The world gorilla derives from Greek Γόριλλαι (Gorillai) meaning "tribe of hairy women".
A translation of a report written by
Hanno, Carthaginian navigator,
who voyaged before 480 b.c., and went as far as Sierra Leone in his
explorations mention this word. In the Greek translation of his report he tells of seeing
Gorillai, the name of which he allegedly learned from local informants and which he thought were members of a tribe of hairy women.
Rather than women it is alleged he probably had an incounter with the great apes. It makes you wonder how greek women looked in those days!
A conclave is a place where cardinals are locked until they elect a new pope. The word was already used in the XIVth century and comes from Latin: con- "together" and clavis "a key".
An avocado is a pear-shaped fruit with dark green, leathery skin, a large stony
seed, and greenish-yellow edible pulp.
Originally the Aztecs called this fruit ahucatl after their word for testicle.
This is may be partly due to the fruit's resemblance to a testicle, but
also because it was supposedly believed to be an aphrodisiac. To the
Spaniards ahucatl sounded like avocado (=advocate, Spanish), and so the fruit came to Europe, via Spain, under that name.
Quarantine is a state, period, or place of isolation in which
people or animals that have arrived from elsewhere or been exposed to
infectious or contagious disease are placed.
This comes from the venitian word "quarantena" meaning 40 days. Originally when a ship arriving in port was suspected of being infected
with a malignant, contagious disease, its cargo and crew were obliged
to forego all contact with the shore for a period of around forty days.
This term came to be known as period of quarantine.
An assassin is a murderer, generally somewhat professional; especially one who murders a prominent figure.
This word has a long history going back to the Crusades. The members of a secret Muslim
sect engaged people to terrorise their Christian enemies by performing
murders as a religious duty.
These acts were carried out under the
influence of hashish, and so the killers became known as hashshashin, meaning eaters or smokers of hashish. Hashshashin evolved into the word assassin.
Kerfuffle means a commotion or fuss, especially one caused by conflicting views
It started to be used early 19th century. It probably comes from Scots curfuffle, equivalent to ker- + fuffle, or related to Irish cior thual ("char athwart: confusion, disorder"). Similar to modern Welsh cythrwfl ("uproar, trouble, agitation")
Discombobulate is an American English, fanciful coinage of a type popular in 1834. It means to confuse someone.
