ORIGIN OF ENGLISH WORDS

BY Ignacio dos Santos and Franco Lopez

ASSASSIN

• The word assassin is derived from the word hashish. • It is a common myth that the word assassin comes from the

Arabic word haschishin for hashish user. 

• The story is that al-Hassan ibn-al-Sabbah used hashish to enlist the aid of young men into his private army known as assassins (aschishin - or follower of Hassan). One of the primary sources for this information comes from the writings of Marco Polo who visited the area in 1273, almost 150 years after the reign of Al-Hassan.  

CIGARETTE

• First known use:1835, American English.• From French cigarette (by 1824), diminutive

of cigare "cigar" (18c.)• From Spanish cigarro (see cigar). Spanish form • Cigarito, cigarita also was popular in English mid-19c. • Cigarette heart "heart disease caused by smoking" is

attested from 1884. • Cigarette lighter attested from 1884.

CONCERT

• First known use:1660s, that means: "agreement, accord, harmony," • From French concert (16c.), • From Italian concerto "concert, harmony," from concertare "bring

into agreement," • in Latin "to contend, contest, dispute," from com- "with" + certare

"to contend, strive," frequentative of certus, variant past participle of cernere"separate, decide" (see crisis).

• Before the word entered English, meaning shifted from "to strive against" to "to strive alongside." Sense of "public musical performance" is 1680s. But Klein considers this too much of a stretch and suggests Latin concentare "to sing together" (from con- + cantare "to sing") as the source of the Italian word in the musical sense.

HURRICANE

• This sense of the word, in reference to titanic storms in the East Indies, first appears in Europe in Portuguese in the mid-16th century. It aparently is from tufan, a word in Arabic, Persian, and Hindi meaning "big cyclonic storm." Yule ["Hobson-Jobson," London, 1903] writes that "the probability is that Vasco [da Gama] and his followers got the tufao ... direct from the Arab pilots.

LUCK

• First known use: 15c. from early Middle Dutch luc, shortening of gheluc "happiness, good fortune," of unknown origin. • It has cognates in Dutch geluk, Middle High

German g(e)lücke, German Glück "fortune, good luck." • Perhaps first borrowed in English as a gambling term. To be down on (one's)

luck is from 1832; to be in luck is from 1900; to push (one's) luck is from 1911. Good luck as a salutation to one setting off to do something is from 1805. Expression better luck next time attested from 1802. • A gentleman was lately walking through St Giles's, where a levelling

citizen attempting to pick his pocket of a handkerchief, which the gentleman caught in time, and secured, observing to the fellow, that he had missed his aim, the latter, with perfect sang-froid, answered, "better luck next time master."  ["Monthly Mirror," London, 1802]