Momentarily Miffed

I feel it necessary to mourn the passing of a good distinction in words. Momentarily, meaning “for a moment,” is being transmogrified into meaning “in a moment.” Like when I hear the scraping of fingernails on a chalkboard, I cringe whenever a United Airlines crew member (it must be in their “script”) says “we will be arriving momentarily” when our arrival will take place soon and last for more than just a moment, unless you define "a moment" as 45 minutes to an hour. Or they say “we’ll be waiting momentarily for takeoff,” and that moment can be anywhere from five minutes to hours.

Now, for those nitpickers who want to point out to me that momentarily has a secondary meaning of “in a moment” I would posit that the word was perfectly good at describing a short-term situation and words like soon, anon, apace, forthwith, and (in the U.K.) straightaway work very well at expressing something liminal. Momentarily was first used to mean “for a moment” in 1650. For over two centuries that is what it meant. Then in 1928 someone (probably drunk with illicit hootch during the days of prohibition) misused the word to mean “in a moment” and since then the bothersome practice has increased.

If you wanted to say something would happen soon you would use the word soon. If you wanted to add speed to its occurrence you would use the word apace. If you wanted to be a little less distinct than soon you would use anon, and if you wanted to say something closer to “in a moment,” meaning quicker than soon, you would use forthwith.

The distinction between “for a moment” and “in a moment” may be small to many people, but to me it makes a difference whether I have to get all my belongings and get off the plane quickly because it will only be at the gate for a short time or if I only have to wait a short time to get to the gate.

One more thing: what other word do we have in English to mean “for a moment”? Briefly comes close, but is less distinct. Temporarily has a slightly different meaning, as if the action taking place is on its way to another permanent situation. (“We’re in this area temporarily until our gate opens up.”) We have plenty of words – shorter words – for “in a moment.” Use them, and leave momentarily to express a short duration!

Okay, now for some etymology (from etymonline.com). Momentarily was formed from the word momentary which came to English in the 1400s from the Latin word momentarius that means “of brief duration.” Apace has been used in English even longer, from the mid-1300s, and means “at a quick pace,” pace meaning step and coming to English in the 1200s from both Old French (pas) and Latin (passum). Forthwith means “at once” or “immediately” and is the modern equivalent of the Old English forð mid. So it comes to English from English, as does soon (it was sona in Old English). Anon is also Old English, though it developed a sense of procrastination as early as the 1520s.  

I’ll get to the words briefly and temporarily anon. But it won’t be momentarily. It will be another long post.

Flocking to Greg

Sometimes it takes a while to get caught up to a post that has some words but not others. Over four years ago I posted on words like amiable (and genial, affable,obliging, cordial, and amicable) but did not include gregarious. I thought of the word recently when using the word egregious, and wondered if they have the same root. So let us see.

Gregarious is an interesting word, and is best understood by studying its etymology first (thank you again, etymonline.com). The adjective gregarious came into English in the 1660s and first meant “living in flocks” and was used of animals. The 17^th-century English took it from the Latin word for those things that pertained to flocks: gregarious. It comes from “a reduplication of PIE [Proto-Indo-European] root *ger- ‘to gather together, assemble’ (cognates: Sanskrit gramah, Greek ageirein ‘to assemble,’ agora ‘assembly’” which makes it related to the word agoraphobia (see below).

It was not until 1789 that the first recorded use of gregarious to mean sociable or “fond of the company of others” (its primary use now) occurred. In that sense it is closer to in meaning to the word genial.

Agora is a noun meaning a place of assembly and was adopted from the Greek root word in the 1590s. 

Then in 1871 Carl Westphal, a Berlin psychiatrist, coined the German word Agoraphobie to mean fear of open spaces. By 1873 it has crossed into English  as agoraphobia.

Egregious is the oldest of our “greg” words, having entered English in the 1530s from the Latin word egregius that means excellent or extraordinary. Literally, it meant above (ex-) the flock (grege). But in the late 1500s it was apparently not good to be exceptional, and there came to be a negative meaning in the word egregious that has resulted in the complete loss of the original positive sense of the word. It still means extraordinary, but only in a bad way.

So while in the early 1500s you may have wanted to be egregious, you will now have to settle for being gregarious when you are in the agora, assuming you are not agoraphobic.

Instinguish is Extinct and Distinct from Extinguish

A month ago this blog explained:

…where do distinct, extinct, and instinct come from? They areall related to the past participle forms of Latin words (extinctus, instinctus, and distinctus),which is why they also have –tinct ending. All three are related to the Latinword for prick or goad or quench: stinguere.And etyomonline further elucidates, tieing the “ish” forms of words like extinguish and distinguish to the “Latin inchoative suffix –iscere).

Extinct arrived in English in the early 1400s. The Latin word from which it comes means much the same extinguish does: to put out, quench, go out or die out. I never realized that extinct and extinguish are so similar. Extinct was originally used of fires. While it is an adjective, Shakespeare used it as a verb. (I think the reference was to a gangster threatening to “extinct” someone.) It means no longer in existence or use, and it was not until the 1580s that it was applied to the situation where a family or a hereditary title ends, or dies out, and it was almost another 200 years (in 1768) when it was first used of species. Now extinct is rarely used of anything other than species.

Extinguish arrived in English in the 1540s, before Shakespeare was born, so why he used extinct as a verb rather than extinguish is hard to distinguish. Extinguish means to put out a fire or light or flame, or bring something to an end or out of existence.

Distinguish, on the other hand, arrived about the same time as Shakespeare, in the 1560s. It came from the Middle French word distinguiss-, the stem of dinstinguer, or it might have come directly from the Latin word distinguere. Distinguere means to separate or mark off. It still means to mark off as different, or to recognize something as different.

Distinct arrived in English in the late 1300s, originally as the past participle of distincten, a word from the Old French distincter that appeared about 1300. It means different or separate or dissimilar.

Instinct, along with extinct, arrived in English in the early 1400s. The Latin word instinctus from which it comes has a sense of prompting, or impulse that remains in the definition of instinct meaning a natural or innate impulse or tendency. It is interesting that it did not develop the animalistic sense of intuitive perception until the middle 1400s, and the meaning of innate tendency did not occur until the 1560s.

But there is no such word as instinguish. 

Future Thoughts

A couple of weeks ago (I took last week off for the holidays) I covered the etymology and various meanings of present.  Today we look to the future (as have many this week).

Future has to do with a time yet to come. It came into use in English in the late 14^th century as an adjective, from the Old French word future that came from the Latin word futurus. As a noun, the future is modeled after the Latin future, which is the neuter plural of futurus. Pretty clear and plain.

In 1842 theologians began using the word futurist to describe a particular perspective on the “end times”, or the fulfillment of prophecies found in the Biblical books of The Revelation and Daniel, as well as other portions of scripture. (In case you’re wondering, Wikipedia says “futurist beliefs usually have a close association with Premillenialism and Dispensationalism.” That should clear it up for you.

Then in the 1880s speculators started using the word “futures” to describe the selling of goods on agreement for future delivery. There is now a burgeoning market in futures in everything from soybeans and pork bellies to molybdenum and crude oil. In case you missed it, crude oil futures for delivery in February closed on Friday at their lowest level since April 2009.

The form of future known as futurism came into use in 1909, derived from the Itailian word futurismo, and coined by Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.  Another form of the word future came into use in 1915 as a synonym for avant garde: futuristic. It was not until 1958 that the word futuristic meant “pertaining to the future” according to etymonline.com.

I used the word burgeoning above. It means to grow either quickly or in great quantity, or to begin to grow. As with the word future, burgeon also arrived in the 1300s, but early in that century. It came to English from the Anglo-French word burjuner, which is related to the Old French word for budding or sprouting borjoner, that came from the word borjon meaning a bud, shoot, or pimple. In Modern French there is a a word bourgeon, but its etymology is less certain. 

Sometimes a word search in etymonline.com produces some interesting selections. The search for burgeon also produced the etymology for orgasm. Keep reading to find out why. In the 1680s the word orgasm began to be used in English as a noun for sexual climax. It came to English from the French word orgasme (or possibly from the Latin word orgasmus, which the Latins got from the Greek orgasmos that means excitement or swelling, from the Greek word organ that means “to be in heat, or become ripe for” or literally “to swell or be excited.” Sound familiary? Anyway, the Greek word organ is related to the word orge, which comes from the “PIE (Proto-Indo-European) root *wrog- ‘to burgeon, well with strength.’” (etymonline.com)

One final note on orgasm. In the 1600s the word was used of other violent excitements of emotions or bodily functions. Now we would use the word orgy in the same sense (e.g., “an orgy of violence.”)

I don’t know what the future holds for you. I hope you have burgeoning good fortune and an orgasm of…whatever causes you excitement.