Q. I'm curious about the the origins of the name of the dish coq au vin. If translated, it means rooster in wine. However, I wonder if the word coq has older Latin origins from the word coquere, meaning to cook. This suggests that the term coq au vin might have meant cooked in wine and would not be limited to chicken or rooster. Is this true? Also, does the word for cock in French come from the Latin word coquere (to cook) or is the similarity in spelling coincidental?

A. You have an interesting theory about coq au vin, but the French word coq comes not from Latin coquere but from Vulgar Latin coccus (male chicken), which itself was of onomatopoetic origin. The similarity in spelling, it seems, is completely coincidental.

Q. I always thought that nauseous meant "causing nausea" and that nauseated meant "experiencing nausea." Why do I see both senses at the entries for both words?

A. The debate over nauseous and nauseated began around 1950. Nauseated, which first appeared in the 17th century, was originally used as an adjective meaning "causing nausea." That meaning is now obsolete, and by the mid-18th century, the word was used to mean "experiencing nausea." Nauseous also emerged in the 17th century, and it had three early meanings: "squeamish or inclined to nausea" (now obsolete), "causing nausea," and "loathsome or disgusting." For a time in the late 17th century, nauseated and nauseous were synonyms, sharing the meaning "causing nausea." But as the meaning of nauseated changed, the words developed distinct uses, and for many years the difference between the two was clear.

All that changed during World War II, when a new sense of nauseous appeared in America: "experiencing nausea." Nauseated and nauseous were synonyms again, and this is when the controversy began. Many usage commentators maintained that only nauseated could be used for this meaning, and that nauseous should be used only to mean "causing nausea." But despite the commentators' best efforts, people continued to use to nauseous to mean "experiencing nausea," and it had become standard by the 1980s. Both nauseous and nauseated are used to mean "experiencing nausea" today, though nauseated is slightly more common in writing.

Q. The etymology given for the word snob is "origin unknown." But isn't it obviously from the Latin phrase sine nobilitate, meaning "without nobility"? It looks like a contraction of the Latin words.

A. The notion that snob is shortened from the Latin words sine nobilitate has been known to etymologists for decades, but it has generally been regarded as an after-the-fact folk invention. No evidence has ever been found that the abbreviation s.nob. was ever appended to anyone's name in Britain or elsewhere. In its earliest application in English, the word snob was an argot word for a shoemaker. In the late 18th century the word was applied by Cambridge University students to townsmen – that is, non-students – and hence to people generally considered to be without culture or status. In the 1830s it was used in the more general sense of "plebeian" or "commoner." In the 1840s it had the more restricted sense "one who fawningly admires or blatantly imitates those regarded as social superiors." This meaning was widely dispersed by William Thackeray's fictional satire The Snobs of England (later The Book of Snobs), first published in Punch in 1846-47.