When I was a kid, I was mystified by some of the deeper secrets of the English language, and its etymological conundrums. For instance:
- “Cutlet” - A baby lesion? A signed permission to slash someone? A gash rented out?
- “Mongoose” - A primate that changed its mind halfway and decided to be a fowl?
- “Nosegay” - A happy olfactory organ? (I could think up more now, but I was a kid, remember?)
- “Wardrobe” – The Robes’s child? A battle waged in Drobe, wherever that is?
- “Cartilage” – Ploughing a vehicle?
- “Ceiling” – Go out with a Chinese? A kind of wax? Hunting a marine, flippered mammal?
- “Caterpillar” – A feline column?
Turns out I wasn’t too far off the mark…well, for most of them, at least…okay, okay, I come close quite a few times…look, I’ll prove it to you…
My Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation says:
- Cutlet - From French côtelette , literally “little rib,” from, ultimately, Latin costa “rib” (source of English coast). The modern spelling reflects the idea of a “small cut” (of meat).
- Mongoose - From Marathi maṅgūs.
- Nosegay - Gay from gay in the obsolete sense “ornament”.
- Wardrobe - From Old Northern French warderobe , variant of French garderobe , from French garder “to guard” + robe “robe.”
- Cartilage - Via French from Latin cartilago .
- Ceiling - Formed from French ceil “sky”.
- Caterpillar - Alteration (probably influenced by obsolete piller “plunderer”) of assumed Old Northern French catepelose , from assumed late Latin catta pilosa “hairy cat.”
See? Not bad, huh?
