A to Z reflections post

early cuneiform writing

Language is one of the most amazing things human beings have created. It is something we created over and over again across the world. It feels a good thing that people strive to understand one another. I just tried to find out how many there are, only to find that there are 839 in Papua New Guinea alone. Some countries say stuff so much better than us, no wonder we love to pinch each other's vocabulary. In looking for more information about borrowed words I came across several interesting books: 'Lost in Translation' by Ella Frances Saunders, a lovely compendium of words in other languages that express things we do not have a word for and 'The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows' by John Koenig, which takes another tack entirely and invents words that he feels are missing from our language. It was a bit spur of the moment but I had a lot of fun with this year's A to Z Challenge.

I hopped over and visited lots of new people and enjoyed several new blogs this year, Sarah at The Old Shelter writing about the Lost Generation, Pamela at The Lady of the House Speaking writing about afternoon tea, Wendy at Wendy's Waffle writing about Waltham Forest in London and Get Lost in Literature because we always love some new book suggestions. I hope I can keep up the new momentum and post more regularly in the coming months. Thanks to everyone involved for hosting the challenge ... and see you all next year.

Stay safe. Be kind. Blog from A to Z.

Z is for Zero

Z is for Zero, from Arabic 'sifr', originally meaning empty, but coming to be used for zero, and its use is quite significant to the development of mathematics. Lots of interesting stuff out there about the history of the concept of nothing, on Wiki and the book 'Zero: the biography of a dangerous idea'. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Found this image on wikimediacommons, it shows the first known graphic representation of zero. On a broken doorjamb, from Trapeang Prei, Sambor, Kratie. Now on display at the National Museum of Cambodia

  

Y is for Yurt

Y is for Yurt, from Turkic, meaning 'dwelling place'. While yurts are not widely used in Britain we used to own one and they are a delight to dwell in compared to a conventional tent. It was only small, ten feet I think, but had a proper wooden door that I painted. They do need a trailer to transport and several people to put up. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

X is for Xylophone

X is for Xylophone. Another tough letter in the A to Z so I am going with Xylophone from ancient Greek, like much of our language, from the words meaning 'wood' and 'sound'. There was the most beautiful xylophone in the primary school at Kettlesing, that my kids went to for a while. It was not a silly children's version, a proper adult instrument, that made the most lovely sound. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

(Found a photo but this is way better.)

(I am reliably informed that a Marimba is, of course, a completely different instrument, but I stand by the definition of the greek word that it makes sound from wood😊)

W is for Whisky

W is for Whisky, from the Gaelic 'uisce beatha' (you can hear the word if you say it aloud) which means 'water of life'. My dad drank whisky with water for years when I was a child, his means of winding down after the working day. I would make it for him when I was a teenager, a finger width of whisky and a finger width of water. I am not sure he does so much any more. It seems to be one of those acquired tastes that has been 'having a bit of a moment in the last few years, but I can't stand the stuff myself.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

V is for Vigilante

V is for Vigilante, from the Spanish for 'watchman', but in english it means a person or group of people who take the law into their own hands, enacting justice, often violent, against a perceived crime, sometimes responding to a threat to the status quo. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Image 'Vigilante Days' by Anton Refregier

U is for Ukulele

U is for Ukulele, and is wonderfully from Hawaiian, a small guitar-like instrument (although not much like since it only has 4 strings). We have had several in our house over the years; I think Tish gave Monkey's to her boyfriend Jun since he is a music maker. They are surprisingly popular being quick to learn and easy to get a nice sound from.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

I was going to share Pinball Wizard, then I saw this one instead:

T is for Tattoo

T is for Tattoo, the practice of making indelible art on skin, coming from the Samoan word meaning 'to strike', and not to be confused with a military tattoo, which is something else entirely. It is an art form that is used across the world with a wide variety of cultural significance; in Japan for example it is connected to the Yakuza and thus still very disreputable compared to its widespread acceptance elsewhere. Tish got her first tattoo at 17 (I think, done by a friend in secret), and now has quite a lot. This is her favourite she says.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

S is for Schadenfreude

S is for Schadenfreude, which, let's be honest, is the best borrow word that we use in English. The word is, of course, from German and literally means 'harm joy', and defines the state of pleasure at someone else's pain, discomfort or humiliation. It's so interesting because it describes something that human beings experience almost involuntarily. You hear something on the news, some despicable person has got their comeuppance (and that's another of my favourite words) and you get a lovely little burst of schadenfreude. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Images in the challenge from Wikimedia Commons.

R is for Robot

R is for Robot, surprisingly from the Czech, a word meaning 'a machine resembling a human being'. It was popularised by the playwright Karel Capek from his play R.U.R. in 1920. Certainly one of the most interesting discoveries while I was researching words for my A to Z.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Q is for Quid Pro Quo

Q is for Quid Pro Quo, which is a bit of a cheat since much of English comes from Latin but it's Q, which is always the tough day in the A to Z. But it is again an expression used in the original; it literally means 'something for something', translated now as the expression 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

(image Eric Pevernagie 'If you scratch my back'.)

P is for Pyjamas

P is for Pyjamas, from the Persian word pajama, originally loose light weight trousers. What's not to love about coming home from work and getting straight into your pyjamas with no intention of going anywhere or doing anything very much for the remainder of the day; pyjamas are the perfect clothing. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge. 

O is for Orangutan

O is for Orangutan, because my words seem to have been very European in origin so far, from Malay, meaning old man of the forest. Tish had a lovely encounter with an orangutan when she visit Borneo many years ago with her college. They are our closest relative and the most intelligent of primates. All three species are critically endangered, mostly due to deforestation. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

N is for Neanderthal

N is for Neanderthal, from the German, referring to the Neander valley where remains of these ancient humans were discovered. A small proportion of people around today have some Neanderthal DNA but they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. We like to think that we outsmarted them, and that's why we're here and they're not, but maybe they just all got a bad case of the flu.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

M is for Mosquito

M is for Mosquito, from the Spanish or Portuguese, literally meaning 'little fly'. Interesting factoid, throughout human history more people have died of malaria than anything else, so mosquitoes have been the biggest threat to humanity, and it still kills over 600,000 people every year. Mosquitoes also spread several other diseases so they are certainly a lot more annoying than a little fly.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

L is for Latke

L is for Latke. We are still with Yiddish today, the source of many of my favourite words. Latkes are a pancake made from grated potato and onions. If hummus is nectar of the gods, latkes are what they have for afters. I'm not sure you would have latkes with hummus ... my instinct says not. I feel sad now because Monkey is in Japan and she was my latke daughter, Tish is not bothered so I have not had any for ages, but you know what, I can see some coming in my near future. That takes us back to the Cooking and Sewing post from 2011, that is also one of my most visited posts, for the instructions for making latkes. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

K is for Kibitz

K is Kibitz is one of my most favourite foreign words, from Yiddish 'kibitzer', a spectator who offers unwanted or unsolicited advice, which according to Wikipedia, comes from German 'kibitzen', to look over a card player's shoulder. It's very useful to have a word to put a stop to people who interfere when I am playing sudoku with unhelpful suggestions ... you know who you are. Also Kibosh, possibly from Irish but possibly also from Yiddish, meaning to put an abrupt end to some occurrence or some plan.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

(Image Viktor Schufinsky)

J is for Jubilee

J is for Jubilee, from the Hebrew, is a biblical commandment observed every 50 years concerning ownership of land and slaves, although not observed for many centuries. It is also used by the catholic church and is linked to pilgrimage. Now of course it refers to significant anniversaries, for monarchs or marriages, though why 50 is a significant year and 49 is not remains to be explained. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

(Images for the challenge from Wikimedia commons.)

(Street party in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee)

I is for Incommunicado

I is for Incommunicado, from the Spanish 'not permitted to communicate', originally referring to prisoners held in solitary confinement but in English the meaning as been extended to refer to people who voluntarily cut themselves off from others. It seems that communicating with other people is considered an essential part of being human. Many of the images that came up were people campaigning against the use of solitary confinement as a punishment.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

H is for Hummus

Food glorious food. Despite a reputation for having a bland diet Britain is full of foods that have arrived from other countries, and as such so many of our food words. H is for Hummus, nectar of the gods. It comes from the Arabic word that actually just means chickpea, and our use of Hummus is just a shortening of the phrase that means 'chickpeas with tahini'. My sister is a hummus fiend and sticks a dollop on the side of the plate at whatever meal she is having; I do come back from a visit feeling well nourished, it is packed with all sorts of goodness.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.