Category: Everyday

everyday life

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Everyday Life

Histrionic

The term ‘histrionic’ developed from ‘histrion-, histrio,’ Latin for ‘actor.’ Something that is ‘histrionic’ tends to remind one of the high drama of stage and screen and is often ‘over the top’ and stagy. It especially calls to mind the theatrical form known as the ‘melodrama,’ where plot and physical action, not characterization, are emphasized. But something that is ‘histrionic’ isn’t always overdone; it might simply refer to an actor. In that sense, it becomes a synonym of ‘thespian.’

(Of course, it is also a personality disorder.)

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Everyday Life Technology

Hello

The word was coined by Thomas Edison as a form of greeting to be used on the telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell’s suggestion was ‘Hoy Hoy’.
Thomas Edison’s suggestion caught on.

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Everyday Life

Gingerly

Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins to this word. While it might have come from the name of the spice, there’s nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another conjecture is that it’s related to an Old French word, ‘gensor,’ that meant ‘delicate.’ That’s because in 16th century English an earlier sense of ‘gingerly’ often referred to dancing or walking with dainty steps. Not till the 17th century did it change to apply to movements that were cautious in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas. Not too surprisingly, given its ‘-ly’ ending, ‘gingerly’ is also quite often correctly used as an adverb. One could thus say that ‘Simon gingerly twisted the cap.’

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Everyday Life

Gesundheit

When English speakers hear ‘achoo,’ they usually respond with either ‘gesundheit’ or ‘God bless you.’ ‘Gesundheit’ was borrowed from German, where it literally means ‘health’; it was formed by a combination of ‘gesund’ (‘healthy’) and ‘-heit’ (‘-hood’). Wishing a person good health when they sneezed was believed to forestall the illness that a sneeze often portends. ‘God bless you’ had a similar purpose, albeit with more divine weight to the well-wishing. (It was once believed the soul could exit the body during a sneeze, causing ill health. Folks said ‘God bless you’ to ward off this danger.) ‘Gesundheit,’ at one time, also served as a toast when drinking (much like its English counterpart, ‘to your health’), but this usage is now mostly obsolete.

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Art Everyday Life

Gadget

After the completion of the Statue of Liberty, the city of New York had a large celebration.
The owner of the company that designed the statue of Liberty, Gaget, Gaultier & Co., decided to cash in on this occasion, and made small bronze replica of the statue to sell.
It was such a popular item, that everyone was asking, ‘So, do you have your Gadget?’ referring to the small bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty.