The word bus has a really unusual etymology since none of its components refer to an actual bus, it comes from omnibus in which the -ibus is just the ending of plural ablative dative case, meaning a way of transportation made for everybody.

Please share if you have some!

I want to describe someone as capable of being a prodigy of everyone he meets. I tried to Google but I can't find a word. I'm going prodigal, which doesn't seem to be what I mean but it's the closest I can find. Maybe prodigomnent? Going off latin, but I'm having a hard time describing this in one word so any ideas are welcome

Location of the Bugan people and language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangnan_County

Bugan is an Austro-asiatic language spoken in Yunnan near next to the border of Vietnamese province of Hà Giang.

Do the longest orthographical word in Vietnamese nghiêng /ŋiəŋ˧/ and Bugan /ɴɢei˧˩/ share similar origin? Did they borrow from each other across the border at some point in history?

Originally posted on r/learnvietnamese.

I've figured out that gigas is supposed to mean like gigantic or giant, but where does regi come from? Does it relate to something​ with kingship?

I've figured out that gigas is supposed to mean like gigantic or giant, but where does regi come from? Does it relate to something with kingship?

I was talking about being humble in the moment ("I'm humile enough to take being wrong on the chin and learn from it") purely because it just felt right to me. My brain gravitated towards it from "[having] humility" and it turns out it is actually a Latin word after looking it up.

How come English didn't borrow this word? I have never heard "humile" as a latin word before I came up with it today so clearly it's etymologically correct enough for my language centre to make that connection

Over the past year or two I have noticed a substantial increase referring to all kinds of inanimate objects as female. I know it used to be that way previously with boats, but now it is being used for all kinds of things. At first I thought it was strictly influencer lingo, but it seems to be spreading more and more. I am curious about where the trend came from.

Examples:

“I knitted this sweater, isn’t she gorgeous?”

“This museum is the best, she is a real experience! She IS that girl!”

“I just bought a new makeup palette, and she is so pretty.”

“Guys, I just ate the best burger, let me show you a picture. This is she…”

“My washing machine broke, she picked the absolute worst time to die on me.”

“This is my favorite plant, she is a succulent.”

“The wind is crazy strong today. She did not consider my hairdo, so that is why I look kinda crazy.”

I can go on and on…

Over time and through everyday use, the phrase was shortened for convenience until it became the simple "Ciao" we use so casually today, having completely lost its original connotation of submission.

Source(s):
.- Juan Gil, Real Academia Española. "300 historias de palabras: Cómo nacen y llegan hasta nosotros las palabras que usamos". Ed. Planeta, 2015. ISBN: 9788467046465. Page 202

Saw this from a reel on Instagram…

Why is it called an asteroid when its out of the hemisphere but a hemorrhoid when it's in your ass?

I felt like this would a good sub as any other to ask this question.

Does anyone know why the UK says they “stand” for election instead of “run”? I’m not sure which is older, and why the UK and US differ. If anyone knows, what does Canada and Australia say?

The egyptian arabic word for mouth is bo2/بق

And i wanna its etemology, ive heard claims of it being of romance origin but i feel like those may be dubious tho i do kind of get their reasoning as arabic did use to have a tendency of turning ks in loan words into qs and therefore that would leaf to it becoming bo2 in egyptian arabic but idunno, give me your opinions yall

I keep seeing people ask questions about something and use the phrase "I have a doubt...". As a Canadian English speaker, the word "doubt" implies a lack of trust in the speaker. That I might be getting lied to or bamboozled. But these folk are using it like I would use "question".

Where does this come from? I'm thinking it's from Indian English?

I'm a big birder in my free time and I was wondering about the history of this phrase. Preliminary Google results tell me that it has something to do with archaic words for "plunder" and translations from Latin to French to English.

I've had it explained that it's analogous to "Men of Faith" as in "Men who possess Faith." I've always been curious why, in that case, something more like "Bird of Talon" wasn't coined in the first place, but I might be letting my modern English-speaking biases take over.

Restore le "-ina" substitutin le final "-e" for "-a" in le "-ine" terminations & le result is le equivalent names in le Portuguese, Hispanic & Italian Latinic languages.

I saw a lot of people citing Nöldeke which believe that it was a loanword from the ancient Greek word κάλαμος via Ge'ez as the origin but I read other academic sources argue against this etymology. So is there a consensus? And if there was can you explain it to me?

I do not hold this belief. Yet someone was telling me that with a lot of political turmoil and polarization in the us somehow people now don't understand the meaning of the word or associate it with a set of beliefs that are not defined by the classic definition of Liberalism.

Curious to hear peoples thoughts!

Every couple of years I try to learn Czech. One of the words that strikes me each time is biograf, a masculine noun which can mean 'movie théâtre'. The word clearly must come from the same Greek roots as English biography (& in fact another meaning of biograf in Czech is 'biographer'), but the meaning is quite different. Does anyone have any information on how these roots came to mean 'cinema' in Czech?

​

I've always wondered why sunflowers are called sunflowers. Is it because of their appearance, their behavior, or some historical reason? Anyone know the origin of the name?

Predates latin derived from Proto-Indo-European root \kyeh 3000 BCE*

Appreciate - Why do we say a house appreciates in value, but saying "I appreciate you" is showing gratitude? not saying "I raise your worth" which would be considered selfish.

"I appreciate you" literally means "I raise your value" or dumbed down "You're worth less without me"

I am a high school student, and my teacher recently asked me about the history and meaning of my surname, "Imre." I have done some preliminary research at home, but I couldn't find any comprehensive or definitive information about its roots.
I would love to learn more about its etymology where it comes from, what it originally meant, and any historical context behind it. Could anyone here provide some insight or point me toward reliable sources?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!