Over the past two years, I have collected material on many words that do not warrant an entire column. I present this “collage” of material here. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Asterisk: This word means “little star” from the Greek “asteriskos.” “Aster” means star and “iskos” is diminutive. We all recognize “aster” with its “star” meaning from words like “astral” and “asteroid.” But the word “disaster” too, has such an origin. It originally referred to a calamity blamed on heavenly bodies.

Now for some sports trivia: Even though sportswriters referred to Roger Maris’ asterisk, his 61 home runs never had an asterisk in the record books. (Interestingly, a film on the Maris/Mantle home run race in 1961 was called “61*.”) In 2017, the Houston Astros won the World Series, but they had engaged in sign-stealing. They have been called “the Houston Asterisks” by fans of rival teams.

Curfew: This word originated as “couvre-feu.” It literally meant “cover fire” and originated in medieval Europe. In many towns, a bell would ring every evening at a particular hour — notifying the townspeople that they had to extinguish their hearth fires to avoid conflagrations.

Hypocrite: This word derives from a Greek word “hypokrites,” which means an actor. Its literal translation is “an interpreter from underneath.” Ancient Greek actors wore masks and the actors spoke from underneath that mask. Apparently, the performance of a dramatic text by an actor involved a degree of interpretation and assessment. (I thank my wife, Sharon, for telling me about this interesting word.)

Kalev ben Yefuneh: Someone mailed a letter in Israel to someone on “Kalev ben Yefuneh” street. A computer translated the street name and printed it on the envelope. The translation was: “A dog will be evacuated.”

Liber: In 1924, Rav Avrohom Pam was 11 years old, when his father left Lita for the United States (The family would follow two years later.) The senior Rav Pam had taken most of his seforim, but left behind a volume of Yirmiyahu. The heading on each page was “Liber Yirmiyahu,” which the young Avrohom understood (based on Yiddish) to mean “the loving Yirmiyahu.” Accordingly, he learned the rebuke of Yirmiyahu as a loving rebuke, offered in a personal way. Only later did he learn that “liber” was Latin for “book.” But the way he studied the book initially, left its impression on him. This story is found in the introduction by Rabbi Reisman to Rabbi Yehuda Landy’s work: “Uncovering Sefer Yirmiyahu” (2019). Rabbi Reisman adds that this is the way everyone should learn Yirmiyahu: a 40-year effort by the prophet to convince his beloved people to avoid being driven from their beloved land. A labor of love.

Pepsi Cola: Incredibly, the name “Pepsi” was chosen in 1898, as a way to promote the drink as relief for “dyspepsia,”another name for indigestion. (The drink was originally introduced in 1893 as “Brad’s Drink.”) It has also been suggested that the name alluded to the digestive enzyme “pepsin.” (But pepsin was never used as an ingredient.) A source where I read this adds satirically: “All people need to be drawn to a drink is to imagine gastric juices pulsing around their middles, breaking up their food into chyme…” (I am not going to define that last unpleasant word. You can look it up.)

Tragedy: The Greek word “tragodia” means “song of the male goat.” “Tragos” means “he-goat” and “aeidein” means “to sing” (like the word “ode”). We don’t know the origin of this etymology. There may have been a time, when a goat was a prize in a competition of choral dancing or that a chorus used to sing around a goat prior to its sacrifice in a performance. Others suggest that people used to dress up as goats in Greek plays. Another view of the etymology is that the word derives from “trygos” meaning “grape harvest.”

Vaccine: This originates from the Latin “vaccinus,” meaning “of or from a cow.” “Vacca” meant “cow” in Latin. The earliest vaccine for humans — for smallpox — was developed at the end of the 18th-century by utilizing pus from cowpox lesions.

The modern Hebrew word for “vaccination” is “ḥisun.” It was created based on the Biblical Hebrew root “חסן,” which means “strong.” See, e.g., Psalms 89:9. (This root does not appear in the Torah.) Other related modern Hebrew words are: “ḥasinut” meaning “immunity,” “tashnit” meaning“mutation” (from “שנה” meaning “change”), and “daḥaf” meaning “booster” (from “דחף” meaning “hasten” or “push”).

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אליבא (usually: “aliba de-”): This phrase, which means “according to,” is derived from the Hebrew word “לב.” It literally means something like “following the heart of.”

Now let us look at that English word “according.” Where does that word come from? It turns out that it comes from the word “heart” as well! Let me explain …

The English word “heart” and its Germanic cognates (e.g., “herz”) are related to the Latin word “cord” and the Greek word “kardia.” For reasons too complicated to explain, some Indo-European languages use the letter “h” when other Indo-European languages use the letters “c” or “k.” Thus, the English words “core,” “crux,” “cardiology” and “cardinal” (principle item within a group) are all related to the English word “heart.” Also, the French word for heart is “coeur.” The “Cardo” in the Old City gets its name from the fact that it runs through the “heart/middle” of the Old City. The English word “according” derives from the French word “accord,” which literally means “following the heart of.” (In both Aramaic and the Indo-European languages, “heart” may be being used figuratively for “mind.”)

I learned this fascinating material from Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein’s column of July 12, 2022 (“In the Middle”).

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Finally, I would like to tell the story of how Hadassah Lieberman (wife of former Senator Joseph Lieberman) received her first name. This comes from her book, “Hadassah: An American Story” (2021).

She was born in Prague in 1948. Her father wanted to register her as “Esther” after her grandmother, who was killed by the Nazis. But the Czech authorities told him that the name sounded “too German.” So he chose “Hadassah,” another name for “Esther” in the Megillah. A few years later, the family moved to the United States and, eventually, her father ended up as an Orthodox rabbi in the small town of Gardner, Massachusetts. Hadassah continues the story: “My first memory of Gardner is of being registered as an immigrant … At the time, a local order of Catholic nuns was in charge of this task … My father told the nun who was examining my forms that he had originally wanted to name me ‘Esther,’ but had been discouraged from doing so by the Czech authorities. He wondered if he might change it back now from ‘Hadassah,’ to give me a more ‘American-sounding’ name. The nun looked at my birth certificate and said: ‘Rabbi, don’t change her name. It is unique. Don’t change it to Esther, Hadassah is a beautiful name.’” So, it was a nun in the United States that was ultimately responsible for her unique name!

P.S. I have a new book: “Words for the Wise: Sixty-Two Insights on Hebrew, Holidays, History and Liturgy.” It is available at kodeshpress.com and at Jewish bookstores.

Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. He has a unique name himself.