In the light of their history, a look at some red herring words should be interesting. The word ‘panmixia’ seems to be the name of a dish mixed in a pan, doesn’t it? In reality, it refers to random breeding within a population, without any attempt to make proper matches. It comes from the Greek words ‘pan’ or ‘all’ and ‘mixis’ or ‘mixing’. At first sight, the word ‘officinal’ seems to be an offshoot of ‘official’ or even ‘officious’ but actually, it has nothing to do with either. It comes from the Latin ‘officinalis’ that means ‘store room for medicines’.
The officinal medicines are those that are used regularly, are already prepared and need no mixing. The antonym of the word is another red herring word that is archaic today. This antonym is ‘magistral’, a word that refers to a medicine prepared for the occasion according to a physician’s prescription. This word is derived from the Latin ‘master’ that is also the root of ‘magistrate’.
‘Firmament’ is another red herring noun that means ‘sky or heavens’. It owes its origin to the Latin word ‘firmare’ that means ‘fix or settle’. Since the sky is fixed in its place, it was called ‘firmamentum’ in Latin. The first time one comes across this word, it seems to be related to ornament or other such words like placement and the actual meaning comes as a surprise.
The word ‘guinea pig’ has nothing to do with any kind of pig. In reality, this animal is a rodent, native to South America where it was raised for food. Today, it is no longer found in the wild and is mostly raised for laboratory research, which created the metaphorical use of ‘guinea pig’ for anybody who acts as a subject for research.
‘Black box’ refers to any complex piece of electronic equipment that is composed of contents mysterious to the user. More commonly, it refers to the flight details recorder in an aircraft that records all that happens in the cockpit. This ‘black’ box is actually ‘orange’ in colour so that it is always easy to spot.
