(no subject)

I finally broke down and got an individual subscription to the OED today. Expensive! It may be the one single thing I miss most from academia.

whist The exclamation meaning 'hush!' is unrelated to 'whist' the card game. The former is a "natural utterance." The latter may possibly be related to 'whisk', the swift motion.

debonair The OED calls 'debonair' a "literary archaism." I don't agree.

savior Not apparently related to Greek "soter" (no, I can't be bothered with fonts), though I'd have to check an actual IE etymological dictionary to confirm. Is related to "holos/Ionic houlos", which I'm positive I knew back when I was in grad school.

vanilla
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2738#comic
The OED confirms that 'vanilla' is a diminutive of L. 'vagina', though of course "vagina" meant "sheath" in Latin. If I ever knew that 'vanilla' was from 'vagina', I had forgotten that particular etymology.

(no subject)

Otto I confirmed the donation of Constantine
Otto III challenged the power of the pope, insisted that the donation was a forgery, lost
Henry II confirmed Otto I's confirmation

Conrad II, first of the Salian dynasty
Conrad subdues Italian part of the HRE
subdues Burgundy

Henry III

Emperor is still peripatetic at this point
Problems with Bohemia attacking Poland and trying to become independent (Prague was established subject to archbishopric in Mainz)
Problems with Hungary
Stephen dies 1038

reform movement in Rome (simony especially)