Welcome
to the last instalment of the trilogy that is “Things you never
knew about your body parts”. Let's start at the top, not the
very top, but a bit down, at the mouth. We think of the mouth as
being something which can open to let food and drink enter and words
exit, but actually, “mouth” started out a bit further down as
something usually quite prominent and certainly not open. The
original root of “mouth” basically meant “jutting out”,
giving a number of derivations that we use in modern English. The
Latin word most closely related to “mouth” is mentum,
chin, which suggests that “mouth” actually started life out as
the chin, and somehow climbed up the face a little. Other words
related to “mouth” and mentum are Latin mons, which
gives us “mountain”, and minari, which means “threaten”,
on the basis that something jutting out is threatening. So there you
are – your mouth was once a chin and could have been a mountain and
even a threat.
On
the subject of chins, one word underscores the effects of culture on
language, which might lead to the strangest formations, often ending
up having no basis in reality. The Russian for “chin” is
podborodok. Apart from being quite long, it doesn't seem
particularly interesting, until you understand that the pod bit
means “under” and the borod bit means “beard”
(yes, it's historically the same word). Essentially, then, podborodok
means literally “underbeard”, suggesting that the original word
for “chin” was lost and that beards were more significant than
what was under them. Strangely enough, a woman also has a podborodok
even though she doesn't have a boroda (at least, the vast
majority of women don't). But then Russian always did do strange
things with the body, with claws for hands and nails for feet.
Now
let's take a wander around the body for the next three words, all of
which have transcended the mere physical and have come to describe a
variety of feelings and emotions. First of all, when we think of a
situation in which everyone agrees and gets on well, we have
“harmony”, from Greek harmonia, literally “joining
together”, from harmos, “joint”, related to English
“arm”. And what surrounds all our joints and bones? Flesh, of
course, which is sarx in Greek. What's that got to do with
feeling? Well, if you want to strip the flesh off the bone you use
the verb sarkazein, which also came to mean “sneer, speak
bitterly”, sort of metaphorically tearing strips off someone. This
gave us sarkasma, or “sarcasm”, which doesn't really do
much for harmony when it's used.
The
last of the trio is by far the most intense and uncontrolled emotion
that most people will ever endure, though, actually, only half of the
human race should really be able to suffer it, or so the other half
would maintain, and that's “hysteria”. So which half can suffer
it? The Greek for womb was hystera, and we see this in the
medical procedure “hysterectomy”, in which the womb is removed.
The ancient Greeks believed that each emotion was associated with a
specific part of the body, and as such, hysteria was held to arise in
the womb, and therefore to be associated only with females. So there
we are – only women could become hysterical.
So
we come to the last of these meanderings through terms for parts of
the body, finishing up with the region just below the womb, in fact.
Under sixteens need to turn off their computers and go to bed now.
Firstly, we will talk of avocados and witnesses. What do they have in
common? Well, in a manner of speaking, a great deal, as they refer to
the same thing, or rather, same two things. “Avocado” is the
Spanish representation of the Nahuatl word ahuacatl, a fruit
which the Spanish first encountered when they landed in Mexico and
trekked up to Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs gave it that name for its
resemblance to the real ahuacatl, “testicle”. Now,
“testicle” is interesting in its own right, as it comes from
Latin testiculum, “little witness”, from testis,
“witness”, which we can see in “testify” and “testimony”.
The idea behind the little witnesses was that they testified to a
man's virility.
Still
in the same area, let's turn to the two other features which were
named after certain other things they resembled. Originally, Latin
penis meant “tail”, but it was also used to refer to the
male appendage, which, naturally, is the one we use today. Funnily
enough, you can use one derivation of penis to sketch a
picture, as “pencil”, from penicillus, actually means
“little brush”, since brushes were long and hairy, just like
tails. Now, the pencil may be mightier than the sword, but the sword
gets put into the sheath. And what is the Latin for sheath? Yes,
you've guessed - vagina. And on that note, this little journey
round the body comes to an end.
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