Lesson 3 Stories of English Words and Expressions
English Words of Foreign Origin
English has often borrowed words from other cultures or languages.
Here are some examples with interesting stories.
shampoo
The word shampoo comes from the Hindi word chāmpo, which means “to press.”
In India, the word was used for a head massage.
British traders in India experienced a bath with a head massage and introduced it to Britain in the 18th century.
The meaning of the word shampoo changed a few times after it first entered English around 1762.
In the 19th century, shampoo got its present meaning of “washing the hair.”
Shortly after that, the word began to be also used for a special soap for the hair.
robot
The word robot comes from the play R.U.R.*, which was written in 1920 by a Czech writer Karel Čapek.
In the play, robots are machines that look like humans.
They are designed to work for humans and are produced in a factory.
It is interesting that the idea of using the word robot didn’t come from Karel Čapek himself.
He originally called the machines in his play labori from the Latin word for “work.”
However, his brother suggested roboti, which means “slave workers” in Czech.
Karel Čapek liked the idea and decided to use the word roboti.
In 1938, the play was made into a science fiction show on television in Britain.
hurricane
The word hurricane comes from the Spanish word huracán, which originates from the name of a Mayan god.
In the Mayan creation myth, Huracán is the weather god of wind, storm, and fire, and he is one of the three gods who created humans.
However, the first humans angered the gods, so Huracán caused a great flood.
The first Spanish contact with the Mayan civilization was in 1517.
Spanish explorers who were passing through the Caribbean experienced a hurricane and picked up the word for it from the people in the area*.
In English, one of the early uses of hurricane was in a play by Shakespeare in 1608.
hamburger
The word hamburger originally comes from Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city.
Hamburger means “people or things from Hamburg” in German.
The origin of the first hamburger is not clear.
However, it is believed that the hamburger was invented in a small town in Texas, USA, sometime between 1885 and 1904.
A cook placed a Hamburg-style steak* between two slices of bread, and people started to call such food a hamburger.
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