Reels tagged #etymology
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Etymology
'Salary' comes from salt
Roman soldiers received an allowance connected to salt, called salarium from the Latin sal. Salt was so valuable it helped preserve armies and empires alike.
Contronyms
'Cleave' means both to split and to cling
A contronym is its own opposite. Cleave descends from two different Old English verbs that collided into one modern spelling.
Etymology
'Quarantine' means forty days
Venetian ships waited quaranta giorni, forty days, before docking during plague years. The number became the word for isolation.