Wordymology is a series
in which the editors at The Free Dictionary explore the origins of the names of
things
You might know that the weird, wonderful word “Halloween” is an abbreviated form of “Allhallow(s) Even,” the
eve of All Saints’ Day (also called “Allhallows”). But we’ve scared up even more
Halloween word fun, so gather round while we treat you to the tricky
etymologies of these essential Halloween words.
so gather round while we treat you to the tricky etymologies of these essential Halloween words.
To carve out the
etymology of “jack-o'-lantern,” we have to start with its original meaning.
Before it became the name for a carved pumpkin with a light inside, it referred
to a mysterious phenomenon called ignis fatuus (literally “foolish fire”), a glowing light sometimes seen above swamps
or bogs that is thought to be caused by spontaneous combustion of gases. The eerie
light is sometimes called a will-o’-the-wisp —from “Will of the wisp” (“Will” being a name and a
wisp being a torch)—or, using the same pattern, a jack-o’-lantern—“Jack of the
lantern.”
Witch
If you toil and
trouble over the etymology of the word “witch,” you’ll find that it’s related
to the Middle Low German word wicken,
meaning “to conjure.” But it has more immediate roots in the Old English words wicce (“witch”) and wicca (“wizard” or “sorcerer”)—which is
also where the Neopagan religion Wicca derives its name.
When witches get
together, it’s called a coven. The root of “coven,” covent,
means—and is also the root of—“convent.” Now that scary nun movie makes a lot
more sense.
Vampire
Witches and
vampires may have more in common than being popular Halloween costumes. The
name of everyone’s favorite nocturnal bloodsucker comes from the German word Vampir and might be related to the Turkish
word uber—meaning “witch.”
Skeleton
Much like the
witch hiding inside the word “vampire,” there’s a skeleton hiding… INSIDE YOU
RIGHT NOW! Sorry, where were we? The word “skeleton” gets its bones from the
Greek phrase skeleton sōma, meaning
“dried-up body.”
Mummy
Speaking of old,
shriveled-up corpses, if you unravel the etymology of “mummy,” you’ll see that
it comes not from something monstrous, but medicinal. The term can be traced
back to the Arabic word mūmiyā', a name
for a kind of resin once harvested from mummies and used as a kind of medicine.
As for that
favorite haunt of the mummy, the sarcophagus? Well, that’s not so friendly. Its
ultimate source is a Greek word meaning “flesh-eating.” Formed from the roots sarx ("flesh") and phagein
("to eat"), it most likely refers to the stone used in some coffins
that was believed to accelerate decomposition.
Zombie
From flesh
eaters to brain eaters: the English word “zombie” has stayed similar to the
Louisiana French Creole and Haitian Creole word it derived from: zonbi. It’s also related to nzúmbi, which means “ghost” or “spirit” in
Kimbundu, a language spoken in Angola.
“Zombie” isn’t
just used for reanimated corpses—it’s also
the name of a Voodoo snake god.
Candy
Enough of all
this snacking on brains and flesh, let’s get to the best part of Halloween: the
candy.
Although the
very similar word candi was used
in both Middle English and Old French, “candy” is ultimately Arabic in origin.
It comes from the Arabic phrase sukkar
qandī, in which sukkar means
“sugar” and qandī comes from qand, meaning “lump of sugar.”