Editor's Corner

Good morning!

I was trying to think of some topics for the next couple of weeks, and I thought I’d check Merriam-Webster for ideas. I saw this photo and I had to see what the topic was:

The topic? Odd Jobs Quiz.

I was curious, so I looked at the quiz. It reminded me of an article that I wrote years ago about English names that are derived from jobs our ancestors had.

Here are some of the jobs from the quiz. Enjoy!

cooper

Coopers make and repair wooden barrels and tubs. Cooper can be traced to the Latin cupa meaning “cask.” People with the last name Cooper probably have a barrel maker somewhere in their lineage.

sawyer

Lumber cutter; someone who saws.

fletcher

A person who makes arrows. The term fletcher comes from the Anglo-French word for “arrow.”

tanner

A tanner is someone who tans the hides of animals to produce leather goods. [KC – Or someone who spends a lot of time
in the sun.]

chandler

A maker or seller of tallow or wax candles and usually soap.

Chandler can be added to other products to indicate someone is a retailer in that specific area (e.g., a yacht chandler).

I had to look at the etymology for chandler to see if they mention “chandeliers.” It can’t be a coincidence that both candles and chandeliers are sources of light. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

"maker or seller of candles," late 14c., attested as a surname from late 13c. (also, from early 14c. "candle-holder;" see chandelier), from Old French chandelier (n.2) "candle-maker, candle-seller; person in charge of lighting a household, monastery, etc.," from Medieval Latin candelarius "a candle-maker," from candela "candle" (see candle). Native candleman is attested from mid-13c. By 1580s the word also came to mean "dealer in provisions, merchant."

wainwright

A wagon-builder.
wain from the Old English for “wagon;” wright comes from an Old English word for “worker.”

lapidary

A cutter, polisher, or engraver of precious stones usually other than diamonds.

Derived from the Latin lapis meaning “stone,” a lapidary cuts, polishes, and engraves precious gems. The word can also be used as an adjective to describe that which is precise and elegant.

stevedore

Stevedores load and unload ships at a port. Stevedore can be traced to the Spanish estibar, meaning “to pack.”

haberdasher

In the U.S., haberdasher means “a dealer in men’s clothing and accessories.” In British English, it refers to someone selling sewing supplies like needle and thread. [KC – Before I moved here from Seattle, I lived over a haberdashery. They only sold hats, but there was something very freaky about it, especially at night.]

farrier

Farriers specialize in shoeing horses, a practice that includes shaping the shoe as well as trimming and cleaning the hoof. Farrier can be traced back to the Latin word ferrum meaning “iron.”

sexton

A sexton is “a church officer or employee who takes care of the church property and performs related minor duties (such as ringing the bell for services and digging graves).”

cordwainer

I grabbed this information from the Online Etymology Dictionary because it is a more thorough definition:

"shoemaker, leatherworker," originally "a worker in Cordovan leather," mid-14c.; mid-12c. as a surname, from Anglo-French cordewaner, from Old French cordoan "(leather) of Cordova," the Spanish city whose leather was famous for quality.

catchpole

A catchpole usually refers to a sheriff’s deputy who arrests those who fail to pay a debt. Catchpole comes from the Anglo-French cachepole meaning “chicken chaser.”

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Good morning, folks!

Since I’ve kinda been on a Halloween kick lately, I thought I’d continue with something I don’t think I’ve covered before.

I was reading the history of something or other yesterday, and I stumble on pumpkins. Nope, I’m not going to talk about the history of pumpkins, but I am going to talk about where we got the word jack-o’-lantern from. (Usually, it’s defined as an illuminated face carved into a pumpkin.)

First, just the basics: vegetable carving. Who doesn’t love carving a vegetable? According to this article from History.com, “the practice of carving ghoulish faces on vegetables may have roots in Ireland, where large turnips served as early canvasses.” The people would carve out the turnips and put candles in them to light them up. “Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became a part of Halloween festivities.”

That is the custom of vegetable carving and lighting, but that’s not all we borrowed from the Irish. We borrowed the name “jack-o’-lantern” from an Irish folk tale about a man named “Stingy Jack.” Here is an edited version of his story (for space).

The Legend of Stingy Jack

Stingy Jack invited the devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the devil from changing back into his original form.

Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the devil could not come down until the devil promised Jack not to bother him for 10 more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, god would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.”

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits.

So this (Stingy) Jack of the Lantern, eventually became Jack o’ lantern, and then jack-o’-lantern, and we Americans decided to use our own favorite carving model, the pumpkin.

There is more information out there about how this tradition became a Halloween standard, but this was the best explanation I found for the word jack-o’-lantern.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Good morning, my little chickadees!

I hope you are all well today. It’s been a fun month for watching scary movies and looking up words like sigil and grimoire, so I thought “Why stop now?” I read a great article on the history of “Trick or Treat” and one on jack-o’-lanterns (more to come on that topic), but I settled on a collection of words from Merriam-Webster’s article called 8 Words for Witchcraft and Black Magic.

I’m not going to print the whole thing here; I am just going to share pieces of it with you and maybe a little commentary here and there. See the full article for all eight items.

necromancy

noun 1 : conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events 2 : magic, sorcery

The first part of necromancy has its roots in the Greek word nekros, meaning "dead body" or "dead person." The second part has its roots in the Greek word manteuesthai, meaning "to divine, prophesy." Necromancy was practiced in ancient times by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Etruscans, but in medieval Europe it was condemned by the church and could get you in a bit of trouble.

goety

[KC – Pronounced go-et-tea, with the middle “et” kind of quiet and the emphasis on “tea.” Not goatee, like the facial hair.]

noun: black magic or witchcraft in which the assistance of evil spirits is invoked

Goety (which chillingly traces back to a Greek word meaning "to groan, weep, lament") is historically contrasted with theurgy, which refers to the art or technique of compelling or persuading a god or beneficent or supernatural power to do or refrain from doing something.

bruja

noun: witch, sorceress

Bruja has been referring to witches in English since the 19th century, but it was doing that job in Spanish long before that. Unlike most Spanish words, bruja (and its masculine counterpart brujo) comes not from Latin but from a non-Indo-European source, from an unknown word that is also ancestor to Portuguese bruxa and Catalan bruixa, meaning "witch."

diablerie

[Ooh, I like it already. It sounds like “diablo” (devil, Spanish) with the French word for pastry shop (pâtisserie)—where they make devils instead of devil’s food
cake!]

noun 1 : black magic: sorcery 2 a: a representation in words or pictures of black magic or of dealings with the devil b: demon lore

Like the more common diabolical, which means "of, relating to, or characteristic of the devil," the 18th century French borrowing diablerie traces back to Latin diabolus, meaning "devil."

incantation

noun: a use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as a part of a ritual of magic; also: a written or recited formula of words designed to produce a particular effect.

Incantation traces back to the Latin cantare, meaning "to sing"—the same source of the words chant and enchant. Another cantare word is the archaic, obscure, and semantically unexpected excantation, which refers to an act of freeing by enchantment.

gramarye (or gramary)

[KC – Pronounced grammar-ee. At first I was thinking, grammar-yay or even better…Grand Marnier! But no, it is related to the word we had the other day, grimoire.]

noun: necromancy, magic, enchantment

Gramarye comes from a Middle French word meaning "book of sorcery," but also "grammar" or "grammar book." Though modern English speakers don’t tend to mix their grammar with their sorcery, in medieval times the Latin word grammatica (and its lexical descendants in other languages) referred to (among other things) learning in general, which in those dark ages was understood by the unschooled populace of Europe to include magic and astrology.

Fun stuff, huh? These words are completely enjoyable…from a distance!

And from Sylvie, happy (almost) Halloween!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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Good morning to you all.

When talking or writing about events that are not actually happening now—but they will, could, or might happen—we English speakers have a few options to choose from, and these choices can be a bit confusing.

Today, at the request of my friend, Ike, I’m going to share three often confusing word pairs and explain how to make the best choice for your situation. At least, that’s my intention. Let’s see how it goes.

Here are the word pairs that Ike and I would like to share:

• can vs. could
• will vs. would
• might vs. may

First let’s look and can vs. could.

• Can is used to refer to something that has a strong possibility of occurring:

Yes, I can run five miles.

• Could is used to refer to something that has a weaker possibility:

I guess I could run five miles.

• When indicating ability or possibility, can is used for present tense and could is used for past tense:

When I was running every day, I could run 10 miles, but now I can only run five.

Next we’ll examine will vs. would.

• Will is used to express expectations, determinations, and capabilities.

I will beat my brother at the karaoke contest Saturday night.

• Would is used to express hypothetical statements.

If we were to enter a karaoke contest, I would beat my brother.

• Will is also used to form the future tense:

We will be having a karaoke contest at the next family get-together.

• Would is the past tense of will:

Last week, my brother and I would have had a karaoke contest, but I had laryngitis.

And finally, let’s explore might vs. may.

• May is used to indicate something that is likely to happen.

I may bring a date to Dori’s party.

• Might is used to describe something that is unlikely to happen or situations that did not occur but could have.

If I could gather enough nerve, I might ask Shawna to Dori’s party.

If I had seen Shawna today, I might have asked her to Dori’s party.

I hope that sheds some light

On how you may use might

And how you can use could

And how you will use would

Have a lovely day.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry

Pronouns she/her/hers

Remote – CA

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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Good morning, folks!

A former employee and current friend sent me this article about the different plural endings of the term octopus, from Merriam-Webster. I think this article is perfect for October (which was the eighth month of the old Roman calendar) since octopus means eight feet.

Essentially, the article is about how we like to change the endings of words in English.

The three plurals for octopus come from the different ways the English language adopts plurals. Octopi is the oldest plural of octopus, coming from the belief that words of Latin origin should have Latin endings.

Octopuses was the next plural, giving the word an English ending to match its adoption as an English word.

Lastly, octopodes stemmed from the belief that because octopus is originally Greek, it should have a Greek ending.

When I was I kid, up until through college, they taught us those words from Latin kept their Latin endings, so here are a few examples of what they used to tell us the singular and plural were and what we’ve converted them to in English. I remember about halfway through my editing career, the “powers that be” decided we would start using the English endings on words since we speak English.

Then there’s data and datum, with stories of their own. Even spellcheck is giving me errors for datum!

In any case, this is the long story about how to refer to more than one octopus, and you can read more here. I tried to find you a short video about how smart they are, but I must be looking in the wrong place. Eight cheers for the eight-legged octopus!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Hello dear people,

I’m reading a book for our Knowledge Enablement business group book club (actually, I don’t know the real name). I do know the name of the book, though. It’s called Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch. Two chapters in and I love it. It is about the change in language, punctuation, emojis, linguistics, how different generations write and speak, and much more. So far, my favorite thing is this German phrase: “I will slap your ears with the cooking spoon, you monkey!”

Okay, there’s more in there besides that, but I’m telling you, the Germans have the best punishments and insults from what I can tell in the different translations I find.

Seriously, though, the following is actually one of the things McCulloch mentioned, and I thought I would check it out. It is the DARE Dictionary. DARE stands for the Dictionary of American Regional English. The link only gives you access to a short list of words, unless you want to pay $50, so we are exploring “on the cheap.”

The first term that caught my eye was pinkle-tink. I thought maybe it was an adjective, like, “That shirt is a lovely pinkle-tink green.” But no, pinkle-tink is a thing. The definition still did not tell me what it is. Pinkle-tink, a word used in the Martha’s Vinyard, Nantucket, Massachusetts area, is defined as:

pinkle-tink (noun)

also pinkwink, tinky

a spring peeper

What the heck? A spring peeper? A pervert looking through the window in the springtime is a pinkle-tink, a pinkwink, or a tinky? That sounds like the folks in the Martha’s Vinyard area think voyeurs are cute. No, that couldn’t be what a pinkle-tink is.

I read further and saw “a peeper, a tiny tree frog.” Well, that’s more like it! I don’t think there’s much of a chance I’ll ever be rich enough to hang out in Martha’s Vinyard, so they won’t have to worry about me calling 911 for a tinky sighting.

Spring peeper

Tom the peeper

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Twice in the last few months, the topic of garden gnomes has come up. No, I don’t have a display of them at my house or anything.

The first person who asked about them was Doni (Adonis) my cousin’s husband. While he described how much he loved them in his beautiful Greek accent, my cousin stood behind him shaking her head and mouthing “Nooooo!” I told him that they would be too delicate and heavy to tote back to Greece and explained that he already had his hands full with the cowboy hat he bought for his son.

Then, a couple days ago, I was talking to one of my doctors, and we got side-tracked on the topic of crafting. She told me she was going to make a gnome garden or do some gnome crafting to add to her kitschy garden. We then moved on to the word kitschy; what it means, how to say it, and more.

I said, “Yeah, I just wrote an article about it.” I was wrong. I didn’t write about kitschy, I wrote about tchotchkes. So here, for Doni and my doctor, is a little bit more on kitschy.

From Merriam-Webster:

kitsch (pronounced kitch, like kitchen)

1: something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality

2: a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition

From the Online Etymology Dictionary

kitsch (n.)

1926, from German kitsch, literally "gaudy, trash," from dialectal kitschen "to smear." Earlier as a German word in English.

Some synonyms for kitschy are:

• garish
• gaudy
• glitzy
• tacky
• tasteless
• inelegant
• schlocky

And schlocky? Also from Merriam-Webster, and then the Online Etymology Dictionary:

schlocky (adj)

: of low quality or value

schlock (n)

1915, "cheap, shoddy, or defective goods," from American Yiddish shlak, from German Schlacke "dregs, scum, dross" (see slag (n.)). Alternative etymology [OED] is from Yiddish shlogn "to strike" (cognate with German schlagen; see slay). Mostly commercial at first, by mid-20c. in reference to fiction, movies, television programming, etc. Derived form schlockmeister is by 1953; "purveyor of cheap products," though originally it had a more specific sense in showbiz.

I think of the gnomes book that our parents’ friends had on the coffee table. My brother and I always sought it out when we were at their house. Gnomes make me laugh. When I asked AI if gnomes were kitschy, it responded:

Yes, garden gnomes are often considered kitschy. The term "kitschy" refers to objects that are seen as being in poor taste due to their excessive garishness or sentimentality, but they can sometimes be appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. Garden gnomes fit this description as they are often viewed as overly sentimental and somewhat tacky decorations. However, some people might appreciate them for their nostalgic or humorous value.

Basically, go forth and do whatever makes you happy, kitschy or not.

Gnomes in a planter.

Gnomes going to town with mushrooms and a hedgehog.

Gnomes hiding in a wheelbarrow.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Hello my Halloween witches and warlocks. As promised, I have another word I discovered when looking up the word sigil. Todays word is grimoire.

I know a lot of people love that suave French accent, but this word sounds a little creepy. Im going to delve deeper and see what Wikipedia and the Online Etymology Dictionary have to say. First, from Wikipedia:

A grimoire (also known as a "book of spells", "magic book", or a "spellbook") is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms, and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities, and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers. The only contents found in a grimoire would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of ingredients and their magical correspondences.

The article has so many links and a lot to say about books of magic across the world. If you want something to do while you prepare for Halloween, you can read about magic. And now from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

grimoire (n.)

magician’s manual for invoking demons, 1849, from French grimoire, altered from grammaire "incantation; grammar" (see grammar).

grammar (n.)

late 14c., "Latin grammar, rules of Latin," from Old French gramaire "grammar; learning," especially Latin and philology, also "(magic) incantation, spells, mumbo-jumbo" (12c., Modern French grammaire), an "irregular semi-popular adoption" of Latin grammatica "grammar, philology," perhaps via an unrecorded Medieval Latin form *grammaria.

The classical Latin word is from Greek grammatike (tekhn "(art) of letters," referring both to philology and to literature in the broadest sense, fem. of grammatikos (adj.) "pertaining to or versed in letters or learning," from gramma "letter.

A much broader word in Latin and Greek; restriction of the meaning to "systematic account of the rules and usages of language" is a post-classical development.

Ohh. Grimoire and grammar? Perhaps that explains the fear some people have when they approach the subject of language?

And two more words from the articles above, with definitions from Merriam-Webster.

talisman (noun)

1: an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune

2: something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects

amulet (noun)

: a charm (such as an ornament) often inscribed with a magic incantation or symbol to aid the wearer or protect against evil (such as disease or witchcraft)

Stay safe!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la…

Wait! No, that’s months away! Now, tis the season to be scary!

I tell you; I’ve been wracking my brain for something new and exciting. I’ve read articles about “fall vs. autumn,” terms that mean “scary,” and the history of October as a word. I think in the past, we’ve covered a lot of this material.

Then, last night, as I was watching yet another Marvel-related show (Agatha All Along), I had to grab my pen and write down sigil. The show is about witches, so I figured that a sigil was something like a spell. The witches wonder who “put this sigil” on one of the characters.

So, what is a sigil? According to Wikipedia:

A sigil is a type of symbol used in magic. The term usually refers to a pictorial signature of a spirit (such as an angel, demon, or deity). In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, a sigil refers to a symbolic representation of the practitioner’s desired outcome.

The term sigil derives from the Latin sigillum (pl. sigilla or sigils), meaning "seal". In medieval magic, the term sigil was commonly used to refer to occult signs which represented various angels and demons which the practitioner might summon.

In the ceremonial magic of the Middle Ages, sigils were used in the summoning of these beings and were the pictorial equivalent to their true name.

This is the demon Gamegin’s sigil, and there are more here.

As mentioned above, there is also something called chaos magic, which “Emerg(ed) in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and esoteric subculture.” Here is a more modern sigil.

There is so much more to learn about here, if that’s your thing. My thing is words, and I found another one in the article that intrigues me, but I’ll save that for next time.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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Dear Editrix,

Have you explained where the term “shindig” came from? I was watching a movie and one of the characters talked about how they used to throw a big “shindig.”

Sincerely,

Ms. S.

Dear Ms. S,

While I use the term shindig, I can’t say I’ve ever looked into where it comes from. It sounds kind of painful, but I would classify it as a “get together.” Let’s have a look to see what Merriam-Webster says, and maybe the Online Etymology Dictionary, shall we?

M-W:

1a: a social gathering with dancing

b: a usually large or lavish party

2: shindy (a noisy quarrel, a brawl)

Hmmm. Dancing, a party, maybe a fight or two—that sounds like my kind of fun! My husband would agree with the dancing and lavish party, the fighting, not so much.

Let’s see where the word comes from.

Online Etymology Dictionary:

shindig (n.)

"a dance, a ball; rowdy party, lively gathering," 1851, U.S. colloquial, probably from earlier slang shindy "a spree, row, disturbance, merrymaking" (1821). That also was the name of an early game resembling hockey (1846); in this sense the word is perhaps from shinty (1771), the name of a Scottish game akin to hockey, for which see shinny.

shinny (n.)

also shinney, name of a hockey-like game, bandy-ball, 1670s, Scottish English, a word of obscure origin. Perhaps it is from Gaelic sinteag "a bound, a leap." OED suggests origin from shin ye "the cry used in the game." The form shinty is attested by 1771.

Okay, this all sounds too good to be true: a party, dancing, a little arguing, and a game like hockey? Woo hoo! It doesn’t get better than that. Sometimes you have to go with the flow and let your id have its day to play.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

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