Atlas

If you’re familiar with Greek myths, then you’ll immediately recognize the name of the Titan who was forced to hold up the heavens after angering the Olympians. Even if you didn’t recognize his name from myth though, you certainly recognized the modern use of the term for a group of maps. The connection is logical, but it wasn’t used in the cartography until the sixteenth century.

Image Via Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez [Wikipedia]

Chronological and Chronic

These words may not seem to have much in common definition-wise, but there is a good reason they start with the same root –they are both related to time. Chronology deals with the way events happened over the course of time and chronic describes something that takes place over a long period of time. Wondering where we got these words? Well, they are all related to Chronos, the god of time.

Image Via Jorbasa [Flickr]

Echo

This is one of the more famous Greek stories-turned-words. In the ancient tales, Echo was a mountain nymph who talks excessively with her gorgeous voice. Her voice was so lovely that she would often distract Zeus’ wife Hera with her long and entertaining stories while Zeus would sneak away and make love with the other mountain nymphs. When Hera found out about Echo’s role in her husband’s activities, she punished her by taking away her ability to speak, except in repetition of the words of others.

There are many differing ends to the story, but in all of them, Echo eventually dies in some heartbreaking manner, leaving her voice to haunt the earth, where it can still be heard to this day.

Erotic

This word comes from the Greek character Eros, but you probably know him as his more famous Roman name –Cupid. Eros was the god not only of love, but of sexual desire. As a result, his interventions often cause gods and men to fall in love, often when already married.

Image Via Eric Pouhier [Wikipedia]

Hypnosis

Ever been in a highly-suggestible sleep-like state? Well, you can thank Hypnos for your condition as he was the god of sleep who lived in a dark cave where the sun never penetrates. His home had no doors or gates lest he be awakened by creaking of hinges. Other words have been derived from his Roman name, Somnus, most notably, insomnia.

Image Via McMillan and Gage [Flickr]

Morphine

The famous drug that puts you in a dream-like state actually got its name from Hypnos’ brother, Morpheus (you know, like the guy in the Matrix). Morpheus was the god of dreams and actually had the ability to take human form and appear in people’s dreams.

Narcissism

This might just be the most famous of all the myths on this list. Narcissus was a gorgeous man, half-nymph and half-god, who was so proud of his own looks that he disdained all who dared love him. Eventually, Nemesis (our next word on the list) punished him by luring Narcissus to a pool of water where he could see his own reflection. At this point, there are two endings to the tale, neither of them particularly good. In one version, Narcissus realizes he could never find anyone as attractive as himself, so he finally gives up and kills himself. In the other, Narcissus doesn’t realize it is an image and falls in love with the reflection, refusing to leave its side until he eventually succumbs to hunger.

Nemesis

These days, a nemesis is a rival or enemy, but if Nemesis was against you in ancient Greece, you must have done something bad to anger her. That’s because Nemesis was the god who took revenge against those who showed arrogance before the gods. Long ago, the term was used to simply mean someone who distributed fortune as it was deserved, good or bad. It wasn’t until the 4^th century that the word started to mean someone who felt resentment towards another.

Tantalizing

Next time you’re tantalized by something you can’t have, just think of poor Tantalus and how miserable he must have been. Of course, he kind of brought his punishment upon himself.

Tantalus was a half-god and half-nymph who was invited to dine at Zeus’ table in Olympus. He then stole ambrosia and nectar along with other secrets of the gods and brought them to the mortals. Later on, he offered his own son as a sacrifice to the gods and served him at a banquet. The gods learned of his plan and rebuilt the boy and brought him back to life, disgusted by Tantalus’ plan.

As punishment for his misdeeds, Tantalus was forced to stand in a pool of water below a fruit tree with low-hanging branches. Whenever he would reach down to take a drink, the waters would recede and whenever he reached up to pluck some fruit, the branches would rise up out of his reach. Thus Tantalus spent the rest of eternity being tantalized by water and food that he could never have.

These are, of course, only a handful of the hundreds and hundreds of Greek myths, many of which have played a fascinating role in modern English words –and I didn’t even include any of the Roman versions that have entered our lexicon. Do you guys know of any other Greek or Roman tales that have inspired common English words?

Sources: Your Dictionary, Grose Educational Media, Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9

BRR – The way you tell people that it’s super chilly and the way you tell your WWF opponents that you don’t care what they think of you.

CWM – Oh, boy – pronounced “koom,” it’s another name for a “cirque,” which is a bowl-shaped mountain basin often containing a lake.

HMM – Accepted (in addition to “hm”) as a sound of contemplation. When you’re thinking just a wee bit harder, it’s “hmm” instead of “hm.”

NTH – Having the quality of being the last in a series of infinitely increasing or decreasing values. (As in, “the nth degree.”)

There’s more, with 5, 6, and even 7 letters in this list at mental_floss! Link

Perhaps the most interesting effect of this is that in large Australian cities, the cockatoos keep their vocabulary sharp through frequent interactions with humans. As a result, apparently, if you say hello to a crowd of cockatoos, it’s not unlikely that you’ll get a relatively articulate answer.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’d love to have a conversation with a wild cockatoo, even if it is just a step away from taking over human civilization.

Link Via Geekosystem Image Via rggoldie [Flickr]

I’ve always advocated that you don’t have to be intelligent to have rights, but this idea from Defective Yeti has wondrous, if perverse, appeal. What if you had to prove that you had a grasp of basic grammar before you could log on to the internet? You’ll find a rotation of these at the site, with working buttons that will determine whether you are worthy. Link -via Rue The Day!

There are some words in foreign languages that just don’t have a direct translation to English. Here now is a list of twenty of them. Your failure to learn them will give me plenty of schadenfreude.

When linguists refer to “untranslatable” words, the idea is not that a word cannot somehow be explained in another language, but that part of the essence of the word is lost as it crosses from one language to another. This often is due to different social and cultural contexts that have shaped how the word is used.

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Change one letter in the four-letter word the computer gives you. The computer will then change one letter in the word you used and so on. You may not use proper nouns or reuse words that have already been used. The first person to use up all possible words wins!

Some people brag of beating the computer fairly quickly, but it depends on the word you’re dealt. Others complain that the computer arbitrarily rules your words ineligible. How are you doing? Link -via mental_floss

If you were impressed by QLOCKTWO, but were put off by the price tag, you might want to make your own! The materials total less than $100, but you need a bit of know-how to pull it off. Instructables has your directions. Link -via a comment at reddit

Pictured above is the longest word in the English language. It’s a slang term for a disease incurred by inhaling silicone dioxide. Sam Kean has a story at NPR’s website describing the difficult task of defining a “word” so that one may determine which is the longest.

For example, do the names for chemical chains count? Does a word have to be published to qualify? Should words intentionally created to be the longest be considered real words? Kean lists the six words that qualify under various criteria. Which do you think is the best case for the longest word?

Link via Kottke

[Psychologist John W. Pilley] bought Chaser as a puppy in 2004 from a local border collie breeder and started to train her for four to five hours a day. He would show her an object, say its name up to 40 times, then hide it and ask her to find it, while repeating the name all the time. She was taught one or two new names a day, with monthly revisions and reinforcement for any names she had forgotten.

He did this day in day out for years until Chaser knows the names of 1,022 items: Link (Photo: Cass Sapir/Nova scienceNOW)

Do you long to create your own captivating poetry, but lack the energy to come up with your own witty words?  You need a Magnetic Poetry set from the NeatoShop.  These fantastic 200+ word magnet sets come up with all the right words for you.  All you need to do is arrange the words into creative sentences.  You can finally satisfy your ravenous craving for poetry without ever having to use your delicious brain.

Magnetic Poetry is available in the following hilarious sets:

• Zombie
• Genius
• Office
• The “F” Word
• Bike Lover
• Geek
• Pirate
• And Vampire

Link | Be sure to check out the NeatoShop more Zombie fun!

Hors d’œuvre
Paradigm
Epitome
Hyperbole
Draught
Meme
Segue
Macabre
Hermione

Are you sure you know how to pronounce these words aloud? Do you have any other examples of words you were surprised to hear pronounced for the first time? Link -via The Daily What

Pretentious pronunciation surely exists — I sympathize with McIntyre’s aversion to “Bach uttered as if the announcer suffered from catarrh, or a Spanish name pronounced as if the studio were in the foothills of Andaluthia.” But I think that in general, we’re much too eager to label people dimwits or social climbers on the basis of pronunciations they probably acquired in the usual way — by imitating the people they talk to.

More at the delightfully-named blog Throw Grammar From The Train. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Many words are born from the name of the person associated with what that word means. An eponym is a word derived from a person’s name, whether real or fictional. In this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss, you’ll be given a word definition and a clue about the person, and you figure out what what the word is. Simple? Not exactly! I scored 70%, which would have been 80% if I could spell correctly. Link

undermine: If your colleagues constantly undermine you, just be glad they aren’t doing so in the traditional sense. Undermine, a word that dates back to the 14th century, was once a military term for digging a clandestine passage under a building to sneak up on the enemy. The term quickly turned metaphorical, but in Shakespeare’s day, its literal meaning was still commonly known. He even playe with it in All’s Well That Ends Well , when the maiden Helena asks a soldier if there’s a way to safeguard her virginity. He replies, “There is none: man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.”

fleabag: Starting in the 1830s, a fleabag was a soldier’s bed. Although the word fleabag now seems wedded to hotel, it can be applied more broadly, as in the 1958 example for the Oxford English Dictionary, “God, how I hated Paris! Paris was one big flea-bag.”

basket case: Today, a basket case is simply a neurotic person, but during WWII, it meant a living soldier who had lost all his limbs and was brought home in a basket. The United States military denies that real baskets were ever used to carry soldiers. Regardless, the original meaning of the word is still gruesome.

(Image credit: Flickr user drakegoodman)

flak:Celebrities catch a lot of flak for idiotic behavior, but contemporary flak isn’t what it used to be. When the term originated in the 1930s, it was short for fliegerabwehrkanone, the German word for anti-aircraft guns. After a generation, the meaning shifted so that catching flak now means absorbing criticism instead of cannonfire.

gung ho: You may be gung ho about collecting stamps, playing solitaire, or other individual pursuits, but originally the term was more applicable to teams. The U.S. Marines first used it a as a slogan during World War II, after general Evans Carlson adapted the Chinese kung ho, which means “work in harmony”. While the teamwork element of the definition has faded, the enthusiasm bit has certainly remained.

fobbit, hillbilly armor, and IED: The war in Iraq is contributing its own expressions. A popular word on the rise is fobbit, a term that combines FOB (forward operating base) with hobbit. The word is a derogatory term for soldiers who stay too close to base and help themselves to three square meals a day. Another expression gaining steam is hillbilly armor, a term for scraps used to bulletproof vehicles.

Some words have already entered civilian life. IEDS, or improvised explosive devices, refer to the homemade bombs created by terrorists and insurgents. A recent GQ article about inappropriate office-party behavior uses it like this: “The workplace minefield is hard enough to negotiate without planting your own IEDs.” So, what are the chances any of these new words will stick around? Who knows? The only thing that’s certain is that as long as there are new wars, new words will crop up, too.

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How Violence Increases Our Vocabulary was written by Mark Peters. It is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the May/June 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!

Check out some clever words to describe the way kids exasperate their parents. My kids have outgrown most of these phases, but I remember them well! Link

With no danger in sight, males make three call sequences. The first – a pair of booms – is made when the monkey is far away from the group and can’t see them. It’s a summons that draws the rest of the group towards him. Adding a krak-oo to the end of the boom pair changes its meaning. Rather than “Come here”, the signal now means “Watch out for that branch”. Whenever the males cried “Boom-boom-krak-oo”, other monkeys knew that there were falling trees or branches around (or fighting monkeys overhead that could easily lead to falling vegetation).

Interspersing the booms and krak-oos with some hok-oos changes the meaning yet again. This call means “Prepare for battle”, and it’s used when rival groups or strange males have showed up. In line with this translation, the hok-oo calls are used far more often towards the edge of the monkeys’ territories than they are in the centre. The most important thing about this is that hok-oo is essentially meaningless. The monkeys never say it in isolation – they only use it to change the meaning of another call.

As complex as their language is, Campbell’s monkeys can only communicate things that they see or experience in the present. Link

Wilson’s interruption wasn’t exactly an act of admonishing, since that word (defined by the Visual Thesaurus as “warn strongly” or “take to task”) usually implies a gentler, not so confrontational approach. Admonish made the news the following week when the House of Representatives voted on a resolution disapproving of Wilson’s conduct. The resolution wasn’t so strong as a rebuke or censure, so admonish fit the bill in many of the press descriptions.

Other words on the list include philanderer, pandemic, and rogue. Link -via Metafilter

(image by Flickr user the|G|™)

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

“It has both currency and potential longevity,” notes Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program. “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Most “un-” prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar “un-” verbs (uncap, unpack), but “unfriend” is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of “friend” that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal.”

Other words considered for the honor included hashtag, sexting, and paywall, all of which are unfamiliar to my spellchecker. Link -via Mashable

All this and more can be revealed when you just admit that “you don’t know Jack.”

Image Via Computationally.Irrational [Flickr]

About the Name:

The name Jack came from a Middle English word, “jakke,” used to refer to any male, particularly those of the lower classes. Many people mistakenly believe the name comes from “Jacques,” which came from the names Jacob and James. English speakers associated the name Jack with John much more often than these other names, so the similar sounds are purely coincidental.

In the UK, the name is the most popular name for male babies between 2003 and 2007. In England, it has been the top name since 1994. The name is much less common in America, ranking in the top 30-40 names of male babies, but it is still much more popular than it was around 20 years ago, when it was closer to the 175th ranking.

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Phrases:

“Jack of all trades” has been used for centuries and refers to a person who could do a variety of tasks. The use of the word “Jack” was only included because it was still being used as a generic term for ‘man’ at the time. It was not originally a negative expression, but at some point, people started adding on the phrase “master of none,” which made for a whole new meaning. It can now refer to either phrase and, as a result, can be bad or good depending on the context.

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Image Via Joel Mark Witt [Flickr]

Because Jack was so often used to refer to social underlings, it was eventually used to refer to useless objects. Eventually, it began being used as a term for very little. The phrase “you don’t know jack” (with or without the expletive) has been used for decades to say someone knows very little. Yes, it seems to be a bit of a double negative, but expressions are commonly created and spread without any consideration for proper grammar.

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A Few Facts About A Few Famous Jacks:

Jack Black is the son of two rocket scientists and a college friend of Tim Robbins. He often jokingly refers to Philip Seymour Hoffman as his “nemesis” because the two frequently audition for the same roles.

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Jack Nicholson worked as a gofer at Hannah Barbara animation studios when he was young; when they offered him an animation job, he turned them down, saying he wanted to be an actor. Aside from being a good artist, he is also a great singer, as documented by his performance in Tommy. Fortunately, he stuck with acting and is tied with Walter Brennan for the title of male actor with the most Oscar wins.

Source Image ViaMharrsch [Flickr]

Jack Lemmon was not only a great actor, but also a great, self-taught pianist; he wrote the theme for the 1980 movie Tribute. When he first started acting, studio head Jack Warner wanted him to change his name to “Jack Lennon” so critics wouldn’t have the chance to say that his performance in a given film was a lemon. Jack convinced him the name would be compared to Lenin, which was even worse.

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Jack Kerouac was born to French-Canadian parents and did not learn English until he was six. He originally started writing On the Road in French and actually has two unpublished novels in the language as well. He was enrolled in the US Merchant Marines during WWII, but was honorably discharged on the grounds of psychiatric issues. At one point, he was arrested for helping a friend, Lucien Carr, hide the evidence after murdering a stalker.

Source Image Via Tompalumbo [Flickr]

Jack products:

The Jack in card decks was originally a knave card. The name wasn’t changed until the mid-nineteenth century, when card manufacturing became a big business and the companies realized having “Kn, Q, K, A” abbreviations were too confusing. They opted for the use of “J” instead. In the UK, they still commonly refer to the “Jack” card as a “Knave.”

Source Image Via Tadson [Flickr]

Jack Daniels opened his distillery in Moore County, Tennessee in 1866. When the state enacted prohibition in 1910, the factory reopened in St. Louis, Missouri and Birmingham, Alabama, but none of the alcohol made in these factories was ever sold due to quality control issues. The Tennessee ban on alcohol wasn’t repealed until 1938, but even today, the county the alcohol is produced is still a dry county.

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Jack In The Box started out as a burger joint in San Diego named Topsy’s. The locations all had a circus theme, which is where the Jack In The Box name came from. When the company started losing major market shares in the early 80’s they killed off “Jack” and moved to create more upscale fast food for yuppies. After their e coli scare in the early 90’s though, the company almost went bankrupt, but was saved, largely due to the resurrection of their famed Jack character.

Source Image Via Thomas Hawk [Flickr]

A Few Famous Fictional Jacks:

Jack Skellington, most widely remembered for his lead character in Nightmare Before Christmas, is a reoccurring character in Tim Burton films, appearing in Sleepy Hollow, James and the Giant Peach and Beetlejuice. Although his talking voice is done by Susan Sarandon’s ex-husband, Chris, his singing voice is done by Danny Elfman.

Source Image Via Veronica Bautista [Flickr]

Captain Jack Sparrow was originally supposed to be a much more minor character, who was merely intended to guide Will Turner through the movie. Johnny Depp’s performance was so well received though that the character’s entire role was reprised and he became one of the most adored characters of the movie. In fact, a back story was later created for him and turned into a children’s book series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow.

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Storybook Jacks:

Jack and The Beanstalk is based on an old oral story of Jack the Giant Killer. While many of the tales try to moralize Jack’s behavior, the most popular version leaves Jack as kind of a jerk who robs someone, manipulates his wife and then kills him…all on the grounds that the man is a giant.

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Jack Be Nimble was a nursery rhyme that never made sense to me as a child. Interestingly, it seems to be one of the few with a very clear meaning, as jumping over candlesticks was a game and fortune telling method in the mid-nineteenth century. If one could clear the candlestick without putting out the flame, they were said to have good luck coming their way.

Source Image Via ABakedCreation [Flickr]

The famed Jack and Jill rhyme originally was Jack and Gill and there are a variety of stories involving the origins of the song. Also, although we normally only hear the first verse of the song, there are actually four commonly accepted verses. The full rhyme goes:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got and home did trot
As fast as he could caper;
And went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper.

Jill came in and she did grin
To see his paper plaster;
Mother vexed did whip her next
For causing Jack’s disaster.

Now Jack did laugh and Jill did cry
But her tears did soon abate;
Then Jill did say that they should play
At see-saw across the gate.

Source Image Via gfpeck [Flickr]

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This got me laughing. Here is Sameer Mishra who won the Scripps 2008 National Spelling Bee. These kids get tough words but this word stumped Sameer … at least for a short moment.

Link: YouTube