All In a Word
Spring flowers by any other name ...Flower names are etymologically fascinating. Did you know that daffodils and the Greek myth of Narcissus are connected?
If it weren’t for the Romans, we’d miss springSpring itself wasn’t always called “spring.” In fact, the earliest inhabitants of Britain didn’t recognize this season.
Whatnots, commodes, and credenzasI never got a whatnot growing up, even though I always wanted one. But what exactly is a whatnot? This week I decided to find out once and for all.
Status words reflect changing timesTerms that at first simply denote status come to acquire moral connotations – low-status words gain negative meanings and high-status words pick up positive ones.
Counting higher than fingers and toesLinguists speculate that the base-10 number system developed independently around the world because it was inspired by the most obvious tools we have to count with – our fingers.
Learning math is easier in some languagesI have been struck by how precisely Japanese encodes the base-10 number system used by most cultures around the world.
Nonce words, coined for the occasionSocial media commentary was focused on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's use of complexifier, which came up when he explained, “My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifier for me.” The question echoed through cyberspace: “Is complexifier even a word?”
What the mall has in common with chain mailWhat does modern suburban shopping have to do with medieval armor? A lot, at least etymologically speaking.
Migrating letters and other curiositiesRebracketing occurs when an utterance is broken down and reassembled along the wrong lines, and has produced a number of English words, such as “mall.”
Stripping down the origins of ‘naked’Naked itself is a very old word, deriving from a common Germanic form even before Old English evolved into a separate language.
‘Home in on’ or ‘hone in on’?These phrases mean the same thing. Are they both correct, or are the newspapers getting it wrong about half the time?
Catchy product names that stick in memoryThere’s a whole industry that focuses on naming things in ways that will set up positive associations for consumers.
Hunting ‘snipe’ in the English lexiconThough somewhat undistinguished as a bird, snipe has developed a surprisingly diverse set of meanings as an English word.
Tracking down the origins of ‘witch hunt’I was hearing “witch hunt” so often that a few weeks ago I experienced semantic satiation, in which repetition causes a phrase to lose meaning and be perceived as nothing but empty sounds.
And the word of the year is ...Word of the Year 2018 selections provide a glimpse into the preoccupations of English-speakers.
‘Merry’ versus ‘Happy’ ChristmasWhy is it overwhelmingly “Merry Christmas” in America, but “Happy Christmas” for many British people?
A Renaissance fruit has its climacteric momentWhile researching medlars I discovered that there’s a wonderful old word, dating back to Shakespeare as well, that’s still employed by botanists to categorize fruit: climacteric.
Where to stress words in pronunciationStress isn’t only important for proper pronunciation – sometimes it actually distinguishes the meaning of words.
Studying the changes in how we speakA look at the achievements of linguist William Labov, who is a pioneer in the study of the sociocultural aspects of language.
Oh, the shark has such teeth, dearWhatever the source of the word shark, it was contact with the Americas that brought the category to wide awareness in England.
