Language Matters | Squid Game: everyone knows the Netflix TV series, but no one knows where the word ‘squid’ comes from
- The English word ‘squid’ first appeared in the 1600s but major dictionaries merely say its origin is obscure
- The creature’s curious characteristics prompt linguistic creativity, from Singapore English’s ‘blur like sotong’ to the Cantonese term for getting fired
Unless you are blur like sotong (a little slow catching on – see below), you will know of the existence of the Korean hit series Squid Game. You might also know that this was named after the real-life children’s game ojingeo, a version of tag involving opposing teams advancing across a squid diagram drawn on the ground.
What we don’t know is where the English word “squid”, appearing in the 1600s, comes from. Major dictionaries merely say its origin is obscure (though some suggest a sailor’s variant of “squirt”, for the squid’s emitting of ink).
The origin of cuttle(fish), too – in the same class of cephalopods (from the Greek kephalópodes, meaning “head-feet”) as squid and octopus – is unknown, first appearing in Old English as cudele (possibly from a Germanic root, meaning “bag”, referring to its ink sac).
Cuttlefish’s other term was sepia, appearing in English from the mid-1500s, coming from the Latin sēpia, and from the Greek σηπία. This gave the name of the family Sepiidae and the genus Sepia, to which cuttlefish belong.
The word “sepia” is also used for the pigment of rich brown prepared from the inky secretion of the cuttlefish (the ink of octopus and squid being black and bluish-black, respectively). Already used in writing in ancient Greece and Rome, sepia became popular as a drawing medium from the Renaissance, used in Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches and notes, and in monochrome watercolour painting, as well as for sepia tint developed for 19th century photography.
