Linguist Answers Word Origin Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

[@lightandtheheat]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="953">15:53</a> It's refreshing to see a scientist so passionate about his craft that he keeps on top of even the most recent of trends in his field, while also acknowledging those trends with a spark of humor. Very mindful.

[@SeanKL107]

This is like a university-level crash course here for everyone to watch for free

[@utsavmaheshwari859]

As a language/linguistics nerd, I find it to be the one of the few fields that everybody is lowkey interested in since everybody is a participant in language. I'm very happy to see non-language nerds here as well!

[@sydkvistarn]

In Swedish there’s a great example of using words to avoid invoking the horror of something and that is for the wolf. In Swedish the word for wolf is “varg”, but in the older days you wouldn’t say varg precisely for the aforementioned reason. People would instead call the wolf Gråben (Grayleg), Den Grå (The Gray one) or Tasse (an old word for wasteland or wilderness).

[@xXBlueSheepXx]

Joel lore

[@slumpighet]

"Varg" was a euphemism for the real old Swedish word for wolf, which was "ulv" (cognate with wolf).

A similar thing happened in Hungarian, and we actually don't even know the original word. The currently used noun “farkas” is actually an adjective meaning “with tail” or “having a tail”. It is thought to be a taboo, because it was a totemic animal, similarly to deer. Deer are called “szarvas”, which similarly means “with horns”.

[@stephanie5471]

As a language lover, this was a real treat! 😊 Would love to see one on proverbs and their origins…

[@lauratictoc]

finally, Tech Support in my field. I love lingustics, philology, etymology... I'm just a language nerd.

[@crispychrissy]

What a cunning linguist. He’s so intelligent and enthusiastic, please bring him back!

[@Drnaynay]

I see what you did there.

[@MarigoldThyme]

Miss Moneypenny!🤣🤣🤣

[@TheSkinnyZ]

You did not.

[@CrossfireX7]

But he doesn't know anything about Colonel Angus.

[@gtleshow]

Who knew word origins could be this captivating? Love to watch these types of videos!

[@1100MC]

If Michael from Vsauce and Babish from Binging with Babish had a kid.

[@lunasrizz]

woah thats me <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="67">1:07</a>

[@davidh8271]

Another banger of an episode. You guys seriously get some great folks for these.

[@dragonfx310]

Where are my language nerds at? I'm a technical/creative writer by trade and I never clicked on a video so fast.

[@MsRubyet]

Reporting - English teacher here 👩‍🏫

[@valleyshrew]

Same, clicked excitedly as soon as I saw it, but it was mostly introductory stuff I already knew. Still fun to go over.

[@Tadas_rackauskas]

All the linguistics are going CRAZY rn, the minute we see people talking about linguistics, we are hooked in

[@zhargidabeoulve]

Regarding gender neutral terms changing over the years: I've always been fascinated by the word, 'fellow'. In America at least, it refers to a group of men (hey fellas). But that always confused me, as it doesn't imply gender. You could call a group of women 'fellows', as in 'fellow people'. Maybe it has something to do with the notion that fellows in the context of a university always meant men, as men were the only ones there?

[@thawhiteazn]

“How very dare you” I am 100% commandeering this phrase

[@kinggoldark3853]

He mentions "doubt" having a silent "b" inserted by lexicographers, but there are plenty more examples of that in English. "Debt" was originally pronounced and spelled "dette" but the "b" was added to invoke the Latin "debitum." "Island" never had an "s" (it was more like "igland" originally), but lexicographers inserted it to recall the Latin "insula." The problem? "Igland" didn't come from "insula" in the first place - it was Old English (which is to say, of Germanic origin). A completely bogus etymology was added to the word.

[@Astronic]

In swedish we still say "Knekt" which is like a knight for hire. Sounds very similar to Knight if you pronounce the K.

[@Astronic]

Similar to german "Landsknecht"

[@rfdebeaumont]

​@Astronic In Dutch we also have "knecht" but it means servant!

[@playground2137]

In Dutch it’s still knecht, only the meaning is now servant.

[@IdaidaKristensen]

We say it in Danish too "knægt" but it mostly now refer to a young guy

[@toonatr356]

@@rfdebeaumontKnecht means knight in German too

[@clementineryn]

Can we PLEASE get another episode of this BUT with more broad linguistic questions? I want to see questions about experiments and weird cases like Cage(was it?) and Genie!!!! Are we really born with a blueprint for language in our brains? I read about an experiment done on babies where they sucked their pacifiers at different rates when they heard their own language vs rubbish HOW DOES A 6 MONTH OLD BABY KNOW THAT WHEN IT CAN EVEN SPEAKKK

[@Wendifur_]

Because their parents are talking to them since birth and it's a sound they recognize. It's not that hard.

[@Neverender6]

Modern Englishman: "May I please have an orange?" Old Frenchman: "no-renge lmao got em"

[@Whythebutterfly]

I thought I was the only weird person that thought it necessary to own a etymology dictionary. Great video!

[@markrosellerferrera7913]

"All words are made up" -Thor

[@Dapplication]

This was a surprisingly engaging video

[@TheLeibnitz]

I think it's beautiful seeing a language evolve in your own lifetime, it proves that language is from and for the people, and reflects change and adaptability.

[@johnlucas6683]

Yes, language is dynamic.

[@tangerinetangerine4400]

Love that approach. Language is alive. Never static.

[@TheOneAndOnly-t5h]

@@tangerinetangerine4400 Which is why we would all benefit from the absence of prescriptivist grammar pedants.

[@Thorn16]

Seeing Dog maybe return to it's 'cuter' roots with Doggo is funny.

[@Abelhawk]

There are few things I love more than learning about language, especially etymology. My favorite is the history of place names. The world we live on literally means "dirt," because it was all we knew and everything else was above in the sky, just like the gods, which is why we named planets after gods.

[@TheKilaby]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="950">15:50</a> that also explains why we call it "herbsten" when someone goes to harvest grapes in autumn

[@StarQueenEstrella]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="898">14:58</a> why does the way he says “poo” make me cackle? Omg!😆

[@thanos879]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1052">17:32</a> I love caput

[@MadMadMandy]

In Denmark we still say "knight" with a hard k, "knægt" or "gnaw" with a hard g "gnave". Also animals like hamsters, rabbits and rats are known as "gnavere"/"gnawers" in Danish, which I find amusing.

[@alexday3142]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="953">15:53</a> I didn't expect that. It gave me zen

[@RedCanidae]

When he explained the word "wer" i knew exactly it came from "vir", which is the most common word for "man" in classical Latin. Etymology is so freaking interesting, wanting or not, learning a new language should never be strained to learning the technicallities of the language itself, but its culture and history as well, not saying everybody should be forced to learn a languages history, it will by all means make you a better speaker and definetly motivate you more

[@justayoutuber1906]

Mono = One Rail = Rail

[@3frenchhens818]

I love Merriam-Webster for including the first use and derivation of words, but also for its sense of humor. It defines f*÷k as being "a meaningless intensifier."

[@parkermae]

I love these mini lessons!

[@JoEmAmMaSoN]

Wonderful. In college I did a project. It was Words and their Origin. It sent me on a 10 year journey studying linguistics. Possibly the most interesting subject ever made up.

[@j.d.blitch5552]

Just fantastic stuff

[@zakcourt]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="886">14:46</a> Superb line read btw 👏🏻

[@miscellaneaural2487]

"If you look at the modern Romance languages, you don't find the word CAPUT meaning HEAD" ( <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1060">17:40</a>) - unless you're looking at Romanian, where CAP (

[@nonozens]

exactly, same in Spanish and Portuguese (cabeza and cabeça)

[@paulpantea9521]

More directly "capăt" which also means head or end

[@slumpighet]

Caput sounds a lot like Swedish kaputt, which is slang for "broken".

[@javelin987]

in Italian too! "head" can be both "testa" or "capo"..the latter is a slightly fancier word that also means "boss"/"chief"

[@toribern816]

This was such an interesting video. I love language 🤍

[@sfowler1017]

What a delightful video! More etymology, please :)

[@rebilacx]

I think I'll have a tall glass of Glubmoo.

[@paveladamek3502]

Tons of examples of silent letters are given. Worcester: Eh, excuse me!!!!

[@JimCoder]

While studying a database query language, I was surprised to see that the operators "but" and "and" were considered synonyms in that language. Either could be used to produce identical results. Turns out that they both refer to operations that produce the intersection (as in Venn diagrams) of two datasets. It makes perfect sense to me now but I'm still surprised that I was ever surprised by it!

[@tipsywombatxd581]

When meme’s influence language.

[@VideoKingist]

"No cap, my dude."

[@DisasterxUs]

language is literally memetic, as in the actual meaning of the word meme. Language is survival of the fittest.

[@HydrantRooster]

"The origin of the word "slang" is unclear. It was first used in print around 1800 to refer to the language of the disreputable and criminal classes in London, though its usage likely dates back further." - Wikipedia Also, if you're interested in the English language, check out the poem "The Chaos" (on KZbin).

[@curtishoffmann6956]

I teach English as a second language in Japan. I wish this video had been published years ago... This is a way lot more fun than it should be.

[@michelefritze3988]

Unalived, is such a euphamistic way to say, killed

[@lainecolley1414]

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="599">9:59</a> PIE is from the heart of rhe silk road. Those temporary settlements were hubs for trade, and that's how language travels.

[@lainecolley1414]

Do'ga.? Pig'ga.? Door and pit? Ga for guard? Lol Fro'ga (help)

[@vnth21]

A very sincere thank you from me and I'm sure from many others, to Wired for hosting these experts to nerd out about their fields of expertise. It's a great honor to be able to learn new things every time.

[@kududoodoo229]

he was great! more of him please!

[@danceswithdirt7197]

Unalive is such a weird construction.

[@largesatsuma]

For some reason we've become quite prudish about death. It's like when someone gets killed in a violent car crash we say "passed away", as though they died peacefully in their sleep at aged 90.

[@matthews7805]

I thought it was used so the algorithm wouldn't hide a comment over the word murder.

[@billyeveryteen7328]

You say "weird," I say "Orwellian."

[@mysticfalcon8844]

It is used online, like on Instagram. If you use the word "suicide" or "killed/murdered" your comment might be flagged or hidden.

[@kinggoldark3853]

@@matthews7805 I'm pretty sure that's it. Also why you see things like "k*ll" and "s**cide". Stupid people can't stop posting unaliveness threats, and lazy social media programmers can't be troubled to do anything more meaningful than text parsing.

[@AlexanderSwailo]

you guys teach more knowledge than half the schools on earth

[@faithfuljohn]

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1070">17:50</a> - although in Italian 'head' is 'testa' the word for 'boss' is capo (i.e. the head of an organization you might say) which is very similar to 'caput'.

[@Liriq]

This one surprised me. I expected it to be boring. It was very interesting!

[@xeroday3227]

I would say that if you use "spring", you should use "fall" as they both originated at the same time and refer to leaves going up or down. It's actually English and not French influence.

[@OXMStudios]

Oh my gosh! My alma mater! So this is how the science people felt watching tech support!

[@KainzMusic]

There was the period when text messages by phone had rather tight restriction on the number of characters you cound send at one, so people started using "u" for "you" and "2" for "to/too". Since that time has pretty much ended, to see a long typed out paragraph with a single instance of "u" kills the whole thing. Dude, you're saving 2 characters in a document of 900 characters...

[@TheCrosshare]

It's quite interesting that in Finnish, back X amount of years, if you wanted to be proper and respectful, you would refer to an individual as "Te" (plural you). Only after becoming aquinted, or asking for permission even, you would use sinä (singular you). Teitittely and sinuttelu were also words describing this action, kind of like "addressing in plural" and "addressing in singular". I just found it interesting that this "show of respect" has traveled, been taken up by a *very* different language with no common roots, and used the same way. Either by happenstance, or by cultural exchange. Also can't wait for the 30 minute Linguist episode where one tries to explain Finnish XD

[@saritacruz3020]

In Spanish, comadre means godmother but also gossip. It's funny how both languages connect those two things lol

[@RijackiTorment]

I love linguistics and etymology. I regret it wasn't an offering for classes when I was getting my BA (where I going to school). How language changes is a part of social history that's utterly fascinating. My degree is in history and social history is far more interesting to me than diplomatic. When (if ) I can retire, I hope to have enough money I can take up linguistics and etymology along with more history again.

[@szymonokun9841]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1122">18:42</a> oh yeah, The Great Bowel Shift sounds interesting 😁

[@jon1913]

How does wired always know my current obsession? It's like they are directly connected to my algorithm.

[@ernstjunger1861]

Amazing video 👍🏻

[@bdso9593]

Why do many people drop the 'H' when saying words like 'human' or 'huge'

[@nonozens]

there is caput descended words in modern romance languages... Cabeza in Spanish and Cabeça in Portuguese

[@samfisher6606]

Ah, yes, Guy Fawkes, commonly known by his alias John Johnston where he did Job at Place.

[@n76543]

Full-time linguist, part-time chemist

[@Apollo_1641]

More please!

[@marcomazzini]

Love ir! Thank you for this video ❤

[@CCSMrChen]

I love this video! It reminds me of when I look up curious word questions and almost always there's an "Words Unravelled" video about it. If you like this etymology video, go look them up! If you don't like this video, go look up some entomology videos.

[@fieryweasel]

Rebracketing is also seen in "nickname", which was originally "an ekename".

[@slumpighet]

Ah, that explains the Swedish "öknamn" which means bad name. "Nickname" in Swedish is instead "smeknamn" which I guess means "caress namn".

[@TorrentialSilver_47]

MORE LINGUIST SUOPORT!!!!

[@DisasterxUs]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="810">13:30</a> interestingly other cultures have different onomatopoeia, and knowing what things are "supposed" to sound can change your perception of the sound itself. For example, cats go "nyan" and dogs go "mung mung"

[@chrstfer2452]

Wish we could time travel (and without consequences) to go seek out those old languages

[@eb1900]

The BBC was maybe just trying to seem cheeky and hip because “unalive” is used in order to avoid certain censors from limiting or blocking your material on social media. The BBC censors itself so there’s no point in avoiding the actual word.

[@misoramen2912]

He’s so demure. Very mindful.

[@oprystupa]

Wow! It's superb so amazing as interesting

[@a.a.5578]

How about inviting a literary scholar next? More humanities plz 😌

[@searchanddiscover]

i really despise "unalived". it just makes such a mockery of the tragedies its in reference to. its absolutely ridiculous that social media won't let you use the proper terms. clearly banning the words doesn't stop people from having conversations.

[@tangerinetangerine4400]

The irony is that if the word unalive completely replaces the original word, it will have the same effect as the original has today. Maybe then we'll have to invent a new word for it.

[@iansurname4789]

I use me instead of my "thats me car over there" even tho i know its wrongish

[@MrsNoji]

I find that quite charming

[@SJ-ym4yt]

It’s not wrong, it’s dialectal. In fact, before the great vowel shift, ”my” would’ve been pronounced more like today’s ”me” anyway.

[@slumpighet]

Actually "my car" is Swedish is "min bil" where the i in "min" sounds like the e in "me"

[@DrJambuca]

People interested in this type of thing should watch Rob Words

[@omadduxo]

I have an a bit different theory about the origin of the word "mother" and that pretty much every language in the world has a word or synonym for it that sounds like mama, momma, nana or similar. These words are all similar to the sound babies make when they ask for food. Nom, mom, nam, nan... When you consider that it's usually the mother that feeds the baby in the first months, then "mother" means "woman/person that feeds me".

[@slumpighet]

Isn't it more that mmm and schwa are the most basic effortless sound anyone (including a baby) can make? And mama is mixing them

[@sephestra.]

KZbin, PLEASE LET ME LIKE THIS MORE THAN ONCE!

[@twistah]

Video title says Tech support on a Etymology support video

[@friedpinnapple]

Okay so if wer- denotes male specific then we should 100% make wowolf a thing in place of shewolf

[@notvochkin]

People are making up words to avoid robot censors on youtube or other social media, such as seggs instead or sex.

[@Mimosacymru]

Ardderchog Gareth!

[@LinaN-fn9rm]

Sorry, does this gentleman never blink?

[@cobalttj6356]

I found myself being more fascinated by his immaculate beard than the actual facts, both very interesting though.

[@kunven]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1360">22:40</a> the word pregnant survives in spanish, the word "preñada", however it is a vulgar form used for animals.

[@nonozens]

and "prenhe" in Portuguese

[@1HPSmurf]

All this time im looking at his head and wondering how much it looks like an egg. 😂😂😂

[@TheRealStewpid]

He looks like if Soda Popinski was an English speaking linguist

[@craigrn16]

I always wanted to know why English got rid of gender when other languages still have them. I hope he can answer that next time

[@slwrabbits]

What I have heard is that it was due to mixing of several old languages that were related but not identical, such that you could mostly understand the nouns used by your neighbor, but you'd disagree on the particles/gender. Stripping out gender was a simplification that made it easier to understand each other.

[@wallopee]

It was just easier to speak.

[@Dominus_Potatus]

he seems like a dude that I won't play scrabble with.

[@dedasdude]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="690">11:30</a> 8N H8ndi, father is pita 😮 which is very close to pater

[@protoguy]

As someone named Guy - how very dare

[@lgjm5562]

So will yt now demonetize all vids that say unalive?

[@rommot9595]

WE ALREADY WANT HIM BACK

[@TheSkinnyZ]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="728">12:08</a> this annoys me greatly!

[@sirkeg1]

is Embarazado related to Bastardo? and bastardized?

[@AbderahmenTuihri]

there is a french word demeur it means house i think