Birth of a nickname - John McWhorter

View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/birth-of-a-...
Where do nicknames come from? Why are Ellens called Nellie and Edwards Ned? It's all a big misunderstanding from the early days of the English language, a misunderstanding that even the word nickname itself derives from. John McWhorter tracks the accidental evolution of some familiar diminutives.
Lesson by John McWhorter, animation by Lippy.

[@annawing770]

My name is Anna, but my brother seems to think that it is "go away"

[@dominodawson5732]

"Go away Anna!" Okay Bye! LOLL

[@ElaborateTerrace]

Anna not "go away"

[@indiangirl874]

In hindi (Indian language), Anna means "come"

[@dylanrodrigues]

Water in Konkani (Indian language), anna means here

[@ElaborateTerrace]

Ford Prefect & Water So Anna Wing’s name is come here

[@MJ-cq6gz]

My nephew used to call shoes and socks "shoes-on" and "socks-on" because he was frequently told to "get his shoes on" and "get his socks on."

[@NoozeCat]

A napple a day keeps the doctor away.

[@aditikedia139]

I can see that happening in the future

[@littlefishbigmountain]

tbh napple does sound pretty delicious and refreshing

[@TaylorJohnathan]

People often write 'could of'', 'should of', 'would of', when they should actually be writing 'could've' etc. coming from the phrase 'could HAVE'. There's another example of how pronunciation affects written language in modern English.

[@autodidacticartisan]

Underrated comment

[@dotwarner17]

coulda, woulda, shoulda :)

[@Periwinkleaccount]

I think the only good place which “could of” could be “the square could of blue” although “the square could be of blue? Would be better.

[@simonkim8646]

​@@PeriwinkleaccountThe square is coloured blue perhaps?

[@coweatsman]

A nother good video.

[@Transendium]

nmaria! nzephyr! njames! ncapricorn!

[@Freshbott2]

Does this mean one day I'll be asking for a niced-tea?

[@garret1930]

+Bannicus A nice tea.

[@Shawn1174q]

+Garret Jacobs OMG... "I want a nice coffee" they hear "I want an ice coffee" Is that how it came to be??

[@Freshbott2]

Shawn1174q I'd like to think yes, but it's 45 degrees and high humidity where I'm from, so it's hard for me to believe iced coffee came from anything other than necessity!

[@sherryd2000]

I thought what? 45 is cold, why would you want an iced coffee and then I remembered the whole fahrenheit/celsius thing. 45c=113f... you poor hot thing....

[@want-diversecontent3887]

sherryd2000 What is fahrenheit based on? Celsius is based on water, but what made america not water-based?

[@ShubhamThakkarShubhavatar]

A whole nother side!

[@theprincessofspoiled]

I never heard "Ned" for "Edward" or "Nellie" for "Ellen". I just thought that "Edward" was "Ed" and "Ellen" was "Ellie". I question about "Bill" for "William" and "Bob" for "Robert". Where did the "B" in "Bill" and the initial "B" in "Bob" come from?

[@theprincessofspoiled]

Sami Zeng me too

[@Pacvalham]

Or Rick

[@KateGladstone]

Those changing consonants in "Bill/William"/etc. come from Celtic consonant mutations. The nicknames like "Ned/Nellie" are a bit archaic, and now mostly UK.

[@LivForMakeup]

+Kate Gladstone Ned and Nellie are not used in the UK they say Ed and Ellen stays as Ellen

[@KateGladstone]

Thanks for that - though Nell, at least, was _once_ used in the U.K. (The famous Nell Gwyn's given name was a Eleanor, but of course shevis universally known as NEll HWyn, and was so known to Charles I and to others of undoubted Britishness).

[@autodidacticartisan]

Somehow I'm not surprised that someone named "whorter" devoted so much thought to nicknames.

[@silasfrisenette9226]

When you said "Meen cat" and other old english words, it sounded EXACTLY how we say in Danish, almost with the accent too. Min kat is exactly pronounce meen cat :O I continue to be amazed by these things, and that's also why I'm gonna study linguistics startin this summer. I am looking forward to learning more about the relations and language history of European/indoeuropean languages :D

[@rielhsliso8363]

Swedish too

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

The colloquial phrase mentioned in this video "A whole nother..." might qualify as a rare example in English of what are called "infixes" (like prefixes and suffixes but instead of being attached at either the beginning or end of a given root word, they're inserted inside of the word (often a compound or multi-syllable word) in order to further refine its meaning -- albeit that the resulting expression is not a single word but a phrase/clause comprised of three individual words not attached to one another.

1:16 The word "eke" does remind me of German "auch", Dutch "ook" and Danish "og".

[@kesla15]

Well, they all share a common Germanic root.

@FrostCore that too

[@shoulders-of-giants]

Bekus it ist ze same vord!

[@fakjbf]

I have people ask me all the time why Billy is short for William. I found out it's because of a similar reason to these, but instead of gaining or losing letters, they morphed. If you make the sound for W, then make the sound for B, you will find that they require almost the same mouth movements, you just cut off the B. So William was shortened to Willy, and as it passed through languages, the W morphed into a B, giving us Billy.

[@Pokemonlin99]

My family always says "Hour" with an n, so it sounds like "Nour" because "An hour" sounds like "A nour." It kind of sounds like "Nower."

[@sazgibbo652]

you can't usually be kempt but you CAN be well kempt

[@Figgy5119]

that still doesn't explain why Richard is Dick, James is Jim, John is Jack, etc...

[@bluespiralgoddess]

Thank you

[@Figgy5119]

***** they do indeed! It's not as common now as it used to be though.

[@bluespiralgoddess]

***** No. A lot of people don't know it's a nickname and a lot of people just like it more than John and it's more of an old fashioned thing to name a boy John and call him Jack so it's probably more likely that if the person is an old man his name is actually John. But I have known little boys with both.

[@LetItRoll97]

+Figgy5119 Or why William is Bill

[@HojoOSanagi]

+Figgy5119 English went through vowel shifts, where Jimmy was Jemmy, a diminutive form of James. It is common in Germanic languages for diminutives to undergo an um- or ablaut with the first vowel, where the a became an e. Then the diminutive -y was removed and we were left with Jim, or Gemme, or Gem, or Jem, etc... (We had no standard of spelling) Dick (Rick) and Bill (Will) are rhyming names where people just used a word that rhymed as a way to show endearment back in the late medieval era. Jack starts off with Latin developing two different names from the Hebrew Yakob: Iacomus, Iacobus, where the b turns into an m. So you got James and Jacob in English from the same root, but in French they got Jacques for both names where the b and m are both dropped. From French Jack entered into English, but instead of becoming a diminutive of Jacob or James as it served in French, we started using the word as a diminutive of John instead for some odd reason.

[@typograf62]

In Danish a nick(name) still is "et øgenavn", "øge" today means increase or add. A funny thing in Danish is the word "hustru" meaning wife. Originally it was "hus-frue", woman (in charge) of the house, like German "Hausfrau". After some time the meaning became muddled, so it was perceived as "hu-sfru". That is impossible to pronounce in Danish, so the f changed into a t.

[@StickyLabel7]

If you said 'nother' here in Britain you would be deported.

[@tsoliot5913]

And 'haitches' would get you kicked out of 'Americar.' Not really. Friendly ribbing, maybe.

[@jamessutton3461]

I'll never find McWhorter not interesting, always has a knack for explaining those little linguistic mysteries.

[@kairinase]

I see now how Ted-Ed got it's nickname!

[@DuckyoftheNorth]

More etymology please. These are fun.

[@MsSBVideos]

Nice lesson, Njohn NmcWhorter.

[@ImBae]

“a whole nother” is absolutely a constant in my vocabulary. interesting to discover where it came from.

[@limestone9267]

I love words and their fascinating history. Thanks for these amazing videos!

[@danmacarro]

He never comes right out and says it but this process is called 'rebracketing' where the boundaries of words are perceived differently A nother example different from his would be Hamburger and it's derivations like Cheeseburger, Turkeyburger, Veggieburger. The word was originally formed as Hamburg+er, a thing from Hamburg, Germany, like Frankfurter as another name for Hotdog. However, even though it clearly is beef, it is made from meat and in America we rarely think about Hamburg but think about ham alot so the word was rebracketed to Ham+burger and the first element was later replaced with different ingredients. Neat! John McWhorter discusses this in another lecture where he covers this topic for a bit longer.

[@orionz4188]

People don't even notice when I say "Time is it?" instead of "What time is it?" They deny I skipped over a word at all.

[@fraidnaught9067]

You can't be kempt but you *CAN* be well-kempt.

[@lucydugdale8787]

My name is Lucy but my nickname is Spider. Somehow.

[@reymundalagos5136]

This explains Eddard "Ned" Stark.

[@genius11433]

Who would have thought? That might also explain a similar phenomenon in Haitian Creole. If I'm right, words like "zanj" (angel) or "zanmi" (friend) took their leading Z's off of the S's from the preceding words. In French, "friends" is "les amis"; the S in "les" being pronounced like a Z. So if the same thing happened during the development of Creole from French, "les amis" became "zanmi" by taking the S from "les."

[@M4Y4girl2]

Or "nom" (St Lucian creole) for man. "Un homme" where the N is pronounced in French because of the silent H followed by a vowel. "U - nHomme" = "Nom".

[@asadattayyem2637]

Tu as raison!

[@vilarealloft3607]

That reminded me how in Portuguese the name corresponding to James is "Tiago". The names apparently look nothing alike, but there is a good (and long) set of reasons why, starting from a common root, they evolved so differently. And, like the extra "N" in Ned, the fact that most people couldn't read and write is a very important factor. (I can explain how James and Tiago are related, if anyone's interested...)

[@KateGladstone]

"Sant'-iago"," meaning "Saint Jacob/Saint James," became "San-tiago," right? So people named "IAGO" [ = IACOB/JAMES ] got called "TIAGO" because of this, right?

[@sleepsci-fi9975]

lol, the dog was holding his book upside down

[@dankengine8302]

the dog was holding the book upside down!

[@donjose2k7]

Wow!!! Thanks for the upload TED

[@melodylai40]

Anyway, if a nickname starts with “n”, it is possible that the original name starts with a vowel because we usually use “an” with a word starts with a vowel. (NO ONE USE “NMARIA”!)

[@piercellyze9626]

But this doesn't Explain "Bobby" from Robert or "Dick" from Richard,,,

[@tsoliot5913]

Due to rhyming: Robert-> Rob-> Bob, Richard-> Rick-> Dick

[@tolubadejo9145]

Or billy for William

[@xxxhottestofallxxx]

Great video! A lot of info to keep up with which I love cuz I kept me thinking!

[@isaac.g7421]

where I´m from people say "an hour" like "a nower" and now its caught on with "it took me a whole nower" etc.

[@laloofahf.1512]

This has happened to the word "astigmatism" (a common condition of blurred vision caused by an irreguarly shaped cornea or curved lens inside the eye). Instead of saying, "I have astigmatism," many say, "I have AN astigmatism."

[@TheGamerCreeper399]

People before say knight and other words with kn as KUH-NIGHT until they got laaazyyyy

[@johnnyjacks4397]

My name is John, but most of my friends mistakenly called me legend

[@alyburr6645]

I have been wondering this for years!

[@Supertimegamingify]

It's actually "heveled", not "sheveled", and it is a word.

[@Supertimegamingify]

@Matreintsherde maybe lol

[@JaguarRawr]

While this covers the original origins of nicknames, the weird ones came much later. It became popular for a nickname to rhyme with your actual name.

[@lagubaratterbaru6205]

Don't forget the even later and more contemporary tradition of naming someone after something which commemorates something else.

[@The80sKickAss]

you would be incorrect. I posted the actual reasons below twice already. rhyming nicknames were very common place at the turn of the 13th century.

[@charusahu5961]

Did you notice that upside down 'Name History' book? 1:01

[@arthurhenriqued.a.ribeiro2078]

What's funny is that in Portuguese you call your favorite Maria "Na-maria" the same way you call a girl "siminina" (or menina).

[@The80sKickAss]

Back in the 13th century it was very common to use short-hand for names because they had to write everything by hand. They also enjoyed rhyming nick-names. So William became Will which became Bill. Richard became Rick which became Dick.

[@arte0021]

i have literally never heard "nother" before. i just assumed it was "another"

[@elwynbrooks]

A better example instead of "whole nother", is "all right" vs "alright"

[@NiamhAllStar21]

i say a whole other

[@petejt]

+Niamh C I do too.

[@thenovicenovelist]

Same here.

[@wrightgregson9761]

mr mcwhorter is one of my favorite narrators

[@wolfdemonblood]

Still doesn't explain how William get called Billy

[@danmacarro]

Notice how /b/ and /w/ are both made with the lips; however, when a baby learns to speak it is with a much more limited inventory of sounds, so Willy becomes Billy because it is easier. This just became a convention in general

[@theo.archive]

Daniel Macarro yeah nursery words

[@tsoliot5913]

The English love rhyme. Robert-> Rob-> Bob (Hob wasn't uncommon) Richard-> Rich-> Rick-> Dick William-> Willy-> Billy

[@andreimuresanu1678]

That finish at the end with a whole nother side.

[@brokenconstellation]

0:52 when you call someone with a terrible nickname you just made up for them

[@acethegreat3963]

4:32 the conversation in the animation is a conversation I I've had with my teachers in real life. "what's 'write'?"

[@radioactivated]

I find the whole reference to "Nmaria" hilarious.

[@lukapadparadschaskoghaug7180]

Isn't "nother" grammatically incorrect?

[@mykenae]

The point isn’t whether it’s “incorrect.” The point is that a lot of people say it, and if enough people say something a certain way, it can make its way into the standard dialect. “Apron,” “notch,” “umpire,” “nickname,” etc. could have been called “incorrect” at one time in history but became the standard later on.

[@abbychavarria6205]

So, I could have been called Nabby instead of Abby, interesting.

[@leiatskynet]

'Orange', too. Both English 'orange' and Spanish 'naranja' come from the same Arabic/Persian word, 'naranj'. It was dropped in the languages English got 'orange' from (French and Italian, 'orange' and 'arancia'), but not in Spanish.

[@SidneyIam]

+Andrew Lei Yep, the Persian word came from Sanskrit "Naranga" and Hindi retained the N (Narangi) but a lot of languages dropped the N apparently.

[@SidneyIam]

+Andrew Lei Yep, the Persian word came from Sanskrit "Naranga" and Hindi retained the N (Narangi) but a lot of languages dropped the N apparently.

[@joelmattsson9353]

In swedish, our word for 'you' has picked up an n in this manner, so that in danish, where this change didn't happen, it's 'i', but in swedish it's 'ni'

[@psychochicken9535]

So that's where the rule of " 'A' before a consonant and 'An' before a vowel" came from. Sweet!

[@wheedler]

It's like realising you have a tongue in your mouth.

[@MagisterSaxonides]

Listen, nuncle, sometimes I like to visit far hallows couth in sundry lands. (Such vacations keep me gruntled. Otherwise, someone gonna get scathed.)

[@pornesianparrapio4173]

Didn't anyone noticed that the dog was reading the book upside down the whole time??? Just hold the book correctly at the end🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@freekazoid8489]

I guess he took it to a whole 'nother level?

[@invis234]

I have a friend Samuel, whose origanal nickname is Sam, whose now nickname is Printer.

[@mistingwolf]

I see a lot of people typing "of" in place of "have." I think it's partly because people are actually saying "could've" and mishearing as "could of," etc.

[@angelinakarp8471]

In finnish nickname is lempinimi. Lempi means favourite/preferred and nimi means name.

[@emilyh6266]

4:06 this kinda blew my mind, somehow I have never noticed this additional "n" (I guess I've never written it?), it seems so natural to say though!!

[@TheGreatMondello]

I've only heard it used within the phrase "a whole nother" (as in: "That's a whole nother issue to deal with, sir.") and not in any other situation. But, maybe it will become more widely used outside of that phrase someday or maybe not.

[@emmanuelmunoz5753]

Can you make a video to explain the origins of Silent 'K' and 'P'?

[@saoirsestark3903]

One of my nicks (Ako) have a different background though. 'Ako' is the Filipino for 'I (am)', my first word. Another nick of mine is 'Kukay', from Flame of Recca's monk Kuukai-sama. Now, this one, I don't know why was used on me. Prolly because I was bald when I was a child and my father and his brothers are fans of Flame of Recca? 🤣🤣🤣 Nicks here are sometimes not a short version of the name, but that which you're associated with.

[@SpectreKelevra]

Now I understand that sometime in the era of old english, there was a really unpleasant man named Richard.

[@saxehenriksen9463]

Nickname is an nickname for ekename

[@Morbpious]

I don't know where my nickname came from, and it got even more confusing after I watched this video, I'm starting to suspect I just spawned with it

[@RightInFromDenmark]

this show is my main source of "i've been saying this wrong?" i've never heard anyone not pronouce the B in doubt, or heard the use of "nother" by anyone who wasn't my friend bailey from america.. (but then again he says "yall" so..)

[@SidneyIam]

+Lirk “Purps” Ravnsgaard Haha, same here. I'm not a native speaker of English and I thought it was "dis-heveled" not "di-sheveled" Oops

[@SidneyIam]

+Lirk “Purps” Ravnsgaard Haha, same here. I'm not a native speaker of English and I thought it was "dis-heveled" not "di-sheveled" Oops

[@vaughangarrick]

I tried to pronounce the thumbnail in ancient egyptian until I realized what it was

[@heine1717]

We still say "min" as my in Norway

[@nickc3657]

For those interested, this is called rebracketting.

[@LoriCiani]

Names can happen by pure chance. Like my Aunt Maimy was acually called Mary. Although her sister Nan was short for Nancy.

[@spiritedrenee9895]

So is a 'Nickname' a nickname for 'Nekeaname'?

[@Josh_Schwarz]

A nother good one.

[@willferrous8677]

W is pretty close in pronunciation to B, almost a 'silent' version of it. on a side note they spell vodka, водка in Russia.

[@leoguthrie7676]

!!!!! I say "a whole other." lol

[@saymeownow3838]

3:05 This will haunt my nightmares. THAT MOUTH

[@jubileecandle1610]

Proof language is an ever evolving entity

[@QuirkyGirlCorner]

My name is Addie and everyone thinks it’s a nickname. Lol

[@Daro-Wolfe]

Sometimes we call our puppy “muppy” because we accidentally misspoke once and it stuck

[@LoveDoctorNL]

Ekename = Ooknaam in Dutch although in Dutch it's called your your bijnaam (your additional name)

[@ernestbywater411]

never heard anyone say 'nother' and this is the first place I've seen it. Is it some odd US dialectic variant?

[@ezraoberheim1081]

I've only ever heard undereducated people say it.

[@SqueamishNerd]

The other day I realised that I've always spelled "lånord" (Swedish for "loanword") wrong, I spelled it "låneord" (note the E in the middle). I tried to say it like it's spelled, "lånord", and I immediately understood why I've always spelled it wrong, because it's almost impossible to not put a small E-sound in between the N and the O.

[@DJBigMD]

this is how i think of words since i was a child! :) :)

[@Lunettarose]

Are we sure about this? I have no quibble with the ekename/nickname thing, but as for Ned and Nellie, I was under the impression they were rhyming nicknames for popular names? In the same way Ted is also sometimes used for Edward. Ed was a nickname shortening, but there were so many Eds, we needed new nicknames. Like Dick, Hick and Hitch for Richard, Peggy/Peg for Margaret, Bill for William, and so forth. First names were few in medieval times, so nicknames had to be creative!

[@lilacdoe7945]

I had to memorize the Prologue to Canterbury Tales in Old English back in high school. It made literally no sense, might as well have been written in Japanese.

[@llamallama6]

I have never heard a whole nother, I have only heard a whole other

[@chimbirdy]

look that dog!!!! i like the way they drew the dog with up side- down book. hihi :))

[@xxxhottestofallxxx]

I use "nother". Everyone has heard that word, but just isn't familiar with it written out.

[@dash279]

that's more of an adjective than a nickname

[@Transendium]

i died at the nmaria part