10 Painstakingly Obvious Etymologies

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[NameExplain]

Check Amazon in your part of the world to see if it's available there!

[AlfieEdwards]

"if you've been outside today" we're not that kind of audience...

[stevenjlovelace]

"Clock" is an onomatopoeia, the sound of a bell being rung, (just like if you clock someone upside the head, you're ringing their bell.) In the middle ages, clocks were meant to be heard, not seen, so when they came out with smaller clocks that you could pull out of your pocket to look at, it became known as a "watch".

[talhasaleem]

While learning German, I encountered the word 'Handschuhe'
Hand = Hand
Schuhe = Shoes
Handschuhe = Gloves
So gloves are literally shoes for your hand in German!

[cremist]

The word "fifty five" is the words "fifty" and "five" put together.

[iyoungblood]

Dude 1: "Hey we need to build up defense"
Dude 2: "What? We need to build up the.. fence?"
Dude 1: "Uh sure... the fence"

[Elygh]

Disease is just bad ease, as in dis-ease

[Tony.H]

One I slammed myself in the face for was the Dutch word waarschijnlijk, which means probably. It's made up of waar (true) and schijnlijk (seemingly), thus it's seemingly true, so probably.

[timolson]

Never is a contraction of not ever
"Blush" is a contraction of "blood rush"...

..."Studying" is a contraction of "student dying"

[kyazarshadala]

I know one: a coincidence is 2 co-incidents

[Pining_for_the_fjords]

What about the word mortgage?
Mort - death
Gauge - measuring device
So since a mortgage usually takes most or all of a person's working life to pay off, it's a gauge counting down to death.

[alexander]

I know it's not obvious, but my favourite etymology is clue. Originally a ball of wool, which in Greek myth Ariadne gave to Theseus to help him find his way out of the minotaur's labyrinth. Ariadne gave Theseus a clew... Ariadne gave Theseus a clue💡

[peterhimin]

Like Newfoundland literally just new found land

[Suite_annamite]

The adverb *"only"* is simply the *adjective for "one"*, *exactly* like *in French* where *"unique"* is the *adjective for "un"* or "une".
*So, to say "the one and only" is actually redundant!*

[FrancisHayes_hf]

Breakfast in Spanish is called "Desayuno". The word for fasting is "ayunar". So it literally means "un-fast".

[pstudios]

none = not one

Nein (german, No) = Nicht ein (Not one)

[punkodie]

I'm not a native speaker, so I have no clue whether this is something native speakers find obvious, but I find the connection between 'busy' and 'business' very fascinating. If you run a business, that means you have some busy-ness. However, I can't back it up, I'm kind of lazy to do the research. :)

[DJKosloskiTV]

A bank holiday in the United States is when the stock market crashes lol

[domovoi]

Missed a great opportunity after "bank holiday" to point out "holiday" comes from "holy day, " as the first holidays were religious celebrations.

[jonistan]

The (ancient) greek word βοηθεώ (to help) is a combination of the words βοάω (to scream) and θείω or θέω (to run). So it means something like rushing to where someone is screaming.