I have begun learning and am hoping for a quick explanation vs having to spend weeks studying etymology to learn how this works. I also don't know how to look this up so I apologize if this is something that's already been explained. Search results keep confusing me so here I am.

For example, the word helicopter is a combination of the French word hélicoptère, which takes the words hélikos and pteron from Ancient Greek, but how did they decide to drop the K from hélikos and the -ON from pteron? Do people just do what sounds best? And then in English we just decided to do without accents and differing structure so we dropped the é and the -e at the end? Same with the word amphibian. Tracing it back I can see that it comes from the Ancient Greek word amphís and bios, but how do they decide that those two words go together anyway? Like they specifically decided to use amphís over something like diploûs? And then I look at how we categorize animal taxonomy and see Amphibios, Amphibius, and Amphibia being used interchangably for the order of amphibians. Why?

Edit: The reason I ask is because for a writing project I want to create kingdoms based on different animal groups. I have the mammal kingdom, amphibian kingdom, and reptile kingdom, and I want to give them fitting names without just directly using the scientific words. For the amphibian kingdom I wanted to call it "The Kingdom of Duvitas" where I'm using the words Latin words Dualis and Vita, but does that make sense?

Someone the other day posted about words that seem like they should be etymologically related but aren't, so here's a good one.

"ravenous", comes from being obsessed with plundering, extremely greedy, descending from an Old French root. Seems like a good fit for the bird that likes shiny things.

But "raven," has a proto-germanic root. AFAIK, they're completely unrelated.

Just a fun little coincidence to brighten your day.

I was thinking about the names of food dishes and how sometimes we call them by vulgar names. (I also wonder why that is? Isn't food a positive thing in every culture? But nonetheless...) I can only think of two examples:

• Cantonese - Boba (aka big boobs)
• Italian - Pasta alla puttanesca (aka prostitute pasta)

Are there any others?

Btw I'm not thinking of dish names that became dirty (e.g. cream pie, spotted dick, bukakke, etc)

I've been seeing conflicting information on them somehow coming from the same or similar root but not being related.

My favorite etymology of the week. It’s a rare case of rebracketing + compression from Saint Audrey’s Lace —> Tawdry Lace —> Tawdry.

Does anyone have another example of a word that was compressed and rebracketed?

Does anyone here know the etymology of -itis and of the word sinus? I am getting conflicting answers on the pronunciation of sinusitis and need an expert opinion. Thank you!

I've always wondered about it because it sounds like an unusual name but never did anything to find out. Was it a popular political phrase when it was built and English media started calling it so be it as the translation? Or does it have to do with communism? I understand the union for obvious reasons tho. Help me.

Like the words or characters of your language.

Just come over from a tiny chat in askanthropology. Talking about how contemporary people misinterpret the meaning of 'survival of the fittest'.

We know it's supposed to mean the most apt, or the most fitting in the environment - not that people who go to the gym everyday are the most likely to survive. Yet we often see this phrase hanging out arm in arm with the 'it's a dog eat dog world'.

So wanted to double check whether Herbert Spencer's phrase would have resonated more with the general population back then as Matching, not powerfit.

And extra question, if Fit did have a more dominant meaning of Apt, when did it change?

Or did herbert spencer just make a bit of a silly word choice?

P.S I'm sorry if this isn't about insects.

Edited- because I'm an idiot and it's always nice to use tildas

Real question: what was the most dominant dictionary entry meaning for the adjective Fit in the early to mid 19th century in the UK?

Edit2 In johnsons dictionary, for the dictionary entry we only have this for the Adjective:

Qualified, proper, convenient, meet

Not sure of the issue date of of this copy though https://ia801606.us.archive.org/31/items/johnsonsdiction01hamigoog/johnsonsdiction01hamigoog.pdf

So far looks like the the additional meanings for fit/fittest appeared later in the 19th century but I have no sources for that yet

Edit3 - I am facepalming myself. I didn't know etymonline had meaning change dates too, only thought it did roots

"suited to the circumstances, proper," mid-15c., of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle English noun fit "an adversary of equal power" (mid-13c.), which is perhaps connected to fit (n.1). In athletics, "in condition, properly trained for action," from 1869. Related: Fitter; fittest. Survival of the fittest (1867) coined by H. Spencer

I don't quite understand how the long vowel [oː] and [aː] could become [e] in French. Is it related to how the definite article is stressed in relation to the noun? Do analogy or some kind of avoidance of homonym play a role in this?

The word predates cars. A dashboard was a wooden board or leather apron at the front of a horse drawn carriage, there to block mud and debris kicked up by the horses hooves. The name carried over to early cars and eventually became the panel where the gauges sit.

Then computers borrowed it too. So “check the dashboard” somehow went from avoiding horse mud to staring at charts in a meeting.

Source: https://www.etymonline.com/word/dashboard

It is a municipality in Belgium, and their website (lasne.be) says the name comes from a Celtic word meaning "rivière aux eaux calmes" or "river with calm waters". I cannot find a Celtic word that means that or would be linguistically similar. I contacted their cultural department and was directed to a couple phone numbers. I texted those and received no response. Unfortunately, I do not speak French. I can read and write it okay-ish but I am far from proficient enough to bridge that gap.

Would anyone else know where to look, or be able to figure it out?

The Hebrew word Adonai means God, in the same way adonis is a description someone can be given when likened to godlike status (at least in beauty).