Work in Progress

cancan
raparperirumba
ja apocalypso
{can-can, 1848, from Fr., possibly from can, the child word for “duck,” via some notion of “waddling” too obscure or obscene to attempt to disentangle here (see canard). Or perhaps from Fr. cancan (16c.) “noise, disturbance,” echoic of quacking; before 1850; canard, from Fr. “a hoax,” lit. “a duck,” said by Littré to be from the phrase vendre un canard à moitié “to half-sell a duck,” thus, from some long-forgotten joke, “to cheat.” From O.Fr. quanart, probably echoic of a duck’s quackrhubarb, c.1390, from O.Fr. rubarbe, from M.L. rheubarbarum, from Gk. rha barbaron “foreign rhubarb,” from rha “rhubarb” (associated with Rha, ancient Scythian name of the River Volga) + barbaron, neut. of barbaros “foreign.” Grown in China ans Tibet, it was imported into ancient Europe by way of Russia. Spelling altered in M.L. by association with rheum. European native species so called from 1650. Baseball slang meaning “loud squabble on the field” is from 1938, of unknown origin, said to have been first used by broadcaster Garry Schumacher. Perhaps connected with use of rhubarb as a word repeated by stage actors to give the impression of hubbub or conversation (attested from 1934); rumba, 1922, from Cuban Sp., originally “spree, carousal,” derived from Sp. rumbo “spree, party,” earlier “ostentation, pomp, leadership,” perhaps originally “the course of a ship,” from rombo “rhombus,” in reference to the compass, which is marked with a rhombus. The verb is recorded from 1944; btw mambo, popular dance (like the rhumba but livelier), 1948, from Amer.Sp. mambo, said to be from Haitian creole word for “voodoo priestess.”; apocalypse, c.1384, “revelation, disclosure,” from Church L. apocalypsis “revelation,” from Gk. apokalyptein “uncover,” from apo- “from” (see apo-) + kalyptein “to cover, conceal” (see Calypso). The Christian end-of-the-world story is part of the revelation in John of Patmos’ book “Apokalypsis” (a title rendered into Eng. as “Apocalypse” c.1230 and “Revelations” by Wyclif c.1380; ); Calypso, sea nymph in the “Odyssey,” lit. “hidden, hider” (originally a death goddess) from Gk. kalyptein “to cover, conceal,” from PIE *kel- “to cover, conceal, save,” root of Eng. Hell (see cell). The W. Indian type of song is so called from 1934, of unknown origin or connection to the nymph}
Edited: 22.6