fun fact "cipher" is from arabic "ṣifr" (zero) because europeans got too confused by what zero meant when they heard about it during the middle ages
h/t @m0na.net

TIL the nautical term "head" (meaning "toilet") is so named because the toilets (which were just holes in the deck) were historically placed at the front of the ship (because it's downwind on a sailboat).

Joan of Arc wasn't from a place called Arc. Her father's surname (which she might not have even used) was Darc, which was later misinterpreted as "D'Arc".

Also, middle/old french was sick. you get to pronounce all the letters plus it had rolled R. Joan of Arc's name was Jehanne Darc [ʒəˈãnə dark].

fun fact my profile picture is my best attempt at transcribing a toot from a mouth trumpet

ugh i told some people yesterday that "pesto" and "pate" were cognates, but i was full of shit

anyway enjoy these still interesting etymology trees i made

as an electrical engineer, i was so sure that "buck converters" were named after some guy named "mr buck"

fajita is cognates with fascist

english "apron" is derived from misinterpreting "a napron" as "an apron". this is a commonly given example of the linguistics phenomenon of rebracketing. ("napron" is derived from french, and the "nap" part is the same as in "napkin".)

fun fact, I witnessed the origin of the term "weeaboo" but didn't realize it at the time! it actually originated as just a nonce word, from this webcomic that I read as a teenager, although it later took on a more specific meaning.
pbfcomics.com/comics/weeab...

Australia is from Latin auster (south, the south wind) from Proto-Italic *austeros. Austria is from Proto-Germanic *austraz (east). Both are from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwsteros (in the direction of dawn). I guess, if you live above the tropics, then the sun rises from slightly south of east?

in english, have you noticed how so many mexico-related words end with t or l (plus a vowel)?

it's because, in nahuatl, all regular nouns must end with /li/, /tl/, or /tli/ (depending on the underlying root), which was imported (via spanish) as l/t (+vowel), or similar. i made a list of them!

In medieval france, the northern languages (including Old French, giving rise to modern French) were referred to as langues d'oïl. The southern languages (giving rise to modern Occitan/Provençal) were as referred to as langues d'oc . Each group is named after its word for "yes". (E.g., oïl -> "oui")

English "buckaroo" is derived from spanish "vaquero" ("cowboy", cognates with French "vaca" ("cow") and "vaccine" (prevents cowpox)). That said, spanish-speaking cowboys now use the term "caballero" ("horseman", cognates with "cavalry")

tomales bay shares its etymology with the nearby mt tamalpais though

The etymology of Tomales Bay (from Coast Miwok) is unrelated to tamales (from Nahuatl). That said, here is a photo of me eating one in Tomales Bay.