A seventh-grader from Colorado wonders where the word freckle comes from. This word’s origin is a bit murky but appears to be related to old Scandinavian term rooted in the idea of “scattering,” like the seeds that freckles resemble. The German word for these bits of pigment is Sommersprossen, literally, “summer sprouts.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Origin of “Freckle””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Mallory Stale from Colorado.
Welcome to the show, Mallory.
Hi, Mallory.
Hi.
What can we do for you?
I was wondering where the word freckles comes from.
Freckles, like the dots on your skin.
Mm—
Yeah, okay. Do you have freckles?
Yes, I do.
Yeah.
Lots of them.
Lots of them, yeah.
Oh, lots of them. Okay.
Okay, so they’re the subject of conversation a lot in your household?
Mm— because no one else in my family has very many freckles.
Oh, I see.
So I was just wondering.
Huh. Yeah, it’s a funny word, isn’t it?
It is.
Got kind of a funny sound to it.
Well, a couple of things we can tell you about the word freckle.
For one thing, it’s really, really, really old.
It goes all the way back to the 14th century.
Oh, really? Wow.
Yeah, which is pretty darn old.
And it probably goes back to a much, much older root that has to do with scattering.
I picture seeds, like almost scattering seeds or something like that.
Huh, interesting.
Yeah, and, you know, it’s kind of funny.
In German, the word for it is zomerspossen, which means summer sprouts, literally.
So, again, I think you have the seed idea there, sprinkling.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah, so it comes from a really, really old root.
And probably comes to us through one of the Scandinavian languages, Old Norse, something like that.
Well, thank you. That’s very interesting.
Well, we’re more than happy to help.
Thanks for calling.
Yeah, thank you.
All right, take care now.
Thanks for your question.
Goodbye.
All right, bye-bye.
But freckles, you said it was a funny word, like pickle, right?
Yeah, like pickle.
Other words are just automatically funny.
With a K, yeah.
K is always a K?
Mm—
What was it, the Sunshine Boys, where they make the joke about pickle always being funny?
Yeah, yeah, words with a K.
