Adventures in Etymology – Bizarre
Today we’re looking into the strange and unusual origins of the word bizarre. Bizarre [bɪˈzɑː/bəˈzɑɹ] means: * markedly unusual in appearance, style, or general character and often involving incongruous or unexpected elements * outrageously or whimsically strange * odd It comes from the French bizarre [bi.zaʁ] (odd, peculiar, bizarre), either from the Basque bizar [bis̻ar] (beard), or from the Italian bizzarro [bidˈd͡zar.ro] (odd, queer, eccentric, bizarre, weird, frisky), possibly from bizza (tantrum), from the German beißen [ˈbaɪ̯sən] (to bite) [source]. In French backslang (Verlan), bizarre becomes zarbi [source] and features in the expression On est tous un peu zarbi(tes) (We’re all a little freaky), or as they as in northern England, There’s nowt so queer as folk [source]. Here’s a video I made of this information: Video made with Doodly – an easy-to-use animated video creator [affiliate link]. I also write about words, etymology, and other language-related topics, on the Omniglot Blog, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the Celtiadur. You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM or podtail. If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.