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the Palatine Hill was called the “Palatium”, and the word chap”, explains where we got the word “ketchup”. It
“Palatine” came to refer to the Emperor’s residence, wasn’t until the 19th century that tomato ketchup was
invented, however; people used to think that tomatoes
were poisonous, and the sauce didn’t catch on in America
until later that century. One couldn’t imagine chips or
burgers without it now!

Ostracise

The word “ostracise” and the concept of democracy
were both born in Ancient Greece, where the practice of
a democratic vote extended to citizens voting to decide
whether there were any dangerous individuals who
rather than the actual hill. The word has reached us via shouldbe banished (because they were becoming too
Old French, in which the word “palais” referred to the powerful, thus posing a threat to democracy). Those who
Palatine Hill. You can see the word “Palatine” more easily were eligible to vote exercised this privilege by writing
in the form “palatial”, meaning palace-like in size.
Genuine

The word “genuine” comes from the Latin word
“genuinus” meaning “innate”, “native” or “natural”,
itself derived, somewhat surprisingly, from the Latin word
“genu”, meaning “knee”. This unlikely origin arises from a
Roman custom in which, a father would place a new born
child on his knee in order to acknowledge his paternity of
the child. This practice also gave rise to an association with
the word “genus”, meaning “race” or “birth”. In the 16th
century the word “genuine” meant “natural” or “proper”,
their vote on a shred of broken pottery – an “ostrakon”. If
and these days we use it to mean “authentic”. the vote came back in favour of banishing the individual,
Ketchup they were “ostracised” (from the Ancient Greek verb

“ostrakizein”, meaning “to ostracise”). The word has
nothing to do with ostriches, the flightless birds – similar
though the words are!
As I said at the beginning of this article, this selection of
fascinating word origins barely even scratches the surface
of the endlessly interesting world of etymology. Whether
you’re a seasoned English speaker or trying to learn this
challenging language for the first time, you are bound to
find out some useful facts to help you memorise new words
simply by exploring their origins. What remarkable word
histories will you discover the next time you find out what
a word really means?
China as a sauce of pickled fish and spices. Known in
the Chinese Amoy dialect as kôe-chiap or kê-chiap, its
popularity spread to what is now Singapore and Malaysia DebabrataBagchi
in the early 18th century, where it was encountered by Department of English
British explorers. In Indonesian-Malaysian the sauce
was called “kecap”, the pronunciation of which, “kay-
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