Forgotten origins

EVERY hill resort has a mall road. Where did the term come from? The oldest mall road is The Mall, a famous promenade in London where the game of Pallemaile was played. Pallemaile is made up of the Italian palla (ball) and magrio (mallet) which led to pallaglio, and later pallemaile. The area was a public area set with shady trees and intended to be a promenade. Today, any public promenade is called a mall or a mall road, regardless of shady trees or any game.

The first world maps were drawn or painted on pieces of cloth called mappa mundi. From the Latin mappa (cloth) and mundi (world). Later, it was shortened to map. Similarly, the first cartoons were drawn on little cards and privately circulated. They were neither complimentary nor flattering to people in authority. So, the circulation was kept private. Cartoon comes from the Latin carta, meaning hard paper or card, which also is the source of carton, a cardboard container.

Boulanger, a French man, restored his father’s broken down tavern in 1765 in Paris. He also began to serve good food and drinks at attractive rates. He named the place ‘restaurant’ to draw people’s attention to the fact that it was the same place except that it was now fully renovated or restored (French restaurer, to restore). Very soon, the name spread to eating places in France and, henceforth, to the English language.

The word family is used today for a group of people i.e. husband, wife and children. Originally, family meant the master of the household and his servants. Family comes from the Latin familia, meaning household, which is related to famulus, meaning servant. Servant itself comes from the Latin servare, meaning to keep, to protect; thus one who was kept from the slaughter of the conquered race to work for the victor.

The Greek prefix eu, meaning good, well, has given many words to English. Euthanasia (eu, meaning well, and thanatos, meaning death), euphoria, eulogy and euphemism, all belong to this family of words connected with the Greek eu.

Tap-root

Due to the size of a ship or aeroplane, jahaz came to be applied to anything enormous or just big enough. A special breed of supari that yields huge fruit is called jahazi supari. It is also common place to hear people mentioning a house as big as a jahaz or an animal built like a jahaz.