long believed kept the world in balance. He set out on his first voyage round the world in the ship Endeavour. The trip to Tahiti was successful. The search for the southern continent (”Terres Australes” or lands in the south) was not.
In October of 1769 Cook was the first European to land on New Zealand. The Islands had been sighted previously by Dutch Captain Able Tasman, in 1642 some 127 years before Cook. New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeelandt (meaning Sea Land).
On August 22, 1770, Cook claimed for Great Britain the eastern coast of New Holland (now Australia). He claimed the part of New Holland the Dutch had not technically mapped. The name “Australia” was not used until the early 1800s. During his return trip to England in 1771, Cook was the first ship commander to prevent the outbreak of scurvy by serving his crew fruit and sauerkraut to prevent the disease.
On Cook’s second journey he sailed farther south than any other European. He circled Antarctica in his famous ship Resolution, but the ice surrounding the continent prevented the sighting of land. The existence of the Antarctica remained unproved until 1840. He returned to England in 1775 and was promoted to Captain.
In July of 1776 Cook set sail on his third voyage, again in Resolution. His mission was to look for a possible northern sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1778 he became the first know European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. Later in 1778 Cook sailed up the northwest coast of North America, and was the first European to land on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He continued up the coast through the Bering strait, and entered the Arctic Ocean. Great walls of ice blocked the expedition, so Cook headed back for the Hawaiian Islands.
On February 14, 1779 Cook was stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives while investigating a theft of a boat by an islander. The expedition arrived back in England in October of 1780.
If you are aware of books, movies, databases, web sites or other information sources about James Cook or related subjects, or if you would like to submit comments please send us email: .
thetwonky on
March 19th, 2008 10:04 am
Great show, my dear!
Two requests.
I once heard that the word “orange” was the only word in the English language that did not rhyme with any other word. Is this true, and how did this come to be?
Also, I heard at least three stories concerning the origin of the word “cop”: A.) the word is an acronym for “Constable On Patrol”, b.) it is slang derived from the meaning “catch” or “steal”, as in “cop a feel”, and thus when the law catches you, the “cops” have “copped” you. Although I think the relationship here may be opposite, and “cop” to describe an officer may have came first. And story c.) that the badges of police officers were made from copper at one time, thus the “coppers” or “cops” were after you!
Any ideas?
Thanks
tokyoplumber on
March 19th, 2008 10:03 am
I would like to know the origin of the word “opprobrium”. I read this word in a newspaper article today. Thanks!
I want to request Marina the word Spring, because this season is coming toward us,and it has multiple and different meanings ,how did it get all of them?
Greetings
I don’t know, but did you know that “teton” [accent aigu over the "e"] is the French word for “tit?” Think of that the next time you stop in Jackson Hole, Wyomng to admire the Grand Tetons.
tremblay27 on
March 19th, 2008 7:27 am
Hail Marina
Why dont try to make a clips in Molière language?
The philology its not for only one language and can you have access at new audience…
Thnx and good day dear prof
Tremblay27
For the “incultes” among us, Molière spoke French. I think we should remember that English is probably the most diverse language on the planet in terms of rich etymology. Most French words come from Latin or Germanic roots, with some Celtic and Breton and other old dialects thrown in for good measure. Many words in Englsh can be traced back to the French language, and many of them herald from the period following the 1066 a.d. Battle of Hastings conquest by Guillaume le Conquérant [William the Conqueror], which resulted in heavy influence of French language on the English court for a long time. Tremblay27, if you have a good Petit Robert or Larousse, you should be able to fnd the answer to any etymological questions you have. Of course, it would be wonderful to see Marina deliver a French etymology lesson. However, I don’t think Marina speaks French. My advice, if you want her to address French etymology, is to propose an English word that is directly traceable back to the French language, at which point she could continue the search back to the Latin, Germanic, or other origin. Sneaky, but it could work!
sebis111 on
March 19th, 2008 7:26 am
Dear Marina,
you are hot! and you’re a teahcer! hey, i was wondering why the word professor is adressed to someone who teaches. can you solve that for my friends and I?
thanks a million, and like they say in france,
merci! vous êtes beautul !
According to my Petit Robert, professeur comes from the Latin “professor,” which in turn comes from “profiteri,” or “enseigner en public” [English: to teach in public].
jcparis on
March 19th, 2008 7:01 am
Hello,
I would like to know why feller, sawer. Can both mean The lumberjack and the use of a saw. A technique of sawing and the one that is sawing,
But the word to fell and to see have nothing in common they are just own is doing the other is looking
Please tell me.
Do this investigation
JCParis
goober on
March 19th, 2008 6:56 am
DEAR PROFESSOR -
Thank you for the fabulous lessons. I would again like to request the word titillate (it just sounds naughty), and the word beautiful. BEAUTIFUL is a word that I am sure you are familiar with! What is the origin?
Also - you have had several clips of your handsome Great Dane, but what are the items on his ears?
Thank you.
G
prospero811 on
March 19th, 2008 6:44 am
Hi Marina,
Happy Wednesday.
For my homework, words that came into the English language through Captain James Cook include the word “tattoo,”
Interesting fact about Captain Cook. The site where he was killed in Hawaii is marked by a white obelisk and about 25 square feet of land around it is chained off. This land, though in Hawaii, has been given to the United Kingdom. Therefore, the site is officially a part of the UK. With the jurisdictions reversed exactly the same sort of situation exists at Runnymede where the U.S. has extraterritorial jurisdiction over a monument to John F. Kennedy.
We’ll learn something new everyday when Marina does 7 videos a week!
tryant on
March 19th, 2008 6:40 am
Another fine find from You Marina!
Now to biz,since *FIRE* was so very important to the evolution of modern man how about giving it a segment? I recently stepped back in time and watched the old movie Quest For Fire.*SPEECH* was also important around that time,maybe it needs a go too.Come to think of it maybe *EVOLUTION* would be a good one to do.As humans We might All be interested to see if etymology can explain these words and just how far back the facts and/or theories might go.
I wonder if they do etymology on the Planet of the Apes??? Some words may be traced back to a visit by Charlton Heston….
By the way, the author of “La Planète des singes” [yes, the original was a French novel!] is Pierre Boulle (died in 1994), who also wrote “Le pont de la rivière Kwai” [yes, "The Bridge on the River Kwai"].
bokizoki on
March 19th, 2008 6:09 am
Do the time obriviations…. A.M. and P.M. i wana know what they actually stand for and the origin of both. Thanks Marina
have no word ideas uuurgh
kanga seems to have a similar story to the origin [proper noun] canada
everybodies probably heard of that..
an englishman asks an indian “where are we” ..indian says “nowhere” [or something like that] which is supposed to mean canada
is it true?
swedehunter on
March 19th, 2008 5:04 am
As a swede I would like to know how our word (almost) for christmas came to the US. As far as we know the vikings never really settled there but the word Yuletide seems to be around!
I’m sure there are quite a few nordic words in the English language. I’ve watched Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis in “The Vikings,” and they sailed to England to spread nordic words! (Well, sworda funny, anyway.)
A quick check of the dictionary yielded this one: “drag” from Middle English draggen, from Old Norse “draga.”
What was your word, by the way?
3215121 on
March 19th, 2008 4:25 am
i wanted to ask about a word Gay
i know it has two meanings but why does it mean man love man or happy?
A Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is an internationally recognized program addressing threatened species and habitats and is designed to protect and restore biological systems. The original impetus for these plans derives from the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As of 2008, 189 countries have ratified the CBD, but only a fraction of these have developed substantive BAP documents.
I’d assume words like boomerang and billabong
would have went back to England from Cook’s voyages.
Plus “Kath and Kim” - oops , sorry guys
words 4 review:
“Snafu”
“Fubar”
Example for both;”The situation down here on Wall Street is ‘Snafu’. As the investmnets bankers are all ‘Fubar’ now.”
Regards
Hey,
I recal a large brownish-black Kangaroo is called a Wallaroo, from Aboriginal Wolaru.
Hey Marina, how are you?
Just so you know, the ‘Kangaroo’ vid did not come through on the gmail (subscribed….)… all good with itunes Pod Cast, which usally follows after……….otherwise best ever……… hooker followed no problemo…:)…….all good…..
Also, in London Town this past few days, amazing buildings, walking around with the woofers and friends, came across docks and so on, then came the question:-
how come Key and Quay, sound the same but spelt so differently….and, have such different meanings?????? through me side ways a little…..and found best ever ie cram seller on the TowerBride…..strawberries and cream )……..
its just a matter of time before you make the number one slot in zee holllywood fashion!!
you get all votes back here in Blighty for top position…… sexy + intelligent = yay! Marina X
Marina, there is a park, trailhead, and natural spring located on (dry) Soda Lake just off of I-15 south of Baker, California that has the name (are you ready for this?) Zzyzx. I stopped to check the place out and take a hike a few years ago. It’s either within the boundaries of, or contiguous with, the Mojave National Preserve, one of my favorite stomping grounds.
Here is Wikipeda’s entry:
“Zzyzx, California is a settlement in San Bernardino County, California, formerly the site of the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa and now the site of the Desert Studies Center. The area is also the location of Lake Tunedae, one of the refuge habitats of the endangered Mohave tui chub.
“The name Zzyzx, pronounced /ˈzaɪzɨks/, was given to the area in 1944 by Curtis Howe Springer, claiming it to be the last word in the English language. Springer made up the word’s pronunciation. He established the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa at the spot, which was federal land that he had no permission to use. He used the springs to bottle his water and provide drinks for travelers through the hot desert. Curtis also imported animals from around the country to attract more families to visit his ranch. He used Zzyzx until 1974, when he was arrested by the United States Marshals for misuse of the land as well as alleged violations of food and drug laws, and the land was reclaimed by the government.
“Since 1976, the Bureau of Land Management has allowed California State University to manage the land in and around Zzyzx. A consortium of CSU campuses use it as their Desert Studies Center.”
Marina, no doubt there are other placenames that are bizarre like this one. Perhaps some of my fellow students could provide more. If you collected a few, it could make for a very interesting lesson.
Your TA (True Admirer)
LividEmerald
Word request.. I was playing a game of scrabulous (scrabble), and someone threw in a word: “cwm” which was accepted by the computer. It turns out it isn’t an acronym and is an actual word which (gulp) can be pronounced. Could you tell us more about this odd little word “cwm”? Thanks, you’re doing MANkind a great service!
I love Scrabble, but I’ve never played the online game Scrabulous. If they put it the Las Vegas casinos, they could change the little sign on the south end of the Strip to read: “Welcome to Scrabulous Las Vegas.”
(FYI: I’ve lived in Las Vegas since 10/6/95)
hey Marina i have a word request
when somone says want to take a break from all the work
they want to get PAMPERED or take a break
whats going on here ?
The word “shmuck” and why calling someone that is really not nice.
Also please explain the word capodaster to me. It’s a gadget used to play the guitar.
I LIKE YOUR LIPS. SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE WORD “LIPS”
i dont if you would consider looking up for the word GORGEOUS
as in yourself marina u know for your next lesson after “kangaroo”
I am a big fan of Whiskey. Do you know where the word come from?
Oops. I put my request on the second latest video.
anyway
Now just because I hear this in conversation with my friends so much i have to ask. Where do we get the word masturbation? It’s suspiciously similar to mastication(if that’s even how it’s spelled). You know I never knew “Mrs.” didn’t have a correct spelling.
howbout we do a lesson for
anticipation??
doesn’t anti mean “not in favor of” ??
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
This is the term for “fear of long words” but how can such a long word mean the fear of long words? Can you break it down, so it makes sense?
In my anatomy class we talked about the TRAGUS, part of the human ear. What is the story behind that word? Thanks hotforwords for making me smarter.
Here’s something to consider.
If I say, “When I am next to you, I feel like I am next to nothing.”
Does that mean that I am practically nothing compared to the other person, in which case this is a complimen?
Or does that mean that I consider the other person a real “nothing,” in which case this is an insult?
Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with philology!
I just thought of a way to really challenge Marina. Give her a word, say, the Greek word “smaragdos,” and ask her what current English word can be traced back to it. In this case, the answer would be “emerald” [see my user name!].
It seems philology requires that we go back in time in order to see how words evolved in forward time. To find a word’s point of departure, we must use the present day word as the point of departure for our etymological voyage to the past….
(I feel a WTF coming on..)
Has anyone noticed that if you look up the word “philology” in the dictionary, it is broken down into the syllables phi + lol + o + gy? Notice that in terms of word count, lol is balanced by three letters on the left (phi) and three letters on the right (ogy). In the name of Libra, did anyone else notice this hilarious balance? I’m LOL on this one!
you are a lonely man
what about the phrase ” jack of all trades “. by the way “cafeteria” is an every day word from the spanish word “cafeteria” meaning coffee store.
Hyde
Well first off, I just want to say “wow” honestly, i wouldn’t have thought you to be such a knowledgeable as you actually are. So I apologize for kind of pre-judging you, but I think that you’re fricking amazing! Okay, the “word” i was wondering about is actually the phrase “a shoe-in” as in something definite to happen. Thank you though for helping me increase my vocabulary! I feel smarter after having seen your videos!
Ahh 4 years of high school english and I have learned more in a hundred+ episodes of an internet show. Isn’t public school great. By the way keep up the good work Marina I have learned so much.
Of course the word English should always be capitalized. However, capitalizing the name of languages is not the rule in all languages. In French, for example, language name are always lower case, as in anglais, grec, russe, allemand, etc. [English, Greek, Russian, German, etc.]
But, yes, Marina is an educational godsend. Perhaps she can participate in the GED program?
wtf?!?
Loved how you stayed with the first theory.
When the Legend becomes Fact, print the Legend.
You should hear the one about the phrase fuck you or should I say pluck yew (hint hint :P.
Hello hotforwords,
I am a uncle now since last week. i was playing with my nephew and you know know how we all say silly things to babies to try to get them to laugh. yea he is a little young and all but its still cute. I found myself playing the peek-a-boo game with him and wondered how that saying came to be. does it have something to do with ghosts?
no cant be maybe just words someone put together that sounded…fun? i dunno but can you find out for me? yea my word is Peek-a-Boo.
I think this one is pretty self-explanatory isn’t it? Peek-a-boo is composed of “peek” [a brief look or glance] and “boo” [an expression meant to startle or frighten]. “Peek” comes from Middle English, “piken” [14th Century], and “boo” comes from Middle English “bo” [15th Century]. In the game, you cover the baby’s eyes. When the baby “peeks” at you, you say “boo” as if to frighten it. Of course, it’s just a game. As for the connecting “a” between “peek” and “book”–it’s hard to say the two words without making an “a” sound in-between unless you pause between the words to avoid it.
peek-a-boo
Dear Teacher -
While I spent about an hour searching, I only found two words besides Kangaroo associated with Cook and those were Taboo & Tattoo. I did however learn a great deal about Captain Cook and his associate Joseph Banks who was a Philologist much like you. (In all honesty I had never known this word before you and this is the only other person I’ve ever seen with the title.)
The most interesting thing I found was the study of Polynesian travel and origins based on the language used by each island tribe. Amazing - Here is a small excerpt about the topic below:
http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/fr_polynesia/ab out_destin/wayfinders.html
“While language studies support the theory of Cook and Banks that the Polynesians originated there, these studies did not shed much light on the precise location of the original homeland, or on the migrational routes followed in entering and then spreading over the Pacific, nor could they say anything about how the Polynesians had been able to sail so far into the ocean. During the late 1800s and early 1900s a major effort was mounted to examine the traditions of epic voyages told by the islanders themselves in hopes that they could provide the clues needed to reconstruct the Polynesian migration.
Scholars working in New Zealand, for example, found a wealth of traditions about the discovery of their land, and the coming of colonizing canoes from Hawaiki, the legendary homeland which these scholars identified with the Society and Cook Islands. In contrast, those working in Hawai’i found in Hawaiian traditions a wealth of tales connecting Hawai’i with Kahiki, which, arguably, is the Hawaiian way of pronouncing Tahiti. These are not just about single voyages, but tell of the adventures of chiefs and priests who sailed repeatedly back and forth between the two centers. One of the best known of these legends is that which tells of eight different voyages made by Mo’ikeha, a chief who lived (according to genealogical reckoning) sometime around the 12th century, and his sons.
Professional anthropologists began to study the Polynesian problem in earnest during the period between the two world wars. Through surveying the remains of stone temples and other structures, and comparing the cultural traits and physical characteristics of the islanders, these anthropologists sought to shed further light on Polynesian origins, but with little success. Without a program of sub-surface archaeology to work out the routes, sequences, and chronologies of settlement, and without a method for finding out how the Polynesians could have sailed and navigated over such a great expanse of ocean, Polynesian studies were stalled.”
Thank you for the interesting lesson and I look forward to learning the additional words attributed to Capt. Cook.
Peter
aka pstawicki
where does the term “happy as a clam” come from?
I live on an Island, surrounded by the sea and I’ve never seen an unhappy clam, they always seem to be smiling, but a very good question none the less. Cheers
Which is happier, a clam or a lark? In French, they say “gai comme un pinson,” which refers to a finch (or, more specifically, a chaffinch, a common European finch, Fringilla coelebs). So I guess European finches are happy, too. When speaking of sadness, do any expressions incorporate animal names, as in “sad as a ____”?
DEar Marina hottest for Words of em all I desire to know the orgin of the word “LUCK ”
Thanky YOU so much
muuuuuuuuuwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa
Marina, I speak French and have some good French dictionaries. If you have any etymological questions (French is usually traceable back to German, Celtic, Latin, or French dialects like those from Bretagne or Languedoc) that stem from, or pass through, the French language, you can e-mail me, and I’ll look it up for you. I’ve seen all your videos, and I truly enjoy them.
Boing
. Boing no More 
hi teach,
what about the word… SHIT? wonder where it came from… I hear people say ” who gives a SHIT”, ” I dont give a SHIT”, ” that SHIT sucks”, “SHIT happens” and sometimes when i ask people “whats up” they say “SHIT.” So Marina whats up with that SHIT?
O and it would be really cool to see my screen name on one of the people who requested this word orgin. Or could u actually do a interesting segment on this word…
SHIT = Doesn’t that mean Sexy Hot Interesting Teacher? If so, then this word comes out smelling like a rose!
My word request is actually a bunch of words…
I want to know the origins of the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What’s the significance? THANKS!
I’m sure some Latin-knowing Italian, or some Norse-knowing Norwegian, will come up with an answer for you.
much like lividemerald, you can find that out yourself by simply googling the days… most are latin (or maybe greek, i can never remember) but they’re mostly names of gods that were tweaked to mean different days of the week. unless i’m completely stupid, then please, somebody correct me…
Yes, they have been tweaked. Which is why we call Monday through Friday tweakdays, and Saturday and Sunday the tweakend.
By the way, Hollywood, enamored as it is of comic book characters, is supposedly bringing “Thor” to the silver screen in the near future. May I suggest they release the film on a Thursday?
first off i have to say this: “HA!” nice
… but i haven’t heard of the bringing of thor to the silver screen at all, but if they release it on any other day other than thursday, they’re retarded as all hell and i wouldn’t see it because of that!
Try this link: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category= 0&id=44153&type=0 or check out http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0800369/. “Thor” will star Matthew Vaughn and is set for a 2009 release. Assuming you like this comic book character, does this news elicit thunderous applause?
truth be told, i’ve never really gotten into comic books and haven’t heard of thor in anything else other than the grecian or latin god of something… idk though, it sounds kinda interesting though…
ignoranceisbliss27 > This is from Wikipedia:
Most surviving stories relating to Germanic paganism either mention Thor or centre on Thor’s exploits. Thor was a much revered god of the ancient Germanic peoples from at least the earliest surviving written accounts of the indigenous Germanic tribes to over a thousand years later during the last bastions of Germanic paganism in the late Viking Age.
The name Thor has the same origin as the word thunder, just as German Donner, Dutch donder, Swedish tordön (can also be “dunder”), and Danish and Norwegian torden (with the suffix -dön/-den originally meaning “rumble” or “din”).
Thor gave his name to the Old English day Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, known in Modern English as Thursday. Þunor is also the source of the modern word thunder.
“Thor’s Day” is Þórsdagr in Old Norse, Hósdagur in Faroese, Thursday in English, Donnerstag in German (meaning “Thunder’s Day”), Donderdag in Dutch (meaning Thunder day), Torstai in Finnish, and Torsdag in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.
The day was considered such an important day of the week that as late as the seventh century Saint Eligius reproached his congregation in Flanders for continuing their native practice of recognizing Thursday as a holy day after their Christianization.[17]
Hence my remark about a Norse-knowing Norwegian offering some etymological assistance, the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the film be released on Thursday, and my question, “…doe this news elicit thunderous applause?”
As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the stoy!”
holy… dear… mother… fucking… ass raping… god… umm… i feel upstaged and out done!!!
but you’re really into thor and origins of gods aren’t you? that’s really cool. i thought that thor however was also a grecian… maybe i’m confusing him with another… i am a fan however or artemis and athena! (fyi, i wikipedia-ed greek gods already…) i love wikipedia! but i’ll definitely have to check out thor on the big screen…
In the vein of cool tools of the trade, I hope Hollywood really nails the incredible image of Thor’s hammer.
I’m not an expert on mythology, but I’ve always been interested in it (Greek, Roman, Norse), and twist it around in weird ways for my own fiction (which I haven’t had time to do for a couple of years, sadly).
Marina is looking very Pulchritudinous
whats going on here ??
could you do Rx? does it have any connection with doctors writing them in chicken scratch.
To answer the homework assignment:
Did Cook bring “platypus” and “koala” into the English language? If not, where did those names come from?
I know that “compound” (as it relates to a group of buildings, such as “the Kennedy compound”) comes from the Malay word “kampong”. Did Cook bring that word to us as well?
And what about “amok”? Who brought that one to us? I know it came from the Pacific rim, but I don’t know where.
derwithsall where did this word come from
James Cook i heard also founded Hawaii
So Iwas wondering where the word Hawaii came from
Ok Marina, here we go. It may or may not be a word, I’m not exactly sure but here it is anyway.. “Heptaparaparshinauk”
I had heard this once before but I don’t recall what it was referred to.
By the way,I have just found these videos and your site.
Thanks for coming to the U.S.
That word must be one of the 7 Wonders of the Linguistic World.
Have a wonderful day!
Etymology is the study of word origins, and it can therefore have a loose association with single or multi-word expressions. Maybe Marina should consider a “sister” web site, or a division of this one, in which she addresses idiomatic expressions and the like.
what’s a word?
isn’t it a little self explanatory? burn (setting something on fire) a smoke (a common name for cigarettes)… if anyone else has a different opinion or actual fact, please enlighten me!
I think minkymel wrote BUM a cigarette, not BURN a cigarette. Yes, “um” and “urn” are visually very similar. Bum can mean “to obtain by begging.” So I don’t think bum has any particular connection with cigarettes linguistically. You could bum anything off someone. But, of course, it’s a popular expression.
oh shit! oops… i thought it was burn. damn eyes keep lying to me! oh well, what can ya do, right? but true about the bumming issue.
please
m
a
r
i
n
a
i got a question , where comes the word ” chocolate ” do you know
p
l
e
a
s
e
tell me where it comes from
p
l
e
a
s
e
“leech” or the word “pussy” I know that pussy is a “baby cat” but some people use it for other meanings for example one part of The woman’s reproductive system or a person who is a “coward”
Thanks
Could you please break down the word Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis ?
It’s easy to break down: pneumono [pneu + mono + ultra + microscopic [micro + scopic] + silico + volcano + coniosis. Without looking at a dictionary, I would assume the word has something to do with inhaling tiny volcanic silica and developing a lung disease. Most likely, pneumono is a combinative form of a word that also gives us pneumonia. A lot can be surmised from breaking down words, although what is surmised may not always be correct. I assume you know the word’s actual meaning.
I have a question for you. I heard that the word testify comes from the roman habit of grabing their balls when they accused another roman of some wrongdoing. Is this for real?
Hey Marina, where does the word “teacher” come from, I know you know because you are a really good one. when you answer send me a kiss.
Hi Marina,
1.) The word “Tomboy” refers to a young girl who is not very girly, does stuff and plays sports etc. like a boy..where did the term come from?
2.) The word “Uncle”, what is the origin of this word?
3.) The word “UNCLE!!!” is used sometimes when people are play-fighting or wrestling. and the one opponent makes the other say “UNCLE” to be proclaimed the winner. How did this originate?
thx
hot for words you are so sexy
can you teach my school someday would you be able to show us where porn comes from 
always wondered where the word CUNT derived from and why women hate it so much and some dont mind it at all. do you mind the word. investigate!
please
You are a fantastic teacher and absolutely gorgeous, I don’t suppose i could convince you to come teach on Long Island at my school?
PS
I would be interested to know where the word arquebus comes from. I know it’s an old type of firearm but I’m curious to know where the name comes from.
From my Petit Robert (French dictionary). Arquebuse is a variation of hacquebute (1475); from Middle High German: hakenbuhse [circumflex on the a, trema/umlaut on the u], which is composed of buhse [trema/umlaut on the u] meaning “canon” [cannon or gun barrel] and haken [circumflex on the a] meaning “a crochets” [grave accent on the a] [hook]. There is some Italian influence on the word, but my dictionary doesn’t go any further. My suspicion is that we get the word either directly from the German or that it was passed along to us by the French, and we just dropped the final “e” off the word in English.
hey, what’s the origin behind “money” and “intelligence”
HI I would like to know what the word porn comes from and what it can mean?
The word was coined in 1769. It can be traced to porne [circumflex over the "e"] which means a prostitute in Greek, plus the Grek suffix graphos, which means to write.
Teacher;
I can’t download again! Both here and on YouTube, I get like four seconds of video, then nothing.
Is that enough Marina for a good education
I always wondered how to understand “23 Skidoo.” Would hotforwords please help me?
Marina!
When I saw that your last word investigation was to be “Kangaroo” I had visions of you hopping around and enticing us dear students until our eyes popped out of our heads. Unfortunately you weren’t hopping, but i thoroughly enjoyed the video anyway. My word request is ‘infatuation”.
Thank You,
Lorenzo
My english teacher in school gave us a list of words to learn. One of them was enthrall. when i looked it up, it meant both to delight and fascinate someone as well as to enslave someone. It seems that it originally meant to enslave someone from the word thrall, but how in the world did it come to mean to delight someone???
A thrall is an Anglo-Saxon slave. Slaves becomes slaves by becoming captured. Captivated is a synonym for captured and when we are captivated by something, say a theatrical presentation, we are enthralled.
Dear Teacher
What is the origin of word LAZARUS ooh yeeah I love this word
Thank U for your lessons Kissssss for ya!!
LAZARUS LAZARUS LAZARUS!!!!!!!!!!
Hey the sexiest teacher I have ever seen who is Too HOTFORWORDS,
Since you are sending out cards for April Fools Day, what is the origin of “April Fools Day” ?
Thanks,
A very appreciative student.
That’s a good question. In French, they say “Poisson d’avril!” which translates as “April fish!”
I wonder how other languages name the first day of April?
Hi Marina,
Where did the phrase “best man” come from? Why isn’t the “best man” the groom?
How about the phrase “under the weather” meaning one is ill. How did that originate?
Love all your videos.
Dear Marina,,
it’s really my first time to “discover” your broadcast and as a matter of fact i really love it & love your style in “teaching” ….. i wish my professor was as good as this
now the word that i always wanted where did it come frome is (WEED)
thanks for your patiance
Regards,,
Hosam Zidan
hey marina, how does ‘koala’ originate?
Hey can you please tell us where the word ‘HOT’ came from and nice website
xxx
Ermion
According to my dictionary: it comes from Middle English, which took it from Old English “hat” [long vowel symbol over the a]. This is “akin” to Old High German “heiz” which means . . . hot, and is related to the Lithuanian word kaisti, which means . . . to get hot.
There you go, another mystery solved by someone OTHER THAN our trusty HotForWords.
According to some apocryphal accounts the origin of the name Yucatan (the Mexican peninsula) is also based on a similar misunderstanding. When the spaniards got there -around 1517- and asked for the name of the place they received an answer that sounded to their ears like Yucatan. The real meaning of the answer they got in Mayan language was something like: ‘I don’t understand you’ or ‘I’m not from here’.
You mean the Mayans were not saying, “You Catalan?”
I heard the same story
James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in Marton, (near modern Middlesborough), Yorkshire, Britain. He commanded three voyages of discovery for Great Britain, and sailed around the world twice. Captain Cook’s voyages lead to the establishment of colonies throughout the Pacific by several European countries. He is considered one of the world’s greatest explorers.
Cook was an apprentice to a shipping company at age 18, and joined the British Navy at 27 in 1755. In 1768, the Navy appointed him leader of a scientific expedition to Tahiti to observe a solar eclipse by Venus. He also had secret orders to seek a southern continent geographers long believed kept the world in balance. He set out on his first voyage round the world in the ship Endeavour. The trip to Tahiti was successful. The search for the southern continent (”Terres Australes” or lands in the south) was not.
In October of 1769 Cook was the first European to land on New Zealand. The Islands had been sighted previously by Dutch Captain Able Tasman, in 1642 some 127 years before Cook. New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeelandt (meaning Sea Land).
On August 22, 1770, Cook claimed for Great Britain the eastern coast of New Holland (now Australia). He claimed the part of New Holland the Dutch had not technically mapped. The name “Australia” was not used until the early 1800s. During his return trip to England in 1771, Cook was the first ship commander to prevent the outbreak of scurvy by serving his crew fruit and sauerkraut to prevent the disease.
On Cook’s second journey he sailed farther south than any other European. He circled Antarctica in his famous ship Resolution, but the ice surrounding the continent prevented the sighting of land. The existence of the Antarctica remained unproved until 1840. He returned to England in 1775 and was promoted to Captain.
In July of 1776 Cook set sail on his third voyage, again in Resolution. His mission was to look for a possible northern sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1778 he became the first know European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. Later in 1778 Cook sailed up the northwest coast of North America, and was the first European to land on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He continued up the coast through the Bering strait, and entered the Arctic Ocean. Great walls of ice blocked the expedition, so Cook headed back for the Hawaiian Islands.
On February 14, 1779 Cook was stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives while investigating a theft of a boat by an islander. The expedition arrived back in England in October of 1780.
If you are aware of books, movies, databases, web sites or other information sources about James Cook or related subjects, or if you would like to submit comments please send us email: .
Great show, my dear!
Two requests.
I once heard that the word “orange” was the only word in the English language that did not rhyme with any other word. Is this true, and how did this come to be?
Also, I heard at least three stories concerning the origin of the word “cop”: A.) the word is an acronym for “Constable On Patrol”, b.) it is slang derived from the meaning “catch” or “steal”, as in “cop a feel”, and thus when the law catches you, the “cops” have “copped” you. Although I think the relationship here may be opposite, and “cop” to describe an officer may have came first. And story c.) that the badges of police officers were made from copper at one time, thus the “coppers” or “cops” were after you!
Any ideas?
Thanks
I would like to know the origin of the word “opprobrium”. I read this word in a newspaper article today. Thanks!
It was a pity, I was anxious because I thought I was listening to the origin of the “kangaroo court” expression but , it will be another time
I want to request Marina the word Spring, because this season is coming toward us,and it has multiple and different meanings ,how did it get all of them?
Greetings
I want to know about the WORD “Coagulation”.
I’m surprised someone hasn’t coined the word “coadulation” to express one’s idolatry of a woman’s, ahem, chest.
Dear HotForWords
i want to know about the word AWOL!
is it an abbr?
Absent Without Official Leave
Love your ’show’.
What is the origin of Tit for Tat?
I don’t know, but did you know that “teton” [accent aigu over the "e"] is the French word for “tit?” Think of that the next time you stop in Jackson Hole, Wyomng to admire the Grand Tetons.
Hail Marina
Why dont try to make a clips in Molière language?
The philology its not for only one language and can you have access at new audience…
Thnx and good day dear prof
Tremblay27
For the “incultes” among us, Molière spoke French. I think we should remember that English is probably the most diverse language on the planet in terms of rich etymology. Most French words come from Latin or Germanic roots, with some Celtic and Breton and other old dialects thrown in for good measure. Many words in Englsh can be traced back to the French language, and many of them herald from the period following the 1066 a.d. Battle of Hastings conquest by Guillaume le Conquérant [William the Conqueror], which resulted in heavy influence of French language on the English court for a long time. Tremblay27, if you have a good Petit Robert or Larousse, you should be able to fnd the answer to any etymological questions you have. Of course, it would be wonderful to see Marina deliver a French etymology lesson. However, I don’t think Marina speaks French. My advice, if you want her to address French etymology, is to propose an English word that is directly traceable back to the French language, at which point she could continue the search back to the Latin, Germanic, or other origin. Sneaky, but it could work!
Dear Marina,
you are hot! and you’re a teahcer! hey, i was wondering why the word professor is adressed to someone who teaches. can you solve that for my friends and I?
thanks a million, and like they say in france,
merci! vous êtes beautul !
According to my Petit Robert, professeur comes from the Latin “professor,” which in turn comes from “profiteri,” or “enseigner en public” [English: to teach in public].
Hello,
I would like to know why feller, sawer. Can both mean The lumberjack and the use of a saw. A technique of sawing and the one that is sawing,
But the word to fell and to see have nothing in common they are just own is doing the other is looking
Please tell me.
Do this investigation
JCParis
DEAR PROFESSOR -
Thank you for the fabulous lessons. I would again like to request the word titillate (it just sounds naughty), and the word beautiful. BEAUTIFUL is a word that I am sure you are familiar with! What is the origin?
Also - you have had several clips of your handsome Great Dane, but what are the items on his ears?
Thank you.
G
Hi Marina,
Happy Wednesday.
For my homework, words that came into the English language through Captain James Cook include the word “tattoo,”
Interesting fact about Captain Cook. The site where he was killed in Hawaii is marked by a white obelisk and about 25 square feet of land around it is chained off. This land, though in Hawaii, has been given to the United Kingdom. Therefore, the site is officially a part of the UK. With the jurisdictions reversed exactly the same sort of situation exists at Runnymede where the U.S. has extraterritorial jurisdiction over a monument to John F. Kennedy.
Learn something new every day…
Eric
We’ll learn something new everyday when Marina does 7 videos a week!
Another fine find from You Marina!
Now to biz,since *FIRE* was so very important to the evolution of modern man how about giving it a segment? I recently stepped back in time and watched the old movie Quest For Fire.*SPEECH* was also important around that time,maybe it needs a go too.Come to think of it maybe *EVOLUTION* would be a good one to do.As humans We might All be interested to see if etymology can explain these words and just how far back the facts and/or theories might go.
I wonder if they do etymology on the Planet of the Apes??? Some words may be traced back to a visit by Charlton Heston….
By the way, the author of “La Planète des singes” [yes, the original was a French novel!] is Pierre Boulle (died in 1994), who also wrote “Le pont de la rivière Kwai” [yes, "The Bridge on the River Kwai"].
Do the time obriviations…. A.M. and P.M. i wana know what they actually stand for and the origin of both. Thanks Marina
A.M. = Adore Marina.
P.M. = Praise Marina.
Originated right here on HotForWords.
have no word ideas uuurgh
kanga seems to have a similar story to the origin [proper noun] canada
everybodies probably heard of that..
an englishman asks an indian “where are we” ..indian says “nowhere” [or something like that] which is supposed to mean canada
is it true?
As a swede I would like to know how our word (almost) for christmas came to the US. As far as we know the vikings never really settled there but the word Yuletide seems to be around!
Request from a new but loyal fan in Sweden!
I see you have a Swede tooth for etymology.
Thanks!
Besides Yuletide, what other english word origin from our nordic language…? Do you know? I have at least one more……
I’m sure there are quite a few nordic words in the English language. I’ve watched Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis in “The Vikings,” and they sailed to England to spread nordic words!
(Well, sworda funny, anyway.)
A quick check of the dictionary yielded this one: “drag” from Middle English draggen, from Old Norse “draga.”
What was your word, by the way?
i wanted to ask about a word Gay
i know it has two meanings but why does it mean man love man or happy?
I would like to know origin of “Teacher” word.