Janus and the New Year

Dec 31, 2010
By John Grimm

In Roman Mythology, Janus was a god who had two faces that looked in opposite directions. One face looked into the past and the other to the future. His name comes from the word for gate. He was the god of entrances and exits and frequently was used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future. So January was named after him.
As Janus looks back at 2010 he’d better have his windshield wipers on. Our community took a tough one across the chin last week. The “rain that would not stop” caused a large amount of damage to homes in Highland. We don’t use the word “rain” around the library since we know the old saying “Speak of the devil and he is bound to appear.”
The Anglo Saxons called the first month Wolfmonth because wolves were prone to coming into town at this time looking for food. I prefer the two-faced Janus. He is looking forward into the New Year with, we hope, nothing but blues skies and sunshine in sight.
I sometimes look back at words and phrases to find their derivation. The word derivation comes from the Latin derivo from de, “away from” and rivus, “river.” Derive meant change the course of a river in early England. To bad there was no one around present-day Highland to derive City Creek last week.
Another word that comes from that same source is a word no one Wall Street wants to hear again. Yes, I’m talking about (Speak of the devil) “derivatives.” Oops!
The word euphemism comes from the Greek words eu and phemi meaning “well” and “speak.” “He went to his reward” is “wellspeak” for “He died.” The word ballot comes from the Italian word “ballota” meaning ball. Ancient Greeks dropped a white ball into a container (or ballot box) when they favored a candidate, a “black ball” when they didn’t.
Two pieces of flat wood were used by 17th century clowns to make a loud noise when they came together on a harlequin’s derriere. Hence the obvious derivation of “Slapstick” comedy.
I have to thank Wilfred Funk for most of the word sources I have mentioned in this column He is the author of “Word Origins and their Romantic Stories.” The book was published 60 years ago so some of the claims he makes may be subject to debate. But his research is well done. After all, he served for 16 years as president of a firm founded by his father called Funk and Wagnall’s, publishers of dictionaries and encyclopedias.