Word for the Wise : Odd
March 10th, 2010
|
Author: On June 11, 1969, David Bowie's Space Oddity hit the airwaves. If you remember when the song first came out, you may also remember that its release was timed to coincide with Apollo 11's mission to the moon. Our linguistic connection to the tune is an odd one -- literally -- as we look at the word odd and some of its quirky offspring.
Odds are, you're familiar with the adjective odd, but you may have never heard about odd's ancestor oddi. That Old Norse term names a point of land, a triangle, or an odd number.
In English, something odd can be without its corresponding mate (an odd shoe), or it can be left over after others are paired or grouped (unaccompanied by his wife,
Odds are, you're familiar with the adjective odd, but you may have never heard about odd's ancestor oddi. That Old Norse term names a point of land, a triangle, or an odd number.
In English, something odd can be without its corresponding mate (an odd shoe), or it can be left over after others are paired or grouped (unaccompanied by his wife,
he was the odd dinner guest), or it can be separated from a set or series (only three odd volumes remained from the original set). Mathematicians assign odd to natural numbers not evenly divisible by two and also to a type of mathematical function. Odd has other senses too: something "occasional, remote, or differing markedly from the usual, ordinary, or accepted."
The terms oddball and odd fish are twentieth century coinages used to name the odd man out, an eccentric person who differs from the other members of a group. And oddity, David Bowie's term of choice? An oddity names a peculiar person, thing, event, or trait. You're right in guessing oddity predates the space program; it first appeared in print in English in 1713 ... as it happens, an odd year.
We're evenhanded about odd questions. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
The terms oddball and odd fish are twentieth century coinages used to name the odd man out, an eccentric person who differs from the other members of a group. And oddity, David Bowie's term of choice? An oddity names a peculiar person, thing, event, or trait. You're right in guessing oddity predates the space program; it first appeared in print in English in 1713 ... as it happens, an odd year.
We're evenhanded about odd questions. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
Posted in 
Tags: