Boots (or rather, shoes) on the ground
Few words are harder to trace to their sources than the names of clothing articles. Those names travel with the things to which they belong, and the sources are easily lost sight of.
I had to look (them up)
When I’m reading or listening to a book, I sometimes find myself momentarily drifting away from what the author is saying and worrying about words and phrases I encounter.
Tarry or hurry?
It is surprising how similar the verbs in the title sound, though they are antonyms: tarry means “to linger, delay,” while hurry refers to haste.
On big and little foxes
This is a story about how the fox got its name. I discussed the word fox ten years ago (see the post for March 23, 2016), but today I have more to say about the subject.
Supper with an etymologist
It does not require much philological preparation to guess that supper is a word containing the root sup- and the suffix -er. Yet in the days of King Alfred and even much later, the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England had no such word.
The kings of etymological rings
It is amazing how many words Indo-European languages have for “supreme ruler; potentate.” In English, the main one is king.
How can they do it when we can’t?
Salamanders can regenerate lost limbs, but mammals cannot. Recent discoveries about cell potency and positional information are helping scientists understand why, while opening new possibilities for regenerative medicine.
Binomial expressions
Why do we say chicken and egg but never egg and chicken? English has hundreds of these fixed binomial expressions, each following subtle linguistic rules. From Yakov Malkiel’s early studies to the forensic clue that helped catch the Unabomber, binomials reveal how deeply word order shapes meaning.
Brothers and sisters
The readers of this blog may have noticed that I usually try to stay away from the oldest words in English, those with ancient Indo-European roots.
Pen to Paper with Alexander Mikaberidze
Historian Alexander Mikaberidze reframes the Louisiana Purchase as part of a global story of empire, revolution, and political ambition. He discusses archival discoveries, Napoleonic history, and why the Purchase still matters today.
A few etymological pebbles
The readers of this blog must have noticed how often I suggest solutions connected with sound imitation. Time and again I say that a certain noun or verb owes its origin to onomatopoeia.
The level of our expertise: the perplexing verb baffle
What does it mean when a dictionary says: “Origin unknown”? We will soon see that the concept of “unknown” has several levels.
Clinical Legal Education, Theory and Practice
Legal education, at least in the Anglosphere, has been undergoing a quiet but very recognisable transformation. The case study method, developed by Christopher Columbus Langdell at Harvard in the 1870s, is steadily giving way to ‘authentic’, ‘real life’ or ‘experiential’ learning, wherein theory and practice are intermeshed.
Seeing red
The history of color names presents countless problems, and the literature on the subject is enormous. Today’s post is only about some curious uses of the word red in English.
Learn about telic and atelic predicates
Recently, I went to a talk on telicity in verbs. If the term is unfamiliar to you, you are not alone.
Aftermath and its kin
My story today is about several words referring to aftermath. All of them have a rather confusing sound shape.