Channel 4 Sunday Brunch: Mark Forsyth - The Etymologicon
It was great to see Mark Forsyth on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch show, yesterday morning, talking about the origins and meanings of words - very interesting. I think the guests on the show were struggling to contain their laughter when Tim Lovejoy asked him to explain the origin of Simon Rimmer's surname (it's rhymer FYI!).
I read his book, the Etymologicon, two years ago (although I do like to dip into it now and again) and it's a fantastic read. It was the source of the butterfly fact on a recent blogpost. I wrote about one of my favourite discoveries from the book regarding the French word for heatwave: une canicule which is derived from the same root as the Russian word for holidays: kanikuli http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2013/03/russian-language-notes-hot-dogs.html.
I have had a passing interest in the origin of words since primary school: I remember a school assembly where the head teacher, Mr Steel (Washington Village Primary school - now closed), explained the meaning of Yours sincerely. This comes from the latin: sin =without cerel = wax. We were told that in Roman times, unscrupulous sellers of statuary would disguise flaws in the marble by filling the cracks with wax. No sooner had the purchaser got their statue home and installed it at their villa, they would find that the heat of the sun had melted the wax thus revealing cracks in their statue. Reputable manufacturers of statuary would therefore certify their products as being free from wax - they would be delivered with the label without wax. This then gave us the word sin cere: free from deceit or pretence.
I loved this story at the time and subsequently signed off all my letters with the valediction Yours Without Wax, although to be fair, I didn't write many letters. I have since discovered that the root of the word sincere is not actually known for definite and what I was taught at school was a load of rubbish. Unfortunately, Mark Forsyth doesn't include the origin of sincere in his book. I know what I prefer to believe.
Yours without wax
David
I read his book, the Etymologicon, two years ago (although I do like to dip into it now and again) and it's a fantastic read. It was the source of the butterfly fact on a recent blogpost. I wrote about one of my favourite discoveries from the book regarding the French word for heatwave: une canicule which is derived from the same root as the Russian word for holidays: kanikuli http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2013/03/russian-language-notes-hot-dogs.html.
I have had a passing interest in the origin of words since primary school: I remember a school assembly where the head teacher, Mr Steel (Washington Village Primary school - now closed), explained the meaning of Yours sincerely. This comes from the latin: sin =without cerel = wax. We were told that in Roman times, unscrupulous sellers of statuary would disguise flaws in the marble by filling the cracks with wax. No sooner had the purchaser got their statue home and installed it at their villa, they would find that the heat of the sun had melted the wax thus revealing cracks in their statue. Reputable manufacturers of statuary would therefore certify their products as being free from wax - they would be delivered with the label without wax. This then gave us the word sin cere: free from deceit or pretence.
I loved this story at the time and subsequently signed off all my letters with the valediction Yours Without Wax, although to be fair, I didn't write many letters. I have since discovered that the root of the word sincere is not actually known for definite and what I was taught at school was a load of rubbish. Unfortunately, Mark Forsyth doesn't include the origin of sincere in his book. I know what I prefer to believe.
Yours without wax
David
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