Fun with Etymology

[Derfel Cadarn]

1 hour ago, mormont said:

Yeah, pole-axe is now an accepted and acceptable usage in the same way that 'chain mail' or 'heater shield' or indeed 'pea' are. But all of these are modern versions of the original terms, mostly based on later misunderstandings.

Seriously getting off topic though. So back to Elon's misadventures.

What were chainmail and heater shields?

[mormont]

I can see I shouldn't have just dropped that in! But I'll split this off. 

Chain mail - historically, generally just referred to as 'maille', which is French for a thing made of links (like a net or mesh) so the 'chain' part is really redundant. There are one or two contemporary references to 'chainmail' but mostly it's a later thing, and there's no such thing as plate mail or terms like that.

Heater shield - named for its shape, like the face of a clothes iron, which Victorians called a heater because you heated it by the fire. In the times when it was used, they just called it a shield.

Bonus: pea - historically this was 'pease', used in the same way as 'corn'. Because it ends in an -s sound, people assumed it was a plural (it wasn't) and that the singular must therefore be 'pea'.  

[IheartIheartTesla]

I just learned recently that the etymology of 'cell' came from when Robert Hooke looked at a cork under the microscope and what he saw resembled the cells that monks in monastries used to inhabit. His published book sold like gangbusters too, so I guess that's when the current scientific terminology took off in popularity.

Now, why churches in Gaelic are called cill/kill is a bit more mysterious to me, but the root word is still 'cell' (or whatever latin word preceded it)

[Derfel Cadarn]

10 hours ago, mormont said:

I can see I shouldn't have just dropped that in! But I'll split this off. 

Chain mail - historically, generally just referred to as 'maille', which is French for a thing made of links (like a net or mesh) so the 'chain' part is really redundant. There are one or two contemporary references to 'chainmail' but mostly it's a later thing, and there's no such thing as plate mail or terms like that.

Heater shield - named for its shape, like the face of a clothes iron, which Victorians called a heater because you heated it by the fire. In the times when it was used, they just called it a shield.

Bonus: pea - historically this was 'pease', used in the same way as 'corn'. Because it ends in an -s sound, people assumed it was a plural (it wasn't) and that the singular must therefore be 'pea'.  

Ah like Americans calling the plural of lego, ‘legos’

[Iskaral Pust]

I’ve been listening to a podcast called The History Of English for several months now.  It’s a great source of etymology and history.  Highly recommended.