Last week’s “Weird Words” tried to show that the unlikely field of etymology (word origins) is a lot more interesting than it sounds.

I mentioned, for example, that “goodbye” is a contraction of “God be with you,” and that “galaxy” has the Greek base “lact,” meaning milk — indicating the cloudy appearance of those starry hosts.

Here are 10 more weird etymologies to help prove my point. Keep in mind that meanings and spellings change drastically over many centuries — as in the examples above.

Assassin – Traditionally, a respelling of “hashshashin,” from the marijuana-related drug “hashish.” The hashshashins, or “Order of Assassins,” were ancient Middle Eastern terrorists who supposedly worked under the influence of this narcotic when executing their dastardly deeds.

Bedlam – A not-terribly-common term meaning “chaos, uproar or confusion,” this is a shortening of the last word in “St. Mary of Bethlehem,” a famous lunatic asylum in London.

Bonfire – Literally “bone fire,” from the once-prevalent practice of funeral pyres. Happily, most of these backyard celebrations nowadays do not involve human remains.

Cancer – Believe it or not, the two meanings of this word — the disease and the zodiac sign — both connect to the word “crab.” In horoscopes, of course, the constellation in question has a crab-like shape. Similarly, the all-too-common illness was once thought to produce a pattern of swollen veins resembling this crustacean.

Canter – England’s Canterbury Cathedral, site of the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170, was a popular spot for pilgrimages throughout the Middle Ages. Taking several days, most travelers reached the church on horseback at a very slow trot, or “canter.” The word is a shortening of this famous shrine.

Clue – This term was originally spelled “clew” — a variant that appears in Huckleberry Finn. A “clew” is literally a ball, or ball of thread; its modern sense — something that helps solve a problem — comes from the use of yarn by the Greek hero Theseus in finding his way out of a famous labyrinth.

Handicap – While we no longer employ this once-standard term for special-needs folk, it does still apply to sports, especially golf. That use is related to the other meaning in the sense of a (dis)advantage or inequality; and this in turn goes back to a bartering method called “hand-in-cap,” for items that might have unequal value. The resulting monetary difference was placed into a hat, with the barterers putting in hands to seal or reject the deal. My description oversimplifies the process, but that is indeed where “handicap” originates.

Helicopter – In one of my favorite surprising derivations, this word is related to “pterodactyl.” That’s a flying dinosaur with claws on its wings — literally “ptero” (Latin “wing”) plus “dactyl” (Greek “finger”). So the etymological break in “helicopter” does not come before “copter”; rather, the word combines “pter” with “helico,” a form of “helix,” meaning spiral. So “helicopter” is literally: “spiral wing.” Which is, of course, exactly what it has!

Nice – Through a linguistic process called “elevation,” in which a once-negative word becomes something more positive, this term emerged from the cancelling prefix “ne” (as in “negate”) added to the Latin base “sci,” meaning “know” (as in “science”). Thus, the word originally meant foolish or silly. I dunno; maybe stupid people are nicer?

Salary – Literally, “salt-money” — from the ancient practice of paying Roman soldiers money to buy much-needed salt to flavor and preserve their food. According to the related idiom, to earn a salary is to be “worth one’s salt.”

Next two weeks in “Weird Words”: animal etymologies — including ferret, canary, petrel, chameleon, and hippopotamus.