DISTURB

[Dr. Goodword]

• disturb •

Pronunciation: dis-têrb • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To move out of place, upset, to change the arrangement of, as to disturb the items on someone's desk. 2. To interrupt or prevent from doing something, as to disturb someone resting. 3. To upset emotionally, to agitate with bad news, to cause anxiety.

Notes: Today's Good Word is not uncommon but is interesting for its lexical relationships (see Word History). The noun is disturbance and the adjective, disturbing, as when we receive disturbing news. The person who disturbs someone is the disturber and I can think of no reason not to refer to the person disturbed as the disturbee (though my spellchecker doesn't agree).

In Play: A disturbance throws something out of kilter that was in kilter before: "Les Knott-Duit told the judge that he found it hard to believe that he could be guilty of disturbing the peace in Manhattan." This includes someone's emotional stability: "The discovery that his fence was 10 feet over on his neighbor's land disturbed Manley to the point that he consulted both a lawyer and a doctor."

Word History: Today's Good Word is the usual makeover of a Latin verb, this time Latin disturbare "to disturb" from dis- "apart" + turbare "to agitate, disrupt". The basic verb here is based on turba "tumult, confusion". This word was probably borrowed from Greek turbe, but the root is clearly related to Latin turbo, turbin-em "(spinning) top, whirlwind, whirlpool". As you can see, English raided this word for turbo and turbine, if not others. If we dig deeper, we find a root ter-/tor- "turn" that came through with various other suffixes. It reached English with a final N in turn and also emerged in Latin with a B in turbidus, which we also borrowed as turbid. (We now turn to Kathleen McCune of Norway to thank her for suggesting today's not so disturbing Good Word.)

[Slava]

"Out of kilter." A great phrase we all know and frequently come across. It seems to be one of those words, or in this case a phrase, that have no opposite. While kilter is defined as "being in order," you can't be "in" kilter, only out of.

It appears no one knows whence cometh kilter, either, so there's an extra mystery.

[MTC]

The phrase "out of kilter" has a fascinating origin.
It is recorded in the annals that during the British Raj on the Indian Subcontinent, The 8th Earl of Elgin was travelling by elephant in the foothills of the Himalayas on a mission for the crown. From his sedan chair the Earl fortuitously noticed a humble Punjab peasant sitting cross-legged by the dusty roadside, his basketry strewn about him. Shouting to the mahout to stop, the Earl observed: "I say, my good man, do have any kilta (a long conical basket) for sale?" "No, Shri, we are just now 'out of kilta,'" the peasant replied. "Out of kilter, you say?" rejoined the Earl who was slightly hard of hearing and honest to say a bit addled. "No, no Shri, out of kilta." "Ah yes, he's "out of kilter" the Earl absented. "Well then let's be off " he urged the mahout. And thus it came to be, my children, after the Earl's mishearing and a lexical sea change into something rich and strange "out of kilta" came to mean what is does today--"out of kilter." And so it was told.

[Slava]

Cute.

[Stargzer]

A sign I've seen before, which should probably spend a lot of time on my cubicle at work:

Please do not disturb.
I'm disturbed enough already.

About 12 or so years ago, at the Canadian pavillion at Disney World, I saw a Canadian rock band called "Off Kilter." They all wore kilts and workboots, and one played a rather manic accordian.

[Slava]

Now, if they were really off kilter, they would have worn kilts and high heels.

[MTC]

In fact, this may already have been done! Check out http://www.skirtcafe.org/forums/viewtop ... 2&start=30 "Here's looking up your kilt!" A facetious toast: poss. orig. Aus., but also Brit.: B., 1942; Posy Simmonds, 1979. http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/looking-up-your-kilt-tf/