Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast

Chemistry as we know it is a rational science. However, both the word chemistry and the science of chemistry itself evolved out of the pre-scientific practice of alchemy. In today's episode, we look at the origins of alchemy, a few theories regarding its etymology, and how medieval Arabic plays into Europe's inheritance of this word. Finally, we consider the circumstances under which alchemy became chemistry as we know it today.

Unlike most Arabic loanwords, the word serendipity was not borrowed from a foreign language, but invented by an eighteenth century Englishman. It's based on Serendip, an old Arabic word for the nation of Sri Lanka, and was inspired by an Italian folk tale originally composed in Persian. The odd coinage of 'serendipity' is an international story that spans many cultures, languages, and time periods.

Today's episode serves as an intro to a series on Arabic loanwords in English. As a Semitic language, Arabic is very foreign to English. We take a look at some of the basic linguistic and cultural features of Arabic that make it stand apart from the rest of the languages discussed on this podcast thus far.

At last, the finale in the Words for Granted series on days of the week! 'Saturday' comes from a root that literally means 'day of Saturn.' Unlike the rest of the English names for the days of the week, it's a direct etymological descendent of the original Latin word for Saturday. And Sunday—you guessed it—literally means 'day of the sun.' We also compare and contrast these English names with their Romance language equivalents.

Part four of the days of the week miniseries! This time, we investigate Thursday and Friday, or Thor's Day and Frigg's Day. Like the other days of the week discussed thus far, the names 'Thursday' and 'Friday' are loan translations of the Latin names for the days of the week.

In Old English, the word for Wednesday was Wodnesdaeg, which literally meant 'Woden's day.' It comes from a loan translation of the Latin dies mercurii, which literally meant 'day of Mercury' (Woden was the Germanic god associated with the Roman god Mercury). This much is for certain. But how did the O in Wodnesdaeg shift to the E in 'Wednesday?'

In today's episode, we begin our investigation of the etymologies of each day of the week. Both Monday and Tuesday are ultimately loan translations of the Latin words dies lunae (Luna's day) and dies martis (Mars's day). Luna, the Roman moon goddess, was identified with Mani, the Germanic moon god; Mars, the Roman god of war, was identified with Tiw, the chief deity in the original Germanic pantheon. But that's just scratching the surface. Both 'Monday' and 'Tuesday' contain unexpected stories that reveal to us the cultures of our linguistic ancestors.

The days of the week are part of the core vocabulary of any language. In English, their etymologies are rooted in ancient pagan mythologies. In this episode, we trace the history of our modern calendar back to ancient Rome. As the seven-day week was transmitted from the Romans to the Germanic tribes that would eventually produce the English language, a series of loan-translations took place.

The Latin verb, secare, meaning 'to cut,' has produced English derivatives such as 'section,' 'sector,' and 'insect,' among others. One root word, many derivatives. So, how exactly can a single root word produce so many offshoots? In attempt to answer to this question as deeply as possible, we discuss linguistic topics such as morphology, semantics, and more.

The word scene has always had close ties to the theater, but it did not always refer to 'subdivisions within in a play.' The meaning of the original Greek skene was 'tent or booth.' It's an odd etymology, and today's episode explores multiple theories that seek to explain where this original sense may have come from.