We need a record of our failures...

curmudgeon, n. [ker-muhj-uhn, kər-mŭj-ən]
-Such a lively word, rich with meaning and imagery! Unfortunately, scholars have absolutely no idea where curmudgeon comes from, though there are a few theories. As the definition is 'a cantankerous, ill-tempered, and difficult person,' some scholars think that the cur- in curmudgeon might refer to English cur 'a mongrel dog' because this has come to be used as derogatory slang for a person. An older theory claims that curmudgeon might be the poor English translation of French coeur mechant 'evil heart,' but this opinion has fallen out of favor.



The infamous duo of curmudgeons from The Muppet Show

fine, adj. & n. [fahyn, fīn]
-Depending on its part of speech, fine can have seemingly very different definitions, though their histories meet up in one common ancestor. Starting with the adjective, fine 'of high quality, superior' was first recorded in English around 1250 CE as Middle English as fin 'free of blemish, refined, pure.' It was directly borrowed from Old French fin 'perfected, of highest quality,' which itself came from Latin finis 'the end, limit' in the sense of 'peak, acme, supreme state.' Scholars have also found traces of this Romantic root in Old High German fin and Middle Dutch fijn. The history of the noun form of fine, defined as 'money paid in penalty,' follows the exact same path through French and Latin but took a slightly different interpretation of the Latin base. Starting with the meaning of Latin finis as 'the end, the limit,' Old French adapted it to the noun form of fin 'the end, the conclusion.' Once again around 1250, the first known usage of Middle English fin 'ending, termination' was recorded. By 1399, it had developed from a general meaning of payment (to end a deal or interaction) to our modern sense of 'payment as punishment for an offense.'

tickle your fancy
-This idiomatic expression is used when something pleases you or strongly engages your interest, though it can also be used as a euphemism for sexual pleasure or attraction, especially in women. If you break down the phrase, tickle is used to mean 'to excite or stir up in a pleasing manner' (think of the smiling, laughing reaction of a person being physically tickled), and fancy as a noun that means 'a notion or whim, a fantasy.' Dating at least from the late 1700's, tickle your fancy's original definition may have originally been closer to our modern euphemistic approach. One of the earliest known references comes from Abraham Tucker's 1774 In the Light of Nature Pursued, the author tells of animals "whose play had a quality of striking the joyous perception, or, as we vulgarly, say, tickling the fancy." After World War II, British English speakers began using it in a rhyming slang expression that associated a Nancy (a male homosexual) with tickling your fancy (arousing you sexually or performing sexual acts with you). An alternate version is found in strike your fancy.

dragon, n. [drag-uhn, drăg-ən]
-There are as many kinds of dragons as there are myths about these creatures: some dragons have giant wings, some small; some breathe poison, some breathe fire; some live in tall mountains, some live in big lakes or oceans; some are evil, some are good; some have legs, some do not. What most Indo-European words for dragon have in common, though, is a link to snakes. The first known reference in English to a beast similar to our modern conceptualization is Middle English dragun, which comes from about 1250 CE. Prior to this, the Middle English word meant the more general 'a huge serpent' and was also used as a surname. It was taken directly from Old French dragon, itself a learned borrowing of Latin draconem (draco being the nominative form) 'a serpent, a dragon.' Per usual, the Latin version came from Greek drakon 'serpent, sea fish,' which had the literal translation of 'the one with the (deadly) glance.' Drak-, the stem of drakon, is also part of the Greek verb derkesthai 'to see clearly' and is derived from the prehistoric Indo-European root derk- 'to behold.' These ancient versions of dragons are akin to the Greek basilisk, a huge serpent-like creature who could kill a man with its gaze (and breath).

doom, n. & v. [doom, dōōm]
-Not only is it a creepy-as-hell video game, but doom is also one of those words that sounds like its meaning, especially if said in a dramatically deep voice. The noun form of doom first appeared in Middle English in the early 14th century CE as dome, dom 'a decision or judgment' from Old English dōm 'judgment, law.' The Old English version stemmed from Proto-Germanic domaz, which also created Old Frisian and Old Saxon dom 'statute, law, judgment,' Old High German tuom, Old Norse domr 'judgment,' and Gothic doms 'honor, fame, decree.' Proto-Germanic domaz is thought to have descended from the prehistoric Indo-European root dhe- 'to set, to stay put,' which is also the ancestor of the Sanskrit base dhaman- 'law,' Greek themis 'law,' and Lithuanian dome 'attention.' Our modern primary definition for doom, 'an adverse fate or destiny,' is first found to be associated with the word in manuscripts dating from around 1600.




Side note:
We need more requests!

ombudsman, n. [om-buhdz-muhn, ŏm-bŭdz-mən]
-An ombudsman is an official who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements, especially between parties of uneven authority, such as private citizens and government offices or officials. The word was adopted into English in 1959 directly from Swedish, where it literally meant 'an agent, a commissioner' but was used in the sense of 'a deputy who looked after the interests and legal affairs of a group such as a trade union or business.' The Swedish version was developed from Old Norse umbodhsmadhr 'a trusty manager, a commissary,' a doubly compound word formed from madhr 'man' and the compound word umbodh 'a commission,' itself formed from um- 'around, regarding' and bjodha 'to offer, to command.'

dominoes, n. pl. [dom-uh-nohz, dŏm-ə-nōz]
-There's a lot of uncertainty in the etymology of dominoes, a game played with tiles (called dominoes), the faces of which are divided in half, with the halves either blank or decorated with a certain number of dots. In English, this word for the tiles first appears in 1801, borrowed from French domino (a singular noun first recorded in 1771). It's at this point that scholars seem to hit a dead end. To date, the only known possible trail leads to the black cloak and hood worn by priest as a symbol of their calling and also worn as a veil by women in mourning. In this use, domino ultimately comes from Latin domino, the dative form of dominus 'lord, master,' used in religious services as a name for God. The only link scholars can come up with between this hooded cloak and the game tiles are their coloring and design, as the tiles are separated in the middle with black dots on either side, similar to a black robe being tied at the waist.

( o.O )

starve, v. [stahrv, stärv]
-As far back in history as scholars can peer, the ultimate ancestor of today's English starve is the prehistoric Indo-European root ster- 'rigid, solid, stiff.' This branched off into Greek sterphnios 'stiff, rigid' and sterphos 'hide, skin,' Old Church Slavonic strublu 'strong, hard,' and Proto-Germanic sterbanan 'to be stiff' and star 'to be rigid.' While star went on to become the ancestor of English stare 'to look fixedly (at something),' out of sterbanan came Old Frisian sterva, Old Saxon sterban and Old High German sterban, Middle Dutch sterven, and Old English steorfan 'to die.' (Interestingly, this same root also led to Old Norse stjarfi 'tetanus,' a medical condition where the muscle fibers in many parts of the body are continually contracted.) The link between 'rigid, stiff' and 'dead' is easily understood. The Old English word was likely in use prior to 1000 CE and could refer to any type of death; we find to starve of hunger* in 1124. By 1225 at the latest, was replaced by Middle English sterven, which added on to the original 'to die' the meaning of 'to kill.' Sometime around the 14th century, the meaning changed to 'to die of cold' - again, an easily understood connection to the original notion of 'rigid, stiff.' It is not until 1530 that we see starve used in its modern sense of 'to kill with hunger.' Our common expression to starve to death (c. 1910) would have sounded absolutely absurd to early English speakers, who might think we are idiots for saying someone died to death.