I have heard experts and non-experts postulate that after acquiring language, humankind’s next huge step toward civilization was learning how to make and use fire. The Aleut word for fire is QUDAX. It’s spoken with short almost schwa-like vowels and a very rough, back-of-the-throat Q and X. I can’t begin to say it in the…
Wild Word Friday! I continue to feature Aleut and Athabascan words on Wild Word Friday to celebrate the May 28 release of my 6 Alaska novels in Ebook format by Open Road Integrated Media. (Find them at www.OpenRoadMedia.com) Male and Female Common Eider Ducks Today’s word KUKUTUX is from the Eastern dialect of the…
Wild Word Friday! ALEUT (pronounced al-yoot) is a word of undetermined origin that was used by Russian explorers to designate the people who lived on the islands and the peninsula that stretch from southwestern Alaska to divide the North Pacific from the Bering Sea. Some linguists believe that the word ALEUT was derived from the…
Wild Word Friday! Linguists generally agree that LYNCH is an eponymous word. That means that it originated from the name of a person. The problem seems to be which person. There are several candidates. The first is a James LYNCH Fitzstephen, a mayor of Galway in Ireland. According to some sources, in 1493, poor…
Wild Word Friday! There’s something about the humble EGG that always reminds me of Easter. I can’t believe how much fun I had as a kid (and still have!) dying EGGs a multitude of colors. Back then about the only decorations you could put on your EGGs were designs made with wax crayons before you…
Wild Word Friday! The word CHINCHILLA refers, of course, to a little rodent, about fifteen inches in length when full grown, which in the past was valued for its lovely pale-gray fur. CHINCHILLA also refers to cloth made for overcoats out of wool and cotton. This type of cloth has a tufted and napped surface…
Wild Word Friday! It’s unusual to find a word that in its noun form has two very opposite meanings, but HOST is one of those contrary words. In its most ancient form – ghosti, an Indo-European word – it meant stranger or guest. Right away you can see the dichotomy. A guest is someone we…
Wild Word Friday! Did you know that in addition to the commonly known tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and salty, human taste buds can distinguish one more taste? That taste was identified in 1908 by a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University, and he named it UMAMI. UMAMI, a Japanese word, means pleasant savory taste….
Wild Word Friday! The word FLASH comes to modern English from a rather unusual source, the Middle English word, flasken or flaschen, which means to rush along with a splashing sound. It’s somewhat of a mystery how a word that initially referred to the sound made by a rushing liquid, morphed into a word that…
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