Tootfinder

I recently researched the etymology of two interesting German words:
- "nonchalant" (informal, relaxed, casual, carefree, easy-going): I found that interesting because it's obviously a negation and I never read the non-negated form "chalant". Turns out that the non-negated form goes back to latin "calēre" (warm, to be hot, to be alarmed, to be fired up)
- "verschollen" (lost, missing, nothing has been known about the whereabouts of sth. or sb. for a long time). I found it weird because I couldn't make any sense of "schollen". This might be related to "verschallen" (stop making noise) and might go back to old high German "skellan" (which is also related to German "Schelle", a small bell). So, "verschollen" can be seen as a euphemistic expression because stop making noise is used to refer to being lost (and maybe dead).
#etymology #linguistics #German

You know the whole fracas over whether GIF is pronounced with a hard or a soft G?
A female cat is a queen; an entire male is a tom. A neutered male, however, has been called a gib since at least the 14th Century. And despite the term’s great age, there’s *still* no consensus—you guessed it—on whether it’s pronounced with a hard or a soft G.
#etymology