Let's Get Physical: Corpus Colloquium: Words With Anatomical Origins

Caput means "head" in Latin, and a "small head," used metaphorically to refer to a son or younger brother — lower in rank than the father, as it were — became capdet in Provençal and then cadet in French.

One possible origin for capricious: capo is Italian for "head" — see cadet, above for its Latin root — and riccio is a hedgehog, a porcupine. Combining the two would seem to refer to one's hair standing on end, as in fright. Another theory: capro means "goat," and capricious refers to the way goats jump around. Which do you prefer?

English has a number of words that come from cor, the Latin word for "heart." In this case, corage is Old French, meaning "temper," or "spirit," which entered English around 1300. Its current meaning of "valor" or "bravery" solidified a couple of hundred years later.

In Old French, deschevelé means "bald" or "bare-headed," when referring to a person, but if used to describe someone's hair it means "messy" or "appearing neglected."

Gorgias is an Old French word meaning "elegant" or "fashionably dressed." It may relate to gorge which is French for "throat," specifically in the sense of jewelry like a fancy necklace.

Leer comes from the Old English hléor, meaning "cheek." If you give someone the side-eye, you're looking at them past your cheek. So to leer at someone is to gaze at someone sneakily or lasciviously.

Leery has the same origin as leer — a skeptical or judgmental sidelong look — but its meaning is different enough to warrant its own entry. Leery means suspicious, cautious, or careful.

From the ancient world through the Middle Ages, doctors believed that illnesses resulted from an imbalance in what they called "the humors." There were four, and one of them was black bile, known in Greek as melaina chole. Too much black bile in your system was said to cause sadness, which is what melankholia means.

In Greek, sarkazein literally means "to tear the flesh" or "to gnash the teeth." Figuratively, it means "to speak nastily or bitterly" or "to sneer." This figurative meaning became sarkasmos, and then sarcasmus in Latin.

In Latin, supercilium means "eyebrow" and also "proud," "arrogant," and "haughty." Someone who raises their eyebrow at you disapprovingly is being supercilious. Fun fact: the bony protrusions on your skull that outline the top of your eye sockets — located right behind your eyebrows — are called the superciliary arches.