Going out on an etymological limb
Today’s post is about the murky origin of the word “limb”.
Semantic prosody
When linguists talk about prosody, the term usually refers to aspects of speech that go beyond individual vowels and consonants such as intonation, stress, and rhythm. Such suprasegmental features may reflect the tone or focus of a sentence.
How to define 2022 in words? Our experts take a look… (part three)
Now the dust has settled on another eventful year, it’s time to look back on some of the words that characterised 2022.
Sib and peace
The Oxford Etymologist has examined the verbs “begin” and “start.” For consistency’s sake, it is now necessary to say something about the noun and the verb “end.”
How to define 2022 in words? Our experts take a look… (part two)
Now the dust has settled on another eventful year, it’s time to look back on some of the words that characterised 2022.
A shaky beginning of the end and the state of the art
The Oxford Etymologist has examined the verbs “begin” and “start.” For consistency’s sake, it is now necessary to say something about the noun and the verb “end.”
A new beginning: the verb “start”
The Oxford Etymologist explores the origin of the verb “to start”.
How to define 2022 in words? Our experts take a look… (part one)
Now the dust has settled on another eventful year, it’s time to look back on some of the words that characterised 2022.
The murky beginning of the verb begin
The Oxford Etymologist explores the unfinished story of the word “begin”.
Do nouns have tense?
English noun phrases have something called a “temporal interpretation.” That’s linguist-speak for how we understand their place in time relative to the tense of the verb.
Etymology gleanings for two winter months (2022-2023)
In this blog post, the Oxford Etymologist responds to questions from readers on word borrowing across Hebrew, Greek, and Germanic, plus a few new etymology ideas.
A Q&A with Bryan Garner, “the least stuffy grammarian around”
The fifth edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage has recently been published by OUP. I was happy to talk to Bryan Garner—who was declared a “genius” by the late David Foster Wallace—about what it means to write a usage dictionary.
Gr-words as mushrooms
Some words propagate like mushrooms: no roots but a sizable crowd of upstarts calling themselves relatives. Gr-words are the pet subject of all works on sound imitation and sound symbolism.
Monosyllabic moping
The Oxford Etymologist the common but etymologically opaque verb “mope”, and other monosyllabic verbs.
2023 and adventures in the idiom wonderland
The Oxford Etymologist explores a selection of idioms, including the amazing story of the phrase “fox’s wedding.”
Can you itch an itch?
Reading Dan Chaon’s novel Sleepwalk last summer, I noticed his use of the verb itch to mean scratch.