Editor's Corner

I was originally very excited when I saw the title of this article: Top 10 Words with Remarkable Origins. I know, strange to be excited by this, but I’ve been working with my head down on our client conference, so this was like a tasty treat. As I read through the list, I found some things that I liked, but I also noticed that the writer wasn’t confident about several of the stories. “According to the theory,” “probably,” “the most likely theory,” and phrases throughout the article made me a little less certain about its accuracy. I like things that are verifiable!

In any case, I’m including the link for you, and some of the words. Let’s hope these are accurate.

Fiasco

The story here involves the original Italian word fiasco, which means "glass bottle."

According to one theory, when Venetian glass blowers realized a beautiful piece was flawed, they turned it into an ordinary bottle.

When that happened, a would-be work of art was downgraded into a mere fiasco – which is, according to the theory, how that word came to mean "complete failure."

Eavesdrop

Originally this word had nothing to do with snooping.

Eavesdrop started off literally: first it referred to the water that fell from the eaves of a house, then it came to mean the ground where that water fell.

Eventually, eavesdropper described someone who stood within the eavesdrop of a house to overhear a conversation inside.

Over time, the word obtained its current meaning: "to listen secretly to what is said in private."

Muscle

Imagine a statue in ancient Rome. Its muscles, to an audience of that time, may have suggested something very different from what they do today.

Muscle comes from the Latin musculus, which means "little mouse."

Why? Probably because a flexed muscle (a bicep, for example) was thought to resemble a mouse – with a tendon for a tail – moving beneath the skin.

Trivia

In ancient Rome, a trivium was an intersection of three roads (tri, "three" + vium, road).

When people met at a trivium, what did they tend to do? According to the Romans, they would shoot the breeze and discuss trivialis ("inconsequential things") – which eventually helped give trivia its modern meaning.

Enjoy your day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory

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

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Check it out, my friends! I found something pretty cool on Merriam-Webster when I was looking up the word boon, which was used numerous times in a show I was watching. I thought I knew what a boon was, but I had to look it up after it was used to describe the favor of killing someone who wanted to die. (To make it worse, the person asking for the boon was the son of the god Dream/Morpheus. He wanted his dad to do the job. Did I mention his son was just a head?) Anyway, on we go.

boon

1: a timely benefit : blessing

The rain was a boon for parched crops.

2: benefit, favor

especially : one that is given in answer to a request

But that’s not the thing that excited me! What I found was a “Words That Rhyme with…” feature. Have you ever been trying to think of a rhyme for a word, and it just isn’t happening? I was not a lover of good poetry in school; in fact when I switched colleges, they made me retake Romantic Literature, which was mostly poetry, and I hated it.

But I am a lover of bad poetry. I have always enjoyed making up poems since I was a little kid. Most of them were pretty foul, but I sure loved it. If any of you have kids or grandkids, I think this site could be amazing for teaching purposes. Whether you teach your little ones how to write a poem or a saucy limerick is up to you.

So the first word I thought of was, of course, gross (booger). I thought for my example I’d move on to something a little more acceptable and I landed on stinker. Let’s just say my dog helped me come up with that.

Here are the results:

This won me over when I saw that they didn’t stop at two-syllable words—they came up with all kinds of matches! Stinker, binge drinker, eye winker; hook, line, and sinker; wishful thinker…think of the magic that could come from this lineup!

Let’s try another word: computer.

I won’t paste anything in, I’ll just type up my favorites:

• Two syllables: pewter, scooter, suitor, cuter
• Three syllables: commuter, polluter, bean-shooter, zuit suiter
• Four syllables or more: prosecutor, biscuit shooter, electric scooter, telecommuter

You never know when this site could come in handy! Maybe when you’re eating cotton candy and drinking cherry brandy with your new friend Andy? Or reading Jack Handy with your big, sandy arm candy, Sandy?

I guess you can see what an annoying big sister I could be. Lucky for my brother Fritz, we didn’t have computers back then. 😊

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

I was reading up on rhetorical devices, and I thought there might be some new and interesting information to share with you here. Merriam-Webster provided a list of rhetorical devices and this explanation in one of their articles:

As with all fields of serious and complicated human endeavor (that can be considered variously as an art, a science, a profession, or a hobby), there is a technical vocabulary associated with writing. Rhetoric is the name for the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion, and though a writer doesn’t need to know the specific labels for certain writing techniques to use them effectively, it is sometimes helpful to have a handy taxonomy for the ways in which words and ideas are arranged. This can help to discuss and isolate ideas that might otherwise become abstract and confusing. As with the word rhetoric itself, many of these rhetorical devices come from Greek.

That said, I’m going to go through many of these items. Today’s first device is called anadiplosis. Let’s break that down a little into something that doesn’t sound like a new dinosaur name. From litcharts.com:

Anadiplosis is a figure of speech in which a word or group of words located at the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at or near the beginning of the following clause or sentence. This line from the novelist Henry James is an example of anadiplosis: "Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."

Some additional key details about anadiplosis:

• Anadiplosis appears everywhere, from literature, to children’s books, to famous speeches, to everyday conversation. It is also very common in the Bible. [KC – Examples further below.]
• The emphasis created by anadiplosis’s repetition of words has the power to persuade, to create a sense of urgency or emotion, as well as to give a pleasing rhythm to text or speech. [KC – The nursery rhymes and song below are good representatives.]
• Anadiplosis is also often used to stretch a logical progression of ideas across three or more clauses, as in the line from the movie Gladiator: "The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor." [KC – See the example from Malcolm X and other examples that follow.]

I think this becomes simpler and more sensible by looking at examples. Here are some examples from all over the place!

• “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
• “Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird / And if that mockingbird won’t sing / Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring / And if that diamond ring turns brass […]” (Nursery rhyme: Hush, Little Baby)
• There was an old lady who swallowed a bird; / How absurd to swallow a bird! / She swallowed the bird to catch the spider / She swallowed the spider to catch the fly […]” (Nursery rhyme: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly)
• “All you need is love, love is all you need.” (The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love”.)
• “Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern […] “The Ballot or the Bullet” (Malcom X)
• “When your cable company keeps you on hold, you get angry. When you get angry, you blow off steam.” (2012 Direct TV ad)
• The love of wicked men converts to fear, that fear to hate, and hate turns one or both to worthy danger and deserved death. (Richard II, Shakespeare)
• My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, / And every tongue brings in several a tale / And every tale condemns me for a villain. (Richard III, Shakespeare)
• I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree… (“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” William Butler Yeats)
• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (The Holy Bible, the book of John)

As you can see from the examples, anadiplosis is everywhere! It’s always interesting to find out there’s a name for devices we use every day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Somehow, the day moved so quickly that I forgot about Editor’s Corner. There’s always tomorrow, so I’m going to throw a little something your way for Friday.

I stopped by Merriam-Webster’s page to see if there was anything exciting there, and sure enough, there was a new quiz. This one is called Hello my name is… and that made me instantly (and shamefully) think of “Hello my name is…Slim Shady”. I decided to take the test and the whole time I had that song running through my head.

Despite that, I did much better than I did on the color quiz…in fact, the one I missed here was also about color. Go figure.

Check out the link above when you have a few minutes. I’ll give you a sample to get you started.

Which of these was named for an 18th century French physician?

You get to choose from four answers on the quiz.

• Keratin
• Limousine
• Guillotine
• Franks and beans

(Okay, I made this list up.)

Correct Answer: Guillotine

Famously used to behead aristocrats during the French Revolution, the guillotine was named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a physician and member of France’s National Assembly. Guillotin pushed for executions to be done by machine – a much faster and less painful alternative to the axe. Previously the device was called a louisette, after its inventor, Antoine Louis.

[KC – I just did a report for Bastille Day and the Mosaic BIG, and I learned something amazing about the Statue of Liberty from one of our coworkers:
the statue has broken chains at her feet! They were originally in her hand, where she now holds a tablet with the date of the
Declaration of Independence. She was a gift to America to symbolize freedom, particularly the freeing of the slaves in the U.S.

There’s a lot to learn about Lovely Lady Liberty here in this podcast:

https://youtu.be/WLmi5nxP3pQ?si=xSODjWI5rImgwuyc or by looking up “Does the Statue of Liberty have chains under her feet?”]

Now, it looks like the Slim Shady Hello My Name Is test is up to you! Happy Friday!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

I borrowed today’s article from an old Richard Lederer column in the San Diego Union Tribune. I hope you enjoy it! (I removed a few just for space, but the whole list is on the website below.)

Readers Submit Snappy Sniglets To Snicker At – Verbivore

A stroodle is “the annoying piece of cheese stretching from a slice of hot pizza to one’s mouth.” A mustgo is “any item of food that has been sitting in the refrigerator so long it has become a science project.” And an ignosecond is “that overlapping moment when the hand is locking the car door even as the brain is saying, ‘My keys are in there!’”

These are three examples of the weirdly incisive world of Sniglets, the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Dictionary created by comedian Rich Hall 30 years ago. Hall defines a sniglet as “any word that doesn’t appear in a dictionary, but should.”

• puff puppies. the wispy accumulations of dog hair on the floor that resemble dust bunnies. popduds. the unpopped corn kernels left at the bottom of your microwave popcorn bag. lipstuck. the lipstick print on your wine glass. — Gail Rosemeyer, Carlsbad
• sweatstache. the beads of sweat that form on your upper lip when your salsa is a tad too warm. gashole. the person who fails to pull to the forward pump when refueling. — Debi Buchanan, Fashion Hills
• blueper. embarrassing momentary sighting of adult content when channel surfing premium cable channels in family company. escalexia. stumbling attempt to take first steps up on a stopped escalator. cellupedia. the aimless meandering of a cellphone talker in intense conversation. — Bradford Bruce, San Diego

And honorable mention to all:

• syruptitious. sneaking more flavoring on your waffle — Doug Keeling, Oceanside
• emailancholy. the dejection you experience when you open your email inbox and there is nothing there. — Steve Holder, College Area
• cellnesia. the malady whereby you need to call your cellphone in order to find it, hoping it isn’t turned off or battery dead. — Nancy Britt, Lakeside
• muttchkin. a tiny toy terrier of questionable ancestry. — Dave & Janel Roti, Poway
• adsnot. the clear, elastic, squishy material used to seal junk mail fliers and to adhere sample credit cards to bank advertising. — Salvatore Scafidi, Mission Hills
• tripblock. the bar of concrete that cars pull up to in a parking space and that pedestrians inevitably stumble over. — Eric Taylor, Hillcrest
• press-one-itis. the sore finger you get trying to reach a real person on the phone. — Joan Bryant, Coronado
• snortgust. the act of inadvertently snorting liquid, such as milk, into one’s nose while drinking it. — Jeanne Cherbeneau, La Jolla
• teendenytis. a characteristic of your 16-year-old, who forgot to refill your gas tank, or who “didn’t” put that ding in your new car. — May Reeves, Oceanside
• lateitude. A snarky excuse for one’s tardiness. — Annette Williams, Ramona
• box sloth. a person who searches through every movie title at a DVD vending machine, no matter how many people are waiting in line behind them. — Shawn Murphy, San Diego
• flitter. the mysterious debris that flies out of the bed of a pick-up truck and swirls down the freeway. — Ned Paterson, Carlsbad
• squinthogs. people who fail to turn down their high beams when driving at night, blinding the oncoming traffic. — Kelley Dupuis, Chula Vista
• grammo. a violation of the rules of grammar, on the order of typo. — Woody Wilson, Del Mar

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

I was just looking for something in the dictionary, and I got sidetracked. (I know, usually we go there for words, but sometimes a lizard runs by on my fence and I lose my train of thought.) Today I spotted an article called ‘Ganef,’ ‘Galoot,’ and More Historical Slang Terms We Love. Ive heard galoot, but I had to find out what else Merriam-Webster picked out for us to read. Here are some of the words and definitions, but if you want more, feel free to check out the website.

ganef noun : thief, rascal

Ganefalso styled as gonif and goniffhas been in use in English since the late 1830s. It’s a Yiddish borrowing, and originally comes from the Hebrew word gannh, meaning "thief." It may be applied to thieves of any kind.

galoot noun : a man or boy; especially : one who is foolish or awkward

nerts noun plural : nonsense, nuts often used interjectionally

Nerts was especially useful in the late 1920s when you presumably couldn’t say "Nuts!" without shocking and offending, but now the latter sounds quaint and the former positively obsolete. Don’t let this stop you from assisting in its revival.

Holy Joe noun : parson, chaplain

Holy Joe was originally a term used by 19th century sailors to refer to those who ventured to the seas to minister to the saltier souls in need of salvation. It also referred to prison chaplains before expanding to refer more generally to any parson or chaplain.

roscoe noun : handgun

If the roscoe that refers to a handgun owes its existence to a particular Roscoe, that person is not known to history. What we do know is that the use of roscoe to refer to a handgun dates to the early 20th centuryand is playable in Scrabble.

oofy adjective : rich, wealthy

Oofy isn’t a word to flatter the financially flush among us, which is part of its charm. It’s a product of the late 19th century, having come quick on the heels of its predecessor, ooftish or oof for short; that word means "money," and comes from the Yiddish phrase uf tish, "on (the) table."

Its always a good day when you learn more words you can use for Scrabble!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editors Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Dear Editrix,

The other day, I responded to my coworker saying something like, “We need to get down to brass tacks.” My coworker responded with a blank stare. I use the phrase “getting down to brass tacks” all the time. Can you define and discuss this for those unfamiliar with the phrase?

Dear JR,

I know the two of us belong to a similar generation, so I’d be happy to go through this. It is definitely an idiom that would be tough to figure out if you had never heard it before.

“Getting down to brass tacks” means getting down to the basic, most important details of a situation. From The Grammarist, here are some synonyms:

· Cut to the chase.

· Get down to business.

· Get down to bedrock.

· Get down to the nitty-gritty.

· Roll up one’s sleeves.

The origin of the phrase is uncertain. Some say it came from the brass tacks haberdashers used when measuring cloth for hats. Others say it came from reupholstering furniture. Still others say it came from preparing President Lincoln’s coffin (but they used giant silver tacks for that). Nobody really knows for sure.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Good morning, folks! One of my favorite contributors of ideas for Editor’s Corner sent me a Facebook clip of a new word (at least to me): zarf. A zarf (plural: zarfs or zarves) is a cup holder. Here is a zarf that you may be familiar with:

Growing up in Seattle, where coffee is king, I expect I would know this. Then again, when I was making espresso for one of my first employers, we didn’t have zarves. I would say it is because they are fairly new, but actually they are more than 800 years old.

Let’s look at the zarves of Turkey. In Turkey, the word for zarf is zarflar. In Arabic, it is zuruuf. From Wikipedia:

It was around the 13th century in Turkey, when coffee became popular as a beverage. The serving of coffee in Turkey was a complex, ritualized process.

It was served in small cups without handles…which were placed in holders known as zarf…(meaning "container" or "envelope") to protect the cup and also the fingers of the drinker from the hot liquid.

Cups were typically made of porcelain, but also of glass and wood.

Some of these zarfs were ostentatious, made of silver, gold, copper, brass, ivory, bone, tortoise shell, precious gems, and stones. They were filigreed, engraved, and painted. In the 1800s, Geneva started making “zarf sets” for the Islamic world, made with enamel which was bright and decorative.

Here are some historical zarfs from the Facebook clip:

This one was considered “plain”:

Here is one with a porcelain cup on the side:

This one, with Turkish motifs:

A bejeweled example from the Ottomans:

One that is probably worth more than our home:

And finally, a zarf set from Geneva:

Maybe next time I go to Starbucks, I’ll ask for my coffee in one of the more traditional zarfs!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Hello, my friends! A few weeks ago, one of you told me you had to look up the term hat trick. At first, I thought I knew what it was, but then I realized that I was thinking of the term rim shot (for drums). My husband informed me that a rim shot is the “ba dum tsh” drummers play at the end of a joke, and it’s called a sting. I’m so confused.

So, the term hat trick (or hat-trick), is related to sports. It’s a trifecta of sorts, and it means different things, depending on which sport you are talking about. In general, “a hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.”

Here are some details from Wikipedia:

The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wickets with three consecutive deliveries. Fans held a collection for Stephenson, and presented him with a hat bought with the proceeds. The term was used in print for the first time in 1865 in the Chelmsford Chronicle.

Since then, hockey, baseball, soccer, rugby, water polo, and other sports have adopted it.

Here are a few details for you.

Baseball

In the past, baseball referred to a hat trick as “striking out three times in a game.” Striking out four times in a game is even worse, or a bigger failure, so the term for that was the golden sombrero. These days, the hat trick is more often used for hitting three home runs in a game and having celebrants throw their hats on the field (similar to the ice hockey tradition).

Soccer

On to football (soccer) which has some special types of hat tricks that I wanted to make note of.

The flawless hat trick (called lupenreiner) is a term Germans and Austrians use when a player scores three goals in a row before the half-time break (and probably when they score three goals in a row in the second half of the game). Wikipedia was not very clear on the flawless hat trick.

This next one, the perfect hat trick, would be amazing to see. This is also a soccer feat (though it would be cool to see an American football player do it with field goals). The perfect hat trick is when a player scores three ways in one match:

• One right-footed goal
• One left-footed goal
• One headed goal

I know, we’ll never see it in American football. 😊

Next time you hear someone talking about a hat trick, let me know what the player did and what sport you were watching!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/

Dear Editrix,

I was watching Judge Judy, and she called someone in court a “Rip Van Winkle.” Many in the court did not know what story she was referencing or why she’d call the person that. Can you let us know who he is?

Dear Reader,

Since I didn’t remember the story Rip Van Winkle, I sought the wisdom of the internet. I don’t have space for the whole story, so I’ll give the short version and some insight on the story and its morals.

From Wikipedia:

Rip Van Winkle is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their strong liquor, and falls deeply asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.

There is a lot in the story about how lazy he was, what a nag his wife was, how he went into the mountains to avoid responsibility, and what had changed after his 20-year sleep. I found the following information on the story’s morals…but I don’t remember which website the information comes from.

Wikipedia is a good resource if you have questions or want to read the story, though.

Now, for the morals:

· Change is unavoidable:

Rip’s 20-year sleep demonstrates that life moves forward with or without an individual, and change is inevitable.

· Embrace freedom:

Rip’s return to his village, where he finds everything different, suggests that casting off old bonds and embracing a new reality can lead to a brighter future.

· Live in the moment:

The story encourages readers to be active members in their own lives and appreciate every moment, rather than passively waiting for things to happen.

· Hard work and responsibility are valued:

Rip’s lack of work ethic is portrayed negatively, contrasting with the industriousness valued by his community, implying that hard work and responsibility are essential for a fulfilling life.

· Tradition vs. modernity:

Rip’s story reflects the transition from America’s colonial past to its modern identity, highlighting the changes that occurred after the Revolutionary War.

Being an old fan of Judge Judy, my guess is that she was referring to the individual in her court as someone lazy or who was avoiding hard work. Either that or they were passing out after drinking too much Dutch liquor!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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