Mazda

Filed Under June 2007, columns | 2 Comments

And I used to be lots funnier.

Dear Word Detective: My friend drives a Mazda car. She thinks that the word “mazda” has some significant meaning, possibly in ancient Persian. Can you give me any information? –Peter Kerr.

Drat. I was all set to cast light-hearted doubt on your friend’s sanity when a little voice in my head suggested that I check a book called From Altoids to Zima: The Surprising Stories Behind 125 Famous Brand Names (Simon & Schuster, 2004). Inasmuch as I actually wrote this book my very own self, you’d think I’d remember what it contains, but you’d be wrong. The truth about many writers is that once the research is done and the piece is written and published, we wipe the old memory slate clean to make room for shopping lists and dental appointments. Occasionally this “yesterday’s gone” approach proves awkward (as it almost just did), but the bright side is that I can amuse myself for hours reading things I wrote just a few months ago.

In any case, your friend is correct. The Mazda car, produced by the Mazda Motor Company of Japan, takes its name from Ahura Mazda, the central deity of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion. Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest monotheistic religions, is considered to have been a strong influence on the Abrahamic religions (including Christianity, Judaism and Islam), and was founded by the Persian philosopher Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra. Evidently Zoroastrianism also strongly influenced Jujiro Matsuda, the founder of Mazda Motor Company. Matsuda, son of a fisherman, founded the company in 1920 under the name Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and, indeed, produced cork flooring until switching to motor vehicles in 1931. Oddly enough, the company’s name formally became Mazda Motor Company only in 1984, but every vehicle they have produced, including their 1931 Mazdago three-wheel pickup truck, has carried some variant of the “Mazda” name.

There is a theory that Jujiro Matsuda picked the name “Mazda” not only from an apparent respect for Zoroastrianism but also because it bore a strong phonetic resemblance to his own last name. If that’s true, Mazda is in good company — many automobile brands are based on personal names. The Oldsmobile, for instance, was named for Ransom E. Olds, a pioneer automobile engineer who established the first car company in Detroit, the Olds Motor Company, in 1890. Rolls-Royce was founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce in 1906, and Dodge honors John and Horace Dodge, brothers who started out making bicycles and eventually worked up to manufacturing cars. Honda and Toyota both reflect the names of their founders, although in the latter case “Toyota” was thought to have a “better sound” than Sakichi Toyoda’s last name. And while the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (1656-1750) never got around to building a car, his name is immortalized on those tacky hood ornaments today because he founded the city of Detroit.

 

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Glaikit.

Filed Under June 2007, columns | Leave a Comment

Ook at its iddle PAWS!

Dear Word Detective: “Glaikit” is a word of Scottish origin, meaning a silly, sappy expression on one’s face. Where did it come from? — Tim.

Good question. “Glaikit” is a new one on me, but I certainly know the expression it apparently describes. It’s the look otherwise sane people get when they see the kittens our local pet store has up for adoption. I was in there the other day, buying a 20-pound bag of gourmet cat chow, and there were at least five full-grown customers peering into the cage, emitting the sort of cooing and kissing sounds that would get you arrested if you made them on the subway. I wouldn’t dream of discouraging anyone willing to adopt a cat, but I do wonder if they’ll still be cooing when the little critter mistakes their legs for the fancy-schmancy scratching post they bought it.

“Glaikit” is indeed mostly heard in Scotland and northern England, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), it’s an adjective originally, when it first appeared in the mid-15th century, meaning “senseless, foolish.” In later usage, it expanded a bit to include “thoughtless, flighty and giddy,” uses most frequently applied to women.

Tracing the origins of “glaikit” leads us into a bit of a maze. It is pretty certainly related to the noun “glaik,” also of Scots parentage, which means (according to the OED) “mocking deception,” most often used in phrases such as “to give one the glaiks,” meaning to cheat or swindle. “Glaik” as a noun has also been used to mean “a child’s puzzle,” “a flash of light” and as an expression of contempt for another person. There’s also a derivative verb, “to glaik,” meaning, variously, “to stare idly,” “to delude” and “to dazzle.” If this all seems a bit hazy and confusing, welcome to the club.

The probable root of “glaik” (and I’m glad there is one) is the only slightly less weird word “gleek,” which is now considered obsolete but in its day meant “a jibe or jest,” often in the phrase “to give someone the gleek,” meaning to trick or make fun of the person. Tracing “gleek” a bit further back, we find, at long last, a familiar word. The root of “gleek” turns out to be “glee,” which, although now most often used to mean “a feeling of delight,” originally meant “play or sport,” especially in the “mocking jest” sense.

So, to sum up, “glaikit” meaning basically “foolish” can be traced back to “glee” meaning “jest or trick.”

 

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