- The words "vaccine" and "buckaroo" share a root word! The Latin "vacca," meaning "cow"!! This is because the first vaccine was derived from cowpox, and buckaroo comes from spanish "vaquero," meaning "cowboy"!
- The state of New Mexico was NOT named after the country of Mexico, and in fact was named that several centuries EARLIER than the country!! (New Mexico has been called that since 1560s, while Mexico only gained that name in the 1820s.) Both of them are named after the Valley of Mexico, which is the location of modern-day Mexico City! At the time of New Mexico's naming, the location of modern-day Mexico was called New Spain!
- Speaking of state names, California was likely named after a fictional location in a 16th-century Spanish romance novel! In Las Sergas de Esplandián, there's a fictional island named California, named after its ruler, Queen Calafia (whose name possibly comes from the Arabic word "khalif")!!
- Nobody knows where the word "dog" comes from.
Scale as in size or climbing comes from the Latin scāla, originally from Proto-Indo-European *skend-, to jump, dart or climb.
Scale as in overlapping arrangement of flat pieces comes from Old French escale, originally from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH-, to cut or divide.
Scale as in a device to weigh thing comes from Old Norse skál, bowl. Originally from Proto-Germanic *skēlō.
Weirdly enough, Russian "скала" (skala) - cliff, somehow ends up coming from the second etymology source here, rather than the first :D
I guess cuz they are like, rocks all jagged and cut by the elements?
Thought it would have been the first one. Then I actually looked up the etymology and, yeah.
Also *(s)kelH- might be (through convoluted chain of borrowing/etc) origin of English words: shale (like, shells, leftovers) and skull... which also comes from a word meaning a shell
Neat!
More fun etymology facts!
My favorite is that our ancestors were so afraid to say the name of bears that we lost the original word for bears and our new one exists just so we don’t summon them by naming them.
