English has one of the largest vocabularies in any language, but have you ever thought about where some of these words came from? The study of word origins is known as etymology, and it is a field studied by linguists worldwide. Check out the fascinating tales of how these five words came to be.
Marathon
We all know the marathon as a 42-kilometre (26-mile) race that challenges the most ambitious of runners, but have you ever wondered where this word came from?
The word “marathon” originates from the tale of Pheidippides. According to the story, in 490 BC, the Greek messenger ran 42 kilometres from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news that the Greeks had defeated the Persian army in battle.
Godspeed
At first glance, “godspeed” seems like a very old-fashioned phrase that makes no sense. However, if you look into its origins, everything falls into place. In Old English, “speed” was a verb that meant to prosper, grow rich or succeed. In the late 14th century, saying “God speed” to someone meant that you were wishing God would grant them success. This evolved into a common parting phrase by the mid-15th century.
Stereotype
Nowadays, the word is commonly defined as “an oversimplified opinion”, but a stereotype was an actual object used in the printing press! When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century, words and letters had to be individually loaded on a large press to be stamped on paper. The process was slow and inefficient. Three centuries later, they began creating stereotypes, which were rectangular printing plates made from a mould. These could be pressed onto book pages over and over again.
Nickname
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the word “nickname” was created when the Middle English word eke, meaning “also” or “in addition,” was joined with name to form ekename – literally, “also-name”. Since it began with a vowel, it was written as “an ekename” on paper. Over time, people became confused and thought it was “a nekename”. The word changed once again as eke became less common.
Hippocampus
The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning. It has a very funny name for something so important to humans. The word “hippocampus” meant seahorse in Greek; it literally translates to “horse sea monster”. This part of our brain is shaped a little like a seahorse, so it was given the name hippocampus.
