East or West…
Anatoly looks at the origins of directionals.
Anatoly looks at the origins of directionals.
The Devil is in people’s thoughts, and his names are many. One of them is the obscure ‘Old Nick’. The word nicker “water sprite” explained as an old participle “washed one” – is unrelated to it. Then there is ‘nickel’. The term was easy to coin, but copper could not be obtained from the nickel ore.
Language changes through variation. Some people ‘sneaked’, others ‘snuck’. The two forms may coexist for a long time, or one of them may be considered snobbish. Once the snobs die out, the form will go to rest with them. Or the snobs may feel embarrassed of being in the minority and ‘go popular’.
Anatoly answers questions gleaned from your comments.
When I was growing up, I read Paul de Kruif’s book Microbe Hunters so many times that I still remember some pages by heart. Two chapters in the book are devoted to Pasteur. The second is called “Pasteur and the Mad Dog.” A book about great word hunters would similarly enthral the young and the old.
Anatoly looks at weird spellings.
Anatoly Liberman looks at the death of the adverb.
Anatoly looks at the origins of words we use today.
Anatoly answers this month’s questions.
Even a quick look at the history of words meaning “break” shows how often they begin with the sound group br-. Break has cognates in several Germanic languages. The main Old Scandinavian verb was different (compare Modern Swedish bryta, Norwegian bryte, and so forth), but it, too, began with br-.
Anatoly looks at the origin of the word cockney.
Anatoly is feeling a bit “mad” this week.
Anatoly looks at confusables.
Anatoly weighs in on curmudgeon and catawampus.
Anatoly weighs in on pimps and faggots.
Anatoly looks at where pimps and faggots come together.