Bordello
When you hear the word “bordello,” what do you think of? Probably not a farm, it’s fair to say.
But that’s the word comes from: the term “bordello” finds its origins in the word for a small farm or cottage (the French word “borde,” to be precise). The expanded version,”bordel,” came to mean a ramshackle shelter, and while we can’t know for sure, it seems likely that enterprising sex workers tended to ply their trade in abandoned cottage or buildings.
“Bordello” is not the only English word that has an unexpected connection to the farm. Consider the following:
Bachelor
– The word bachelor now refers to an unmarried, usually young, man. The word may have derived from the Scottish “batchelor,” meaning the holder of a small farm. Other uses of the word were for a young squire to a knight, or a student who had only completed the lowest level of study at university, both positions which would be held by young unmarried men.
Bellwether
– A bellwether is a leader or predictor of something. This term comes to us from the humble sheep. Shepherds placed a bell around the neck of a castrated sheep (called a “wether”). A shepherd would listen for the bell and use it to figure out which way the entire flock was headed.
Porcelain
– Fine china dishes are made of porcelain. Do you think porcelain dishes would seem so fancy if we knew they were named after a pig’s private parts? Etymologists trace the word to the Italian porcellana, meaning “cowrie shell,” referring to the shiny surface of both dishes and shell. Porcellana is derived from porcella, meaning a young female pig, because the shape of the shell resembles the shape of a sow’s genitalia.
Verse
– A verse is a section of a song or piece of poetry. The word “vers” comes from the Latin “versus,” meaning a furrow, a row created by a plow, as well as a line of writing. Versus came from the verb meaning “to turn,” referring to the turn of the plow at the end of the line.
Tenter
– If you’re waiting on tenterhooks, you’re waiting anxiously in suspense. Hundreds of years ago, wool cloth was made using large wood frames called tenters. The hooks stretched the cloth and held it onto the frame. Waiting on tenterhooks means your nerves are stretched as taut as the woolen cloth on its tenter.
Gobbledygook
– Gobbledygook means nonsensical, sometimes officious, language, and maybe you guessed that the term was named after the noise a turkey makes: gobble, gobble, gobble. A Congressman from Texas coined the word in a memo during World War II.
