Question: Can you explain how the element uranium got its name?
Answer: Uranium was named for the planet Uranus, which was discovered shortly before the element was detected.
The name "Uranus" comes ultimately from Greek mythology. The Greek god of the heavens was known as "Ouranos," which literally means "sky, heaven." The Romans latinized the name as "Uranus." Uranus was the father of the god Saturn and the grandfather of Jupiter. In 1781, the English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered by telescope the seventh planet of our solar system. Because the planets long familiar to astronomy were named after Roman gods, the German astronomer Johann Bode suggested the name "Uranus," an especially apt choice since the fifth and sixth planets were Jupiter and Saturn respectively. In 1789 the German chemist Martin Klaproth discovered a new element and later gave it the name "uranium" after the recently discovered planet Uranus.
Question: Will you please explain the meaning and origin of "widow's weeds"? It is seldom used now, but I recall hearing it and seeing it in print.
Answer: "Weeds" in the term "widow's weeds" means "clothing" or "apparel." It's from an Old English word "waed," which in Middle English became "wede." This "weed" is not connected with the "unwanted plant" meaning of "weed," which originates from Old English and Middle English "weod."
The "garment" sense of "weed" has been rarely used since the 19th century, and even then it occurred mostly in literary contexts. "Weed" could also once mean "armor" or "mail," but by the time Sir Walter Scott used it that way in "The Bridal of Triermain" in 1813, it was already rare.
"Weed" or "weeds" was often used with a qualifying term to refer to a uniform or the distinctive garb of a particular profession or state in life: "doctor's weed," "shepherd's weeds," "monastic weeds." "Widow's weeds," too, referred at one time to something of a uniform, back when custom mandated a somewhat unvarying dress be worn by widows - a black gown with broad white cuffs, and, in public, a crepe veil. As "widow's weeds" became the only prevalent application of this increasingly rare word, "weeds" alone could often be understood to refer to mourning garb. In today's contexts, of course, the picturesque employment of "widow's weeds" refers simply to the black or dark-colored dress or suit a woman might wear at her husband's funeral and in public for a period afterwards.
Question: I sometimes hear the phrase "since Hector was a pup" and can't for the life of me find its source. I suspect it refers to the Hector of Homer's "Iliad." Can you confirm this hunch?
Answer: No one seems to be quite sure of the origin of this curious phrase. "Since Hector was a pup" is one of a variety of expressions meaning basically "since way back when," another favorite being "since Pontius was a pilot."
Several sources offer the unsubstantiated suggestion that the expression is based on the once-common practice of naming big dogs "Hector," most likely after the hero of Trojan War fame. Names for dogs, just as for people, go in and out of style. (We wouldn't even want to guess how many dogs were named "Lassie" in the 1960s.) According to the theory, "Hector" was in vogue for dogs in the mid-to-late 19th century, and the expression refers to the long past puppyhood of the family dog.
If this theory is true, it would discredit other suggestions that the expression was coined later by W.C. Fields or by the creator of a popular 1920s comic strip, "Polly and Her Pals." It may be that one or both of these humorists was simply the vehicle for popularizing an expression already in existence. "Since Hector was a pup" may also have been a favorite expression of poet and dog-lover Ogden Nash, who works a variation on it in these lines: "She seems to pant, time up, time up! / My little dog must die, / and lie in dust with Hector's pup; / So presently must I."
This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Send questions to. Merriam-Webster's Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal Street, Springfield, MA 01102.