Dictionary.com notes that 80 percent of words in the English language have a non-English origin. In fact research has found that words from French and Latin make up 29% of the English language, and that nearly half of our 1,000 most commonly used words come from French alone.
Many of those French-inspired words we use all the time without a second thought. If, for example, your friends are going on a trip “en masse” (in a large group) then you would certainly want to wish them a “bon voyage” or pleasant trip.
Let’s hope for their sakes they don’t have an obnoxious loudmouth on their excursion, for there will be no justice (from the French “jostise” or “administration of law”) as it will likely be a “fait accompli” (French for “presumably irreversible deed or fact”).
Just as well you stayed home, got out a catalog (from the Latin “catalogos” or “list of items”) and ordered a new kitchen utensil (from the Latin “ustensila” or “things for use”).
But it’s not just from French and Latin that we steal – I mean borrow – words. (They’re technically loanwords, or words that we’ve adopted from foreign languages with little or no modification, after all.)
Some of those words from other languages include “patio” (a porch or courtyard) from Spanish, and “karaoke” (“empty orchestra”) from Japanese. “Banana” is believed to be from the Wolof language, which is spoken in Senegal and Gambia, while “lemon” was originally the Arabic word “laimun” (“yellow citrus fruit”).
Cookies get their name from “koekie,” which is Dutch for “akin to cake,” while someone who prefers to remain anonymous (“someone without a name”) can thank the Greeks for his or her name – or in this case, lack thereof.
Tired of all those foreign-sounding words? OK, how about a change of pace with a couple abbreviations and maybe even a nice symbol that we got from other languages? If you’ve ever wondered about the difference between “i.e.” and “e.g.” as I have (hey, everybody needs a hobby), then ponder no more because I’m here to help.
I.E. stands for “id est” (Latin for “that is”), “and is used to introduce a word or phrase that restates what has been said previously,” according to Merriam-Webster. Or you could just say, “In other words.”
E.G., on the other hand is from the Latin “exempli gratia,” which simply means “for example.”
And that symbol I mentioned? How about the misunderstood ampersand? Sure, everybody knows what it stands for, but what about its name? And why is it written as such a squiggly mess?
You see, back when & followed Z in the alphabet, & was a letter that was also considered a word, just like A and I are currently. To make it clear when the symbol was being used as a word, it was rendered, says Merriam-Webster, as “& per se, and,” which was pronounced “and per se and.” This pronunciation got shortened to the “ampersand” we say today.
Since the symbol was used in place of the word “et” (French for “and”), it was often written as an E (rounded and looking like a backward 3) with a line through it representing the letter T.
That’s it for now. If anybody wants me I’ll be out on the patio eating banana-lemon cookies while fighting off anonymous karaoke singers.
Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.
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