Spooks are spooks, but don’t ignore organic pumpkins
We are one more week closer to Halloween, and pumpkins are ubiquitous. How did the pumpkin get its name?
“I wouldn’t start from here”: a SHAPE route to open access
Open research may be the route to surfacing a definitional framework for the monograph in SHAPE disciplines. Director of Open Access, Academic, at OUP Andy Redman explores why in this blog post:
How is OUP contributing to the open research landscape today?
As a mission-driven university press, we strongly support the opening up of research and the benefits for access and inclusion that OA brings. We want to ensure that the transition towards open research is an inclusive process—to use the title of OA week, “it matters how we open knowledge.”
Spooky Halloween: the origin of “spook”
How can a ghost (any ghost) get its name, and why is the etymology of bogymen, gremlins, goblins, and spooks usually unknown?
An etymological meltdown: “thaw,” “dew,” and “icicles”
A bit more is known about the origin of the words thaw and dew than about ice and snow. They are less impenetrable than those two, but they also contain riddles.
After ice expect snow
Winter is round the corner, and the best way to prepare for it is to read a few murky stories about the etymology of the relevant words: “ice” and “snow.”
Oftener and oftener
When I was growing up, someone in authority told me that way to pronounce often was offen, like off with a little syllabic n at the end. Often was like soften, listen, and glisten, I was warned, with a silent t.
Bimonthly etymology gleanings: September 2021
In this blog post, the Oxford Etymologist tackles questions from readers.
Five models of peer review: a guide
This blog post looks at five peer review models currently in use, describing what they mean for authors, reviewers and editors, and examines the various benefits and consequences of each.
Ice: a forlorn hope
Why is searching for the origin of “ice” a forlorn hope? Because all the Germanic-speaking people had the same word for “ice,” and yet we don’t know where it came from.
Which library matches your personality? [Quiz]
Which library matches your personality? Are you an old soul like the al- Qarawlyyin library? Quirky like the Culture Perth & Kinross Mobile Library? Give our short quiz a go to find out!
Idioms and slang: two examples
In this blog post, the Oxford Etymologist discusses two slang idioms: “worth a Jew’s eye” and “to save one’s bacon”.
Two evil homonyms: “mother” and “haggard”
In this blog post, the Oxford Etymologist dives into the lexicographical history of two puzzling English homonyms: “mother” and “haggard.”
Super takes off
Superman has been around for more than eighty years. The word “super” been a part of English much longer. It was borrowed into English from Latin, and in Old English we already find the word “superhumerale” to refer to a religious garment worn over the shoulders.
The hedging henchman and his hidden horse
This is the second and last part of the henchman tale, of which the first part appeared a week ago (August 25, 2021). The difficulties confronting an etymologist are two: 1) We don’t know exactly what the word henchman meant when it first surfaced in Middle English, and 2) the obscure Medieval Latin gloss used […]
The henchman’s dilemma
I am aware of only two English words whose origin has provoked enough passion and bad blood to inspire a thriller. The first such word is “cockney” and the second is “henchman”.