Etymology
An early recorded use of the term "polka dot" is in 1854 in The Yale literary magazine, Volume 122, Page 7. The pattern is named for the dance of the same name, making one suspect there is a connection linking the pattern to the dance. Instead, the name was settled upon merely because of the dance's popularity at the time the pattern became fashionable. Many other products and fashions of the era also adopted the polka name.
Read more about this topic: Polka Dot
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)