Etymology gleanings for March 2022
This week, the Oxford Etymologist answers readers questions in his latest etymology gleanings.
Osteological folklore: “bonfire”
My today’s word is bonfire, which turned up in texts at the end of the fifteenth century. Seven years ago, I devoted a post to it but today I know more about this tricky compound and can write the story in a different way.
Souls searched for but not found (part two)
This is the second and last part of the series on the origin of the word “soul.” The perennial interest in the etymology of this word should not surprise us. It is our inability to find a convincing solution that causes astonishment and disappointment.
Soul searching, or the inscrutable word “soul” (part one)
If we expect someone to save our souls, this person won’t be an etymologist, because no language historian knows the origin of the word soul, and without a convincing etymology, how can anyone save the intangible substance it denotes? Yet nothing prevents us from looking at the main attempts to decipher the mysterious word.
Religious terminology: further benefits of blessing and the devious ways of cursing
In this week’s blog post, the Oxford Etymologist dives deeper into the competing origin theories for the verb “bless”—with “curse” as an added bonus.
Letting foregones be bygones
I was reading a column in a chess magazine when I came across the description of a game’s finish as a bygone conclusion. “That’s really weird,” I thought, “It should have said foregone conclusion.”
Religious terminology continued: bless your heart, my dear!
From God (or rather, god) to bless. But before turning to the history of the word “bless”, I would like to respond to the questions asked in connection with the “good”/”God” dilemma.
The VSI podcast season three: ageing, Pakistan, slang, psychopathy, and more
Listen to season three of The VSI Podcast for concise and original introductions to a selection of our VSI titles from the authors themselves.
If God is not good, what is the origin of “good”?
In this blog post, the Oxford Etymologist details the etymology of the adjective “good”. If it is not related to “god”, then what is its origin?
Religious terminology: the etymology of “god”
A few days ago, I received a letter from a well-educated reader, who asked me whether the English words “god” and “good” are related.
The incomprehensible word “understand”
“Understand” is a teaser: each of the two elements of this compound is clear, but why does it mean what it does?
What are light verbs?
English verbs show tremendous variety. Some have a lot of semantic content and serve as the main predicate of a sentence—as transitive or intransitive or linking verbs.
Monthly gleanings for January 2022
In this month’s round-up of questions from readers, the Oxford Etymologist tackles “see”, “echo”, “Baba Yaga”, “masher”, and more.
Seeing is believing (?)
Today I’ll try to say something about the verb “see.” Once again, we’ll have to admit that the more basic a word is, the less we know about its remote history.
Hearsay? It depends on what you hear
The etymology of the word “hear” is especially tough – but life would be a dull thing is everything was clear.
After a sun eclipse: bedposts and curtains in sex life and warfare
The phrase in a/the twinkling of a bedpost (with the archaic variant bedstaff) means the same as in a twinkling of an eye, that is, “very quickly,” because twinkle, when used metaphorically, refers to a rapid movement. Agreed: eyes and stars twinkle, but bedposts don’t, and here is the rub.