Let's see if we can get another game off the ground. The first word is shampoo.

It works more or less the same way as the bluffing game. Send me a PM with your invented etymology. I'll collate them and post a list along with the true provenance. You can all then choose the one that seems most likely to you. After a few days I'll announce the results. It's only for fun; there are no winners or losers. If you come across a word with an interesting or amusing etymology by all means start a new game.

It should go without saying that you don't look up the word in a dictionary or online when playing.

Mine is in. What an interesting game. I am looking forward to seeing others' submissions. I wasn't quite sure what to.

Mine too.

You have mine, such as it is.

WM

Four entries have been received so far. Any more?

They'll probably read a little strangely this time, but we'll get used to them.

May we send multiple entries?

I see no reason why not - the more the merrier!

One more entry has been received. I'll post the entries plus the true etymology in the next day or so, so get your thinking caps on!

Here are the egregious etymologies for shampoo. Sanskrit/Hindi seems a popular choice:

1. From Fr. shah-poux, a late C18 delousing preparation, "[Persian] king-lice". The name was intended to reflect its use by the (then exotic) Persian nobility, but there is no evidence for this.

2. Borrowed from Hindi; ancient name for Nepal. Classic Sanskrit manuscripts note the unturbaned shiny hair of Nepalese tribes and their daily practice of scrubbing it in mountain streams, which was considered a sacrilege by turbaned plains-dwellers.

3. From sham & poo, or artificial excrement, originally made of lye soap, which often has a brown cast and foul odour. As soaps improved, the joking connotation disappeared.

4. Shampoo--from the OF champagne and the Hindi "pampoo," (soap), c. 1750.

5. "Shampoo" comes from the Greek word σχήμα, meaning "to clean or to wash."

6. shampoo - from Sanskrit via Hindi, "fire and ash". Burnt cedar wood was mixed with water to form a paste that was then used as a lightly abrasive cleanser and exfoliant.

7. "To massage," from Anglo-Indian shampoo, from Hindi champo "press, knead the muscles," perhaps from Sanskrit capayati "pounds, kneads." Meaning "wash the hair" first recorded 1860.

8. From the Coast Salish (British Columbia, Canada) word, champoeg, meaning the frothiness often seen in sea water.

OK - guess away!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

OK I'll go for 2, but purely on the grounds that it sounds as if it ought to come from the East.

Nice definitions everybody.

I vaguely recall that the word didn't originally refer to hair, so perhaps #8? But I don't think the Salish tribe ever bathed, so that doesn't work. #6 doesn't mention hair, and it IS how one makes lye soap, as is cited in #3, so maybe by the same author? I'll take a wild guess and pick #5.

Mine is quite wild, too: Number 8.

I wish goofy and z would play this game because I think they'd be able to figure them out.

I'll take 7. They all sound fake to me! I guess it's definitely likely, then, that Hindi plays a part. Unless it doesn't.

WM

I'll take #3. It was originally used to remove wrinkles from Shar-Peis.

I'll try #7

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Mine is quite wild, too: Number 8.

I wish goofy and z would play this game because I think they'd be able to figure them out.

I know the answer. But that's not the point, is it?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Mine is quite wild, too: Number 8.

I wish goofy and z would play this game because I think they'd be able to figure them out.

That's the last thing we want. (With apologies to our esteemed colleagues.)

It would be just like arnie on the bluffing game. Once they "guess" the game is dead.

quote:

It would be just like arnie on the bluffing game. Once they "guess" the game is dead.

Well, I perhaps have an unusually large vocabulary, but zm and goofy are trained linguists. While I may have a good record in the bluffing game, I am wrong sometimes!

Any more guesses?

No, I think it would be fun, Bob. And, goofy, as long as you don't give it away that you already knew it it (like you did here), you could have guessed the correct one...and won! Many times in the bluffing game some of us know the real definition and then we guess the correct one.

Bob, just think how happy we would be if we bluffed goofy or z? On the other hand, it would be best were they to be one of the last guessers. I always go to the bluffing game definitions, choose mine, and then see what others have guessed. Were I not to do that, I'd always choose arnie's selection.

Having arnie in the Bluffing Game enhances it, in my opinion. Oh, sure, we cringe in fear when he makes a selection that's contrary to our own, but it adds to the game just trying to find a term he might not know. So, I'd like to have Z and Goofy in these games. And, of course, even if you know the word, you can throw others off the scent by deliberately choosing a wrong one.

You guys did get that I was joking, yes?

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
You guys did get that I was joking, yes?

no

just think how happy we would be if we bluffed goofy or z?

I also know the standard etymology. Maybe I'll join in the next one. I could always chose a wrong one now and then, I suppose.

I don't think we'd have much chance in fooling goofy or z, as there are rules that our made-up etymologies would flout and give the game away.

I'll post the answers tomorrow if I get time, so any last guesses?

quote:

I also know the standard etymology. Maybe I'll join in the next one.

Please do! After all, there are more than a few English words listed as "origin unknown" in dictionaries. There are also many whose etymology no longer suggests current usage, so we've all still got a chance! I've just dug through David Crystal's "History of English in 100 Words" and have a few ideas...

Here are the results for shampoo:

1. From Fr. shah-poux, a late C18 delousing preparation, "[Persian] king-lice". The name was intended to reflect its use by the (then exotic) Persian nobility, but there is no evidence for this.
My own invention that fooled no-one.

2. Borrowed from Hindi; ancient name for Nepal. Classic Sanskrit manuscripts note the unturbaned shiny hair of Nepalese tribes and their daily practice of scrubbing it in mountain streams, which was considered a sacrilege by turbaned plains-dwellers.
By bethree5. Fooled Bob.

3. From sham & poo, or artificial excrement, originally made of lye soap, which often has a brown cast and foul odour. As soaps improved, the joking connotation disappeared.
Geoff's submission that fooled Proofreader.

4. Shampoo--from the OF champagne and the Hindi "pampoo," (soap), c. 1750.
wordmatic's attempt. Nobody was fooled.

5. "Shampoo" comes from the Greek word σχήμα, meaning "to clean or to wash."
Kalleh thought of this one and caught out Geoff.

6. shampoo - from Sanskrit via Hindi, "fire and ash". Burnt cedar wood was mixed with water to form a paste that was then used as a lightly abrasive cleanser and exfoliant.
Bob made this up but no-one picked it.

7. "To massage," from Anglo-Indian shampoo, from Hindi champo "press, knead the muscles," perhaps from Sanskrit capayati "pounds, kneads." Meaning "wash the hair" first recorded 1860.
The real thing. See Etymology Online.
Both wordmatic and bethree5 got this right!

8. From the Coast Salish (British Columbia, Canada) word, champoeg, meaning the frothiness often seen in sea water.
Another from Geoff. Kalleh was caught out by this.

Good game!

Yes, nice game. Goofy, play with us next time!

My shampooing experience will now be forever altered! If ever there were a word that might have been made up by advertising copywriters, this one's it. Who would have thought...?

WM

At least the true answer isn't Geoff's submission (number 3)!

I think that went well enough. Has anyone got another interesting etymology for us?

sure, I;ll post one but with the caveat that while I think I know the origin and online sources indicate that I am right I don't necessarily trust online sources so if someone comes along later and says "hey, that's just folk etymology" don't blame me.

Now that I think about it, I had known the etymology all along. I had just forgotten. Darn!

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Now that I think about it, I had known the etymology all along. I had just forgotten. Darn!

I only remembered that it hd nothing to do with hair. Aye, there's the rub!

Is that a bald-faced lie? And how do you get a bald face anyway?

Ia that a bald-faced lie? And how do you get a bald face anyway?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Now that I think about it, I had known the etymology all along. I had just forgotten. Darn!

Wow. I'm impressed. Howdid you come across that?

Well, I looked through WC because I thought it was here somewhere, but I couldn't find it. So, I imagine it was from Shu. I wish he'd post more because he has a lot of pearls about language.