Page 166 - INSPERIA-School Magazine TIGPSKON 2021.indd

Theseus a ball of yarn to help him find his way out
as the Black Death, was ripping through the continent.
of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Because of this, the word
Starting in 1343, the disease wiped out an estimated one-
“clew” came to mean something that points the way.
third of Europe’s population during a particularly nasty
Appropriately enough, Theseus unravelled the yarn
period of three years between 1347-50. This sweep of the
behind him as he went into the maze, so that he could
plague resulted in one of the biggest die-offs in human
work his way back out in reverse. Thus the word “clew”
history—and it was an impetus to take action. Officials
can be understood in this context and in the context of
in the Venetian-controlled port city of Ragusa (now
a detective working his way backwards to solve a crime
Dubrovnik, Croatia) passed a law establishing trentino, or
using “clues”. The word gained its modern-day spelling in
a 30-day period of isolation for ships arriving from plague-
the 15th century, a time when spelling was rather more
affected areas. No one from Ragusa was allowed to visit
fluid than it is today.
those ships under trentino, and if someone broke the law,
they too would be isolated for the mandatory 30 days. The Groggy
law caught on. Over the next 80 years, Marseilles,
Pisa, and various other cities adopted similar measures. We’ve all felt “groggy” at one time or another – lethargic,
Within a century, cities extended the isolation period sluggish, perhaps through lack of sleep.
from30 to 40 days,and the term changed from trentino
It originated in the 18th century with a British man
to quarantino—the root of the English word quarantine
named Admiral Vernon, whose
that we use today.
sailors gave him the nickname
Clue “Old Grog” on account of his
cloak, which was made from a
material called “grogram”, a
weatherproof mixture of silk and
wool. In 1740, he decreed that his
sailors should be served their rum
diluted with water, ratherthan
neat. This was called “grog”,
and the feeling experienced by
sailors when they’d drunk too much of it was thus called
“groggy”.
Palace

Who knew that the word “clue” derives from Greek
The word “palace” is another English word with origins
mythology? It comes from the word “clew”, meaning a ball
in Rome. It comes from one of Rome’s famous ‘Seven
of yarn. In Greek mythology, Ariadne, he granddaughter
Hills’, the Palatine, upon which the Emperor resided in
of thesun god Helios, gives
what grew into a sprawling and opulent home. In Latin,
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