This word is probably originally from a Semitic language (related to Hebrew and Arabic) spoken by the Phoenicians, an ancient Mediterranian people famous for creating a far-reaching trade empire, building the amazing cities of Tyre and Carthage, sailing all the way around Africa, inventing the alphabet (not just an alphabet, but the alphabet, from which all others were derived or inspired), and of course killing harmless shellfish… to create purple dye.

Purple dye for coloring clothing was sufficiently rare and expensive in the old days that only royalty could afford it; this is why purple is associated with royalty. For a long time, the source of the purple dye was the Phoenicians’ secret, and the only purple clothing available anywhere came from them.

No one knows exactly what the Phoenicians called the hapless shellfish that was the foundation of their fortunes, but its name was borrowed into Greek as porphyra (also the origin of the English word porphyry). This became purpura in Latin, and purple in English. (The last “r” changed to an “l” through the rare process of dissimilation, in which a sound changes so that it is more distinguishable from other sounds.)

Purple is infused with a powerful, relaxed (short “u”) energy (”r”), concentrating energies at a particular point (”p”). Could this indicate the concentration of power in a monarchy? The second syllable consists of “p” plus a syllabic “l” (i.e. “l” acting as a vowel), meaning perhaps that the concentrated point’s energies are diffused into a shapeless passivity.

Thanks to Jessa for suggesting this word of the day!

Skin comes from Proto Indo European sek, “to cut”, which is also the ancestor of saw, scythe, Saxon, segment, section, dissect, and others. Sek’s perfective form was sken, meaning “something cut off”; this became skintha in Proto Germanic. The Norse used the term for animal hide, since hide is something that is cut off (”skinned”) from an animal. When the Norse invaded and colonized Britain in the latter half of the first millenium, they brought their language with them. In fact, every English word that begins with sk- is ultimately derived from Old Norse. Their word skinn came in alongside the native Old English word hyd (hide).

The phonosemantics of skin seem to reflect more the “removal” sense than the “covering” sense of the word: directed source energy (”s”) is applied to a container (the skin itself?) (”k”), moving it up and out (short “i”) for a worthy purpose (”n”).

Thanks to Ali for suggesting this word of the day!

What a lovely word!

Mystic derives ultimately from the Greek word myein, meaning “to close”. (The further origin of myein is unknown.) In later Greek times, the Greeks had any number of religions that were extremely secretive, and an initiate into one those religions was known as a mystes, a “closed one”. The secret rites or doctrines of these religions were known as mysteria (you see where this is going now, right?) Nowadays these old religions are known as “mystery religions”, and their structure and mysteria have been a huge influence on European ceremonial magic.

This word was used in the Greek Bible to refer to the sacraments, and so came into English as mystery in the 1300s, referring specifically to religious rites. It quickly developed its additional meaning of “anything hidden or unknown”. The word mystic, meaning roughly “pertaining to the sacraments”, also came into English in the 1300s. It was not applied to occult practices or ancient religions until the 1600s.

The sound-correspondence with mist is immediately obvious, and both words refer to things hidden, or half-glimpsed. They begin with the “m” of manifestation; the manifested thing moves up with light energy, and shatters into multiplicity (”s”) along a path (”t”). Taken altogether, the reference seems to be to the veil itself — the thing which does the hiding. That is, the manifestation, the movement, and the dispersal along a path describes the action of the misty mystic veil.