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Words & Etymology: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
Where Words Come From
Etymology is the story of where words come from. English is a great borrower: huge numbers of its words come from French and Latin.
Key fact
“Etymology” comes from the Greek for “the study of true meaning”.
Borrowed Words
English is full of loanwords: “shampoo” from Hindi, “robot” from Czech, “ketchup” probably from a Chinese dialect, and “kindergarten” from German.
Key fact
“Robot” comes from Czech “robota”, meaning forced labour.
Words from Names
Some words come from people’s names. The sandwich is named after the Earl of Sandwich, and “boycott” after Captain Charles Boycott, shunned by Irish tenants in 1880.
Key fact
The saxophone is named after its inventor, Adolphe Sax.
New Words
Dictionaries add new words every year as language changes. “Selfie” was Oxford’s word of the year in 2013, and “emoji” comes from Japanese.
Key fact
“Emoji” isn’t linked to “emotion”: it’s Japanese for picture + character.
Latin & Greek Roots
Many English words are built from Latin and Greek parts. “Tele” means far, “phone” means sound, and “bio” means life: telephone, biology.
Key fact
Knowing roots can help you guess words you’ve never seen.
False Friends
False friends look alike in two languages but mean different things. Spanish “embarazada” means pregnant, not embarrassed; German “Gift” means poison.
Key fact
French “librairie” is a bookshop, not a library.
Surprising Origins
Some words have changed a lot. “Nice” once meant foolish, and computer “bugs” got a famous story when a moth was found in a computer in 1947.
Key fact
“Salary” may come from the Latin for salt.
Fun facts
After 1066, English gained pairs like “cow” from farmers’ English and “beef” from the French spoken at the table.
The word “robot” first appeared in a 1920 Czech play, R.U.R., by Karel Čapek.
“Guy” comes from Guy Fawkes, whose straw figures are burned on Bonfire Night.
“Google” became a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006.
“Dinosaur” comes from Greek words meaning “terrible lizard”.
English “sensible” means reasonable, but Spanish “sensible” means sensitive.
The moth was taped into the logbook with the note: “First actual case of bug being found.”
Story: How OK Got Its Start
How OK Got Its Start
1839, Boston. Newspapers are having fun with jokey, misspelt abbreviations. One writes “o.k.”, short for “oll korrect”: all correct.
Most such jokes fade. But in 1840, President Martin Van Buren, nicknamed “Old Kinderhook” after his hometown, runs again, and his fans form “OK Clubs”.
Van Buren lost the election, but OK won. It’s now thought to be one of the most widely used words on the planet.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
English has borrowed many words from French.
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True. Especially after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
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Question 2 of 10
“Robot” comes from Czech.
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True. From “robota”, forced labour.
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Question 3 of 10
The sandwich is named after an earl.
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True. John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich.
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Question 4 of 10
“Emoji” comes from Japanese.
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True. “E” means picture and “moji” means character.
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Question 5 of 10
“Bio” comes from the Greek for life.
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True. As in biology, biography and antibiotic.
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Question 6 of 10
Spanish “embarazada” means embarrassed.
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False. It means pregnant. Embarrassed is “avergonzado”.
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Question 7 of 10
“Nice” once meant foolish.
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True. From Latin “nescius”, not knowing.
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Question 8 of 10
English words all come from Old English.
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False. English borrows from French, Latin, Greek, Norse and many more.
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Question 9 of 10
“Shampoo” comes from Italian.
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False. It comes from Hindi “chāmpo”, to press or massage.
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Question 10 of 10
The saxophone is named after a city.
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False. It’s named after its inventor, Adolphe Sax.
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