Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here then is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Leprechaun
Definition: “Spritely old man who will reveal the location of a hidden crock of gold to anyone who catches him.”
Origin/Derivation: From the Irish lupracan - by metathesis from the Old Irish luchorpan - which meant “very small body," deriving from lu meaning “little, small” and corpan meaning “body.”
Related Words/Phrases: corporation, corpse, corporal (punishment), Lupercalia (Roman festival - word is related to lupus meaning “wolf”) , Hocus Pocus (corruption of the phrase “Hoc est Corpus”
(All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
“Old Saw” of the Week:
See if you can “complete the phrase” of this time-worn (but true!) adage:
“All that glitters…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... is not gold.”