Things Gotten Wrong (in Shakespeare) and a Couple Interesting Etymologies

Have you ever noticed that the weather forecasts on television always show us the "futurecast"? Whoever coined that term futurecast either did not know, or did not think about, the fact that the fore- in forecast means 'future'.

Everybody knows the famous quotation from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Most people seem to think that wherefore means 'where'--and actresses play the line as if this were the case.

Well, wherefore does not mean 'where', it means 'why'. Think of the old phrase "the whys and wherefores." Anyone who goes on to read that passage from Romeo and Juliet can see that the sense of it is, "Romeo, why must you be Romeo, and a Montague, and therefore a member of a family that is enemies with my family?" And note, no comma after "thou," in accordance with what I am saying is the correct sense.

Another misunderstanding from Shakespeare: early on in the play Hamlet (sorry, I was too lazy to dig out my volume of Shakespeare, so this is simply from memory), Hamlet and his buddies are talking about the custom of late-night carousing, and Hamlet says he never does that, "though I am to the manner born." Note, "to the manner"--that is, the custom--and not "to the manor."

 

This is not Shakespeare, but another common misunderstanding, due to a word having become obsolete: In the expression "Time and tide wait for no man," tide here does not mean the surging of the ocean in and out; it means 'season', as in Yuletide, Easter tide, Whitsuntide, etc.

Note: If you have read, or are going to read,  my post on interesting word origins, stop reading right here because this is going to be repetitive.

Okay, now some real etymology: The holes in your nose are called nostrils, right? That's from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) for nose; okay, that's the first syllable. And then, there was an Old English word thirl, meaning 'hole'. So nostril is, literally, simply, and reasonably enough, 'nose hole'.

Now another cute O.E. etymology: the word neighbor. The first  part means 'near' (if you know German, think of nahe). The second part--again, if you know German, think of the word Burg (as in the hymn Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott, in English A Mighty Fortress is Our God. So the word, in German at least, means 'castle', 'fortress', 'fortification'. So your neighbor is the next or nearest fortress--or house, more commonly.

More to come.

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