Shambles
A word with many lives
Most words are derived from other words in older languages. Some of them acquire meaning through the circumstances surrounding them l. Still others undergo various mutations and changes to arrive at a destination. This is one such word.
Originally, the word Shambles meant a stool in the 15th century. A stool on which the money lender would change money.
While derived from Latin in the way many words are, the journey this word took to reach the place it has reached today is fascinating.
The Latin word for Stool is Scabellum. The old English word for stool was sceamol. Middle English turned it into ‘shameles’. It was by the 15th century that it became shambles.
As time progressed Shambles started referring to the stool on which meat was sold in the market. From there the meaning went on to evolve to a meat market. Shambles was the place where meat was bought and sold.
By the times of Shakespeare, the word meant a slaughterhouse as has been used in Othello.
Eventually, shambles just went on to mean a bloody mess akin to the one found at a slaughterhouse. The meaning that the word assumes today came to be only in the 1920s