Chapter 101 romance behind the words

The role of dictionaries is not only to clarify the meaning of words, but also to reveal the origin of words.Generally speaking, after the meaning of a word, the origin and history of the word will be attached and enclosed in brackets.Don't regard the words you use every day purely as boring notes, they are actually colorful, and the birth of each word is so romantic. For example, if we hadn't absorbed the best of every language and civilization, we wouldn't have created a vocabulary rich enough to connect the most common phrase "telephone the grocer for sugar." "It's beyond words. The word "telephone" is derived from two Greek words, "tele" meaning "far" and "phone" meaning "sound"; the word "grocer" comes from an old French The word "grossier", and this French word comes from the Latin "grossarius", originally meaning a wholesaler or retailer; the word "sugar (sugar)" also comes from French, and this word in French is also It was introduced from Spanish, and then traced back, Spanish introduced Arabic, Arabic introduced Persian, and "shaker" in Persian originated from "carkara" in Sanskrit, which is "carkara" in Sanskrit. sugar" means.

You may be an employee of a company or start a company yourself. In fact, the word "company" originated from an old French word "companion", and "companion" has two roots. "com" means "together" and "panis" means "living". The original meaning of "companion" is a worker or colleague, while "company" refers to a group organization of people who work for a living. By extension, it means "company".And the salary you earn (salary) originally means the money used to buy salt. In ancient Rome, salt was a very valuable thing, and the salaries of ancient Roman soldiers could basically only be used to buy salt.One day, some joking people said that all their wages were salt money, thus the word "salarium" came into being, which means "wage, income".Later, after a long period of development and deduction, it became an official vocabulary in English.Another example is the book (book) you are holding in your hand, which originally originated from the word "beech (beech)".Because a long time ago, the Anglo-Saxons recorded and engraved their text on beech trees or letters made of beech wood, thus the word "book" was derived.And the word "dollar" in your pocket originally originated from "valley" and didn't develop into "dollar" until the 16th century.

The words "janitor" and "January" both originate from the name of a blacksmith.The blacksmith was an Etruscan who lived in Rome and was famous in the country for forging door locks and lockbolts.After his death, he was worshiped as a god by people and turned into a "two-faced man", because only in this way can he see two directions at the same time, and he can also invent the door lock to open and close the door.Gradually, the month of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new was called "January (January)".And whenever we mention "January" or "janitor", we will think of a blacksmith named "Janus" more than a thousand years ago BC, and his wife was named Jane.

The word "July (July)" is named after "Julius Casar (Julius Caesar)".And "Augustus (Emperor Augustus)" was not far behind, so he named August "August".However, August at that time had only thirty days, and Augustus the Great did not want the month named after him to have fewer days than the month named after Caesar the Great, so he took one day from February to add to mid-August.Although the vanity was satisfied for a while, this kind of extreme vanity has become an indelible historical mark, which is vividly displayed on the calendar hanging in our home.True or not, the origins of these words are really interesting.

If the above story has aroused your desire and curiosity for knowledge, you might as well take out a large dictionary and look up the origins of the following words: atlas (Atlas, the giant god that tops the sky), boycott (resist), cereal ( Grain), colossal (huge), concord (harmonious, agreement), curfew (curfew), education (education), finance (finance), lunatic (crazy), panic (panic), palace (palace), pecuniary (money), sandwich (sandwich), tantalize (teasing, provoking). The story behind the word will undoubtedly enhance the charm of the word and make you use it with passion and joy.