Welcome to Livlife. Where I am living my life out loud, for all to read.

Here is something special for your Sunday. Today's episode of Thing You Never Knew You Never Knew is brought to you by Jan.

 

Yes, that's right, Jan, not Livlife. Jan is a librarienne extraordinaire (as is Livlife!), who seems to enjoy my blog. (She thinks it's cool, she told me so). Well, the past couple days she and I have been sharing some email banter about the Twilight Series, which we are both reading. Well, somehow we got into detailing what annoys each of us while reading and unusual habits that we have (while reading). I made the comment that librarians are all a bit odd when it comes to reading and Jan responded that we do indeed have our quirks.

 

Something (I haven't yet learned what) prompted her to then look up the word "quirk". What she found was enough for her to email me with the suggestion that this could be a possible blog post. Let me tell you, this is AWESOME! Having people suggest interesting ideas for me to blog about is great....and is something I am always more than willing to do.

 

What we now know is this. Quirk is a word without a past-a mystery, an enigma. There is no known documentation of the history of the word, no proof of what language from which it descends. (There are speculations that it is Welsh...but they are purely speculation). It has many different meanings, which is hardly uncommon for words. There are examples of its usage dating back as far as 1547, with its meaning as a decoration on the ankle of a stocking, which comes from the Welsh--leading to said speculation. But again, no proof. It is an old word but one that cannot be documented as firmy descending from another word or a particular language. This is fairly unusual. Most words have a pretty accurate history attached to them, so I guess you could say that this particular word sure does have its quirks. (Yes, it was obvious and I went for it anyway).

 

So here's to Jan: May she continue to share her wisdom and insight on my blog. She's welcome anytime. Thanks Jan!