Reader Friday-Where’d That Come From?

Posted on by

Okay, here we are, readers and writers. We’re all about words, words, and more words—to the chagrin of some strong silent types.

I found a cool website where you can find out the origin of certain words. Here’s the link:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/words-with-surprising-histories

 

Let’s regale each other with our favorite word origins on this last day of July 2026, shall we?

Here’s mine:  Boudoir

You might think, “Well, Deb, what’s so special about that word?” I’d tell you that it’s not the word that’s special, it’s where it came from and what the hidden meaning is.

Boudoir usually means a lady’s private dressing room, right?

Straight from the above website:

“The French verb bouder means ‘to pout,’ and it led to the French word boudoir, a noun that literally means ‘a place to pout in…’”

 

 

 

I don’t know about you, but I want one.

 

 

 

Your turn, TKZers. Astound us with your favorite word origin.

 

 

 

12 thoughts on “Reader Friday-Where’d That Come From?”

  1. Thanks for that rabbit hole, Deb. Now I won’t get anything done today 😉

    Discovered my name has a sinister backstory. Definition of Burke: “to murder by suffocation or strangulation in order to obtain a body to be sold for dissection.”

    Could that be the reason I’m a crime writer?

    • You’re welcome, Debbie…glad I could help! 🙂

      Wow! Quite a history you dug up there (pun intended). My maiden name, Drake, is discussed below. (And thank YOU for the rabbit hole!)

      “Meaning & History From an English surname derived from the Old Norse byname Draki or the Old English byname Draca both meaning “dragon”, both via Latin from Greek δράκων (drakon) meaning “dragon, serpent”.”

      And in another place, “The forked root is thought to resemble a human body and was said to shriek when pulled from the ground.”

      Yikes! Not sure what root they’re talking about, but I don’t think I want to know more…

      Have a good one!

  2. In college, playing the dictionary game, I came across the word “borborygmus.” It means “a rumbling in the bowels.” What college boy wouldn’t love that word?

    Anyway, it comes from a Greek verb which was meant to sound like the digestive noises made in the stomach.

    • Good borborygmus morning, Jim! (I know you’re tempted, but just walk away…) 🙂

      I knew a few boy classmates in college, down there in your neck o’ the weeds, who would’ve latched onto that word for sure.

      Have a great weekend!

  4. One of my favorite words my mother-in-law liked to use is whopper-jawed…I looked it up, but I guess she made it up because I couldn’t find a definition. To her, it meant something was crooked or out of shape. I use it a lot…

  5. My favorite word: kinestatic. It may be my favorite because my husband coined the term for a technique he developed for detecting ionizing radiation in two dimensions, Kinestatic Charge Detection. The word illustrates the situation of things moving in reference to one environment, but still in reference to another.) For example, walking up a down elevator.

    https://aapm.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1118/1.595693

    I love the word because it can be applied widely. For example, rushing around all day but getting nowhere. 🙂

    So far, I’ve managed to use the word in each of my six novels.

    • And, plus, Frank thought it up! You get to live with your word’s origin…how cool is that?

      Thanks for stopping by my friend!

      😉

  6. Whippersnapper- today it means an energetic, presumptuous youngster. I can remember my grandmother using that word for young children to ran everywhere. But what I discovered is how it is a combination of the sound of a while and a snapper that refers to an insignificant person. It evolved from 1580s where young idle men would stand around cracking whips who had little respect for responsibility or the law.

Comments are closed.