I have a slick little desk calendar.  The Word Origin Calendar.  What's words do you know the origins of, or want to know the origins of.  

This is today's word, comp the calendar:

CHARM – In its original form in Latin, this word came from the verb canere, meaning “to sing.” This use prompted its eventual application as the Latin noun carmen, meaning a “song,” which in early European cultures often was linked to magic chants and other superstitious activities.  In Middle English, this ended up as charme, a spoken or sung form of magic, and eventually referred to a physical object that had magical properties.  The English word “chant” shares this origin; in Latin, one form of canere is cantare.

Nifty!  For the past year or so I've been signed up to get Dictionary.com's word of the day sent to my work e-mail.  It's interesting, and occasionally I even use the words they send.

One of the more famous ones:

ROBOT - ultimately derived from the Czech word robota, this word was introduced in the English Language in 1923, when the Czech writer Karel Capek wrote a play called R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). The word robota means, in Czech, "mechanical slave" - this was the original given meaning.

BEAGLE- Although domesticated dogs have been around for 10 thousand years or longer, the breed known as "beagle” is much younger, perhaps only a few thousand years old, at most.  The name cropped up in Middle English as begle, which is though to have been inspired by the Old-French word begueule, a derogatory word referring to someone who was noisy.

    Lycanthropy from Greek lykoi, "wolf" anthropos, "man", a psychiatric state in which the patient believes he is a wolf or some other nonhuman animal.

   When I first discovered the meaning of this word I was amazed that this condition was common enough that there actually was a word for it.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwryndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

This is the fourth longest place name in the world, famed for the length of its railway tickets. Questions have arisen about its authenticity, since its official name has only 20 letters, and the full name seems to have been created as a hoax by a 19th Century local tailor.

Krung Thep, the capital of Thailand.

Here is its full name:

http://www.into-asia.com/gifs/bangkok/introduction/bangkokfullname.gif

Its name, Anglocized, is:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

It seems to translate as a series of superlatives, something like:

The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.

-WHOA!! That was cool! Huhehe hehe hehehehe...   ::)
-Yeah, YEAH!, mheheheh Robota! robota! cool! mmmhehe!

Quoting:
One of the more famous ones:

ROBOT - ultimately derived from the Czech word robota, this word was introduced in the English Language in 1923, when the Czech writer Karel Capek wrote a play called R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). The word robota means, in Czech, "mechanical slave" - this was the original given meaning.
End Quote

Gorsafawddachaidraigddanheddogleddollônpenrhynareurdraethceredigon

A name contrived by the Fairbourne Steam Railway, Gwynedd, North Wales. Sounds familiar? Yes, it was to outdo Llanfair... It means "The Mawddach station and its dragon teeth at the Northern Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan Bay".

BEELZEBUB – This alternative term for the Devil originated in Hebrew as Ba’ al zebhubh, which literally means “lord of the flies.”

I received an e-mail today from Oxford University Press online.  They're having a sale, and... well, they have a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary on cd-rom for $225.  Now that would make a nifty little graduation gift... http://www.click-smilie.de/sammlung/cool/cool030.gif