Editor's Corner

Good morning, everyone! I hope you had a nice three-day weekend, whether you honored fallen soldiers or honored hot dogs and hamburgers at a barbecue, or both.

Today I’m here to talk about more colors! Not red, blue, or white. Today I have the two funky greens from the Merriam-Webster colorquiz a couple of weeks ago. As with blues and reds, I’m going to provide the definitions from M-W, the color swatch from the quiz, and additional etymological information from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

viridian

a chrome green pigment that is a hydrated oxide of chromium

Shade of green, 1882, from the paint color name (1862), coined from Latin virid-, stem of viridis "green, blooming, vigorous" (see verdure) + -ian.

English earlier had viridity (early 15c.) "greenery, greenishness, verdure;" virid (adj.) "green, blooming" (c. 1600). Viridescent "greenish" is attested from 1788 in mineralogy; viridescence (n.) by 1830 in botany.

I was hoping to find a classic car in viridian green, but the closest I could come to viridian was this lovely bouquet of bird feathers:

And some lovely yarn, which is a little lighter.

The other green mentioned in the quiz was chartreuse, a color that burns my eyes like pepper spray and gasolene. Still, my mom loves it and I love her, so let’s have a look.

chartreuse

: a variable color averaging a brilliant yellow green

: a French liqueur

Esteemed type of liqueur, 1866, from la Grande-Chartreuse, chief monastery of the Carthusian order, which was founded 11c. and named for the massif de la Chartreuse (Medieval Latin Carthusianus) mountain group in the French Alps, where its first monastery was built. The liqueur recipe dates from early 17c.; the original now is marketed as Les Pères Chartreux. The color name (1884) is from the pale apple-green hue of the best type of the liqueur.

Now that’s interesting! The liqueur was first, and the color was named after the drink. Here are the bottles of a couple of versions. The one on the right is stronger (so that’s the one I need to take a swig of, next time my mom come’s home in a chartreuse outfit).

That’s all I have today! Cheers!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

Hello folks!

Today I am exploring some of the other colors from the Merriam-Webster quiz. This time, I’m going for the blues. I thought I’d start with turquoise, which my mom always calls “turquoise blue,” but when you look at it next to other blues, it looks almost greenish.

Sarah K. sent me a link to an article about this very topic from the Guardian, and she also sent another color test, specifically about greens and blues.

I know that the color tests aren’t really fair if you are colorblind (though one of the best scores was from someone colorblind who guessed the answers based on etymology and smartness). 😊Just like last time, I’m looking at the meaning and origins of the words, from Merriam-Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary.

turquoise

1: a mineral that is a blue, bluish-green, or greenish-gray hydrous basic phosphate of copper and aluminum, takes a high polish, and is valued as a gem when sky blue

2: a light greenish blue

And the etymology:

opaque greenish-blue precious stone, 1560s, from French, replacing Middle English turkeis, turtogis (late 14c.), from Old French fem. adjective turqueise "Turkish," in pierre turqueise "Turkish stone." So called for being brought to Europe first from Turkestan or via Turkish Ottoman lands.

Okay, that’s enough. I want to see some jewelry! This is a good photo of the variety of colors that turquoise encompasses.

cyan

a greenish-blue color

That’s it? That doesn’t look at all green to me. You may recognize cyan as one of the colors in your printer. That particular color screams printer ink to me. Well, do we have anything more interesting in the etymology department?

"greenish-blue color," 1889, short for cyan blue (1879), from Greek kyanos "dark blue, dark blue enamel, lapis lazuli,"

Well, that gets us even farther away from greenish-blue. Dark blue enamel? Lapis lazuli? I love Lapis, but let me show you how that looks compared to the cyan color block above.

I give the color creators or dictionary definition divas an F on that. Greenish-blue? I think not.

azure

Here’s one with varied definitions from the dictionary:
1a: the blue color of the clear sky

b: the heraldic color blue

2: the unclouded sky

3: archaic : lapis lazuli

Hmm…I think of the sky as much lighter than that, but I suppose it could be that color. Let’s see if the etymology gives us any further information.

"sky-blue color; pigment or paint made of powdered lapis lazuli"

A couple examples for my search of “sky blue images”:

And here are the different colors of the sky according to a color chart, so I guess azure gets a pass:

Am I blue? Nope! Have a great day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

The other day I was in quite a rush to get something interesting to you, and I raided Merriam-Webster’s webpage. I sent out their color quiz, after quickly trying it myself. I missed a few, and I heard I was not the only one. It only takes one trip to the Home Depot paint section to see the creative (and a kooky) names they invent. I thought it would be interesting to see the stories behind these colors.

Today, let’s look at a couple of the “reds.” The definitions are from M-W, with a few edits from me. The square color samples are from the quiz and additional photos are from a general image search.

madder

1: a Eurasian herb (Rubia tinctorum) with whorled leaves and small yellowish flowers

2: a moderate to strong red

The madder root is the part of the plant the color “red” comes from. Here are some different types of fabric and how bright or light madder root dye can make them.

sanguine

1: marked by eager hopefulness : confidently optimistic

2: bloodred

3a: consisting of or relating to blood

b: bloodthirsty, sanguinary

c: accompanied by, involving, or relating to bloodshed : bloody

d: of the complexion : ruddy

I can always remember sanguine being related to blood because in Spanish the word for blood is sangre, and in French it is sang. But I’ve never understood the first definition “eagerly hopeful” or “confidently optimistic.” Usually when I see blood dripping down a part of my body, the last thing I feel is “eagerly hopeful.” It’s more like, “What kind of antibacterial do I have, and how big of a bandage do I need?”

I thought maybe the etymology might help, and indeed it did! From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

sanguine:

The meaning "cheerful, hopeful, vivacious, confident" is attested by c. 1500, because these qualities were thought in old medicine to spring from an excess or predominance of blood as one of the four humors. [KC
– The four humors of Medieval medicine being blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.
⁠]

That makes so much more sense! It’s amazing to me that what stands as the definition of sanguine is from Medieval medicine.

Enjoy your day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

Hello readers,

Today is another day that I apologize for not having time to write an article for you. I do have something fun from Merriam-Webster, though: a color quiz. It looks like this:

If you don’t want the timer, click the toggle button to turn it off. Enjoy!

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! We are swamped in editing, so I’m sharing part of a Richard Lederer article with you today, from his column in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

It is as hard to correct a typographical error as it is to unring a bell, put toothpaste back in a tube, put a genie back in a bottle, or stuff lava back into an erupted volcano. The typographical terrors that follow turn newspaper editors into typochondriacs:

A baby announcement concluded with an unfortunate misspelling that demonstrated how the inadvertent substitution of a single letter can totally reverse meaning: “The happy parents have the congratulations of all on this suspicious event.”

Ah, the difference a letter or two can make:

• He received his graduate degree in unclear physics.
• The defendant was charged with carless driving.
• Taylor Frey led the Cougars with eight tickles.
• Diane’s wedding drew a terrific crowd, including Sally Bates, who everybody thought was a broad.
• Walter and Rebecca Hill announce the coming marriage of their daughter Helene. No mate has been selected for the wedding.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place the foot in it. It will be ready in one hour.
• If you feel strongly about any particular subject, why not write to the Gazette about it? We prefer discussion about local, rather than rational, topics.

Even when a newspaper staff discovers that it has splattered egg on its pages, the cleanup operation can be embarrassingly messy, as witness these so-called corrections:

• Our paper carried the notice last week that Mr. Oscar Hoffnagle is a defective on the police force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Hoffnagle is, of course, a detective on the police farce.
• It was incorrectly reported last Friday that today is T-shirt Appreciation Week. It is actually Teacher Appreciation Week.
• In a recent edition we referred to the chairman of Chrysler Corporation as Lee Iacooccoo. His real name is Lee Iacacca. The Gazette regrets the error.
• The marriage of Freda Van Amburg and William Branton, which was announced in this paper a few weeks ago, was a mistake we wish to correct.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

Hello all!

I was looking around for something interesting to share with you when I stumbled on this page of Most Searched-for Word Definitions in every country. I’m a sucker for words, maps, and learning more about other countries, so I thought this was something really cool. Since we’re in North America, I thought I’d start there. Here’s the map of North and Central America.

As I read through the different words for each country, I thought a few things:

• Demure? Why demure? It appears as the most popular word in several countries. (I later discovered people were curious about demure because there’s a TikTok video in which the star uses the word demure many times with a lot of emphasis. They are talking about makeup, clothes, how they dress for work, then they use some Spanish slang for body parts. They are hilarious, but they are not using the traditional definition of demure.)
• Love? Come on Panama. I wanna know what love is, and I want you to show me…but I’m not sure why you’re looking for it in the dictionary.
• Gaslighting, resilience, integrity—I recognize these from the news and current goings-on, so they make sense. But these are “heavy” words. Gaslighting is “a form of psychological manipulation that occurs when someone is intentionally made to doubt their own sanity, memory, or perceptions of reality.” Resilience is the ability to stand up against difficulty and recover quickly. Integrity is having strong principles and morality. Here are some assorted facts from the article:

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Demure, fascism and resilience are the most searched-for word definitions in six countries each.

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>The most searched-for definition in the U.S. is gaslighting, which has 110,000 monthly searches.

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>The UK’s most searched-for definition is diversity (9,900 monthly searches).

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Integrity is Canada’s most searched-for definition (8,100 monthly searches).

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>In Australia, genocide is the most searched-for definition, with 4,400 monthly searches.

Yikes! Genocide? I decided I stop there, right after checking my cousin’s country, Greece. Ah, well Greece’s word made me laugh because it is a little different. The top word looked up there is dank.

It’s interesting to see what’s on the minds of people around the world, I just can’t handle so much potential misery today. I think it’s time for a puppy or two (or nine).

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

Recently, I was planning to go on a magical, fantastical trip to Ireland with my husband, brother, and sister-in-law. I look forward to trips to foreign countries because they are so eye-opening and educational but also (usually) fun and relaxing.

Unfortunately, our 5-year-old dog had a stroke. I will spare you the details and tell you that she’s walking, eating, doing physical therapy, and she’s doing great. We just planned the trip for later so that she is up for entertaining house guests. 😊

But this means that I haven’t gone on the invigorating travels that keep me curious about language.

I received an email the other day about something that renewed my vigor. One of you was writing to me about the word: shenanigan. I love this word, and I thought, “Yay, something Irish!” Here’s what I found out from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

shenanigan (noun)

"nonsense; deceit, humbug," 1855, American English slang, of uncertain origin. Earliest records of it are in California (San Francisco and Sacramento). Suggestions include Spanish chanada, a shortened form of charranada "trick, deceit;" or, less likely, German Schenigelei, peddler’s argot for "work, craft," or the related German slang verb schinäglen. Another guess centers on Irish sionnach "fox," and the form is perhaps conformed to an Irish surname.

Surprise, surprise! This word cannot be nailed down. The history of it is not certain, so I have to look elsewhere for a fix of Irishness. I found some Irish words on this website The Irish Roadtrip. I’m not going to lowercase the words or change any of the spelling, like centre. And the author was kind enough to share the pronunciations of the words with us!

Bóithrín

(One) of the more beautiful Irish words, ‘Bóithrín’ (or ‘Boreen’ in English’) is a word used to describe a rural road or lane that’s usually unpaved and that often has grass growing up the centre of it.

Pronunciation: ‘Boh-reen’

Cara

Often used as an Irish girls name, the word ‘Cara’ means ‘Friend’ in Irish. It’s easily pronounced ‘Car-ah’.

Teaghlach

‘Teaghlach’ is used to describe ‘A family/household’.

Pronunciation: ‘Chai-lach’

Leannán

One of the more popular Irish language words amongst courting couples, ‘Leannán’ means ‘Sweetheart/lover’.

Pronunciation: ‘Lan-awn’

Póirín

One of my favourite short Irish words, ‘Póirín’ means ‘Small potato’.

Pronunciation: ‘Pour-een’

Oíche

‘Oíche’ is the Irish word for ‘Night’. If you wanted to say ‘Good night’ to someone in Irish, you’d say ‘Oíche mhaith’.

Pronunciation: ‘Ee-hah’

Saoirse

Although many will know ‘Saoirse’ as one of the trickier-to-pronounce Irish girls names, it’s actually the Irish gaelic word for ‘Freedom’.

Pronunciation: ‘Sur-sha’

Well, I can see that I’m not going to be able to pronounce anything or figure out the meanings of these words. It should be exciting when we finally make the voyage!

Here’s a funny clip with some pronunciation lessons: Saoirse.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

Good morning, everyone! I know this isn’t the right day for Editor’s Corner, but it’s been a busy week. Busy enough that I’m going to give you material that I didn’t write, but I grabbed from Mental Floss. It’s about creating words in the recent and not-so-recent past. I have selected bits and pieces of the article for you, but you can read the complete list by clicking the preceding link.

Happy Friday!

People love coining new words. And they love making good use of them—for a while anyway. Adultescence and Frankenstorm are just a couple of the creative blends that have once made it big but didn’t really stick around.

Sometimes, however, a coinage is so apt and useful that it does stick. When that happens, we sometimes get more than just one new word; we get a new kind of word ending, one that goes on to a long, productive career in word formation. Bookmobile was born in the 1920s and went on to spawn the likes of bloodmobile, Wienermobile, and pimpmobile. Workaholic is a creation of the 1940s that led to everything from chocoholic to sleepaholic to Tweetaholic. But not all of these creative endings have staying power. We don’t hear much today from the bootlegger-inspired -leggers of the 1940s—the foodleggers, gasleggers, tireleggers, and meatleggers who were circumventing the law to deal in valuable rationed goods.

[KC – Here are a few of the suffixes.]

-athon

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this one was taken from marathon back in the late 1920s or early 1930s, and it has proved its staying power since. Whether for a good cause or for no cause at all, our telethons, danceathons, bakeathons, drinkathons, complainathons, and assorted other verbathons have made this past century something of an athonathon.

-splaining

Mansplaining, nerdsplaining, vegansplaining, catsplaining—seems like everybody’s got some ’splaining to do these days.

-tastic

It’s cheesetastic! It’s craft-tastic! It’s awesometastic! Almost anything can be made fantastic with this ending. It can even bring out the unrecognized positive qualities of that which is grosstastic, sadtastic, or craptastic. Beware the -tastic meaning drift, however. Craptastic wavers between “so crappy it’s great” and just “super crappy.”

-licious

Babelicious, bootylicious, funalicious, partylicious, biblicious, yogalicious, mathalicious—if you like it, celebrate it with a -licious!

-pocalypse

Snowpocalypse! Heatpocalypse! Will the world end in firepocalypse or icepocalypse? This suffix seems to have begun in the domain of weather reports, but hysterical exaggeration has proved useful elsewhere. Did you not hear of the e-reader’s bringing of the bookpocalypse?

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!

I was looking for something to “borrow” this week while I continue attending internal training. I found an interesting article from Merriam-Webster about common words from ancient Rome that have changed a bit over time. They gave the example of decimate, which today we define as “wipe out” or “kill, destroy, completely get rid of.” But the actual Roman definition was “to kill one out of ten,” as punishment for the group.

Here are a few of the words, but for the full article, you can go here.

Triumph

What it meant: an ancient Roman ceremonial in honor of a general after his decisive victory over a foreign enemy beginning with his entrance into the city preceded by the senate and magistrates, the spoils, and the captives in chains and followed by his army in marching order and ending with sacrificial offerings and a public feast

In ancient Rome different types of victories called for different types of celebrations; a triumph was awarded to generals who had achieved notable victories. You may, of course, still describe your own small personal victories as a triumph, even if they are not followed by sacrificial offerings and public feasting.

Ovation

What it meant: a ceremony attending the entering of Rome by a general who had won a victory of less importance than that for which a triumph was granted

If one was a Roman general and had won some battles, but not dealt enemies enough of a defeat to be awarded a triumph, then one might be given an ovation. This sense dealing with Roman military history was the initial meaning in English, but somewhere in the past few centuries the primary meaning of the word has shifted to “an expression or demonstration of popular acclaim especially by enthusiastic applause.”

Circus

What it meant: a large oblong or circular structure similar to an amphitheater and enclosed by tiers of seats on three or all four sides and used for athletic contests, exhibitions of horsemanship or in ancient times chariot racing and public (especially gladiatorial) spectacles

Circus comes from the Latin, in which it means “circle” or “circus.” In its earliest English use (14th century) the word referred to the spectacles of Ancient Rome. Subsequent to this circus has taken on addition meanings, including “a public spectacle” and “something suggestive of a circus (as in frenzied activity, sensationalism, theatricality, or razzle-dazzle).”

Curator

What it meant: a person corresponding nearly to the guardian of English law and appointed to manage the affairs of a person past the age of puberty while he is a minor or of any such person when legally incompetent (as a spendthrift or a lunatic)

When curator came into English use in the 15th century, the above definition was specifically applied to contexts of Roman law, the word’s first meaning. Since then curator has taken on numerous other senses, including “a groundsman in the sport of cricket” and “one in charge of the exhibits, research activities, and personnel of a museum, zoo, or other place of exhibit.”

I hope you have a good week!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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

If you’ve watched TV or gone to the movies in the last 40 years, you are probably familiar with the term “pie hole” used in place of “mouth.” Imagine if you will, two teenagers hanging around in the kitchen after school. One of the kids starts criticizing the school’s best history teacher, and the other kid yells, “Shut your pie hole! Ms. Cabrini is the best.” There are many ways to ask someone to quiet down. Here’s how I’d rank them, from kindest to most questionable:

• “Please be quiet” or “Please lower your voice.” These are more polite phrases, like your friendly neighborhood librarian would use.
• “Hush!” or “Shush!” Not rude, but a little “familiar,” perhaps something your grandma or dad might say.
• “Shut up!” This is something you hear a lot. I would call this abrupt and angry. Children say this to each other when they’re getting teased. I hear many parents using it with their kids when the children are throwing tantrums. And you hear kids yelling “shut up” back at parents, but that often ends with someone being sent to bed without dinner (and it’s not mom or dad).

Sometimes it can be playful, but it depends on who is saying it and what their tone is. Since it can be disrespectful and angry if used with the wrong person or in the wrong way, it’s best not to say it. If you need quiet, go with something more polite.

• “Shut your pie hole!” This is basically, “Shut your mouth!” It can be really funny since most people don’t refer to their mouth as a “pie hole.” It can also be seen as crude. The British have a similar saying: “Shut your cake hole.” I think the disdain for these phrases is that you are not even dignifying the other person by using the term “mouth.” You’re just telling them to shut their eating hole.

So where did this term come from? I think this will surprise you. The term “Shut your cake hole” is documented in 1943 in a book of British war-time slang. But the term “Shut your pie hole” is an American term, and it was coined in the 1983 novel Christine, by Stephen King. If I remember correctly, the book is about a car, not pie.

Enjoy your day!

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Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory

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

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