Hi, I’m John Green, and welcome to my salon, this is Mental Floss on YouTube and did you
know that the word “lemur” comes from the Latin word, which means “spirits of
the dead”?
Carl Linnaeus who named the animal said, “I call them lemurs, because they go around mainly
by night, in a certain way similar to humans, and roam with a slow pace.”
So they’re basically zombies.
And that’s the first of many word origins I’m going to share with you today.
“Muscle” comes from the Latin root for “little mouse” because back in the 14th
century, people thought that muscles looked like mice living under their skin.
Psh, obviously they never saw MY guns.
How do you say “fat honey badger” in Latin?
In the 12th century, a Latin love poem became very popular in Europe.
It was copied many times and passed from person to person.
The poem was titled “Pamphilus,” giving us the word “pamphlet.”
“Yankee” started with the Dutch who lived in New York during the 1600s when it was called
New Amsterdam.
Though the details can’t be confirmed, the word is probably a combination of two Dutch
names: “Yan” and “Kees.”
This was either an insult that the English colonists called the Dutch or the other way
around.
The meaning switched and became the positive word for “American.”
I mean, unless you’re a Southerner.
“Hippocampus” is the Greek word for a horse-fish hybrid.
In classic mythology, these monsters were associated with Neptune.
The hippocampus in your brain apparently looks like those sea creatures, which I guess means
the hippocampus looks something like this.
The word “berserk” comes from ancient Norse fighters, also known as “berserkers.”
The original term came from the Norse words for “bear” and “shirt,” which is what
the berserkers wore.
“Salmon” comes from the Latin word “salmo,” or “to leap.”
The origin of “ketchup” is hotly debated, but many people believe it came from China.
The ancient Chinese used a similar word for the brine that they used to pickle fish.
Which is connected to ketchup in that they are both liquid-like, food-like phenomenon.
Another controversial term is “kibosh,” though most claim it can be traced back to
Ireland, where a similar-sounding term referred to the so-called “the cap of death,” or
the hat that a judge would wear when sentencing someone to death.
In the 13th century, the French used the expression “mort gaige,” meaning “death pledge.”
This term gave us the word “mortgage.”
“Aloof” came from an English term in the 1500s for “weather gage.”
The English borrowed this root from the Dutch whose “loef” meant “the windward side
of a ship.”
What does any of that have to do with being aloof?
Ever wonder why English is the only language in the world who uses “pineapple” rather
than some form of “ananas”[a]?
“Pineapple” used to be a word for “pine cone,” which is what the fruit looked like
to early explorers who were apparently blind.
While we’re talking about fruit, the word “cantaloupe” emerged in the 18th century.
It’s named after its place of origin: Cantalupo, Italy.
The town’s name literally translates to “singing wolf.”
“Mayonnaise” is another food named after a place.
The French captured the Island of Minorca during the Seven Years’ War, a victory that
was apparently was celebrated with the condiment.
The island’s capital is Port Mahon.
And the suffix “-aise” means “native to.”
But of course, the joke was on the French.
Sure they won Minorca, but then they had to have mayonnaise.
“War” has been in the English language since the 11th century.
It actually comes from a Germanic root that meant “to confuse.”
Which is kind of confusing.
In Greek, “kynikos” was a term for followers of the philosopher Antisthenes, but the literal
translation is “dog-like.”
Anyway, that gave us the word “cynic.”
The word “dunce” is also a reference to philosophy.
John Duns Scotus was a philosopher whose teachings were largely religious and influenced the
Catholic church.
His followers were called “dunces.”
Later philosophers weren’t so impressed with his work, so “dunce” took on a negative
connotation.
“Lukewarm” is a tautology.
“Luke” meant warm in Middle English, so when we say “lukewarm,” we are saying
“warm warm.”
“Heresy” comes from Greek.
It meant “choice.”
“Apprehend” comes from the 1300s from the Latin word “apprehendere,” which meant
“to grasp.”
So when you apprehend, you are grasping meaning.
Or grasping someone in arrest.
“Jumbo” probably was originally the word for “elephant” in a West African language.
The word took on the meaning of “large” when an elephant in the London Zoo was named
“Jumbo” in the 1860s.
Which makes me dream of a world in which we actually had jumbo shrimp.
In Old English “wyrd” meant “fate.”
Weirdly, that gave us the term “weird.”
Ancient Romans who were running for office wore white.
So, the Latin word for “white-robed” gave us the term “candidate.”
The fabric “denim” originally appeared in Nîmes, France, so it was first called
“serge de Nîmes” (or, fabric from Nîmes).
But the “serge” soon disappeared, leaving us just with “denim.”
Similarly, “jeans” were named after their place of origin, Genoa, Italy.
The French word for Genoa is Gênes.
Or possibly jen, as you might have guessed, I don’t speak French.
“Nice” comes from the Latin word for “ignorant.”
So maybe that’s why nice guys finish last.
“Curfew” is a combination of two French words “couvrir” (“to cover”) and “feu”
(“fire).
So, “curfew” literally means “to cover fire.”
“Noon” comes from the Latin “nona hora,” meaning “ninth hour.”
In ancient Rome, noon was actually around 3p.m.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, “noon” slowly came to mean 12 p.m. Presumably this
change was driven by people wanting to eat lunch earlier.
“Bankrupt” is from the Italian term “banca rotta,” literally meaning “broken bench.”
In Old English, “knight” originally meant boy or servant.
Now, of course, it means a bad pun in a Tom Cruise movie title.
Knight and Day, anybody?
No?
I’m the only person that saw it?
I think I might literally be the only person who saw that.
Let’s face it, Tom Cruise didn’t even come and see that movie.
Anyway,
the Old English word for worm, spelled W-U-R-M, gave us the word “worm.”
But, THAT word came from another Old English word, meaning “serpent” or “dragon.”
Which makes me wonder, HOW BIG WERE WORMS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE?
The word “money” emerged in Rome because of the Temple of Juno Moneta, which reminds
me, there’s a link in the description so you can redeem your Schrute Bucks for Mental
Floss t-shirts.
Schrute Bucks, the only currency that Mark and Meredith are ever paid in.
Anyway, the ancient Romans used that temple as a mint because she was a goddess associated
with money.
“Moneta” came to mean “mint,” and then “money.”
“Escape” came from the Latin “ex” (meaning “out”) and “cappa” (meaning
“cloak”).
The literal meaning probably comes from the idea that if a person was being pursued, they
would disappear, leaving only their cloak behind.
The Latin word for “walking” is “ambulant,” which resulted in “ambulance.”
“Ambulance” first meant, like, a moving hospital before it became a more specific
term.
The word didn’t refer to an actual wagon carrying the wounded until the Crimean War
in the 1850s.
Also in the 19th century, Americans borrowed the word “promenade,” which referred to
a formal walk that would occur at balls and was shortened to “prom.”
“Lobster” comes from a Latin word that also means “locust.”
That’s disgusting.
“Nostril” is a combination of the Old English words for “nose” and “hole.”
In the 13th century, the French gave us the meaning of “cider” that we use, but the
original terms that it derived from meant “strong or alcoholic drink.”
Ancient Romans gave us “senator,” but before the word had its current meaning, it
came from a word for “old” and in fact is a relative of the word “senile.”
I’m not surprised.
Thank you for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all
of these nice people.
Every week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions.
This week’s question comes from Ross Montgomery who asks, “Where does the term ‘hearse’
(as in, you know, funerals) derive from?”
Thanks, Ross!
Now I can tell you about another word origin.
“Hearse” comes from the Oscan term for “wolf.”
But by the 13th century, it had become a term for decorative candles or a canopy over a
coffin.
How?
I don’t know, maybe people draped wolves over their coffins.
Anyway, eventually the meaning transformed into the “hearse” that we know today.
Thanks again for watching Mental Floss, which, by the way, isn’t just a YouTube series,
it’s also a real life magazine and a store where you can buy great t-shirts like this
one and if you use the code “YoutubeFlossers,” you get 15% off.
As we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.