40th Annual Saint Ignatius Christmas Concert

Join us on Sunday, December 8th at Severance Music Center for an evening with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, a special holiday tradition for our Saint Ignatius community!

Saint Ignatius High School

Etymology Word of the Week

Director of Admissions Pat O'Rourke '90, a self-proclaimed "word nerd," brings you his Etymology Word of the Week. Every other week he presents an online Etymology lesson just for fun!

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.  

Narwhal - “sea-unicorn, dolphin-like Arctic sea mammal; a small Arctic whale, the male of which has a long, spirally twisted tusk extending forward from the upper jaw.”  Possibly from the Old Norse nahvalr meaning “corpse-whale” (na meaning corpse and hvalr meaning whale).  Apparently, the mammal looked like a dead body to some due to its ghastly whitish color.  Some linguists, however, believe this is “folk” etymology and the word simply means “whale distinguished by a long, narrow projection.”  (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)

RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – whale