Take Our Word For It Issue 208
http://www.takeourword.com For Mac users who have trouble with our regular homepage:
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**Greetings**
We're on a roll!
**This Week's Issue**
NOTE: The links in this newsletter are good until the next issue is
published.
In Spotlight we give you "How to speak Arabic...and not know it", by
guest writer Linda Smolik
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page1.html
In Words to the Wise we bring you the following words:
cool beans
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#beans
mass (church service)
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#mass
scoop
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#scoop
out of pocket
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#pocket
yeehaw
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#yeehaw
In Curmudgeons' Corner Guestmudgeon Robert has some
issues...er...problems
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page3.html
In Sez You... we hear from readers about the previous issue of TOWFI
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page4.html
In Laughing Stock no one is above suspicion
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page5.html
**Laughing Stock**
Please send us material for Laughing Stock. This week's winner is
Robert. Congratulations, Robert, and thanks for your submission! We
have a few Laughing Stock winners to reward; we'll get the gift
certificates out in the next week or so.
**Blog**
Don't forget to read our blog (http://www.takeourword.com/blog1) for
etymological and other langauge-related discussions that you won't find
here or in TOWFI. And you can participate in the blog discussions!
**Newsletter-Only Etymology**
It's back!
>From Elena:
I am very interested in the origin of the word nun - the word meaning
a woman who has dedicated herself to God and cloistered herself away,
not the meaning in which nun is the 14th letter of the Jewish alphabet.
I had a friend advise me that the word originated with the meaning
"old woman". I believe he was being a bit delicate of my
sensibilities and perhaps more rightly meant "crone" or
"spinster" or something of that sort, but that is a guess on my
part. I am interested in the information of the crone due to two
interests of mine; general goddess /female imagery and also a more
specific interest in the goddesses of the Irish and or Celts in which
the crone is generally the last part of the feminine triune. I would
also be very interested in the meaning of nun regardless of what it
actually turns out to be because again the "nun" or virginal woman
figures greatly in feminine imagery.
This word has cognates in many other Germanic languages. However, it
comes ultimately from Latin nonnus "monk", the feminine form of which
is nonna. These were originally titles given to elderly people, so
that now in Italian we find nonno, nonna "grandfather, grandmother".
The equivalents in Sicilian are nunnu and nunna, and in Sardinian nonnu
and nonna. Nun first turns up in English referring to a woman who has
devoted her life to her religion in about 900, where it has the form
nunne. It hasn't changed much since then!
The Latin words were terms of respect, so, etymologically, there is no
sense of "crone" or "spinster".
Until next time,
Take Our Word For It!
Melanie and Mike
http://www.takeourword.com
http://www.takeourword.com/indexmac.html
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