Someone, Somewhere, Named It “Dog”

A few years ago, I read a book entitled The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.

I couldn’t remember who the author was, so I Googled it. And guess what? Netflix made a movie based on the book! It actually has pretty good reviews, so now I’m definitely going to have to check it out.

Anyway, the book (and, I assume, the movie — haha) is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. People were asked to submit words and their meanings so they could be compiled into one massive reference book.

I know that probably sounds like dry reading, but I found it fascinating. (I’m sure many people would rather watch paint dry, but hey, no one’s perfect.)

I mean — haven’t we all wondered how dictionaries were written?

Okay, maybe not all of us. I never really have… honestly, I’ve never thought about dictionaries enough to wonder how they were written. But I have wondered about specific words.

Obviously, many English words have roots in other languages. Words like souvenir and ballet are borrowed from French. Stampede and canyon came from Spanish.

But then there are words like girl, boy, or albatross. Their origins are unknown.

Who looked at that giant bird and thought, “Hmmm, here’s my chance — I’ve made up the perfect word. I’m going to call that flying thing an albatross”?

Or maybe it went more like —
“Hey, look at that furry thing! Does that look like a dog to you?”

Maybe someone named their pet “Dog,” and another person overheard and thought that was the animal’s name, not the pet’s name.

I don’t know, but I find it interesting to think about.

And not only are the origins of words interesting — so is the fact that language itself is fluid. It’s constantly changing.

Words like catfishing, contactless, and ghosting were all coined in the past ten years.

Sometimes I’ll use a word like ginormous or humongous, and my dad will tell me, “That’s not a real word — it’s made up.”

But aren’t all words made up at one point or another? (And for the record — they’re both in the dictionary.)

While I was Googling words coined in the last decade, I came across some other fascinating facts:

• Ketchup was originally a fermented fish sauce from Southeast Asia — and none of the ingredients were tomatoes. (I know that’s not technically a word fact, but it’s interesting. And the next time you have ketchup on your fries, you can be grateful it’s no longer fish paste.)
• The word run has 645 meanings! According to Google, its definitions take up 75 columns of text across multiple pages.
• The day after tomorrow is called overmorrow.
• I is both the oldest and shortest word in the English language.
• Set is considered the most complex word in English. It has more than 430 meanings and can be used as a noun, verb, or adjective.
• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the third-longest word in the dictionary. Ironically, it’s the fear of long words — which makes me wonder: are you cured when you can finally spell it? (My son, Andrew, told me this one a few weeks ago.)

The phobia part of Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia got me thinking. How did early linguists decide whether to spell a word with an F or a PH? I was curious, so I Googled it and…

Apparently, English words spelled with ph are derived from Greek.

Who knew?

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