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Why decolonization and inclusion matter in linguistics

By Anne H. Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, and Mary Bucholtz

As sociolinguists, we have centered social justice in our research, teaching, and administrative work for many years. But as with many other academics, this issue took on renewed collective urgency for us in the context of the events of 2020, from toxic politics and policies at the federal level, to state-sanctioned anti-Black violence and the ensuing racial reckoning, to the Covid-19 pandemic and the many inequities it exposed and heightened.

Title cover of "Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology" by Anatoly Liberman

A Retrospective on “Origin Uncertain”

By Anatoly Liberman

In early March, the mail brought me the expected complimentary copies of my recent book Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology, published by Oxford University Press (2024).

Chewing the cud and ruminating on word origins

By Anatoly Liberman

The history of cud may be more exciting than it seems at first sight. Initially (long ago!), I was intrigued when I read the statement by Henry Cecil Wyld, an outstanding language historian, that the origin of cud is unknown.

“Smother,” “smooth,” and the Slavic name of sour cream, with an obscure idiom for dessert

By Anatoly Liberman

The word smother “dense or stifling smoke” (often with smoke!) has existed in English for about a thousand years. It first competed with smorther (the spelling of the Middle English form has been simplified here) and conveyed an even more murderous idea than today.

Title cover of "Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President from Washington to Trump" by Edwin L. Battistella, published by Oxford University Press

Rhetorical “um”

By Edwin L. Battistella

“Uh” and “um” don’t get much respect. What even are they? Toastmasters International calls them “crutch words.”

Late winter etymology gleanings and a few little-known idioms

By Anatoly Liberman

Ms. Melissa Mizel found my post for July 29, 2009, on the ethnic slur Sheeny “Jew” and sent me her idea about the etymology of this ugly word.

Of language, brain health, and global inequities

By Adolfo M. García

One of the greatest public health challenges of our century lies in the growth of neurodegenerative disorders. Conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and frontotemporal dementia stand as major contributors to disability and mortality in affluent and under-resourced nations alike.

A four-forked etymology: curfew

By Anatoly Liberman

It appears that the etymology of curfew has been solved. In any case, all modern dictionaries say the same. The English word surfaced in texts in the early fourteenth century, but a signal to people to extinguish their fires is much older.

“Indian summer” and other curious idioms

By Anatoly Liberman

The Internet is full of information about the origin of the phrase Indian summer. Everything said there about this idiom, its use, the puzzling reference to Indian, as well as about a desired replacement of Indian by a word devoid of ethnic connotations and about the synonyms for the phrase in the languages of the world, is correct.

Intractable words

By Anatoly Liberman

In my correspondence with the journalist who was curious about the origin of caucus, I wrote that we might never discover where that word came from.

Title cover of "Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President from Washington to Trump" by Edwin L. Battistella, published by Oxford University Press

How synonymy rolls

By Edwin L. Battistella

If you look up the synonym of big, you are likely to find words like large, huge, immense, colossal, enormous, and ginormous, among others. Some of these will cause you to raise an eyebrow because they are bigger than big: something can be big, but not huge or enormous.

The origin of the word caucus: conclusion

By Anatoly Liberman

Last week, I mentioned three etymologies of caucus: from caucus, Latin for “cup”; from an Algonquin phrase, and from calker’s or caulkers’.

The intractable word caucus

By Anatoly Liberman

At the moment, the word caucus is in everybody’s mouth. This too shall pass, but for now, the same question is being asked again and again, namely: “What is the origin of the mysterious American coinage?”

A Q & A on English and all its varieties [interactive map]

By Danica Salazar and Rachel Havard

World Englishes are localized or indigenized varieties of English spoken throughout the world by people of diverse cultural backgrounds in a wide range of sociolinguistic contexts.

Word Origins

Etymologicon and other books on etymology

By Anatoly Liberman

In the previous post, I answered the first question from our correspondents (idioms with the names of body parts in them) and promised to answer the other one I had received during the break. The second question concerned the book titled The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections.

Back to work: body and etymology

By Anatoly Liberman

While the blog was dormant, two questions came my way, and I decided to answer them at once, rather than putting them on a back burner. Today, I’ll deal with the first question and leave the second for next week. Since the publication of my recent book Take My Word for It (it deals with […]