30 English Words Borrowed from Dutch

30 English Words Borrowed from Dutch 30 English Words Borrowed from Dutch 30 English Words Borrowed from Dutch By Mark Nichol During much of the 1600s, the Netherlands was a world power, especially at sea, and this influence contributed to the English language in the form of borrowings from Dutch into English of various nautically and aquatically themed words. Here’s a list of many of these terms (a few of which were adopted from, or may derive from cognates in, other languages) and their definitions and their Dutch origins. 1. avast (â€Å"stop†): from hou vast, meaning â€Å"hold fast† 2. bow (â€Å"front of a ship†): from boeg (or from Old German or Old Norse) 3. brackish (â€Å"salty†): from brac (or a Low German cognate), meaning â€Å"salty† 4. buoy (â€Å"marker† or, as a verb, â€Å"mark with a buoy† or â€Å"keep afloat†): from buoy, ultimately from the Latin word boia, meaning â€Å"shackle† 5. caboose (â€Å"the last car on a freight train, used for the accommodation for the train’s crew†): from kabuis or kombuis, meaning â€Å"galley,† or â€Å"ship’s kitchen† 6. commodore (â€Å"senior captain† or â€Å"naval officer above a captain in rank†): probably from kommandeur, ultimately from the Old French word comandeor, meaning â€Å"commander† 7. cruiser (â€Å"warship larger than a destroyer but smaller than a battleship,† or â€Å"pleasure motorboat†): from kruisen (related to kruis, meaning â€Å"cross†), meaning â€Å"sail across or go through† 8. deck (â€Å"any of various floors of a ship†): from dek, meaning â€Å"covering† 9. dock (â€Å"mooring structure for vessels† or, as a verb â€Å"tie up at a dock†): from docke, meaning â€Å"pier† 10. dredge (â€Å"riverbed or seabed scoop† or, as a verb, â€Å"drag† or â€Å"scoop†): perhaps based on dregghe, meaning â€Å"dragnet† 11. freebooter (â€Å"pirate†): from vrijbuiter, meaning â€Å"robber†; the second half of the word is related to booty, also derived from Dutch 12. freight (â€Å"shipped goods† or, as a verb, â€Å"ship goods†): from a word variously spelled fraght, vracht, and vrecht and meaning â€Å"water transport†; the Dutch word is also the source of fraught, meaning â€Å"heavy† or â€Å"weighed down† 13. filibuster (â€Å"obstructive act† or, as a verb, â€Å"obstruct†): from vrijbuiter by way of the Spanish word filibuster (see freebooter above), which in turn comes from the French word flibustier 14. hoist (â€Å"lift† as a noun or a verb): from hijsen 15. jib (â€Å"spar†): from gijben, meaning â€Å"boom† 16. keel (â€Å"spine or structure projecting from a hull†): from kiel 17. keelhaul (â€Å"punish by dragging over the keel†): from kielhalen, meaning â€Å"keel hauling† 18. kill (â€Å"riverbed†): from kil 19. maelstrom (â€Å"whirlpool† or, by extension, â€Å"confused situation†): from maalstroom, meaning â€Å"grinding current† or â€Å"strong current† (the second element of the word is cognate with stream); possibly based on an Old Norse word 20. morass (â€Å"boggy or muddy ground† or, by extension, â€Å"complicated or confused situation†): from marasch, meaning â€Å"swamp,† partly based on the Old French word marais, meaning â€Å"marsh† 21. plug (â€Å"stopper† or, as a verb, â€Å"stop (a hole)†): from plugge, meaning â€Å"stopper† 22. school (â€Å"large group of fish,† unrelated to the term for an educational institution): from schole 23. scow (â€Å"small, wide sailboat† or â€Å"flat-bottomed boat†): from schouw 24. shoal (â€Å"large group of fish†; unrelated to the same word meaning â€Å"area of shallow water†): cognate with schole 25. skipper (â€Å"captain of a ship†): from schipper, meaning â€Å"someone who ships† 26. sloop (â€Å"sailboat,† either a small modern boat or a specific type of warship): from sloep, either ultimately from slupen, meaning â€Å"to glide,† or from the Old French term chalupe 27. smack (â€Å"small sailboat†): possibly from smak, meaning â€Å"sailboat,† perhaps from the sound made by flapping sails 28. smuggler (â€Å"illegal trader†): smokkelen or the Low German word smukkelen, meaning â€Å"transport (goods) illegally†) 29. stockfish (â€Å"cod or similar fish prepared by drying†): from stokvis, meaning â€Å"stick fish† 30. yacht (â€Å"small, light pirate-hunting naval vessel† or â€Å"pleasure motorboat or sailboat†): from jacht, meaning â€Å"hunt† and short for jachtschip Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Words with More Than One SpellingItalicizing Foreign WordsForming the Comparative of One-syllable Adjectives

Biography of Garrett Morgan, Inventor of the Gas Mask

Biography of Garrett Morgan, Inventor of the Gas Mask Garrett Morgan (March 4, 1877–July 27, 1963) was an inventor and businessman from Cleveland who is best known for inventing a device called the Morgan Safety Hood and Smoke Protector in 1914. The invention was later dubbed the gas mask. Fast Facts: Garrett Morgan Known For: Invention of safety hood (early gas mask) and mechanical traffic signalBorn: March 4, 1877 in Claysville,  KentuckyParents: Sydney Morgan, Elizabeth ReedDied: July 27, 1963 in Cleveland,  OhioEducation: Up to sixth gradePublished Works:  The  Cleveland Call, a weekly African American newspaper that he established in 1916, which became the  still-published Cleveland Call and Post in 1929Awards and Honors:  Recognized at the Emancipation Centennial Celebration in  Chicago, Illinois, in August 1963; schools and streets named in his honor; included in the 2002 book,  100 Greatest African Americans  by  Molefi Kete Asante; honorary member of  Alpha Phi Alpha  fraternitySpouse(s): Madge Nelson, Mary HasekChildren: John P. Morgan, Garrett A. Morgan, Jr., and Cosmo H. MorganNotable Quote: â€Å"If you can be the best, then why not try to be the best?†Ã‚   Early Life The son of former slaves, Garrett Augustus Morgan was born in Claysville, Kentucky, on March 4, 1877. His mother was half-Native American and half-white (her father was a white minister named  Rev.  Garrett  Reed), and his father was half-white, the son of the Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan, who led Morgans Raiders in the Civil War. Garrett was the seventh of 11 children, and his early childhood was spent attending school and working on the family farm with his brothers and sisters. While still a teenager, he left Kentucky and moved north to Cincinnati, Ohio, in search of opportunities. Although Morgans formal education never took him beyond elementary school, he worked to give himself an education, hiring a tutor while living in Cincinnati and continuing his studies in English grammar. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he went to work as a sewing machine repairman for a clothing manufacturer, teaching himself as much as he could about sewing machinery and experimenting with the process. Word of his experiments and his proficiency for fixing things traveled fast and he worked for numerous manufacturing firms in the Cleveland area. In 1907, the inventor opened his sewing equipment and repair shop. It was the first of several businesses he would establish. In 1909, he expanded the enterprise to include a tailoring shop that employed 32 people. The new company turned out coats, suits, and dresses, all sewn with equipment that Morgan himself had made. Marriage and Family Morgan married twice, first to Madge Nelson in 1896; they were divorced in 1898. In 1908 he married Mary Anna Hasek, a seamstress from Bohemia: it was one of the earliest interracial marriages in Cleveland. They had three children, John P., Garrett A., Jr., and Cosmo H. Morgan. The Safety Hood (Early Gas Mask) In 1914, Morgan was awarded two patents for the invention of an early gas mask, the Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. He manufactured the mask and sold it nationally and internationally through the National Safety Device Company, or Nadsco, using a marketing strategy to avoid Jim Crow discrimination- what historian Lisa Cook calls anonymity by dissociation. At the time, entrepreneurs sold their inventions by conducting live demonstrations. Morgan appeared in these events to the general public, with municipal fire departments and city officials representing himself as his own assistant- a Native American man called Big Chief Mason. In the south, Morgan hired whites, sometimes public safety professionals, to stage demonstrations for him. His newspaper advertisements featured smartly dressed white male models. The gas mask proved very popular: New York City quickly adopted the mask, and eventually 500 cities followed suit. In 1916, a refined model of Morgans gas mask was awarded a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The Lake Erie Crib Disaster On July 25, 1916, Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel located 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. No one had been able to reach the men, 11 of them had died as had 10 others attempting to rescue them. Called in the middle of the night six hours after the incident, Morgan and a team of volunteers donned the new gas masks and brought two workers out alive and recovered the bodies of 17 others. He personally gave artificial respiration to one of the men he rescued. Afterward, Morgans company received many additional requests from fire departments around the country that wished to purchase the new masks. However, the national news contained photographs of him, and officials in a number of southern cities canceled their existing orders when they discovered he was black. In 1917, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission reviewed the reports of heroism displayed during the disaster. Based on news reports that downplayed Morgans role, the Carnegie board decided to give the prestigious Hero award to a minor figure in the rescue effort who was white, rather than to Morgan. Morgan protested, but the Carnegie Institution said he hadnt risked as much as the other person had because he had safety equipment. Some reports say the Morgan gas mask was modified and used in World War I after the Germans unleashed chemical warfare at Ypres on April 22, 1915, although theres no strong evidence for it. Despite Morgans popularity in the United States, there were dozens of other masks on the market by then, and most used in WWI were of English or French manufacture. The Morgan Traffic Signal In 1920, Morgan moved into the newspaper business when he established the Cleveland Call. As the years went on, he became a prosperous and widely respected businessman and was able to purchase a home and an automobile, invented by Henry Ford in 1903. In fact, Morgan was the first African-American to purchase an automobile in Cleveland, and it was Morgans experience while driving along the streets of that city that inspired him to invent an improvement to traffic signals. After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Morgan took his turn at inventing a traffic signal. While other inventors had experimented with, marketed, and even patented traffic signals, Morgan was one of the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for an inexpensive way to produce a traffic signal. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. Morgan also had his invention patented in Great Britain and Canada. Morgan stated in his patent for the traffic signal: This invention relates to traffic signals, and particularly to those which are adapted to be positioned adjacent the intersection of two or more streets and are manually operable for directing the flow of traffic...In addition, my invention contemplates the provision of a signal which may be readily and cheaply manufactured. The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This third position halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely. Morgans hand-cranked semaphore traffic management device was in use throughout North America until all manual traffic signals were replaced by the automatic red, yellow  and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world. The inventor sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Other Inventions Throughout his life, Morgan was always experimenting to develop new concepts. Though the traffic signal came at the height of his career and became one of his most famous inventions, it was just one of several innovations he developed, manufactured, and sold over the years. Morgan invented a zig-zag stitching attachment for ​the  manually operated sewing machine. He also founded a company that made personal grooming products  such as hair dying ointments and the curved-tooth pressing comb. As word of Morgans life-saving inventions spread across North America and England, demand for these products grew. He was frequently invited to conventions and public exhibitions to demonstrate how his inventions worked. Death Along with many others, Morgan lost most of his wealth with the stock market crash, but it didnt stop his inventive nature. He developed glaucoma, but at the time of his death he was still working on a new invention: a  self-extinguishing  cigarette. Morgan died on August 27, 1963, at the age of 86. His life was long and full, and his creative energies were recognized both during and after his lifetime. Legacy Morgans inventions have had a tremendous impact on the safety and well-being of people all over the world- from miners to soldiers to first responders to ordinary car owners and pedestrians. Another ongoing legacy is his weekly newspaper, originally named the  Cleveland Call and now called the  Cleveland Call and Post. His achievements as a son of slaves, against all odds and in the face of Jim Crow era discrimination, are inspiring. Case Western University awarded him an honorary degree, and his papers are stored there.   Sources Asante, Molefi Kete (2002),  100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.  ISBN  1 of Garrett Morgan. The Business History Review 86.2 (2012): 211–34. Print.Evans, Harold, Gail Buckland, and David Lefer. Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877–1963): He came to the rescue with his gas mask. They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. New York City: Little Brown, 2004.  Garner, Carla. â€Å"Garrett A., Sr. Morgan (1877-1963) BlackPast.†Ã‚  BlackPast, 29 Jan. 2019.King, William M. Guardian of the Public Safety: Garrett A. Morgan and the Lake Erie Crib Disaster. The Journal of Negro History 70.1/2 (1985): 1–13. Print.PBS, Garrett Augustus Morgan. Public Broadcasting Service.Smart, Jeffrey K. History of the Army Protective Mask. Natick, Massachusetts: NBC Defense Systems: Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command, 1999. Print.

8 keys Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

8 keys - Research Paper Example The arrow pointing upwards represents the market direction while the horizontal arrow is the product. The company needs to make development strategies by using the internet and targeting geographic markets and customer segments that are new. The company can enhance its service delivery by recruiting more skilled personnel and trying to work on reducing the process of their products slightly in order to ensure that it attracts more customers into their products. The management can also think about incentives that are attractive to loyal customers and make proper product promotion. The company can also decide to reduce or cut out some intermediaries in the chain of supply in order to ensure that the structure of their business is conducive and in line with the market place. However, they can also weigh and see if they can consider reintermediation to enhance the chain of supply of their products in some areas. I would suggest that the company decides on countermediation to have a position of enhancing their operation when it comes to e-business. The company has to come up with a mechanism of ensuring that knowledge sharing systems are installed in their appropriate positions and are functioning at all times. Internet connected computers, phones and bells must be installed at every desk and room where operation takes place. Employees must also work according to their qualifications and areas of expertise to ensure that there is free flow of relevant information and perfect instruction following. The management of the company plans for staff meetings three times in a week or any other time that need arises. It is significant to deduce a way of emphasizing the company’s strengths and ensuring that weaknesses are minimized in order to ensure that there is a future in the flow of the entire system. For instance, the company needs to maintain the quality of its products, keep on motivating its workers and staff for