How Did We Get the Word "Target?"

Part 5 in a 5-part series on word histories

The Franks used the word targe to signify an archer's shield.

During breaks from battle, archers would hang their shields on trees and shoot at them to improve their aim.

By the 14th century, the French used targette to denote a light shield.

Two centuries later, English-speakers adopted the word.

By the 18th century, target came to mean something shot at for practice.

Where DId We Get the Word "Salary?"

Part 4 of a 5-part series on word histories

In Ancient Rome, centuries before refrigeration, soldiers received a regular allowance to buy sal, the Latin word for salt.

They used the salt to preserve food.

The allowance was called a salarium.

English-speakers eventually changed the word to salary.

Echoing the word's origin, we still say, "He's worth his salt."

And if an Ancient  Roman soldier went beyond the call of duty he received a bonus, the Latin word for good.

Where Did We Get the Word "Zombie?"

Part 3 of a 5-part series on word histories

During the 18th and 19th centuries, along with thousands of West Africans, voodoo was transported to North America on slave ships.

Voodoo's practitioners brought with them the word zombie, the name for a snake god with the power to reanimate the dead.

When the dead walked, they were called zombies.

Got it? 

Now, run!

Where Did We Get the Word "Slogan?"

Part 2 of a 5-part series on word histories

Slogan has a war-loving past.

The Irish word for army is sluagh.

In Irish, sluagh was combined with gairm, the word for shout, to mean war cry.

Sluaghgairm later appeared in Scottish English as slogorn.

By the 17th century, the word was spelled slogan and conveyed the meaning motto. 

In the early 20th century—around the time of World War I—slogan became synonymous with a company's or group's goal or position.

NOTE: Today's post, Number 300, is a milestone. It feels like one, anyway. Stay thirsty, my friends.

Where Did We Get the Word "Budget?"

Part 1 of a 5-part series on word histories

Many of the most common words, to borrow a phrase from Nietszche, are "coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins."

Where did we get the word "budget?"

The Ancient Romans called a leather pouch a bulga.

The French, by the 12th century, called it a bougette.

The English borrowed the French word in the 15th century, transforming it into bowgette.

By the 16th century, the English pronounced the word as budget. To them, budget meant the contents of a pouch.

Flash forward to the 18th century and you'll find the English government using budget to mean a statement of our financial position.

By the 19th century, budget was being used to mean the money available for households and businesses, as well the government.