late 14c., scalun "shallot," kind of common onion, also "thing of little value," from Anglo-French escalone, Old North French escalogne, or Old French eschaloigne, all from Vulgar Latin *escalonia, from Latin (cæpa) Ascalonia "(onion) from Ascalon," the seaport in the southwestern Levant (modern Ashkelon in Israel). Cognate with shallot.

Old English borrowing from Late Latin manna, from Greek manna, from Hebrew mān, probably literally "substance exuded by the tamarisk tree," but used in Greek and Latin specifically with reference to the substance miraculously supplied to the Children of Israel during their wandering in the Wilderness (Exodus xvi.15). The Hebrew word often is referred to man "a gift." Meaning "spiritual nourishment" is attested from late 14c. Generalized sense of "something provided unexpectedly" is from 1590s.

"person felt by the writer or speaker to be deficient in liberal culture," 1827, originally in Carlyle, popularized by him and Matthew Arnold, from German Philister "enemy of God's word," literally "Philistine," inhabitants of a Biblical land, neighbors (and enemies) of Israel (see Philistine).

Popularized in German student slang (supposedly first at Jena, late 17c.) as a contemptuous term for "townies," and hence, by extension, "any uncultured person." Philistine had been used in a humorous figurative sense of "an unfeeling enemy" in English from c. 1600. Related: Philistinism.

The people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich, and who most give their lives and thoughts to becoming rich, are just the very people whom we call Philistines. [Matthew Arnold, "Sweetness and Light," 1869] 

late 14c., philologie, "love of learning and literature; personification of linguistic and literary knowledge," from Latin philologia "love of learning, love of letters, love of study, literary culture," from Greek philologia "love of discussion, learning, and literature; studiousness," in later use "learning" in a wider sense, from philo- "loving" (see philo-) + logos "word, speech" (see Logos).

Compare the sense evolution of Greek philologos, "fond of words, talkative," in Plato "fond of dialectic or argument," in Aristotle and Plutarch "fond of learning and literature," in Plotinus and Proclus "studious of words."

The meaning "science of language" is attested by 1716 (philologue "linguist" is from 1590s; philologer "linguistic scholar" is from 1650s); this confusing secondary sense has not been popular in the U.S., where linguistics is preferred. Related: Philological; philologic.

Philology reigned as king of the sciences, the pride of the first great modern universities—those that grew up in Germany in the eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries. Philology inspired the most advanced humanistic studies in the United States and the United Kingdom in the decades before 1850 and sent its generative currents through the intellectual life of Europe and America. It meant far more than the study of old texts. Philology referred to allstudies of language, of specific languages, and (to be sure) of texts. Its explorations ranged from the religion of ancient Israel through the lays of medieval troubadours to the tongues of American Indians—and to rampant theorizing about the origin of language itself. [James Turner, "Philology," 2014]

"love of one's country; the passion which moves a person to serve his country, either in defending it or in protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institutions," 1726, from patriot + -ism.

The patriotic quip My country, right or wrong traces to a toast given by U.S. War of 1812 naval hero Stephen Decatur at a public dinner in Norfolk, Va., in April 1816, but the original seems to have been "Our country; in her intercourse with other nations may she be always right; and always successful, right or wrong." [as reported in the Pittsfield, Mass., "Sun," July 4, 1816], or similar words.

In 1823 and for a few years after, "Our Country—Right or Wrong" was printed in U.S. newspapers as the name of a song played on patriotic occasions [e.g., Pittsfield, Mass., "Sun," July 10, 1823], and by the fall of 1823 Decatur's toast was being quoted as "Our Country—right or wrong" [Hartford "Courant," Nov. 25, 1823].

The amendment often attributed to Carl Schurz in 1872, who did say it on the floor of the Senate, seems to be older:

The Hon. Israel Washburn, of Maine, gave the following felicitous sentiment at the late Bangor celebration on the Fourth:

"Our Country—Our country, right or wrong; when right, to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."

[Wheeling, W.Va., "Daily Intelligencer," July 21, 1859]