Let's hit the slopes

Today's words come from as varied a lineage as any three words we're likely to look at.

Magnate comes from the Latin through Middle English, (in the 1500s), maven from Yiddish (around 1952, believe it or not), and mogul (depending on the definition) from either Mongolian or a Greek dialect used in Vienna. The Mongolian word comes from 1588 and the Greek from 1959.

So, what do they mean? Magnate refers to someone who is person of rank, power, influence or distinction. In the Middle Ages, in a much more class-stratified system, it would have referred to those in the upmost class. It has come to mean anyone at the top: of their profession, their area of learning, or their skill set.

Maven, the first Yiddish word we've encountered on this blog, is less distinguished or powerful, merely referring to someone who is experienced or knowledgeable. (For those who don't know, Yiddish is a language that is "High German written in Hebrew characters ...spoken by Jews and descendents of Jews of central and eastern European origin." With the great influx of Jews from German areas in the 20th century, it became a common source of new words to American English.)

A Mogul (notice the initial capital) was a person from the conquering Mongols during the time of Mongolian empire. The word is actually a Persian transliteration of the word Mongols used of themselves. It came to mean a great personage, like a magnate. But more power than class in its definition.

So, if you've been watching the Vancouver Olympics, how does that apply to the moguls the skiers traverse in their bone-jarring descent? In 1959 the word became common usage in English to refer to the bumps in a ski run. The Greek dialect used in Vienna calls small hills mugls, and its transfer to English took on the spelling of the already-in-common-use mogul.

How's that for a world tour?