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• mayhem •

Pronunciation: may-hem • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: 1. (Law) Intentionally maiming a person in order to disable and render them defenseless. 2. Wanton destruction. 3. Havoc, riotous chaos, total disorder.

Notes: Today's Good Word is a rarity, indeed: an English word pronounced exactly as it is spelled! (Don't listen to the US dictionaries; always pronounce the [h] in the middle. That's what it is there for.) Mayhem is a lexical orphan without any related words, though our British cousins have used it as a verb in the past.

In Play: In peacetime, mayhem is, unfortunately, often associated with sporting events: "When the Dinglethwarp Turtledoves defeated the Swollingham Drubbers in the final seconds of the game, mayhem broke out among the fans." We do hear this word often used hyperbolically, though: "Were I to suggest the company reduce its lunch break from an hour to a half hour, I'm afraid that mayhem might break out on the plant floor."

Word History: Old French mahaigne "injury, mutilation" became mahain then mahaim in Anglo-Norman, the French spoken in England after the Norman Conquest (1066). The Normans (so called because they originated in Normandy, France) picked up the word from a nearby Celtic language, Breton, where the word for "maim, mutilate" was mac'hagnañ. English borrowed the Anglo-Norman variant mahaim and developed it in two directions. In one instance the inconvenient H in the middle was dropped, leaving only maim. The other direction retained the H but only after folk etymology converted it into two recognizable English words, may and hem. The new "compound" survived despite its sounding more like the decision of a seamstress than an act of destruction. (In order to avoid any mayhem among our dear subscribers, let us now thank Dr. L. B. Tague for suggesting today's riot of a Good Word.)

Was going to recommend this, but found Doc already did a great job on it. Now I want to bring it to the top because the word is getting a kind of renaissance in advertising recently. You must have seen the various man pics labelled Mayhem as if it wern a man's name.

The Normans (so called because they originated in Normandy, France)

Um, isn't that backwards? Wasn't Normandy named after the Normans (called something like "nortmanner" in the various Scandinavian languages at the time) when they settled in that area of France?

I wanted to provide a link other than Wikipedia but all the verifiable links in the Normans and Normandy articles are in other languages (French, Dutch, Swedish).

The Normans (so called because they originated in Normandy, France)

Um, isn't that backwards? Wasn't Normandy named after the Normans (called something like "nortmanner" in the various Scandinavian languages at the time) when they settled in that area of France?

I wanted to provide a link other than Wikipedia but all the verifiable links in the Normans and Normandy articles are in other languages (French, Dutch, Swedish).

Let's try one of my favorite etymological sources, the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Norman (n.) c. 1200, "one of the mixed Scandinavian-Frankish people who conquered England in 1066," from Old French Normanz, plural of Normand, Normant, literally "North man," from a Scandinavian word meaning "northman" (see Norse), in reference to the Scandinavian people who overran and occupied Normandy 10c. Later meaning "one of the Norman French who conquered England in 1066." As an adjective from 1580s. As a style of architecture, developed in Normandy and employed in England after the conquest, it is attested from 1797. Norseman (1817) is not historical and appears to be due to Scott.

Normandy literally "region settled by Vikings;" from Normand (see Norman).

EDIT:

OOH! I just found this person in the Funniest Names In English list here at alphDictionary.com under Men's Names:

Norman Conquest -- A French language scholar.

Ergo we should consult Dr Norman Conquest, the eminent etymologist, to pursue mayhem...