vocabulary ch. 1 ORIGINS // english 10

Achilles’ heel

Achilles’ heel

Achilles, the mightiest warrior of the Trojan War, was dipped in the River Styx as a baby so as to make his whole body invulnerable. However, his mother failed to immerse the heel by which she held him, making it Achilles’ one weak spot. He was eventually killed in the Trojan War from a fatal shot to this heel.

stentorian

Stentor was the Greek herald known for his exceptionally loud voice. However, his powerful voice led to his demise when he challenged Hermes to a vocal contest and lost. Still, Stentor’s name remains in the English language as a symbol of great volume.

mnemonic

Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, had nine nights together, resulting in the birth of the nine muses who oversee the arts and sciences. Mnemosyne was fittingly their mother because memory was crucial for knowledge before writing existed. From her, we get “mnemonics”, the “art or technique of developing or improving the memory.”

fathom

In Old English, the word faethm referred to the distance from fingertip to fingertip of outstretched arms. Now, the nautical term “fathom”, a measurement of six feet, comes from the Old English word for arm span. This measurement came to mean “to get to the bottom of” a situation, and to understand it deeply enough to unravel a mystery or problem.

serendipity

Horace Walpole, the author of the gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, coined the word “serendipity” based upon a Persian fairy tale called “The Three Princes of Serendip”. Walpole described the three heroes of this story as “always making discoveries of things they were not in quest of.”

desultory

Desultors were ancient Roman acrobats who leaped from one galloping horse to another. Today, anyone who randomly jumps from one thing to another acts desultorily.

pariah

About 3500 years ago, at the bottom of the Aryan imposed caste system on India were the Paraiyar, the lowly field hands who usually bear the drum at certain festivals. The British later made many of these people their household servants, calling them “Pariah” as a nickname. Eventually, pariah was used to describe the low castes, outcastes, or untouchables that were rejected by society.

tawdry

Etheldreda, a nun, liked wearing decorative chains around her neck as a girl that later attributed to a neck tumor. After she died, her name was shortened to Audrey and she became a saint. To honor her, an annual fair was held, featuring scarves and necklaces called “St. Audrey’s laces” after her. Over time, the quality of these items declied, and the name evolved into “tawdry lace”, which eventually led to the word tawdry meaning “cheap and showy.”

pecuniary & impecunious

In many ancient barter or trade societies, one’s livestock was one’s main measure of wealth. Pecu, the Latin word for cattle, came to be associated with wealth, and eventually entered into English meaning “having to do with money". A person without (im) cattle would be considered poor.