ArcaMax

Is there any "money" in alimony? Anything "holy" about "halo"? And why do we say a gun has been fired "point-blank"?

Despite those fat monthly checks doled out to the ex-wives of tech company moguls, there's no money in the word "alimony."

"Alimony" derives from the Latin "alimonia," sustenance, which comes from the Latin verb "alere," to feed. "Alere" also gives us "alimentary canal," the food tract of the human body, which, in turn, gives us indigestion.

Nor is there "money" in "patrimony" (an estate inherited from one's father), "parsimony" (thrift, stinginess) or "matrimony" (sometimes known as "acrimony").

The final "mony" in these words represents, not money, but the Latin endings "-monium" and "-monia," which refer to the state or condition of something. "Matrimony," for instance, denotes the institution of marriage.

And there's no "holy" in "halo." "Halo" comes from the Greek "halos," meaning a threshing floor where oxen walked around in a circle. Talk about a pedestrian origin for a heavenly object!

Using circular reasoning, the Greeks extended "halos" to mean any circular object, especially the sun or moon. Eventually, it came to mean the sunlike glow around the heads of angels, saints and divinities.

You might assume a "truck farm," where vegetables are grown for market, has something to do with the trucks that transport their produce to market. But linguists have no truck with that.

In fact, this meaning of "truck" comes from the Old French "troquer," to bargain, because vegetable farmers are continually bargaining for a good price. This same "truck" lurks in the expression "have no truck with that," meaning "have no dealings with that." And, because items that are bargained for often have little value, "truck" also means "rubbish, junk."

The expression "point-blank," describing a gunshot fired at close range to the target, originated not in riflery, but in archery. In olden days, the bull's-eye of an archery target was white. So it was called the "blank," from the French word for white, "blanc."

An archer standing near a target would aim directly at the blank. At such close range, there was no need to adjust the aim to account for the arrow's trajectory, a calculation necessary when firing from a greater distance.

So an archer shooting "point-blank" was close enough to point the arrow directly at the blank. And to this day, when archers miss the bull's-eye, they still yell "blankety-blank, blank blank."

========

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate Inc.