Slave During the middle ages, the advanced peoples of Europe raided the Balkans for slaves. Bosnians and other Slavic people were so widely sold as slaves that the word “slave” in English derives from their name - as do words for slave in German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic. In later centuries the word and the condition were then applied to Africans. Forbes, March 14, 1994.
Meander The Meander river flows in a curvilinear course from Asia Minor to the Aegean Sea.
Sardonic A plant, Ranunculus Sceleratus, was known as the Sardinian Herb. It was formerly used in medicine and was so sour that it convulsed the face of those who took it. Because the facial features resembled a bitter, mocking laugh, a face-twisting smile became known as Sardinian or Sardonic.
Dun Derived from the name of Joe Dun, bailiff of Lincoln, England, in the time of Henry VII. He was so successful in collecting debts that his name became a synonym for “urging payment.”
-chester Place names ending in "-chester" were once the sites of Roman camps, or castra.
Flak Abbreviation of the German word "Flugzeugabwehrkanone." Flug = flying. Zeug = stuff, craft. Ab = off. Wehr = defense. Kanone = cannon.
Panzer Medieval German word for a coat of mail; now signifies armour.
FLAK is pushing it a bit. Yes it is short for Flugzeugabwehrkanone. But it wasn't just made up on the spot from all those syllables. Flugzeug; flying device or flying machine. Like the English word aircraft it was made up in the 20th century to fit the new reality of the Wright brothers and there successors. Abwehr is an old word for defense. Wehr like in Wehrmacht(fighting force) and Abwehr (defense, fight back) have been written down since the middle ages. Kanone: OK that's a fairly new word since Krupp & Co started building their hardware for Bismark in the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteSo FlAk (Capital F and A intended; that is the way it was written in German documents at the time) for Flugzeugabwehrkanone is right.
Not many people used acronyms until the World War II. That was mostly an American invention, The Germans shortened their long names using a syllable from each word, like GeStaPo; Geheim Staats Polizei, Secret State Police. The criminal investigation police today are still called the KriPo.
There, Aren't you glad I got that out of my system...!
In Portuguese the word slave ('escravo') also has a similar origin. After researching a little I found out that in Romanian it is "sclav". I suppose all latin based languages have a similar root for it.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, even in Basque, an Iberian non-Latin language (actually it predates all the Latin ones, although also Indo-European), the term is 'esklabo'. I wonder if the 'slavic' origin of the word predates Latin or if the Basque word was assimilated from any other Latin language.
Note: In Czech, Russian or Polish (all Slavic languages) the root is (unsurprisingly) not the same. In Magyar (non-Slavic) the root is different as well.
Very interesting subject.