Word Watch 12, "muggle"--Thank you J.K. Rowling!

How excited was I that the OED had a definition for Ms. Rowling's muggle? Very excited.
Mug is a British colloquial term referring to a "foolish or stupid appearance" or "a stupid or incompetent person." This makes sense, not that muggles are incompetent, but that they are lacking in the area of magical knowledge; they are ignorant. Also, muggins is a British slang for a "fool or simpleton." And, muggill was a slang for a "Beadle." This last definition makes less sense. But this is just further evidence of the brilliance of Harry Potter, and I thought she just made up the word.

Word Watch 11, "masochism"

I know what masochism means; the  OED's definition is "the urge to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one's own pain or humiliation." But, again, I've wondered who came up with such a word. According to the OED, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian fiction writer in the late 19th century whose stories often involve "sexual pleasure derived from pain." The French masochisme started to come into use in 1896, shortly after Leopold's time.
Ok, so masochism is termed from the author, but what about sadism? Again, I know the definition,  but for convenience, the OED's definition is "enthusiasm for inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others." Also according to tho OED, this term is also from an author. This time it's French writer Count Donatien Alfonse Francois de Sade whose works--similar to Sacher-Masoch--were "infamous for their depictions of sexual cruelty."

Word Watch 10, "tete-a-tete"

I read a lot of British, especially Victorian, literature, and in doing so I often come across the phrase tete a tete. From the contexts and from coming across the phrase so often, I'd gleaned that it meant something like a private or intimate conversation, but I've never understood why. In French tete a tete literally means "head to head." So, quite private, as no one else is privy to the information if it is given in an intimate proximity. This use showed up in the 17th century, but an earlier use from the 16th century, teste a teste means "together in single combat." This is very interesting--I'm glad I chose this phrase.

Word Watch 9, "Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?"

In encountering words, I often wonder which comes first, the verb or the noun. Three words in particular that I looked at are intimate, record, and contact. The first two I looked at were intimate and record. Both, according to the OED timelines, were first used at verbs. I got a little excited, but I should have known better. Contact was first used as a noun. I realize three words is quite a small control standard, but it looks as if both the chicken and the egg came first. There probably is no real standard.

Word Watch 8, "weird"

Weird, as I've always used it, is an adjective; yet the first definition the OED gives is as a noun: "the principle power by which events are predetermined; fate, destiny." The plural form (werdys) refers to the Fates, "the three goddesses supposed to determine the course of human life." Then, there is the verb meaning "to preordain," which comes from the noun. Nowadays we have a slang verb "to weird out" meaning "to induce a sense of discomfort, alienation, strangeness." This definition comes closer to the usual way I use the adjective. As for the adjective, the first entry refers to the Weird Sisters from Macbeth--"Having the power to control the fate or destiny of human beings." It is not until the 3rd and 4th entries that the definitions come close to my original idea of weird--"out of the ordinary."

Word Watch 7, "pupil"

Trying to come up with a word, I wondered about the word pupil--both as a student and the part of the eye. Interestingly enough, WordReference.com points to the relationship between the two. I shouldn't be surprised after all Seth Leher has shared with us. The connection between pupil the student and pupil the part of the eye goes back to the Latin root pupa, meaning "girl doll."Moving into French, pupilla is "girl" and pupillus is boy--both originally meaning orphan or ward. This was not surprising to me as a student is not a far stretch from a ward. What is intriguing is how pupil comes to mean the center of the eye. According to this website, the second meaning comes from "the phenomenon whereby one can see a tiny reflected image of oneself in another person's eye" and it comes from the feminine pupilla.