Etymology

[pastorables]

Since I enjoy etymology and enjoy when people use words correctly,

Shellie,

I enjoy Etymology also, as well as idioms such as "deafening silence". At any rate, imagine my surprise when I recently read the history behind our word for school mascots:

mascot |ˈmasˌkät; -kət|
noun
a person or thing that is supposed to bring good luck or that is used to symbolize a particular event or organization : the squadron's mascot was a young lion cub.
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French mascotte, from modern Provençal mascotto, feminine diminutive of masco ‘witch.’

So mascots are pagan also?

[Gerald Creasy]

I've always liked this one:


Assassin
–noun 1. a murderer, esp. one who kills a politically prominent person for fanatical or monetary reasons.
2. (initial capital letter) one of an order of Muslim fanatics, active in Persia and Syria from about 1090 to 1272, whose chief object was to assassinate Crusaders.


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[Origin: 1525–35; < ML assassinī (pl.) < Ar ḥashshāshīn eaters of hashish]

[Shellie]

Pastorables,

I knew the origin of that word. Funny how many words we use that we don't know the history of.