WORD ORIGINS

We found the origins of four COMPLETELY RANDOM words and present them to you in NO PARTICULAR ORDER.

SPONGE

Meaning: A porous skeleton inhabited by a group of tiny aquatic marine invertebrates

Origin: From the Latin spongia and the Greek sphoggos, meaning “water growth.”

BOB

Meaning: Nickname of Robert

Origin: From an old Germanic word that means “shining with fame.”

SQUARE

Meaning: A rectangular shape with four equal sides

Origin: From the Old French esquarre, which itself came from the Latin exquadra, which means “out of four.”

PANTS

Meaning: Trousers

Origin: From a 16th-century Italian comic character known as Pantalone, who wore strange trousers. This gave us the word pantaloon, which first meant clown, and then the plural pantaloons, or trousers. The word was shortened to pants when it reached America.

SpongeBob’s birthday is July 14, 1986.