{"id":12159,"date":"2012-08-17T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T07:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=12159"},"modified":"2012-12-02T22:14:50","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T06:14:50","slug":"origin-of-the-word-lukewarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/origin-of-the-word-lukewarm\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin of the Word Lukewarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today I found out<\/a> the origin of the word “lukewarm”.<\/p>\n

You’ve probably wondered why we have the word “lukewarm” for describing something that is only slightly warm.\u00a0 Why not “stevewarm” or “beckywarm”?\u00a0 Well if you didn’t before, hopefully you’re wondering now.<\/p>\n

It turns out, while today using “luke” to mean “warm” has gone out of fashion, possibly due to the popularity of the name “Luke”, at one time that’s what the word meant.\u00a0 This came from the fact that “luke” derived from “lew” or “lewk” or “leuk”, in Middle English, which meant “tepid” (slightly warm).\u00a0 This in turn came from the Old English adverb “hl\u0113owe”, which means “warm or sunny”.\u00a0 Finally, “hl\u0113owe” came from the Proto-Germanic *hl\u0113waz, meaning “warm”.<\/p>\n

The word “lukewarm” popped up around the 14th century as meaning “slightly warm”.\u00a0 Within two centuries, it also began having a figurative meaning, that of “lacking in enthusiasm”.<\/p>\n

It isn’t clear where the name “Luke” came from, but it was around long before the English word, “luke”, and even before English. “Luke” received a huge boost in popularity thanks to the publishing of The Gospel of Luke<\/em>, written around 70-90 AD.<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/span> Facts:<\/p>\n