Paul Sloane traces the origins of English words borrowed from other languages. Mumbo-jumbo comes from Mandingo, avocado from Aztec, flak from German Flugabwehrkanone, and gazump from Yiddish. He recommends the book 1, 2, 3, 4: Wacky, Witty, and Wonderful Words.
Chapters
This is a great little book, 1, 2, 3, 4: Wacky, Witty, and Wonderful Words, and it contains a lot of rarities, curiosities in the English language. And in the English language, we have many foreign words that we have adopted and we use, and here are some which feature in the book. Mumbo-jumbo, which we use to mean nonsense, is a word taken from Mandingo, a language used in West Africa, in Senegal and Guinea and The Gambia. And the word means an idol, a god. Avocado comes to us from the Aztec, where it means avocado. It also means testicle. A journey comes from a French word journée, and it used to mean how far you could walk in a day, because from the French word jour, it means a day. Kiosk is a Turkish word meaning a palace. Yet we use it for something much less grand. A ukulele is a Hawaiian word meaning a leaping flea. Flak— we say you get flak. It comes from the German from the Second World War, Flugabwehrkanone, anti-aircraft gun. That's what it means. Whisky comes to us from the Gaelic, the language used in ancient Scotland, and it means water of life. And Sahara is an Arabic word which means quite simply desert. So the Sahara Desert really means desert desert. And finally, a word we use in English, gazump, which means when someone beats you if you're trying to buy a house, they bid higher than you. And it comes from the Yiddish where it means to swindle. So I hope you found those interesting, and if you do, please take a look at this book.
