Origins of Jelly

The word 'jelly' comes from the French 'gelée,' which apparently can mean jelly or frost. This comes from the Latin 'gelu,' which means frost or chill. The Proto-Indo-European root, 'gel,' is also the ancestor of English 'cold,' which came through the Germanic rather than the Latin path.

Origins of Coach

The word 'coach,' referring to a bus or carriage, comes from the French 'coche,' which has its origins in the Hungarian 'kocsi'. The Hungarian town of Kocs apparently built special horse-drawn carts starting in the 15th century and they became famous enough that most European languages have some variation of 'kocsi' in their vehicular vocabulary.

The term 'coach' referring to an instructor or trainer comes from 19th century Oxford, where personal tutors were sometimes called coaches because they carried their students through exams.

Origins of Taper

'Taper,' to become thinner, seems to come from the shape of candles, which used to be called 'tapers,' a word which apparently comes from 'papyrus' because candles had wicks made of papyrus. 'Paper' also comes from 'papyrus,' so I suppose it makes some sense.

Origins of Bungee

The word 'bungee,' referring to an elastic cord, apparently originated in the early 20th century. I couldn't find a solid explanation of where 'bungee' came from, but one theory is that it's a blend of 'bouncy' and 'spongy.'

Origins of Explain

The word 'explain' comes from the Latin verb 'explanare,' meaning 'to make plain or level.' 'Explanare' is a compound word; 'ex' means 'out' and 'planus' means 'level' or 'flat.' It seems like 'planus' is the origin of 'plain' and 'plane' but not 'airplane.'

Origins of Poster

'Poster' originally referred to something pinned on a doorpost or other such structure. The Latin root is 'postis,' which means 'post'.

Origins of Guacamole

'Guacamole,' as one might guess, came to English from Spanish. The Spanish 'guacamole,' still referring to the avocado dip, comes Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs: 'ahuacamolli,' a combination of 'ahuacatl' (avocado) and 'molli' (sauce or paste).

Other English words from Nahuatl include 'ocelot' from 'ocelotl' and 'chocolate' from 'xocolatl'. Any guesses on what the Nahuatl origin of 'tomato' is? Tomatl. I was hoping that 'potato' would have the same thing going on (potatl), but it's from Taino, a Caribbean language.

Origins of Tannin

'Tannins' are a class of chemicals that bind to proteins. Many plants produce tannins, including the oak species I'm studying this summer. The name 'tannin' comes through French from the Latin 'tannum,' which means 'oak bark.' The German word 'tannenbaum'  (Christmas tree) is apparently related; 'tanne' means 'fir' and 'baum' means 'tree.'

Color Names

The English names for colors come from a variety of sources. My source for all this information is Wiktionary, the Wikipedia dictionary.

'Green' is from the Proto-Germanic 'groana,' which refers to plants becoming green or growing.

'Blue' is also Germanic, and apparently always referred to the color.

'Purple' comes from the Ancient Greek 'porphura,' the name of the shellfish that purple dye was made from.

'Red,' like blue, is Germanic and referred to the color.

'Orange' comes from the Arabic 'naranj,' the name for the fruit.

'Yellow' is of Germanic origin and referred to the color.

Is it a coincidence that all the primary colors have the same sort of origin? 'Black' and 'white' are also Germanic, one coming from a word meaning 'burnt' and one coming from a word meaning 'white.'

Origins of Spoon

The word 'spoon' comes from the Old English 'spon' (pronounced with a long 'o'), which means 'wood chip.' I suppose Old English people might have used bits of wood as spoons.

Origins of Plate

'Plate' originates in the Greek word 'platus,' which means 'flat.' This developed into the Old French 'plat,' referring to a platter or other such serving dish, and finally became the English 'plate' that we know and love. I've only just now realized that plate and platter have the same root.

Origins of Tide

'Tide' comes from the Germanic 'tid,' which means 'time' or 'era'. 'Tide,' therefore, was about time (Yuletide, etc.) before it was used to describe the sea (high tide, low tide). The latter use apparently appeared in late Middle English.

Origins of Powder

'Powder' comes from the Old French 'poudre,' which comes from the Latin 'pulvis,' which means 'dust.' It's a safe bet to say 'pulverize' has the same source.

Origins of Hamper

The word 'hamper' has its roots in Old French 'hanap,' which means 'goblet.' In Anglo-Norman French, a 'hanaper' was a case for a goblet. The resulting Middle English 'hamper' referred to any sort of large case.

Origins of Version

'Version' comes from the Latin 'vertere,' which means 'to turn.' It passed through the medieval Latin 'versio' and was used to refer to translations.

Origins of Potato

The word 'potato' followed roughly the same route as the potato itself. The Taino people, indigenous to the Caribbean, used the word 'batata' to refer to sweet potatoes. In the 16th century, the Spanish took the vegetable and the word: 'patata.' The English adopted it as 'potato,' and this later came to refer to regular potatoes instead of sweet potatoes.

Origins of Pen

'Pen' comes through the Old French 'penne' from the Latin 'penna,' which means 'feather.' I suppose that 'pinion' comes from the same root.

Origins of Carpet

The word 'carpet' comes from the old Italian 'carpita,' meaning 'woolen bedspread,' which comes from the Latin 'carpere,' 'to pluck or pull to pieces.'

Origins of Down

'Down' apparently originates in the Old English phrase 'of dune,' which means 'off the hill'. This was shortened to 'adune' over time and gained the meaning we know and love today.

Origins of Goodbye

'Goodbye' is apparently a contracted form of the phrase 'God be with you'. As this historical contraction happened, 'God' was replaced with 'good' in part because of the influence of other common phrases such as 'good morning' and 'good day'.