138 Fun Facts About Etymology

The Greek root of 'etymology', etymos, means what?

Etymos is Greek for 'true' or 'real'; etymon meant a word's true sense, and with -logia, 'study of', it gives etymology, the study of a word's true origin.

What is the term for a noun after which something is named, like Elizabeth I for the Elizabethan era?

An eponym can even name a stretch of time: the Assyrians named each year after a high official as early as the second millennium BC.

Which author first used 'portmanteau' for a blended word like smog or motel?

Lewis Carroll: in Through the Looking-Glass (1871) Humpty Dumpty explains 'slithy' as two meanings packed into one word, like a two-compartment portmanteau suitcase.

Who coined the term 'back-formation' in 1889, using 'to burgle' from 'burglar' as an example?

James Murray, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879, coined 'back-formation' in 1889, citing 'burgle', a verb carved out of the older noun 'burglar'.

The word 'loanword' is itself what kind of borrowing?

'Loanword' is a calque, a word-for-word translation of German Lehnwort (Lehn 'loan' + Wort 'word'); 'calque' itself, fittingly, is a loanword from French.

Which 18th-century aristocrat gave his name to the sandwich?

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), reputedly asked for meat between slices of bread so he could keep eating at the gaming table without greasy fingers.

The word 'boycott' comes from a land agent shunned in which country in 1880?

Ireland: Captain Charles Boycott, land agent for Lord Erne in County Mayo, was shunned by Land League tenants in 1880, and his surname became the word within months.

What does 'quarantine' literally mean, from the Venetian word quarantena?

Quarantena means 'forty days': during later plague epidemics Venice made arriving ships wait forty days in isolation, lengthening the thirty-day trentino first imposed by Ragusa in 1377.

In which language did the word 'robot' originate in the 1920s?

Czech: Karel Čapek's 1920 play about manufactured workers spread the word, which he credited his brother Josef with coining from Czech robota, 'forced labour'.

Which poet coined 'pandemonium' as the name of the capital of Hell?

John Milton coined 'Pandaemonium' in Paradise Lost (1667) as the name of Satan's capital, from Greek pan, 'all', and daimon, 'demon'.

Most reference works trace 'OK' to a late-1830s abbreviation fad in which city?

Boston: the Boston Morning Post printed 'o.k.' for 'oll korrect' on 23 March 1839, amid a newspaper fad for jokey misspelled abbreviations, as Allen Walker Read documented.

The bikini was named after an atoll where what had happened four days earlier?

A public nuclear bomb test: the US detonated the Able bomb at Bikini Atoll on 1 July 1946, and Louis Réard unveiled his two-piece in Paris on 5 July.

The 'mate' in checkmate comes from a Persian phrase meaning what?

Persian shāh māt means 'the king is helpless' (māt, 'at a loss, defeated'); the popular gloss 'the king is dead' comes from confusing it with Arabic māta, 'he died'.

Which English word derives from the name of the Roman goddess Ceres?

Cereal comes from Latin cerealis, 'of Ceres', the Roman goddess of grain and the harvest; ceramic, cerebral and ceremony share only the spelling.

Which English word derives from the name of the goat-legged Greek god Pan?

Panic comes from Greek panikon, 'of Pan': the goat-legged god was believed to cause sudden groundless fear in flocks and travellers; panorama, pandemic and pantry merely share the spelling.

Which month is named after the two-faced Roman god of doorways?

January: Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doorways and beginnings, looks back at the old year and forward to the new; March, May and June honour Mars, Maia and Juno.

Thursday is the Germanic equivalent of the Roman day named for which god?

Jupiter: Latin dies Iovis, 'Jupiter's day', survives in French jeudi and Italian giovedì; Germanic peoples swapped in their own thunder god Thunor (Thor), giving Thursday.

Which English weekday is named after the god the Norse called Odin?

Wednesday: Old English Wōdnesdæg, 'Woden's day', honours the chief Anglo-Saxon god, whom the Norse called Óðinn (Odin) and whom the Romans equated with Mercury.

Which English word derives from the name of the Roman god Vulcan?

Volcano: Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and the forge, and the Aeolian island of Vulcano, thought to be his chimney, gave Italian vulcano and English volcano.

The 'Atlantic Ocean' literally derives from what?

Sea of Atlas: Herodotus called it Atlantis thalassa, 'sea of Atlas', after the Titan who held up the sky at the world's western edge, beside the Atlas Mountains.

Which word for self-love comes from a youth who pined for his own reflection?

Narcissism: in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Narcissus fell in love with his reflection in a pool and wasted away; Havelock Ellis applied his name to self-absorption in 1898.

The mausoleum takes its name from the tomb of King Mausolus at which ancient city?

Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey): the tomb built around 350 BC for Mausolus, satrap of Caria, by his widow Artemisia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The word 'draconian' comes from a lawmaker of which ancient city?

Athens: Draco's law code of about 621 BC punished even trivial offences with death, so harsh that Solon repealed all of it but the homicide law a generation later.

The word 'ostracism' derives from what?

Pottery sherds used as voting tokens: Athenians scratched a name on an ostrakon, a broken piece of pottery, and the man with the most votes was banished for ten years.

The traditional etymology of 'sycophant' makes it a revealer of what?

Figs: Greek sykophantēs joins sykon, 'fig', to phainein, 'to show'; the traditional story is of informers who denounced illegal fig exports from Athens, though the true origin is unclear.

The Greek root of 'sarcasm' means what?

'To tear flesh', and also 'bite the lip in rage' or 'sneer'; 'sarcastic' does not appear in English until 1695.

The philosophical term 'cynic' derives from the Greek for which animal?

Dog: Greek kynikos, 'dog-like', from kyōn, was flung at Diogenes and the early Cynics for their shameless, street-living ways, and the name stuck.

Stoicism takes its name from what feature of the Athenian Agora?

A painted porch: Zeno of Citium taught around 300 BC at the Stoa Poikile, the 'Painted Porch' on the north side of the Athenian Agora, so his followers were called Stoics.

The word 'lyceum' comes from Aristotle's school beside a sanctuary of which god?

Apollo: from 335 BC Aristotle taught at the Lyceum, a gymnasium beside the sanctuary of Apollo Lykeios in Athens, and the name later passed to schools and lecture halls.

'Muscle' comes from Latin musculus, the diminutive of what animal?

Mouse: Latin musculus means 'little mouse', from mus; a flexing biceps was thought to look like a mouse moving under the skin, and Greek mys likewise meant both.

'Malaria' comes from Medieval Italian words meaning what?

Bad air: Italian mala aria, 'bad air', blamed the disease on marsh vapours; only in 1897 did Ronald Ross show that mosquitoes carry the parasite.

'Candidate' derives from a Latin word meaning what?

Shining white: Latin candidatus, 'clothed in white', from candidus, 'shining white', because Roman office-seekers whitened their togas with chalk to stand out in the Forum.

The Latin salarium, root of 'salary', derives from the word for what?

Salt: Latin salarium comes from sal, 'salt', most likely a soldier's allowance for buying salt; the story that legionaries were paid in salt itself is unsupported.

A popular but false etymology says 'sincere' comes from Latin words meaning what?

Without wax: the tale that honest sculptors sold marble sine cera, unpatched with wax, is folklore; sincerus more likely means 'of one growth', unmixed, from sem- and crescere.

The 'aster' in 'disaster' is Greek for what?

Star: Italian disastro, 'ill-starred', pairs a pejorative dis- with astro, from Greek astron, 'star', reflecting the belief that calamities were caused by unfavourable planets.

The word 'assassin' shares its roots with which substance?

Hashish: Arabic hashshāshīn, 'hashish users', was a slur on the Nizari Ismailis, whose medieval killings of Crusader and Muslim leaders gave Europe the word via Italian and French.

The Arabic term al-jabr, root of 'algebra', originally referred to what?

Setting broken bones: al-jabr means 'reunion of broken parts', used for bone-setting and, in al-Khwarizmi's 9th-century treatise, for restoring balance in equations; in 16th-century English 'algebra' also meant bone-setting.

'Nadir' comes from an Arabic word meaning what?

Opposite to: Arabic nazīr as-samt, 'opposite the zenith', named the point directly beneath an observer; English clipped it to nadir and later made it mean any lowest point.

The word 'tariff' ultimately derives from an Arabic word meaning what?

Proclamation: Arabic taʿrīf, 'notification, making known', from ʿarafa, 'to know', named a published list of fees; it reached English via Italian tariffa in the 16th century.

Via which two languages did 'coffee' reach English in 1582?

Dutch and Ottoman Turkish: English coffee comes from Dutch koffie, itself from Ottoman Turkish kahve, which took it from Arabic qahwah, a word once used for wine.

'Sofa' comes via Turkish from an Arabic word meaning what?

Ledge or bench: Arabic ṣuffa, a raised stone ledge or bench spread with cushions, passed through Turkish sofa into French and reached English around 1620.

Both 'sugar' and 'jaggery' trace back to which Sanskrit word?

Śarkarā, Sanskrit for 'gravel, grit' and hence granulated sugar, gave Persian shakar and Arabic sukkar, whence 'sugar'; 'jaggery' came separately via Portuguese jágara from a Dravidian form.

'Sorbet' entered English from French but ultimately from a Persian word for what?

Sharbat itself came from an Arabic verb meaning 'to drink'.

Dinghy, cot, loot and thug all entered English from which language?

Hindi: British rule in India brought dinghy (ḍiṅgī, a small boat), cot (khāṭ, a bedstead), loot (lūṭ, plunder) and thug (ṭhag, a swindler) into English.

The colour 'khaki' is a loanword from Hindustani meaning what?

It came into English via the British Indian Army.

'Shampoo' derives from a Hindi word meaning what?

To press or knead: Hindi chāmpo, imperative of chāmpnā, 'to press, knead', first meant a massage in English (1762) and only in the 1860s shifted to washing hair.

'Catamaran' comes from a Tamil word meaning what?

Tied logs: Tamil kaṭṭumaram, from kaṭṭu, 'to tie', and maram, 'wood, tree', named the log rafts of the Coromandel coast; the twin-hull sense arose later in English.

'Juggernaut' derives from a Sanskrit name meaning what?

World-lord: Sanskrit Jagannātha, from jagat, 'world', and nātha, 'lord', is a title of Krishna whose huge temple chariot at Puri was said to crush devotees beneath its wheels.

The word 'bandana' stems from Hindi words meaning what?

Tie-dyeing and to tie: Hindi bāndhnū, a tie-dyeing technique, from bāndhnā, 'to tie', named the spotted, bound-and-dyed kerchiefs exported from India; 'bandana' appears in English in the 1750s.

'Tycoon' derives from a Japanese title meaning 'great lord' used for whom?

The shōgun: Japanese taikun, 'great lord', was the title used for the shōgun in dealings with foreigners after Perry's 1854 treaty; it entered English in 1857 and later meant a business magnate.

'Tsunami' is a borrowing from Japanese meaning what?

Harbour wave: Japanese tsu, 'harbour', and nami, 'wave', named waves that seemed to appear only when they surged into port; English adopted the word in 1896 after the Meiji Sanriku disaster.

The word 'emoji' comes from Japanese words meaning what?

Picture and character: Japanese e, 'picture', and moji, 'written character'; the resemblance to 'emotion' is coincidence. Shigetaka Kurita's 1999 set for NTT DoCoMo popularised them.

US Marines borrowed 'gung-ho' from a Chinese term they took to mean what?

Work together: gōnghé, read by Major Evans Carlson as 'work together', was in fact the abbreviated name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives; his 2nd Raider Battalion adopted it as a slogan in 1942.

The word 'ketchup' is most often traced to a fish-sauce word from which language group?

Hokkien Chinese: kôe-chiap or kê-chiap, a fermented fish brine from Fujian, reached English traders in Southeast Asia, possibly via Malay kicap, and appeared in English as 'catchup' in 1690.

'Kangaroo' derives from gangurru, a word in which Aboriginal language?

Guugu Yimithirr: Cook's crew recorded gangurru at the Endeavour River in 1770, where the word meant a large dark kangaroo, not the animal in general, as John Haviland confirmed in the 1970s.

'Avocado' comes via Spanish from a word in which language?

Nahuatl āhuacatl became Spanish aguacate, altered by folk etymology to avocado ('advocate'); Hans Sloane recorded the English form in his 1696 catalogue of Jamaican plants.

The tomato's species name, lycopersicum, literally means what?

Wolf peach: Greek lykos, 'wolf', and persikon, 'peach'; Galen used lycopersicon for an unidentified plant, Renaissance botanists transferred the name to the tomato, and Linnaeus kept it.

The Taíno word batata, which gave English a familiar vegetable name, actually meant what?

Sweet potato: Taíno batata named Ipomoea batatas, the sweet potato; Spanish patata, blending it with Quechua papa, transferred the name to the unrelated Andean potato.

A false etymology derives 'barbecue' from a French phrase meaning what?

From beard to tail: the tale that barbecue comes from French barbe à queue, a beast roasted whole, is folk etymology; the word is Spanish barbacoa, from a Taíno term for a wooden cooking frame.

Which word for a chief entered English from Taíno via Spanish?

Cacique: Taíno kasike, a chief, was adopted by Spanish colonists in the Caribbean from 1492 and applied to other native rulers; English took it in the 16th century.

Whose journal first recorded canoa, the Taíno word behind 'canoe'?

Columbus recorded canoa in his journal on 26 October 1492 while among the Taíno; Spanish passed the word on, and 'canoe' appears in English in 1555.

'Raccoon' comes from a Powhatan word meaning what?

Animal that scratches with its hands: Powhatan aroughcun, glossed as 'one that scratches with its hands', was recorded by John Smith in Virginia in 1608 and became 'raccoon'.

The ancestral roots of 'skunk' combine 'fox' with what verb?

To urinate: Proto-Algonquian šeka:kwa joins šek-, 'to urinate', with -a:kw, 'fox'; the Massachusett form squnck gave English 'skunk' in the 1630s.

'Chipmunk' may come from an Odawa word meaning what?

Red squirrel: Odawa jidmoonh (Ojibwe ajidamoo), 'red squirrel', literally 'one who descends trees headlong', was borrowed as 'chitmunk' in 1832 before settling as 'chipmunk'.

'Toboggan' likely comes from a word for sled in which language family?

Possibly the Mi'kmaq tepaqan or the Abenaki odabôgan.

'Anorak' comes from a word in which language?

Greenlandic: annoraaq, the Kalaallisut word for a hooded skin jacket, entered English in the 1920s; 'parka', by contrast, came through Russian from Nenets.

The Canary Islands take their name from the Latin for 'Islands of the' what?

Dogs: Pliny the Elder called the largest island Canaria, from Latin canis, 'dog', after the large dogs found there; the canary bird was later named after the islands.

'Calico' takes its name from a port in which country?

India: calico is named after Calicut (Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast, the port from which the printed cotton cloth was shipped to Europe from the 16th century.

The knitted fabric 'jersey' is named after an island in which sea?

English Channel: jersey is named after Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, whose fishermen's knitted woollens were exported from the 16th century.

The tuxedo is named after a village in which US state?

New York: the tailless dinner jacket took its name from Tuxedo Park, the resort north of New York City where it was worn at the autumn ball of 1886.

The cardigan is named after an earl who led which famous cavalry action?

The Charge of the Light Brigade: James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, led it at Balaclava on 25 October 1854, and the knitted jacket associated with him took his name.

The word 'maverick' comes from a Texas rancher who refused to do what?

Brand his cattle: Samuel Maverick, a Texas lawyer and rancher, left his calves unbranded in the 1840s, so 'maverick' came to mean a stray unbranded animal and then an independent-minded person.

Étienne de Silhouette, whose name became a word, held which post in 1759?

French finance minister: Étienne de Silhouette was Louis XV's Controller-General of Finances for eight months in 1759, and his penny-pinching made 'à la silhouette' a tag for anything done on the cheap, including cut-paper portraits.

What was the guillotine called before it took the name of Dr Guillotin?

Louisette (or louison): the 1792 machine was first named after Dr Antoine Louis, who designed it; Joseph-Ignace Guillotin had only proposed in 1789 that executions use a humane device.

The leotard is named after a French performer of what kind?

Acrobat: Jules Léotard, the French trapeze artist who performed the first flying-trapeze act in Paris in 1859, wore the one-piece costume; it was named after him in 1886, sixteen years after his death.

Bloomers take their name from Amelia Bloomer, an activist in which cause?

Women's rights: Amelia Bloomer, editor of The Lily and a suffrage campaigner, promoted the loose 'Turkish' trousers Elizabeth Smith Miller wore in 1851, and the press tagged them bloomers.

The Wellington was created by modifying which style of military footwear?

Hessian boot: around 1817 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, had his bootmaker Hoby of St James's cut down the tasselled Hessian into a plainer, closer-fitting calf boot.

The saxophone was invented by an instrument maker of which nationality?

Belgian: Adolphe Sax, born in Dinant in 1814, patented the saxophone in Paris on 28 June 1846, a year after demonstrating it for the French army bands.

Louis Braille, whose name became a writing system, lost his sight how?

A childhood accident: aged three, Louis Braille pierced an eye with an awl in his father's saddlery at Coupvray; infection took the sight of both, and he devised his six-dot code in 1824.

Pasteurization is named for Louis Pasteur's 1860s work on which drink?

Wine: in 1864 Pasteur showed that heating wine to about 55°C killed the microbes that soured it, patenting the process in 1865; his beer studies came a decade later, and milk came later again.

Luigi Galvani, namesake of galvanization, famously made what twitch with electricity?

Frog legs: in 1780s Bologna Luigi Galvani made dissected frog legs twitch with sparks and metal contacts, calling it 'animal electricity'; Volta's rebuttal led to the battery, and 'galvanize' kept Galvani's name.

Which fair featured the original Ferris Wheel that gave the ride its name?

Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, 1893: George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.'s 80-metre wheel, built to answer Paris's Eiffel Tower of 1889, carried 36 cars of up to 60 riders each.

The compression-ignition engine is named after which engineer?

Rudolf Diesel, a German engineer born in Paris in 1858, patented his compression-ignition engine in 1892; he vanished from the Channel steamer Dresden in September 1913.

Shrapnel is named after an officer of which British corps?

Henry Shrapnel developed the shell at his own expense.

Nicotine is ultimately named after Jean Nicot, a French ambassador to which country?

Portugal: Jean Nicot, French ambassador in Lisbon from 1559 to 1561, sent tobacco plants and seeds to the French court in 1560; the plant became Nicotiana and its alkaloid nicotine.

Whose 'animal magnetism' did a 1784 Paris commission including Benjamin Franklin find baseless?

Franz Mesmer: the 1784 royal commission led by Franklin and Lavoisier found no evidence for Mesmer's magnetic fluid, but his name survived in 'mesmerize'.

The word 'kindergarten' was coined in 1840 by which pedagogue?

Friedrich Fröbel opened the first Kindergarten, 'children's garden', at Blankenburg in Thuringia in 1837 and coined the name in 1840; Montessori, Steiner and Pestalozzi founded other methods.

Who coined 'utopia' for a 1516 book?

Thomas More coined Utopia for his 1516 book about an ideal island, from Greek ou, 'not', and topos, 'place', so 'no place', with a pun on eu-topos, 'good place'.

The Three Princes of Serendip, the tale behind 'serendipity', came from an island now called what?

Sri Lanka: Serendip is the old Persian and Arabic name for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka; Horace Walpole coined 'serendipity' in a 1754 letter after the princes' knack for lucky discoveries.

'Gerrymander' blends salamander with the name of a governor of which state?

Massachusetts: Governor Elbridge Gerry signed the 1812 redistricting bill that produced a salamander-shaped district north of Boston; the Boston Gazette dubbed it the Gerry-mander, and Gerry became Madison's vice president in 1813.

The two men credited with coining 'lynch law' both lived in which state in the 1780s?

Virginia: Charles Lynch of Bedford County, who jailed Loyalists without trial, used 'Lynch's law' in a 1782 letter, and William Lynch of Pittsylvania County signed a 1780 vigilante compact; both were Virginians.

'Dunce' mocks the followers of a medieval theologian from which country?

Scotland: the 'Dunses', followers of John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308), born at Duns in the Scottish Borders, resisted the new humanist learning and were mocked as dunces by the 1530s.

Which biblical place name became an English word for a confused din of voices?

Babel: Genesis 11 has God confound the speech of the tower's builders at Babel, so 'babel' came to mean a confused noise of voices; 'babble' is unrelated, an imitative word.

The 'mare' in 'nightmare' was originally what?

A demon that sits on sleepers' chests: Old English mare was an evil spirit believed to crush sleepers and cause bad dreams; it is unrelated to 'mare', a female horse, and survives in German Nachtmahr.

The word 'nerd' first appeared in print in a 1950 book by which author?

Dr. Seuss: If I Ran the Zoo (1950) lists 'a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too'; Newsweek reported 'nerd' as teenage slang for a square in 1951.

A famous myth says 'quiz' was invented on a bet in 1791 in which city?

Dublin: the tale has theatre manager Richard Daly betting he could coin a word overnight and having urchins chalk 'quiz' across Dublin in 1791; the word is attested from 1782, so it is a myth.

Bluetooth technology is named after a 10th-century king of which country?

Denmark: Harald Bluetooth united Denmark in the 10th century; Intel's Jim Kardach proposed his name in 1997 because the standard was meant to unite the PC and mobile industries, and the logo combines his runic initials.

French saboter, the source of 'sabotage', originally meant to do what?

Clatter about in wooden shoes: French saboter, from sabot, 'wooden shoe', meant to clump about noisily and then to bungle work; the story of clogs thrown into machines is a later myth.

'Biscotti' literally means what in Italian?

Twice cooked: Italian biscotto, from Latin bis coctus, 'twice cooked', because the dough is baked, sliced and baked again to dry it; English 'biscuit' has the same origin.

'Marathon' comes from the legend of which Greek messenger?

Pheidippides: Herodotus has him run from Athens to Sparta for help in 490 BC; the tale of a dying messenger running from Marathon to Athens comes from Plutarch and Lucian, centuries later.

The dye colour magenta commemorates an 1859 battle in which modern country?

Italy: the dye, discovered in 1859, was named for that June's Battle of Magenta in Lombardy, where Napoleon III's French-Sardinian army beat the Austrians.

The word 'coach' probably derives from the name of a village in which country?

Hungary: Hungarian kocsi szekér, 'cart of Kocs', named the sprung carriages built in the village of Kocs in the 15th century; 'coach' reached English via French and German by the 1550s.

The word 'ghetto' originates from a Jewish quarter in which city?

Venice: a 1516 decree confined the city's Jews to the Ghetto Nuovo, an island named for an old foundry (getto), and the name spread to Jewish quarters elsewhere.

'Paparazzi' comes from a photographer character in which 1960 film?

La Dolce Vita: Fellini's 1960 film gave the news photographer Paparazzo, played by Walter Santesso, a name that became the plural 'paparazzi' for intrusive celebrity photographers.

Confetti originally referred to what in Italian?

Small sweets: Italian confetti are sugared almonds (from Latin confectum, 'prepared'), once thrown at carnivals and weddings; paper imitations took over in the 1890s, and English kept the name.

'Piano' is short for pianoforte, itself from an Italian phrase meaning what?

Harpsichord with soft and loud: Bartolomeo Cristofori's invention of about 1700 was described as gravicembalo col piano e forte, a harpsichord whose hammers could play soft and loud, later shortened to pianoforte and piano.

'Siesta' comes from a Latin phrase meaning what?

Counting from dawn, the sixth hour was midday.

'Guerrilla' comes from a Spanish word meaning what?

Little war: Spanish guerrilla is the diminutive of guerra, 'war', and named the irregular fighting against Napoleon's armies in the Peninsular War of 1808–14, whence English took it.

The Spanish cucaracha became 'cockroach' through what process?

Folk etymology: from the 1620s English speakers reshaped Spanish cucaracha into the familiar words 'cock' and 'roach', the classic pattern of folk etymology; 'roach' alone is a later clipping.

'Rodeo' comes from a Spanish verb meaning what?

To surround: Spanish rodear, 'to surround, go around', from rueda, 'wheel', gave rodeo, a cattle round-up; the word reached English in the 1830s and the contest sense followed in the 1910s.

'Vigilante' entered American English in the 1850s from a Spanish word for what?

A watchman: Spanish vigilante, 'watchman, guard', from Latin vigilans, 'awake, watchful', was adopted in 1850s California for members of self-appointed vigilance committees.

'Tornado' derives from Spanish tronada, meaning what?

Thunderstorm: Spanish tronada, 'thunderstorm', from tronar, 'to thunder', was borrowed by English sailors in the 1550s and later reshaped under the influence of tornar, 'to turn'.

'Cookie' in American English derives from a Dutch word meaning what?

Little cake: Dutch koekje, diminutive of koek, 'cake', came into American English through the Dutch settlers of New York in the early 18th century.

'Coleslaw' is an anglicisation of a Dutch term meaning what?

Cabbage salad: Dutch koolsla, from kool, 'cabbage', and sla, 'salad', reached American English in the 1790s; 'cold slaw' is a folk-etymology reshaping, and 'cole' is the old English word for cabbage.

The word 'landscape', first recorded in 1598, was borrowed from which trade's jargon?

Dutch painters: English borrowed landscape (first recorded 1598) from Dutch landschap as a painters' term for a picture of inland scenery; the -schap suffix is the cousin of English -ship.

'Yankee' most likely derives from what?

Janke, a Dutch diminutive name: 'Jan-kee', a nickname for Dutch colonists, was turned on New Englanders by the 1750s; the OED favours this over the Cherokee and other Indigenous-language theories.

The English word 'ombudsman' is rooted in an Old Norse word meaning what?

Representative: Old Norse umboðsmaðr, 'commissioner, representative', from umboð, 'commission, proxy', and maðr, 'man'; Sweden created the first parliamentary ombudsman in 1809, and English adopted the word in the 1950s.

The 'gås' in smörgåsbord literally means what?

Goose: Swedish smörgås, literally 'butter-goose', first meant the little lumps of butter that float like geese on churned cream, then a buttered slice of bread; bord is 'table'.

'Geyser' comes from the name of a specific geyser in which country?

Iceland: the Great Geysir in Haukadalur, whose name comes from Old Norse geysa, 'to gush', was described by travellers from the 1600s and lent its name to every other spouting hot spring.

'Ski' comes from an Old Norse word that literally meant what?

Cleft wood: Old Norse skíð meant a split length of wood, a billet or stick, and is cousin to obsolete English 'shide', a piece split from timber; Norwegian ski reached English in the 1880s.

'Vodka' is a Russian diminutive literally meaning what?

'Little water': vodka is a diminutive of the Russian voda, 'water'; the related Latin aqua vitae, 'water of life', survives in Scandinavian akvavit.

The Russian word sputnik literally means what?

Fellow-traveller: Russian sputnik, from s-, 'with', and put', 'path', means a travelling companion, and so a satellite; the Soviets launched the first, Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957.

'Poltergeist' comes from German words meaning what?

Noisy ghost: German poltern, 'to knock about, make a racket', plus Geist, 'spirit', named the spirits blamed for bangs and flying objects; English borrowed it in 1848 after Catherine Crowe's The Night Side of Nature.

'Wanderlust' combines German words meaning what?

To hike and desire: German wandern, 'to hike, wander', and Lust, 'desire, pleasure', make Wanderlust, a longing to travel; English adopted it in 1902.

'Glitch' is thought to come from German and Yiddish words meaning what?

Its early technical sense was a spike in voltage.

'Chutzpah' derives from a Hebrew word meaning what?

Insolence or audacity: Hebrew ḥutspah, 'insolence', passed into Yiddish khutspe and reached English around 1890; Leo Rosten's classic example is the man who kills his parents and pleads for mercy as an orphan.

'Bagel' derives from a Yiddish word meaning what?

Ring or bracelet: Yiddish beygl descends from Middle High German böugel, a little ring, diminutive of bouc, 'ring, bracelet'; the ring-shaped roll is recorded in Kraków's Jewish community in 1610.

The element cobalt is named after what?

A goblin blamed by German miners: Kobold, a mine-goblin, got the blame for ores that looked like silver but yielded poison fumes and no metal; Georg Brandt isolated cobalt from them in the 1730s.

The word 'dollar' descends from a silver coin first minted in 1519 in which region?

Bohemia: the Joachimsthaler, struck by the Counts of Schlick in the silver-mining valley of Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov, Czech Republic), was shortened to thaler, whence Dutch daalder and English dollar.

'Howitzer' comes from a Czech word ultimately meaning what?

Houfnice, from houf.

'Polka' is believed to derive from a Czech word meaning what?

Half-step: Czech půlka, 'half', is the usual explanation for the dance's short half-steps; it swept Prague in the 1830s and reached Paris by 1840, though some derive the name from Polka, 'Polish woman'.

The word 'umbrella' evolved from the Latin umbra, meaning what?

Shadow: Latin umbra, 'shade, shadow', gave Italian ombrella, 'little shade', a sunshade; English took 'umbrella' around 1600 and the rain sense followed, while French parapluie means 'against rain'.

'Trivia' comes from the Latin trivium, literally meaning what?

Where three roads meet: Latin trivium, from tres, 'three', and via, 'road', was a crossroads where people chatted about commonplace matters, so trivialis came to mean 'ordinary'; the modern 'trivia' dates from the 20th century.

The word 'quartz', from German Quarz, is often traced to a Polish dialect word meaning what?

Hard: German Quarz is often traced to West Slavic kwardy, a dialect form of Polish twardy, 'hard'; the Greeks, by contrast, called rock crystal krystallos, 'ice'.

'Curfew' comes from an Old French phrase meaning what?

'Cover fire' was the order: under William the Conqueror an eight o'clock bell had fires and lights doused to stop blazes spreading through timber towns.

The word 'mortgage' derives from a Law French term with what literal meaning?

A 'death pledge', because the pledge dies either when the loan is repaid or when the property is taken through foreclosure.

The English word 'window' comes from an Old Norse word literally meaning what?

'Wind eye' survives in Swedish vindöga, a hole through a hut roof, while in Danish vindue and Norwegian vindu the link to 'eye' has faded, as it has in English.

The flower name 'daisy' is thought to be a corruption of which phrase?

'Day's eye' fits because the whole head closes at night and opens each morning; Chaucer called it the 'eye of the day'.