Dig Into Some Etymology

Whether you're a professional or purely interested in for the love of the game, falling down etymological rabbit holes can be super interesting. It's kind of like Twitter (sorry, X), but instead of pointless tweets, you're learning something. Show off your newfound knowledge at your next trivia night!

Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels

1. Democracy

The Greeks decided that out of all the systems of government they tried, democracy was the best of the bunch. Taking the word demos, meaning people, and kratos, meaning power, democracy means power to the people.

Parker Johnson on Unsplash

2. Marathon

Did you know that every marathon is 42.1 km or 26.1 miles? Maybe that's common knowledge, but some of us are more concerned with eating or sleeping than worrying about the length of a run. That said, if you want to impress your trivia friends, you can let them know a marathon is called a marathon because it is the exact distance between the Greek city of Marathon and Athens.

Mārtiņš Zemlickis on Unsplash

3. Music

Music...muse, you probably get the point, but we'll spell it out for you anyway. Music means "art of the muses," of which there are nine total. Calliope: muse of epic poetry, Clio: muse of history, Erato: muse of love poetry, Euterpe: muse of music, Melpomene: muse of tragedy, Polyhymnia: muse of sacred poetry and hymns, Terpsichore: muse of dance, Thalia: muse of comedy, and Urania: muse of astronomy. Got all that? Good.

Gabriel Gurrola on Unsplash

4. Panic

Panic derives from the goat-god Pan. Said to have made his home in the Greek region of Arcadia, Pan ruled over the forests, livestock, and impromptu music. A bit of a jack of all trades, but the guy knows what he likes. He especially liked terrorizing the local nymphs and striking overwhelming fear into the hearts of those who entered his domain.

Meghan Hessler on Unsplash

5. Sarcasm

Originating from the Greek word, sarx, meaning flesh, sarcasm means to metaphorically strip someone's flesh off with a sneering comment. 

Obie Fernandez on Unsplash

6. Clue

Clue comes from the word "clew," which is probably how you spelled clue as a five-year-old. The word clew comes from Middle and Old English, and means a ball of thread or yarn. This means that in most detective shows, clues are being strung together with clews!

cottonbro studio on Pexels

7. Shampoo

Shampoo originates from the Hindi word campna or champna, meaning "to press or knead muscles." While England only took the phrase to mean hair, the word represents a full-body massage that accompanied the hair-washing process, which sounds pretty good to us!

cottonbro studio on Pexels

8. Mortgage

In this economy, a mortgage is not an everyday word, but something nearly impossible to obtain. The word comes from the French word "morgage," meaning "dead pledge." While it sounds like something you'll be paying until you die, the dead pledge refers to the success or failure to pay for a property in full, making the property dead to either the borrower or the lender. In today's day and age, however, the lender is just the bank.

Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

9. Butcher

Butcher comes from the French word bochier, meaning "slaughterer of goats." Most city-centric butchers today probably don't kill their animals, never mind goats, but humans are suckers for consistency. There probably isn't a word for "seller of some dead animals that came from over an hour away."

Madie Hamilton on Unsplash

10. Midwife

Midwife combines the Middle English word mid, meaning "together with," and an older definition for wife, meaning any woman. Technically, you need a degree to professionally be called a midwife, but by this definition, anyone can take the name.

Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

11. Astronaut

Originally meaning spaceship, not person, astronaut derives from the author Percy Greg's Across the Zodiac, which came out in 1880. To push the entomology even further than that, the Greek meaning of the word translates to something like "star sailor," which is a pretty beautiful definition.

History in HD on Unsplash

12. Echo

According to Greek mythology, the mountain nymph Echo tried in vain to hide Zeus's many affairs from his wife, Hera. This didn't work, and Hera cursed Echo to only repeat words said to her. Funnily enough, the nymph Echo was said to fall in love with Narcissus (the mythological man behind the word narcissism), but could never tell him how she felt due to her curse. This led to Narcissus falling in love with his reflection.

Nico Smit on Unsplash

13. Draconian

Maybe not as commonly used today, but draconian means "excessively harsh and severe." Another word of Greek origin, legistlator Draco, gave the city of Athens its first written laws. These laws were severe, resulting in decapitation, slavery, and death for something as simple as stealing food or missing a debt payment.

diegoattorney on Pixabay

14. Hypnosis

Hypnosis comes from "hypno," meaning to sleep, and "osis," meaning condition. Also, the name of a super sick Pokémon, the word derives from Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. It's said that Hypnos intervened during the Trojan War, putting Zeus in a temporary sleep and winning favor for the Greeks. 

MK Hamilton on Unsplash

15. Avatar

Avatar has three definitions: The descent of a deity to earth in some physical form, the physical embodiment of an idea, and the visual representation of a user in a computer program such as an online game. The word comes from the Sanskrit word avatarana, meaning "descent." As Hindu gods were known to manifest in an earthly form, similar to the Greek pantheon. 

Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

16. Boycott

A term thrown around pretty regularly these days, but did you know the history of the word boycott dates back to a 19th-century British Army officer? The officer's name was Charles Boycott, who was shunned from the land he was managing after a rent dispute with the farmers and tenants. This led to Boycott leaving town, his legacy cemented forever.

Damiano Baschiera on Unsplash

17. Cemetery

Cemetery means land designated for burial, and was originally applied to the Roman catacombs. However, the word itself comes from the Greek word koimame, meaning "to sleep." Koimame also derives from the word koimitirion, meaning "dormitory." This means the dead are doing two things: sleeping and partying.

Mark Duffel on Unsplash

18. Cigar

The word cigar has a few etymological theories. It could come from the Spanish word cigarro, which is closely related to cigarra, meaning cicada. This could refer to the cylindrical shape of the cigar. The other theory is that the word derives from the Mayan word sikar, meaning "to smoke."

Keenan Barber on Unsplash

19. Gossip

Gossip was originally gossip. In the Old English definition, it meant godparent. Through the winding world of history, however, the word came to mean any familiar acquaintance by the 1500s. Eventually, the word changed to mean anyone engaged in idle talk, before becoming the juicy word we see today. Xoxo!

Ben White on Unsplash

20. Anthology

Anthology, essentially meaning a collection of works, has Greek origins. The word anthos, meaning "flower," and logia, meaning "a collection," transform into anthologia— "a collection of flowers."

Ena Marinkovic on Pexels