Rio Olympics 2016

At the closing ceremony, as the torch was being passed from Brazil to Japan, did you notice the floor of the venue covered with the word(s) "Thank You" in many languages?  Brazil's thank you was at the center, and Japan's was right under Brazil's.  It looked like this:

                                                               OBRIGADO
                                                               ORIGATO

Did you catch the similarity?  When the Portuguese explorers arrived on the shores of Japan, and were saying "obrigado" for "thank you," the Japanese adopted that as "origato."

Yankee Doodle

Why do Europeans call Americans Yankees, and why do New Yorkers get called Yankees?  (There are no Yankees in the south or west, are there?  .....unless they have been transplanted....)

Before the English established New York, it was Niew-Amsterdam, capital of the Dutch New Netherland Colony on the southern tip of Manhattan island.  There were more than just a few Jancke families settled there. Considering that the J is pronounced like a Y in Dutch, you've got quite a few Yancke's living in Niew-Amsterdam.

Wow, that's a long time for a regional nick-name to endure.

Sheriff

Ever wondered why we have Sheriffs?  I mean, we have policemen, why do we need Sheriffs?  Where did this word even come from?

In Merry Olde England, the head of a Shire was a Shire Reeve.  According to Collins dictionary, the definition of Reeve is the local representative of the king in a shire.  

Consider that the likely pronunciation of "shire" in middle English is "sheer" or "sheera" you now have a "sheer reeve."   Shire Reeve morphs into Sheriff.

Just Between You and I, it's You and Me

This has to be the most widely misused and erroneous over-correction I have heard.  Somewhere along the line, we Americans were told not to say "Kate and me went to the store."  We were taught to say "Kate and I..."  This got pushed into other places in sentences where it does not belong. It became, "They gave free passes to Brad and I," or, "The registration was handled for the boys and I,"  or, "The judges had to decide between Miss Nevada and I."  NO!

A quick and easy way to hear your mistake is to take the other person out of the sentence.  Would you say "They gave free passes to I?"  or, "The registration was handled for I?"  Of course not.

People who insert "I" where it should be "me" are attempting to sound literate when in fact it becomes a blaring example of illiteracy.  But we'll just keep that a secret between you and .......

Ye Olde

In Old English, the "th" sound was represented by the letters thorn, þ, (voiceless) and  ð  (voiced).  They were written similarly to the letter y.  So whereas the written word "ðe"  was "the," the letter ð, when handwritten, looks like a y to modern readers. So, there is no Ye Olde, anything.  It's a corruption of "the old."

Walking down the Gangplank

Now, I'm no expert. I don't claim to be the final authority on anything I may post. I aim to share my love of words with others. My particular interest is in the origin of words and how they morph over time.


Gangplank. Isn't that the board on a ship where they send people to their death at sea? I guess it's used as a board to embark and disembark. Maybe the death at sea was something I saw in a pirate movie.


Take the Norwegian word "gående" which, depending on which part of Norway you're in, is roughly pronounced "gawin'  na."  It is the present participle of the verb "to go" (å gå), like the English word "going." "Å gå" in Norwegian means "to walk," which is precisely what one does on the gangplank.  The Norwegian words for "entrance" and "exit" are "ingang" and "utgang."  Knowing that the Vikings settled in England and influenced the language, to me the gangplank is a going plank, or a gående plank.