Sep

6

Word Of The Week: September 6th, 2008

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

September 6, 2008 |

letterj.jpgEtymology can be a tricky thing. When I heard the word juggernaut, for instance, I assume it came from Latin, possibly from iactare, “to throw”. It didn’t make sense, but, hey, weird mutations occur in language sometimes. In fact the word comes from Hindu mythology. Juggernaut was a title of Krishna, and, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Juggernaut was “annually dragged in procession on an enormous car, under the wheels of which many devotees are said to have formerly thrown themselves to be crushed.” From that the dictionary derives this definition: “An institution, practice, or notion to which persons blindly devote themselves, or are ruthlessly sacrificed.” Apparently because Juggernaut was transported in an enormous vehicle the British also use the term to mean “A large heavy vehicle”.

I had to go to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to find the definition I was familiar with, “a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path”. That’s how I usually use the word juggernaut, and how it’s applied to, say, one of the X-Men’s super-villains. It’s not hard to see how the American definition derived from the British one, but it’s also an interesting example of how a word’s meaning can mutate.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. preciouschild on September 6, 2008 9:47 pm

    how very interesting.. thanks for that bit of edification.

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