The internet is filled with things. Here are some of them.
If you have ever been to a port during a national holiday or a major celebration, you have likely seen a vessel looking like it is decorated for a massive party. This stunning display, where a ship is covered from bow to stern in colorful flags, is known as Full Dressing (or Dressing Overall).
Its Old World home was India (Alexander the Great's companions marveled at "honey without bees") and it remained exotic in Europe until the Arabs began to cultivate it in Sicily and Spain; not until after the Crusades did it begin to rival honey as the West's sweetener. The Spaniards in the West Indies began raising sugar cane by 1506.The delightfully rich Etymonline entry also explains that in English, the switch from -k- to -g- is "obscure" but might be related to the same shift that struck flagon/flask, and that "the pronunciation shift from s- to sh- is probably from the initial long vowel sound syu- (as in sure)". The word's initial entry into our language is
from Old French sucre "sugar" (12c.), from Medieval Latin succarum, from Arabic sukkar, from Persian shakar, from Sanskrit sharkara "ground or candied sugar," originally "grit, gravel" (cognate with Greek kroke "pebble").Even more, they also toss in the freebie that the leading a- in the Spanish word azucar is a lingering Arabic indefinite article. See? So many fun details!
The literal translation of Śarkarā is “pebbles” and eventually became the word for hard sugar crystals (drained from syrup)....which is one of those explanations so obvious, at least in retrospect, that it's no wonder Etymonline didn't bother including it. The sugar look like pebbles, so its inventors called it "pebbles". Amazing.
The Days of Shoddy, as the reader will readily anticipate, are the opening months of the present war, at which time the opprobrious name first came into general use as a designation for swindling and humbug of every character; and nothing more need be said to indicate the scope of this novel.But unfortunately that's not the whole story, as I've discovered reading author Steven R. Weisman in his 2018 book The Chosen Wars: How Judaism Became an American Religion. On page 148 in the chapter Anti-Semitism in the North and South he writes:
On the Union side, anti-Jewish prejudice flared over the role of Jews in businesses that profited from the war, often featured in news stories and cartoons depicting Jews as avaricious, disloyal, and greedy. These focused especially on poorly made uniforms made from shredded or discarded fiber known as “shoddy.” Shoddy became an anti-Semitic slur, so widespread was the assumption that it was Jews who produced such goods. “In the media, the theme of ‘shoddy,’ the purported manipulation of financial institutions, the alleged subversive complicity with the Confederacy, the supposed exploitation of military personnel by Jewish camp followers, and the claims of foreign intervention against the interest of the North continued unabated to plague the image of Jews,” the historians Gary L. Bunker and John J. Appel write.
originally "top surface of a military rampart" (15c.), from a garbled attempt to adopt Middle Dutch bolwerc "wall of a fortification" into French, which at that time lacked a -w- in its alphabet.
The notion is of a promenade atop demolished city walls, which would be wider than the old streets. Originally in English with conscious echoes of Paris; in U.S., since 1929, used of multi-lane limited-access urban highways.
New Mexico received its name long before the present-day country of Mexico won independence from Spain and adopted that name in 1821. The name "Mexico" derives from Nahuatl and originally referred to the heartland of the Mexica, the rulers of the Aztec Empire, in the Valley of Mexico. Following their conquest of the Aztecs in the early 16th century, the Spanish began exploring what is now the Southwestern United States calling it Nuevo México. In 1581, the Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition named the region north of the Rio Grande San Felipe del Nuevo México. The Spaniards had hoped to find wealthy indigenous cultures similar to the Mexica. The indigenous cultures of New Mexico, however, proved to be unrelated to the Mexica and lacking in riches, but the name persisted.
In French, the phrase literally means “good liver.” ... a bon vivant is one who lives well. English speakers have used bon vivant since the late 17th century to refer specifically to those who subscribe to a particular kind of good living—one that involves lots of social engagements and the enjoyment of fancy food and drink.But I also found the linked blog post, which disagrees with that translation of Lebenskünstler. It is an article specifically about the inherent difficulty in translating Lebenskünstler into English, quoting the juicy bit here:
A Lebenskünstler is a person that manages to deal with problems in life in a positive and artful way. They have mastered the Lebenskunst (art of living). This is a very philosophical term, which was already developed in Roman times (ars vivendi in Latin). But in short, it means that by self-awareness and self-reflection, you manage to understand yourself and manage with any and every situation in life.Is there no English word for that? The author suggests hedonism, a word coming from the Greek word for pleasure, but which now fully means "self-indulgent." Hedonism carries too much negative connotation for me to accept it as a translation for Lebenskünstler.
Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic and positive attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how bleak it may be.Curiously, the dictionary always capitalizes Pollyanna but Wikipedia does not. A mark of this word's recent entry into our language, perhaps.
The word epicure is currently associated with indulging the appetite, but that is a long way from the teachings of the man to whom we owe the word. The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus taught a philosophy of simple pleasure, friendship, and a secluded life. He believed in the pursuit of pleasure, but pleasure for him equated with tranquility and freedom from pain—not the indulgence of the senses. However, detractors of Epicurus in his own time and later reduced his notions of pleasure to material and sensual gratification. When epicure entered English in the 16th century, the philosophy of Epicurus had been trivialized, and so the word became synonymous with “hedonist.” Later use carried the notion of refinement of palate that we see in the word today.Relating all this above language trivia will be sure to make you an instant hit at parties and soirées. Indulge me one last excerpt:
As is typical for words that have been borrowed from modern French, soiree in English signifies the fancy version of a simple “party”: an evening event that is formal or refined in some way.
It is located on private ranch land and was named by the original owner, C.J. Babbit, in the 1880s. He was not, alas, as poetic as [the man who named the similar-looking Sunset Crater]. The bowl-shaped crater and the black spatter on the rim reminded this earthly person of a pot of excrement, and the name stuck. Mapmakers couldn't bring themselves to spell out the name, so it became "SP" – probably the only volcano in the world to be called after a rude acronym."Shit Pot". "SP" stands for "Shit Pot."
"In 1893, the residents of what was then known as Swauger's Station decided to change the town's name. Mrs. Rufus F. Herrick consulted a Wiyot elder to find an appropriate indigenous appellation. The Indians actually called it katawólo 't.
A joke was played on Mrs. Herrick. The elderly gentleman told her that it was hó wiwItak. This does not translate as 'beautiful place at the end of the river,' but rather 'Let's have intercourse!'
She interpreted the last part of the phrase, in baby-talk fashion, as Loleta. And thus she suggested 'Loleta' to the residents of the town, which they accepted."
Speaking of New Orleans places named after Northern African things, there's Algiers Point. The part of the city "cross the river" from the famous French Quarter and the other more-famous locales, Algiers and Algiers Point yet remain an intrinsic part of the Big Easy. But, is there any connection between the names Algiers and it's near neighbor Arabi?
Well, no. But it takes some digging to find that out, as none of the various Algiers, New Orleans histories online dip into its etymology. Even the official Algiers Historical Society, despite listing other place names the location has worn, doesn't touch upon how it acquired its current designation.
But the linked Noir 'N Nola article from 2020 does. There, it outlines the area's early and deep-rooted connection to the slave history of our country, as the site that many Africans first touched soil in North America, enslaved. As the author Cierra Chenier says: Yikes.
The paper Chenier links in the above quote goes a slightly different direction, however. In it, Tulane University geographer Richard Campanella tells how the country of Algeria "had come to the attention of Americans, and particularly New Orleanians" during the 1815 Second Barbary War. The USA, incensed by Algerian piracy, dispatched Commodore Stephen Decatur to put an end to it, which he did by defeating the Dey. "The action made Decatur a national hero, this being the first major foreign engagement of the U.S. Years later, New Orleans would rename Levee Street to honor Decatur." Campanella further expounds: I am more convinced by this second etymology.