DISMAL:merely bad days

　　The Egyptians believed in unluckly days,and apparently these so-called "Egyption days"came into Rome and then on into the Europe of the Middle Ages.In France two such days were marked on the calendar each month and were called the dis malfrom the Latin dies mali,"the evil days."Dis mal was transferred into Middle English as the adjective dismale which descriped these unluckly days when it was wise to be very careful,since misfortune lurked at every tune .Now dismal just means gloomy and depressing.

　　MAWKISH

　　meant simply “ without appetite,” “inclined to be sickly.” Now it’s something that makes you feel sick,like the actions of an over-sentimental and mawkish lover.

　　MELANCHOLY: black bile

　　The Greeks defined melancholia as “the black bile that produces temperament,” and they believed that it was the presence of too much black bile in the system-melas, “ black,” and chole, “bile-” that caused the blues. This notion went down through the centuries. The Elizabethans thought that sullen and gloomy people were suffering from this disease which was very fashionable at that time among the ultra-refined. The favorite dose for depressed and fainting females was melancholy-water.

　　MISOGAMIST: the hater

　　Many an old bachelor is a misogamist,a misogynist, and a misanthrope. The inspiration for the word misogamist is the Greek miso-, “hating,” and gamos, “marriage.” A misogynist is a hater of women, again miso-, “hate,” and gyne, “woman.” While the word misanthrope comes from the Greek word for hate plus anthropos which means “mankind,”so this chap hates everybody. Again in Greek, philo means “l(fā)ove,” and so a philanthropist for his part loves all people.

　　NAUGHTY :good-for-nothing

　　In the days of Miles Standish they spoke of “the naughty canoes,”and this gives an idea of the original meaning of the word :worthless; of bad quality; or just good-for-naught. This was merely a stronger way of saying naught which is derived from the Old English nawiht; that is, “no whit ” or “nothing”. Later on naughty came to signify evil or corrupt, as a naughty pack; that is, “a woman of bad character.” Not until fairly modern times did naughty come to describe a child’s mischief as it does now.

　　NICE : formerly meant ignorant

　　In the Middle Ages nice meant foolish or ignorant , for it comes from the Latin word nescio which is made up of ne, “not”, and scio, “to know.” Then , because ignorant people are often silent, its meaning changed to “shy” or “coy”. Sometimes shy folks get the reputation of being a little uppish because of their offish ways, so the meaning of the word shifted until it meant “hard to please.” “precise,” “ exacting.” We use it today in that sense when we say : “ That is a nice (exacting) problem.” Finally it became general in its meaning and is now applied to many things ,such as people of good taste and disposition.

　　ORDEAL: first with boiling water

　　When a girl says that her day of shopping was quite an ordeal, she is using the word in a somewhat softer sense than it originally had. In the England of another day this term, spelled ordal in Old English and meaning “judgment ,” was most often used in the phrase “trial by ordeal,” a phrase that recalls a legal practice of our ancestral British courts. If a degendant in this original ordeal could carry a red-hot iron without being burned, he was innocent. If he flinched at plunging his hand in boiling water, he was guilty. It was as simple as that,though the tests varied from time to time. And now an ordeal can be a severe test of character, or just a trying experience.