Words

I like word derivations. Like Michael Caine, who when interviewed on the Michael Parkinson show recently was of the opinion that ‘marmalade’ got it’s name from the French phrase “Ma’am est malade.” Mary Queen of Scots French staff used to give her fruit set in jelly when she was ill.

Nice story though it is, it is at odds with the Oxford English Dictionary, who tell us that marmalade gets its name from the Portuguese marmelo, for the fruit quince.

The OED on-line has a very hefty annual subscription. But if you join your local library (for free) you may well be given log-in access for free as well. That’s what I do.

Stationery or Stationary?

I always used to get these two confused. But the reason they are spelled so similarly is the way to tell them apart. Let me explain.

On market days there were two types of stalls. The stalls which sold perishable goods like vegetables and meat, and the ones which sold the non-perishables. Market traders who sold the perishable stuff would usually wheel their stalls away at night and bring them back loaded up with fresh goods. But the traders who sold non-perishable goods would simply lock up their stalls and leave them ’stationed’ in the market. So the ’stationers’ (not ’stationars’, because that just looks weird) were the stallholders who left their stands ’stationary’ overnight.

And the goods the stationers sold inevitably came to be known as ’stationery.’