"Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' " Part 3

Note: Initially I intended to end this series with Part 3, but as I sometimes do, I decided to continue for a likely two additional parts, in order to do justice to Rumanian history, especially the World War Two and postwar eras. 

While manufacturing and oil production expanded after Rumanian independence, wealthy landowners derived much of the benefit. Discontent boiled over in 1907 in the Rumanian Peasants' Revolt, but the government used the army to put down the revolt in which thousands of peasants died and thousands more were imprisoned. In 1913 Rumania gained the territory of the ethnically diverse Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria in a localized Balkan war (known as the "Second Balkan War").

The beginning of World War One in the late summer of 1914 saw Rumania remain neutral, although with its army at the ready. German influence through the German-based monarchy, a branch of the Hohenzollerns,* and German business investment in the country after its independence, made possible a Rumanian entry into the war on side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, but the Allies offered Rumania Transylvania (then under Hungarian control **) when Austria-Hungary was defeated, and this, and a generally more pro-Russian (Russia was on the Allied side) and pro-Allied sentiment within Rumania, had the country enter the war in August of 1916. The Bolshevik  Revolution of late 1917 saw Russian involvement in the war essentially end, and this brought Rumania to the peace table in December 1917.*** As the war approached its end in November 1918, Rumania again entered the war on the Allied side. Votes by various segments of representatives of Rumania territories led to a united Rumania, as Transylvania joined the nation, however, along with more than a million and a half Hungarians, a sore spot which festered thereafter, with a brief clash of arms which ended in 1920. 

* King Carol I died in the fall of 1914 and was succeeded by his nephew, Ferdinand, who was born in Germany, and who ruled as Ferdinand I. 

** Formerly known as the Austrian Empire from 1804, an agreement in 1867 saw the empire divided between Austro-German control of the western areas and Hungarian control of the eastern areas; thus, "Austria-Hungary," or more formally the "Austro-Hungarian Empire." The Habsburg emperor was simultaneously King of Hungary, and foreign policy and military matters were held in common.

*** Russia was the only close ally of Rumania in eastern Europe, and without joint military operations with Russia, the Rumanians were unable to continue the war on their own.

WORD HISTORY:
Vampire-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, but English seems to have borrowed it from French "vampire," a borrowing from German "Vampir," which was borrowed from Hungarian "vampir," borrowed from Serbian "vampir." Serbian is a Slavic language and there are forms of the word in many other Slavic languages. Whether a form of the word was a Slavic invention or whether Slavic acquired the word as a borrowing, perhaps from a Turkic language source, is uncertain.

$70,000... Talk About A Minimum Wage!

Most, if not all, of you have undoubtedly heard about Dan Price, the Seattle CEO and founder of "Gravity Payments," reducing his own million dollar salary to that of his employees, whose salaries will be $70,000, a substantial increase in pay for most of them. It will be interesting to see how this develops, but we need to give credit to this man for what he has done, and for the discussion it should prompt around the country. I saw some negative reaction to Price's actions, but I really did not note the sources, but my guess would be the negative reactions came from three sources: other CEOs or business people, or their allies on the political right, like the free marketers, who are against the very concept; those middle and lower income employees who are envious of Price's employees, and lastly, those on the political left, probably more so the far left, who seem to find fault with just about anything. To this last group, assuming I am correct that there are some on the political left who dislike Price's actions, please don't find or invent a reason to dislike or hate Dan Price, with comments like, "well he didn't do it last year," or "he didn't smile enough when he announced it." PLEASE, when someone comes to your side of an issue, or even damned close to your side, ACCEPT IT! Don't beat up on them for supporting YOUR basic position!

WORD HISTORY:
Spew-This word, related to "spit,"^ goes back to Indo European "spyu," which meant "to spit, to discharge fluid from the mouth." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "spiwanan," with the same meaning. This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "spiwan," which then became "spewen," before the modern version. The noun form developed from the verb in the late 1500s or early 1600s. Common in the other Germanic languages: German has "speien," Low German Saxon has "speen," Dutch has "spuwen," West Frisian (still has?) "spije," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "spy," and Icelandic has "spýta." 

^ The word with the same modern spelling, "spit," but meaning "a pointed stick used for roasting meat," is not related, as it is from a different source. 

One Guy Opens His Eyes And Mind About The GOP

This was first published in April 2015

I recently heard from a guy who has been a Republican for 50 years. He said his name is James. While I cannot recall his exact words, the gist of what he told me was this: "I would occasionally read your blog posts because you were from Cleveland, my hometown, but I thought you were full of shit. Now I see how Republicans really are, and there are fascists in the GOP, big time, and you pointed this out long ago, and I'm ashamed to have been a Republican, so I no longer am. You were miles ahead of many people on this. I should have paid more attention to what you said, but I was in denial and I think many others are still in denial too. This is not the same Republican Party of my younger days of Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Rockefeller, or Reagan,* because they all tried to govern responsibly. This is a party trying to bring down the government and then step in to enforce some rule by the rich and the religious nuts, and I consider myself a Christian, maybe not a perfect Christian, but better than some of these ones in the GOP using the religion to promote hate. I can't keep denying the tremendous income gap, all the statistics show it's true. You were right all along about it."

Notice he didn't say he was a Democrat, but only that he was no longer a Republican, although maybe that's what he meant. So do you get this Democrats? You too have work to do.

I am humbled by this man saying I helped in his change of heart.

* Just to be clear, he was referring to Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, and Ronald Reagan. Nelson Rockefeller served as governor of New York and as vice president. All of the others served as president. Rockefeller, and to some degree, Ford, were targets of nasty attacks by the growing right wing elements (I would call many of them "militants") within the Republican Party of those times. It foreshadowed what was to come later, as the influence of these extremist elements played a major role in the GOP, and still do, but to an even greater extent. 

WORD HISTORY:
Tap-This is the noun meaning, "stopper, faucet,"^ and it is related to the form of the word "tip," meaning "end," as in "the tip of the pen." The ultimate origin of "tap" is uncertain, but Old Germanic had "tappan/tappon," the meaning of which seems to have had to do with "a tapered cylindrical shaped peg" (the relationship to "tip" is evident in the meaning). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "taeppa," which meant "tap, spigot," which were pegs driven into kegs so as to draw out the contents. The meaning has remained into the modern period, although the spelling eventually narrowed to just "tap." The verb form, meaning "to drive a tap into a keg," has the same roots, and its Old English form was "taeppian." The other Germanic languages have: German "Zapfen" (the primary meaning of which is "pine cone," from the cylindrical shape, but it also means, "bung, plug, stopper, cone"), Low German Saxon "Watertapp" (water tap) and "tappen" (verb meaning "to tap into, to breech"), Dutch has "tap" (spigot, plug, stopper),West Frisian "taapje" (used in the verb "oftappje," meaning "to tap into, to breech"), Icelandic "tappa" (stopper, plug), Swedish "tapp" (water tap, plug), Norwegian "tappe vann" (water tap).

^ The verb "tap," with the meaning, "to strike lightly," as well as the related noun form meaning "a light strike or hit," are from a different source.