Embark on a vocabulary journey

Where did the word caterpillar come from? Everyday words, curious origins

Credit: Snapwire

Thanks to etymology, the science that studies the origins of words, we can learn how and when certain terms began to be used and why they are popular today. Did you know that the concept of brunch has existed since the 19th century? And that we owe the word clue to the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur? Would you like to discover these and other curious origins of common words we use on a daily basis? Keep reading!

Credit: Monstera Production

The night part in "nightmare" is self-explanatory, but what about "mare"? You may be interested to know that a mare is not only a female horse but also a term that comes from Middle English and means "suffocating evil spirit." Back in the 13th century, a mare was thought to be a female goblin or ogre that lay on sleeping people and suffocated them.

People were so convinced that a physical being caused this distress that a nightmare was believed to be an actual monster until the 16th century. Eventually, people realized that the crushing, suffocating feeling was an emotional reaction to a bad dream. Isn't that what a nightmare feels like—panic, shortness of breath, suffocation? Fortunately, we have a perfect word to describe it!

Credit: engin akyurt

Didn't you hate it when you were young and your parents set a curfew for you? Surely you didn’t know that this custom comes from the sounding of a bell reminding medieval Europeans to cover their fires at night. Today, a curfew is imposed by parents on rebellious teenagers or during periods of emergency or conflict as a way of keeping people off the streets at night.

However, in the Middle Ages, the curfew was the time when people were reminded not to set their own homes on fire. Back then, an evening signal bell would give the order "Cover fire!" But what exactly does curfew mean? Well, the term curfew is an Old French word brought to England by the Norman conquerors, which comes from cuvrir, "to cover" and feu, "fire."

Credit: Benjamin White

A long, long time ago, before there were machines, a scavenger was a person who swept the streets. Their job was to remove trash and dirt from the roads. Some of them may have pocketed items they found while pushing around their brooms, but that’s not what gave rise to the modern concept of a scavenger.

For that, the English language has tax collectors to thank. In London, those tasked by the crown with collecting a form of tax called scavage from foreign merchants were called scavagers. By the 16th century, the word was modified by adding an "n," mutating it to scavengers, used to describe people who combed through looking for useful items. Later, the concept was borrowed for animals such as vultures and hyenas.

Credit: Annie Spratt

If someone called you silly today, you would be offended, but a medieval Englishman would have been pleased. The word is an alteration of the earlier term seely, from an Old High German root meaning "luck, happiness." Therefore, the Old English sense of seely was "happy, fortunate, blessed by God."

In the later Middle Ages, the term developed into "holy," then "innocent, defenseless, deserving of pity." So, what happened? How did we go from a positive term to one with a more negative connotation? The simple explanation is that people often regard goodness and simplicity as a lack of intelligence, which is why, since the late 16th century, the primary sense of silly has been "foolish."

Credit: Diana Polekhina

We all know that vaccines save lives, but few know where the term comes from. Believe it or not, its origin is in the animal world. In the 18th century, English physician Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who had come into contact with the virus causing cowpox did not contract smallpox, a more serious disease. In 1796, he deliberately infected a couple of children with small amounts of cowpox and proved his theory.

Two years later, Jenner reported his findings in an article written in Latin in which he referred to cowpox as variolae vaccinae, derived from vaccus, meaning "cow." Thus, at the dawn of the 19th century, the term vaccine, used at the time to refer to cowpox material used for injections, later evolved into other nouns and verbs such as vaccinate and vaccination.

Credit: Kampus Production

Today, for some reason, the word amateur has a negative connotation. However, in its origins, it had a much more positive meaning. Borrowed from French in the 18th century and ultimately derived from the Latin word amator, meaning "lover," it was originally used to describe a person who loves or is fond of something, as well as a person who practices an art or sport as a hobby rather than professionally. In other words, an amateur does something for love rather than for money.

Interestingly, the word aficionado, a synonym for "amateur," started out as a term for an aspiring bullfighter and later came to refer to a devotee of bullfighting. Aficionado is a Spanish word meaning "to inspire affection" and is now used to describe any ardent follower of an activity.

Credit: Siddharth Salve

The words of a sarcastic person can be sharp and painful, and this may be because the term sarcasm hides the idea of biting into the flesh. The word came into English in the mid-16th century from French, and is based on Greek sarkazein, meaning "to tear flesh," which also came to mean "to gnash the teeth" or "speak bitterly."

Interestingly, the word sarcophagus has a similar history. The original Greek term meant "flesh-eating" and is a combination of sarx, meaning "flesh," and -phagos, meaning "eating." Sarcophagi were originally made of a type of limestone that the ancient Greeks believed consumed the flesh of any dead body in contact with it.

Credit: Erik Mclean

Without clues, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot would not be the detectives we know and love. The word clue is a modern spelling of the Old English term clew, meaning "a ball of thread." How did we go from a thread to our modern sense of clue? Well, it derives, no less, from the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

After killing the bull-headed monster, the Greek hero manages to escape the labyrinth thanks to the ball of twine that Princess Ariadne gave him to find his way out. From this ancient story, a clue became anything that you can follow to reach a solution.

Credit: Rachel Park

Brunch conjures an image of a contemporary urban lifestyle. Although we all picture a cool New Yorker coining the term in the 20th century, it actually came into being in 19th-century Britain. Back then, many upper-class families would give their servants Sundays off, during which the servants would prepare a buffet that included breakfast and lunch dishes. Hence, brunch is a combination of the words breakfast and lunch.

Don’t believe us? An 1896 article in the "Fashionable and Seasonable" section of the English satirical magazine Punch stated: "Nowadays to be fashionable, we have to go ‘brunching.’ An excellent compound word, introduced, by the way, last year by Mr. Guy Beringer in the now-defunct Hunter's Weekly magazine, indicating a combination of breakfast and lunch." Later, in the 1930s, the practice became popular in the United States.

Credit: Niv Singer

If you own a garden, you’ve probably seen a caterpillar or two eating away at the leaves of your precious plants. If not, you might remember the blue smoking character from Alice in Wonderland. But do you know where the peculiar name of this furry insect comes from?

The term caterpillar first appeared in English in the form catyrpel, probably an alteration of the Old French word chatepelose, which literally means "hairy cat." The extended form -piller is believed to come from the Old English word piller, meaning "a plunderer or ravager." Given the damage that caterpillars do to plants, it is likely that this influenced how the word is now spelled.

EXPLORING LITERARY PRODIGIES

Reading Challenge: 10 Great Female Poets You Can’t Miss

Credit: Thought Catalog

Literature written by women has often been ignored or minimized throughout history. However, together we can change that. If you are looking to immerse yourself in verses that might help you reflect on life, you may want to read female poets who invite you to explore an infinite range of emotions****and experiences through their words.

In this article, we will discover the talent and creativity of 10 female authors who deserve a privileged place on your to-read list. From ancient Greek and Victorian poets like Sappho and ​​Elizabeth Barrett Browning to more contemporary voices like Anne Carson and Maya Angelou, we guarantee a literary journey that will not leave you indifferent.

Credit: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sappho was a Greek poet born around 630 B.C. in Mytilene, the capital of the island of Lesbos. Sappho was the daughter of a merchant and belonged to a noble family. She was the only woman that the Greeks of classical times included in the Olympus of Poets consisting of fourteen authors they considered worthy of study.

Plato considered Sappho the best poetess in Greek history and called her "the tenth muse". But despite the importance given to her by the Greeks, very few of her writings are preserved and most of her work is known to us by references from third parties. The only poem that has come down to us almost completely is a hymn in honor of Aphrodite.

She ran a school for the children of nobility in which dance, gymnastics, and music were taught. Love was the main theme of Sappho's work: the poet covered a wide range of feelings linked to it, such as nostalgia, jealousy, or longing for a loved one.

Credit: British Library Flickr Stream, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England, and was a well-known poet during the Victorian era. Like the vast majority of girls of her time, Elizabeth, the eldest of twelve children, was educated at home. Her brother and a neighbor introduced her to the world of Greek authors, as well as Shakespeare and Dante. At the age of twenty, Elizabeth had already anonymously published her first work, Essay on the Mind and Other Poems.

Elizabeth Barrett reflected her feminist leanings and political expressions throughout her works. She is best known for the sonnet "How Do I Love Thee?" and for Aurora Leigh, a nine-book epic poem centered on a strong and independent heroine. Browning was very popular in the United Kingdom and the United States during her lifetime and her poetry had great influence on prominent writers of the time, such as the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson.

Credit: Taylor Wright

Author of almost 1,800 poems, Emily Dickinson is considered one of the pillars of modern American literature and one of the best poets in the world. She was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, into a wealthy and cultured family. Emily studied literature, history, religion, geography, mathematics, biology, music, Greek and Latin. In addition, she learned floriculture, horticulture, and gardening, all themes present in her work.

During her lifetime she was known as an eccentric introvert and few knew of her immense talent. She composed all her poems in pencil on small pieces of paper that her sister Lavinia found and published after her death. Initially, her poetry generated controversy, with some praising her "rare individuality and originality", while others disapproved of her unusual non-traditional style. Today, she is best known for her unusual use of form and syntax, and for being "the poet of paradox".

Credit: Álvaro Serrano

Born on October 8, 1892, the daughter of a pianist and a professor and founder of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts, Marina Tsvetaeva had an intimate relationship with literature from an early age. In addition to Russian, she spoke German and French: three languages in which she expressed her first verses. Tsvetaeva studied in Moscow and at the Sorbonne, and from the age of 18, she began to edit and publish her work.

Through her poems, Marina Tsvetaeva developed a style of writing in which musicality and form are above content. Each of the verses is expressed with a clear invitation to the reader: an invitation to explore, taste, and discover the paths that the poet has walked, suffered, or loved. Marina Tsvetaeva's work is considered one of the greatest of the 20th century.

Credit: WinoksbergenBernhard De Grendel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Poet, novelist, playwright, and translator Marguerite Yourcenar was born on June 8, 1903 in Brussels, Belgium. After being educated in France and England, she traveled through several European countries, and in 1947 she became an American citizen, although all her works were written in French. In her first volume of poems, The Garden of Chimeras (1921), she reinterprets Greek myths in order to adapt them to the modern world, revealing her refinement as a writer.

Her literature is defined by her knowledge of ancient civilizations and history, and her eagerness to understand human motivations. In 1980 Yourcenar became the first woman to be admitted to the Académie Française de la Langue, and in 1986 she was awarded the French Legion of Honor.

Credit: Aaron Burden

A dedicated rural teacher, educator, and poet, Gabriela Mistral was born in Vicuña, Chile, on April 7, 1889. She published her first book in New York in 1922. The publication of Desolación (Desolation) gave Mistral international recognition and prestige, and she came to be considered one of the most promising writers of Latin American literature. It also marked the beginning of a series of publications in foreign lands: in Mexico, she published Lecturas para Mujeres (Readings for Women) and the first version of her book Ternura: Canciones de niños (Tenderness: Songs for Children) in Spain in 1924.

Gabriela Mistral is considered one of the most important references of Chilean and Latin American literature of the 20th century. For her work, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945, which was the first recognition of Latin American literature by the Swedish Academy.

Credit: Wallace Chuck

Many consider Sylvia Path a rebellious figure and a tormented soul who committed suicide at the age of 30. However, girls and women struggling with depression, isolation, and loneliness consider her a true icon. Her first collection of poems, The Colossus and Other Poems addresses complex themes, from death and duty to the suffering of women who do not conform to traditional ideas of femininity.

Despite her early death and the loss of part of her work, Sylvia Plath's work is considered one of the most extraordinary pieces of poetry of the 20th century. Her approach to pain, mental illness, and suffering made her one of the greatest exponents of the confessional genre, brilliantly captured in her raw, brutal verses.

Credit: Suzy Hazelwood

Mary Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio, in 1935, into a dysfunctional family. From a young age, writing, reading, and escapades to the nearby woods became early escape tools. At the age of twenty-eight she published her first collection of poems, No Voyage, and Other Poems, and from then on her work was always inspired more by nature than by the human world.

Mary Oliver won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and was one of the most influential American poets. She is the author of more than thirty books, mostly collections of poetry and a few essays, including American Primitive, Winter Hours, and Why I Wake Early.

Credit: DeLido, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Anne Carson was born in Toronto, Canada, on June 21, 1950. She is a professor of Classical and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan and a renowned poet, essayist, and translator. A bilingual edition of Sappho's poems she found in a bookstore changed her life forever. "If I knew what poetry was, I wouldn't have to write. It's something I seek to tempt in the dark", she once stated.

Throughout her career, she has created an exquisite world, a collage of poetry, essays, and drama. Since her first book, Eros (1986), Carson meditates on the nature of romantic love and erotic desire using fragments of prose intertwined with verse. A scholar of classical culture and languages, Carson is, in the opinion of critics, one of the most exquisite and erudite writers of contemporary literature, as well as the author of a hypnotic work, in which she fuses styles, references, and formats.

Credit: Brian Stansberry (photographer), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Marguerite Annie Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928, and spent most of her childhood with her grandmother in rural Arkansas. From a very young age, Angelou was an avid reader. She enjoyed the works of authors such as Jessie Fauset, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens.

Although she is best known for her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Maya Angelou was also an outstanding poet, playwright, essayist, and screenwriter. She began her career as a singer and dancer, worked as a civil rights activist, wrote seven acclaimed autobiographies, taught at Wake Forest University, and received numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010. In her poems, she explored numerous themes such as feminism, love, loss, music, struggle, discrimination, and racism. She is best known as the "poet of the people".