Being in the information business with words serving as my basic building material, I’ve always been intrigued by etymology, the study of word origins.

In much the same way that Dr. Madeline Kalbach enriches our connections with Pacific County’s lush natural world via her loving and well-informed bird photos and articles in the Chinook Observer, knowing the source of words gives us a fuller appreciation of language — the glue that binds humanity together, or which keeps us apart.

Close observers of National Weather Service forecasts for our tempestuous coast don’t see a lot of variation in the wintertime. Glancing at the NWS website now (www.weather.gov/pqr), the next several days all call for variations on “showers and breezy” and “rain and windy.”

Etymonline.com, a highly recommended free compendium of word knowledge, gives us this insight into “breeze”:

In 512 B.C. the Corinthian horse-breeder Pheidolas entered his mare in the games in Olympia. The moment the race started she threw her rider, then she charged down the track with the rest, rounded the post tight as a tick, kicked in an extra gear when she heard the home-stretch trumpet, crossed the mark first, and pulled up smartly. The Elean judges, after they picked up their jaws, had to talk it over, but in good Greek style they proclaimed Pheidolas the winner and raised a statue to the horse. Her name was Breeze. Pausanias the geographer saw it 700 years later.

Delightful to think our breeze pays lasting tribute to a swift, vivacious mare.

I’ll leave it to your own curiosity to look up “wind.” But being my own surname, “winter” has always been interesting to me. It is perhaps related to ancient northwestern European words for water or white. A related word in Old English is wintercearig, “winter-sad,” is a concept some of us can relate to — though I hope not too often on our entertainingly boisterous coast.

As the Economist magazine points out in its article tinyurl.com/Economist-etymology, “Green’s Dictionary of Slang” is another interesting way to spend an hour or two. Give it a look at greensdictofslang.com.

Hoping you love words as much as we do, the Chinook Observer always aims to be an interesting voice for our unique set of far west communities. Thank you for your support.