A word is dead/ When it is said,/ Some say./ I say it just/ Begins to live/ That day.

-Emily Dickinson

That printing has marked the language there can be no doubt. Many words and phrases have been added to everyday English because a printer reproduced them.

An enterprising printer who needed a name for his new publication adopted the Arabic word “Maghazin” meaning storehouse. The coined word became “magazine,” from which you may be reading this article. The new magazine was going to be the storehouse of knowledge and information. Let us help it to be so.

The origin of the word “newspaper” has been loosely speculated to come from the printer who had his office near the ships’ dock. He was able to gather the latest reports from incoming ships and placed a woodcut of a nautical compass in his banner. The four points of the compass, North, East, West and South spelled out “NEWS.”

As time and travel mingled tongues and it becomes harder to speculate on the origin of words, it might have been that the unbound document became a “pamphlet” from the French “par un filet” which means “by a thread.” Or could it have come from “Pamphilus,” reported to be a Greek writer who wrote and distributed many little books. Later, numerous monks adopted this name. It was taken out of honor and meant “teacher” or “writer.”

The word “book” is not hard to speculate on. The German word for the type of wood used as end boards on early bound manuscripts was applied to the whole volume. The Germans also gave us “kraft” meaning “strong.” As applied to “brown kraft paper.” There was no connection to the cheese that might have been wrapped in it.

The Teutonic demon “Kobold” was the one who made silver mining hard. This German devil is responsible for our “cobalt” blue ink. Other “devils” entered the shop, but only to help. The young printer’s assistant was called the “printers devil” after the association of printing to the black art of witchcraft. Church fathers believed any competition with their lucrative hand-copied manuscript business must be of Satan.

Printers got the word “ink” from the French “encre.” That word came from the Italian “inchiostro” which was borrowed from the Romans’ “encaustum.” The Romans had in-turn borrowed from the Greek word “egkauston.”

The early manuscript scribes were ordered to copy the texts flawlessly, without error. Such emphasis was put on it that the scripture says “. . . .Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law . . .” This was taken to mean that not the smallest letter or flourish of the Hebrew lettering would change. But alas, changes did occur and it has given rise to theological dispute for centuries.

One famous flaw in a Bible was when the printer forgot to set the word “not” in the text and the result was the “Adulterer’s Bible” as in “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Lore has it that the printer responsible for adding the numbered verse divisions marked the manuscript on horseback going to work. The horse stumbled, and some strange divisions came in mid-verse.

Medieval church scribes worked under a lot of pressure. Often letters were used interchangeably. The “w,” “g,” and “y” are prime examples. From the old Anglo-Saxon word, “geard” meaning “an enclosure” we now have three words, yard, garden, and ward.

The Norman scribes had no “W” to use and they used “U” instead. To aid pronunciation easier they inserted “AG” before the “U.” So “warder” and “guards” come from the same original. The English “war” and the French “guerre” mean the same.

The “U” and “J” were not in the Latin alphabet and we see the evidence on stone buildings, as in “PVBLIC LIBRARY.” The “V” was used in place of what we now know as “U.” How else could a “double-V” become a “W?” The Latin for “Jesus” began with an “I” as evidenced by some Christian church objects that have the Latin abbreviation “I-H-S” for Jesus. The scribes and monks who wanted to adorn the name of their savior embellished the letter until it evolved into our present “J.”

The word “pie” evolved from a printer’s error! The original word was “pastie”. A rush job and poor proofreading resulted in “pie.” Another word “videlicet,” meaning “it is permitted,” was abbreviated by scribes. They spelled it “vi” and then used a symbol approximating the pharmacists’ dram. Printers had no such type letter and changed it to a “z” and we got “viz.”

There is no doubt that we will continue to see more changes in our language through the efforts of printers and maybe because of the lack of effort as well!