Improve vocabulary by knowing Word Origins (Part 2) - By: MBA

One of the interesting ways to improve your vocabulary is by knowing the origin of the word. In the last article on MBAUniverse.com, Sidharth Balakrishna, CAT expert, author and an alumnus of IIM Calcutta had explained the meaning and origin of the words Promethean, Spartan, Laconic and Stentorian. In this article, Balakrishna has shared some more words with their meanings and origins.
Let us have a look at the words and the interesting stories behind their origins!
Southpaw: Balakrishna says that the word has originated by Finley Peter Dunne, a sports writer. He coined the phrase which he used to mean a left handed baseball pitcher. “The home plate in the Chicago baseball field was then to the west, meaning that a left-handed baseball pitcher released the ball from his ‘paw’, or hand, from the south direction,” explains Balakrishna. “The word today refers to any left-hander,” he adds.
Tantalizing: Balakrishna mentions that this word has an even more interesting story of origin! Tantalus was the son of the Greek God Zeus, who was punished by the gods for his misbehavior. He was put neck deep in water under some fruit trees with low branches, but could not drink any water or eat any fruit.
Whenever he bent down to drink, the water receded. Similarly, whenever he tried to reach the fruit which grew on the branches above him, the fruit slowly moved out of reach, raised up by the branches.
“Thus the meaning of the word ‘Tantalizing’ as used today: it means ‘enticing, but out of reach’ or ‘arousing interest or desire for something that remains unattainable,” describes Balakrishna.
Halcyon: The origin of Halcyon too has a mythical background. Alcyone (or Halcyone), the daughter of Aeolus-the God of the winds, married a king named Ceyx, who unfortunately drowned at sea. Such was Alcyone’s love for her husband that she committed suicide herself in the sea.
Moved by this, the Gods transformed Alcyone and Ceyx into birds, and Aeolus, being the God of the winds, kept the sea calm for a week before and a week after the winter solstice, enabling the birds to build nests on the water and lay their eggs.
Thus, the term Halcyon is referred to Kingfisher and the mythical bird that nested in the sea and calmed the winds. “The word today means calm, peaceful, happy, tranquil,” says Balakrishna.
Salary: Discussing its origin, Balakrishna mentions, “The word originally meant ‘an allowance given to a Roman soldier for purchasing salt’ (this shows that salt was important not only during the time of the Dandi March, but even in those times, as an essential ingredient in meals).

The allowance came to be referred to as ‘salarium’, a derivative of ‘sal’, 'salt.' From that, the word morphed over time into today’s ‘salary’.”
Balakrishna emphasizes that you shall find out the origins of more such words and improve your power of vocabulary. “You shall not have to worry about forgetting the meaning of the word after understanding its origin or hearing the story about it,” he says.
Click on the following link to read the Part 1 of the article:
http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/3435/Learn-words-from-their-origins
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