Most of the time, the words we use on a daily basis are taken for granted.
I mean, don’t you ever stop to think why some words are the way they are?
Don’t you ever wonder how people back then came up with a specific word for something
like an evil character in a book?
In today’s video we are counting down to 20 ordinary and common words with the most
terrifying and surprising origins!
Watch on as we dissect the meanings of common words that we use today that have completely
different meanings from when they were first created!
I’m telling you now, things will surprise you!
Number 20: Villain When this word pops up, we instantly conjure
up images of pop culture baddies like Magneto, Darth Vader or The Joker.
However, back in 14th Century France, a “villain” is someone who is employed to work at an estate
or a villa as servants to the aristocrats and the upper class.
These servants tended to be from below the social pyramid and it did not help that the
Upper Class would directly associate poverty with crime thus the modern term for the word
“Villain” and “Villainy” was conceived.
Number 19: Mascot They can be both cute and creepy.
Mascots come in all shapes, sizes, and features but they were not always the giant-headed,
costumes caricatures we normally see walking around theme parks.
Originally, the root of this word was derived from “Masca”, an old French word that
refers to a witch or sorceress.
Generally, a “mascot” is any kind of talisman or emblem that is used to protect someone
from evil or harm.
Number 18: Deadline It is a word we are naturally repelled and
repulsed by especially if you are a chronic procrastinator.
The mere mention of the word Deadline is a single-word horror story that every one of
us has experienced whether it is a school paper or a presentation for a big client;
but the origins of the word is much more diabolical.
At the height of the Civil War, prisoners-of-war from the Union were held in the Andersonville
Prison that had a 17-foot tall fence.
Within the perimeter of the fence was a 12-foot “invisible” area that when prisoners dared
to cross it they were shot dead by the guards.
Number 17: Blue Blood or Blue-blooded Being Blue-blooded is often associated with
people from Royal backgrounds and Noble backgrounds.
The term was even created by aristocrats in Castille in order to “racially” set them
apart from commoners, saying that their blood is blue as evidenced by the blue tinge on
their veins that can be seen through their pale, white complexions which, in reality,
isn’t a supernatural feat since our veins do tend up to show blue through our skins
– whether we are descended from kings or not.
Number 16: Cheat In the modern day, to cheat means to gain
something for yourself by fooling someone or at the expense of someone’s ignorance.
Back in the Middle Ages, cheating means a completely different thing.
Originating from the French word “escheat”, cheating – in those days – means to gain
something without any effort at all or by a stroke of luck like an inheritance or finding
a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk.
Number 15: Loophole Who doesn’t love a good loophole when you’re
stuck with something or need to get out of a rut?
It’s a life-saver that you can always count on.
However, the word Loophole originally referred to slits or openings in castles where archers
would position themselves to shoot their arrows at invading armies.
If you were living in the Middle-Ages, I guess it’s not such a fun word as it is today.
Number 14: Mindboggling A “bugge” is an old, Middle English word
for an “invisible ghost or creature”.
Legend has it that animals are the only ones that can see a “bugge”.
So if a pet dog, for example, starts acting wildly or behaves in a way that is unfamiliar
to its owner, the pet is said to be seeing a bugge.
Hence, the term “mindboggling” was coined that now carries the meaning “confusing”
or “startling”.
Number 13: Aghast While we’re still on the subject of invisible
ghosts, the word “aghast” has a literal meaning in its original context.
Today, we use the word to describe being surprised or frightened.
However, if we would dissect the word, it literally means to be “frightened by a ghost”;
with the root “ghast” being the Old English word for ghost.
Number 12: Handshake The origin of this word is mainly from its
practice.
When we walk into a boardroom or get introduced to people, the common practice is to reach
out and shake their hand as a sign of acknowledgement and respect.
In the sword carrying and knife wielding era of history, however, the practice of shaking
someone’s hand was to make sure that he does not have any concealed weapons as the
right hand is normally what people would use to wield a sword or a knife, or a pistol.
In the Middle Ages, another layer was added onto this practice.
People generally shook with their right hands because the left hand was the poop cleaning
hand.
Number 11: Fornication In the times of Ancient Rome, to “fornicate”
means to do the nasty in a bread oven.
Prostitutes would hang around stone ovens where they would attract customers – some,
say with suggestively shaped baked goods – and get their groove on while the oven was still
warm.
Incidentally, the word may have also originated from the arch shape that stone ovens and most
doorways had called a “fornic” or “fornix”.
Number 10: Geek The word Geek has gone through a lot over
the years.
From being the reviled and ridiculed individuals in school to the now cult status that they
are placed in thanks to people like Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawking, and Stan Lee, the word
Geek did not really mean to describe an awkward person with a very specific set of hobbies
and interests.
Derived from the Dutch word “geck” in the 16th Century, Geeks are circus performers
and sideshow attractions that are often forced to bite off the heads and limbs of small animals
and eat them.
Number 9: Flaky No one wants to be friends with someone who
is notoriously flaky.
Flaky people are non-committal and have the highest tendency to never follow through with
a plan.
In the 1920’s, however, if you are defined as someone who is “flaky”, chances are
you were addicted to cocaine since “flake” was the word people used back then as slang
for “cocaine”.
By the 1950’s, it was adopted by baseball players and enthusiasts and changed its meaning
to “eccentric” or “strange”.
Number 8: Blatant A blatant person is anything but subtle.
In fact, to be blatant is to be explicitly obvious with your actions or words.
Perhaps it has to do with its 16th century origin when its first recorded use was by
the poet Edmund Spenser in "The Faerie Queene” as the name of a thousand-tongued demon from
Hell.
What’s even more interesting about the word is its Latin origin, “blatire”, which
directly translates as “to babble”.
Number 7: Nice The word Nice is mostly used to describe a
likable quality or person.
It’s a compliment we give when we are asked about the food at a restaurant or when we
have little opinion about the movie we just saw but do not want to say something bad about
it.
However, its etymology is quite the opposite.
Derived from the Latin “nescius”, to be called Nice centuries ago is to be described
as either ignorant or gullible.
Number 6: Bulldozer The word Bulldozer was used as early as the
beginning of the Civil War in the United States.
Obviously, it did not refer to a giant truck or machine that moved massive quantities of
dirt around.
In fact, Bulldozers are real people.
In Louisiana, in order to prevent newly-freed slaves from participating in the elections,
a group of vigilantes, armed with bull whips, would hunt them down, violently flogging them
giving them “a dose of the bull”.
Number 5: Seven-year Itch Normally referred to these days as that period
in the marriage when either spouse begins to stray from fidelity, the “seven-year
itch” and its origin were anything but.
It was literally referring to a rash that was caused by tiny mites that burrowed under
the skin, giving a person a form of scabies that – when left untreated – could last
for seven years.
Number 4: Terabyte There’s Megabyte, Gigabyte, and then there’s
Terabyte.
Who would not want massive amounts of space for their devices to accommodate a perfectly
curated music playlist or a portfolio of high resolution digital artworks?
One of the many words we use on an almost daily basis and have completely taken for
granted, many of us assume that terabyte is a word conjured up by the people of Silicon
Valley to creatively catch our attention about how much space a terabyte has.
However, the root word “tera” actually traces its way back to the Greek word “teras”
which means “monster”.
So I guess it is appropriate to call a terabyte what it is because of the monstrous capacity
it can hold in terms of digital files.
Number 3: Bridesmaid In a wedding, bridesmaids are the bride’s
closest friends and loved ones who are part of her entourage as she walks down the aisle
to begin a new chapter in her life.
To be a bridesmaid somehow holds a degree of honour in the ceremony as well as a sign
of emotional support.
Back in the days of the Ancient Romans, however, to be a bridesmaid to be bait for evil spirits
wanting to abduct the bride; in those days, bridesmaids would dress exactly like the betrothed
in order to “confuse” these evil spirits and hopefully get them to leave.
Number 2: Best man Let’s not leave out the groom and his best
man from this list.
The Best Man can be the groom’s brother, cousin, best friend, or someone he has high
respect and admiration for.
Unlike the origins of the bridesmaids, the groom’s Best man has a little more adventure
to it.
In the Dark Ages, the practice of picking a best man for the groom is customary if he
is looking for a bride.
The Best Man, in this case – Best Men – as there were usually two, would stand side by
side with the groom as they pillaged and burned villages and kidnapping women to potentially
be a bride.
They were, literally, the best men who were picked for the job.
Number 1: Siren We usually associate the word Siren with the
wailing, screaming instrument attached to an ambulance or any emergency vehicle.
Most of the time we would use it in phrases like “Siren’s song” or “Siren call”
referring to that magnetic force that brings us to something that strongly attracts our
attention.
A Siren, however, is a mythical creature from Greek mythology that is akin to mermaids.
What they normally do to attract prey, who are mostly seamen and sailors, is sing a hypnotic
tune to lure their ships into their waters until they are close enough to get dragged
into the dark depths of the water.
While they are particularly dark and terrible creatures, it’s their quality of effortlessly
calling attention that is widely used in modern day expressions and even in the products we
buy when we walk into that coffee house that has that lady in the green logo.