Yet another word stupidity: vinegar

[cjsmith]

French "vinegar" = vinaigre.
French "wine" = vin.
French "sour" = aigre.

What happens to wine when it goes bad? WHY DID I NOT SEE HOW THEY MADE THAT WORD? It's not like I don't know every one of these words in French, and it's not like I've never in my life heard anything about wine.

I picked up this little gem while reading my chemistry textbook last night. (They're discussing acetic acid. Acetum: Latin, soured.)

The more stuff like this I notice, the more I think I need to turn in my interested-in-languages card. Obviously I ignore the topic almost completely.

Comments

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

Yes, shame on you for not processing every single piece of data you're exposed to instantly. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Some stuff jumps out at me. When I learned that the word for paper clip in French was trombone I had to laugh. But other stuff... I've known the words vinegar, wine, and sour for at least twenty years.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

You are much better than some who think that a word in a Northern European language that means stingy is the same thing as a racial epithet used in the USofA.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have to admit I just shake my head over stuff like that. (When I see it in print, though, I want to demand the copyeditor's job.)

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! I get so annoyed when they interchange affect and effect. There are some others that get my panties in a twist.

What is really funny, though, is that I have a friend who cannot spell when she is in a hurry (or can't be bothered to use spellcheck), but her spelling usually doesn't bother me. She is such a delightful and sweet person and extremely intelligent in other areas that I let it slide.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Right. There's a big difference between someone who's essentially trusting you to accept her as she is when she lets her hair down in e-mail, and someone who's being paid to catch and correct errors!

Northern European epithets

[fyellin.livejournal.com]

Barbara Wallraff, the word maven of The Atlantic Monthly disagrees with you about "niggardly." Its history isn't nearly as pure as you think it is.

To quote her final paragraph: "Apparently, people have been jumbling up the two insults for centuries. There’s no reason to expect them to stop now. I think the burden is always on the speaker to leave as little room for misinterpretation as possible, and therefore niggardly doesn’t belong in polite conversation. Why not say miserly, parsimonious, or stingy instead?"

Re: Northern European epithets

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The burden is always on the speaker, eh? I don't see the whole article, nor do I know offhand the history of the word, but it appears in the final paragraph that Ms. Wallraff is saying that if a listener gets offended then the speaker was insufficiently careful and therefore was impolite. I hope I'm merely seeing that out of context, because as I understand her, that's... quite a stretch.

Re: Northern European epithets

[fyellin.livejournal.com]

I purposely didn't quote the entire article. But she notes that "niggard" has clearly changed pronunciation and meaning in the last two centuries to make it closer to "nigger."

There really is no reason for an educated person to use the word "niggard" except to make a point.

Re: Northern European epithets

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If we define an "educated person" as one who has studied the pronunciation of "niggard" over the last two centuries, then I'll agree with her.

Re: Northern European epithets

[fyellin.livejournal.com]

My bad. I failed to distinguish between Ms. Wallraff's thoughts (first paragraph) and my conclusions (second paragraph).

I realize that the following is a gross generalization, but my guess is that many people go through the following steps when first encountering the word "niggard[ly]".

Step 1) Gosh what's that person doing using that horrible word!

Step 2) Oh, gee, etymologically, those two words have nothing in common.

which unfortunately gets followed by

Step 3) I'll show I'm as bright and well read as the writer/speaker in Step 1 by using the word too.

YMMV.

Re: Northern European epithets

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, I get it now! I think you're saying that most people who are using it are using it to show off their knowledge. And yeah, I wouldn't at all be surprised if that were the case.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

my favourite such moment was when i realised where 'outlandish' came from.