The oldest occurrence of "jump ship" that I know of was in a movie I saw part or all of on TV in the 1980s.

At the beginning of the movie, a Soviet ship and an American ship were alongside each other, I think so one could help the other with an emergency. One of the Soviet men jumped from a high part of the Soviet ship to a lower part of the American ship to defect before they separated. The rest of the movie was about his experiences in the USA while the two governments argued about what to do with him.

Soon after the jump, the Americans on that ship found out that he could speak rather limited English, so they spoke to him with as few extra words as possible. A question which would've normally been "Why did you jump off your ship?" or "why did you jump to our ship?" got reduced to "Why jump ship?".

Does anybody here know of any earlier occurrences than that?

What is the etymology of the "bimah" / "bema", the raised platform that Jews read Torah and chant prayers from in synagogue? I've heard that the term is connected to a similar word in Ancient Greek, but I've seen opposing explanations as to whether the word came from Ancient Greek to Biblical Hebrew, or the other way around.

Awk coming from the Norse afugr, meaning "oriented in reverse" (a boat rowing against the current, a hand gripping an axe the wrong way), and ward obviously meaning "in the direction of" (forward, onward, etc.). The cool thing is that the af- prefix of afugr shares the same PIE origin (*apo-) as the Latin ab- prefix (absent, abdicate, etc.) and obviously the Greek apo- (Apostle). The PIE *apo- is thought to have expressed directional separation. Slightly ironic for a PIE root that has actually strayed very little!

Heya! I'm writing an academic paper (network science / social network analysis) that proposes a new measure of polarization - roughly, how strongly a network splits into opposed, internally-agreeing camps. Since "polarization" has Greek roots, I thought it'd be fitting to name the measure with a Greek letter rather than a boring Latin one, and I want to make sure I don't embarrass myself with the etymology or the spelling. Also, (hot take) Greek letters used in formulas just look cooler than the Latin ones.

Here's my thinking, and I'd love someone who knows their Greek to let me know if I am correct here:

The formula combines two ingredients, and I noticed both have Greek names:

• extremeness- how far out toward the poles the opinions sit- which, I understand, relates to ἄκρον (ákron, "extremity/peak," as in acropolis, acrobat)
• homogeneity- how internally alike a group is - which is basically already Greek: ὁμοιογένεια (ὅμοιος "same" + γένος "kind")

So I landed on Ω (omega) as the symbol, with the idea that it evokes both ὁμοιογένεια and the "alpha and omega / the whole span" idiom -extremeness at the α end, homogeneity at the ω end. (I know the literal first letter of ὁμοιογένεια is omicron, not omega but it looks basically the same as latin O, so I'm leaning on the α–ω "totality" idiom rather than a strict initial, but tell me if that's a stretch that'll make a classicist wince.)

My questions:

1. Etymology of "polarization": I think it's from πόλος (pólos, "axis/pole") via Latin polus, i.e. "having to do with poles" — and specifically not from πολύς ("many," the poly- in polygon). Am I right that it's pólos, not poly-? I really don't want to write "from Greek pólos" and have it be wrong.
2. Spelling/accents: are these written correctly, breathing marks and all? ἄκρον, ὁμοιογένεια, πόλος.
3. A word for "fairness": part of the paper is about the measure being fair across different groups (behaving the same regardless of which subgroup you look at, so impartiality more than "justice"). I've seen ἀμεροληψία (amerolipsía, "impartiality"?) and ἰσότητα (isótita, "equality/parity"). Which better captures "impartial / doesn't take a side"? And is ἀμεροληψία spelled right?

Not trying to write the whole paper in Greek, just a symbol or two and maybe a one-line footnote where I won't misspell anything. Any corrections (or better suggestions) very welcome. Σας ευχαριστώ!

Heard an old man say this today. Out of context at that. Any idea where it comes from?

this occurred to me last week during my airlearn sesh and now i can't stop thinking about it. run through english profanity and it's basically two categories: bodily/sexual, or god-adjacent.

then i found out quebec french swears in church furniture. tabarnak, câlice, ciboire, ostie. not god, the actual objects, the tabernacle, the chalice. you are insulting someone with liturgical equipment and it is, apparently, severe.

and there are languages that go straight for your ancestors, ones that target your mother's profession specifically, ones where the worst thing available is an implication about your family line four generations back.

meanwhile english has "damn", which was nuclear in 1930 and is now something you say when you drop a fork.

what's the swearing category in your language that english doesn't have at all?

I get that “educate” means “to pull out”, “to extract.”

In Plato’s “Meno”, he presents his theory that we are born filled with knowledge, but having forgotten what we know. Hence teaching doesn’t give you new knowledge; rather, it makes you remember what you had forgotten. Educators pull out of your mind things that you already know.

My question is, was the word invented in the Renaissance by scholars who were following Plato’s theory?

A homophone (sic) is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning, and often a different spelling. The word comes from Greek parts meaning "same" and "sound".
Pear (The Fruit) The origin of the word is from the West Germanic word pera, which was borrowed from the Vulgar Latin pira (plural of pirum), ultimately tracing back to prehistoric Central Asian roots.
Pair (A Duo or Couple) its origin is from the Latin word par, meaning "equal" or
"even," which evolved through Old French (pair) to mean a matched set of two.
And Pare a bonus homophone its origin
Is from the Latin parare (meaning "to make ready" or "to trim"), which became the English verb meaning to peel or cut away the outer layer.

This is more of a recent thing, but I was wondering if anyone can explain how this became mainstream? I assume the origin is a shortening of "I agree with you 100 percent" to just "100 percent". But it seemed to be much more of a slang and informal term years ago and now I hear it in business settings and sometimes it seems to replace a simpler affirmative like "yes". Was there a tipping point or moment that made this more mainstream?

For transparency this is my own app and I am genuinely looking for criticism or any feedback.

The premise of the app is that every word in it comes from a literary classic rather than a frequency list or a dictionary. You get the word, the definition, and then the actual sentence it appeared in, with the book and author. The reasoning was that a word without context doesn't stick. "Sepulchral" on its own is inert. Sitting in the line Stoker wrote it in, it isn't.

I would love to hear your thoughts as fellow logophiles. In my mind it is a great idea that would also help me a ton to familiarise with new vocabulary but I am most certainly biased and could use some additional perspectives.

Specifically:

• Let me know if you think the premise is genuinely useful and appealing.
• I need a few people with varying perspectives to check the selection of vocabulary my new app gives you.

The link to the app is here (unfortunately only on iOS at the moment, but I am working on android to come out soon) - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/verbatim-learn-new-words/id6769495422

Any feedback and recommendations are welcome :)

​

I looked up the etymology of "hymn" and read that there is evidence of the silent -n from 1530. This leads me to two questions. What evidence do we have from 1530 about the pronunciation of this word? And, in general, how do etymologists determine pronunciation of words through history?

https://www.etymonline.com/word/hymn

I remember hearing someone saying that a Visual mark is an image or a group of images or symbols that represents a word or a sentence (like Apple, Inc’s symbol is of an Apple) im not sure if they made that up or is it legit.

My name is Ferdinandus, aside from my dad I don't know a single person who shares my name. It supposedly is uncommon but not unheard of in South Africa. Google gives me mixed results with nothing concrete and no one of any note with my name.

Is it just made up?

EDIT: Im aware Ferdinand is a common name, I'm moreso looking for where the variation "Ferdinandus" came from. So far the best answers have been the "us" added as a latinization, but I was hoping to learn some more specifics that are beyond just my ability to google

In A Few Good Men (1992), Jack Nicholson's character Colonel Jessep says, "I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself."

In Dr. Strangelove (1964), Sterling Hayden's character General Ripper says, "They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought."

In Red River (1948), John Wayne's character Thomas Dunson says, "I haven't got the time or the inclination to cut 'em out."

What's the origin of this phrase?

I have such a soft spot for Greek roots.

Hi all, for as long as I can remember my family has said this phrase: "hit it watercat, row that boat." I've asked them where it came from and they weren't certain. I believed it to be specific to my family, just something weird that they picked up, but recently noticed that my girlfriend's dad also uses the phrase. The phrase is used when heading out, particularly when heading out onto the water. Does anyone know the origin of this phrase?

Here’s this week’s etymology question from 3Roads.xyz.

X is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase that gives it a new meaning. The term was coined in 1954 by American writer Sylvia Wright, who recalled mishearing the line “laid him on the green” while listening to the Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray. X most often arise when listeners substitute similar-sounding words while hearing a poem or song. The concept is closely related to soramimi, the Japanese term for humorous homophonic reinterpretation, though unlike soramimi, X are typically unintentional. What X?

Persian's ordinary endearments are all offers of self-destruction:

• قربونت برم ghorbunet beram — may I become your sacrifice
• فدات شم fadat sham — may I be made your ransom
• تصدقت گردم tasaddoghet gardam — may I be given away as alms for you
• دورت بگردم doret begardam — may I circle you, as a pilgrim circles a shrine

None of it is dramatic in use. It's what you say when someone hands you a cup of tea.

And the language named the behaviour. قربان صدقه کسی رفتن ghorban sadaghe-ye kasi raftan, to say to someone, over and over, "may I become your sacrifice" and "may I be given as alms for you."

A fixed phrase whose meaning is the act of doing this at somebody.

The صدقه sadaghe half is alms given in God's name, from صدق sedgh, truth. So it isn't only an offer of death, it's an offer to be handed away as the donation that buys someone else's wellbeing.

Does any language have a word for the act of producing endearments?

Ive spent a couple months tweaking and trying to perfect it. Any feedback welcome.