Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Etymology

You would think that chame-leon and camou-flage might be related, because of that disguise factor. Nope. Not close. Chameleon is "ground-lion" or "dwarf-lion," camouflage might be from "muffled head." Camisole isn't in there either. It's just related to "chemise," shirt. Shirt and skirt are the same word, BTW. In the north of England (more Scandinavian) the upper part of the tunic-like garment got eliminated, in the south, the lower part went away. Different fashion. Similar occurrence for dike and ditch. Same word. It was originally an earthwork with the ground dug up in a circle and piled inside as a wall as an obstacle. There would be narrow walkways to get through, and it eventually turned into the moat system around fortifications. In the north, the term narrowed to the wall, in the south it narrowed to refer to the trench.

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