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Year in, year out

By Anatoly Liberman
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The year is new and young. Everything else is old

By Anatoly Liberman
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The concept of emotional disorder

By Gloria Sibson Ayob
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Books

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

Jolly Yule

By Anatoly Liberman

It is almost certain that the main event in the reception in England of the formerly unpronounceable “low” word bloody (which first turned up in texts in 1540 and, consequently, existed in colloquial speech earlier) goes back to 1914, when Eliza Dolittle, the heroine of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, uttered it from the stage. Nowadays, when in “public discourse,” the rich hoard of English adjectives has been reduced to the single F-word (at least so in the US), this purism of an age gone by cannot but amuse us.

Oxford University Press. Best Books of 2024

A look behind the curtain at the best books of 2024

By Sarah Butcher

Every year, Oxford University Press’s trade program publishes 70-100 new books written for the general reader. The vast audience for these trade books comprises everyone from history buffs, popular science nerds, and philosophy enthusiasts pursuing intellectual interests, as well as parents and caregivers seeking crucial advice or support—all readers browsing the aisles of their local bookstore (or the Amazon new releases) for literature that deepens their insight into the world around them.

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

Does “the” get italics?

By Edwin L. Battistella

One of the idiosyncrasies of copy editing that befuddles me involves the word “the”. Should it be capitalized and italicized when one refers to newspaper titles in a piece of writing? The Chicago Manual of Style will tell you no.

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

Varia

By Anatoly Liberman

It is almost certain that the main event in the reception in England of the formerly unpronounceable “low” word bloody (which first turned up in texts in 1540 and, consequently, existed in colloquial speech earlier) goes back to 1914, when Eliza Dolittle, the heroine of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, uttered it from the stage. Nowadays, when in “public discourse,” the rich hoard of English adjectives has been reduced to the single F-word (at least so in the US), this purism of an age gone by cannot but amuse us.

Cover image by "Europe Against Revolution: Conservatism, Enlightenment, & the Making of the Past" by Matthijs Lok

The idea of Europe

By Matthijs Lok

In the decades around 1800—when the European past was (as in the present) the topic of fierce discussion, contestation, and political (ab)use—ideas of Europe were dominated by the shocking events of the French Revolution and its violent aftermath in Europe and beyond. The European order as well as Europe’s place in the world, was destroyed, rebuilt, and redefined at this moment.

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

The once unpronounceable word “bloody”

By Anatoly Liberman

It is almost certain that the main event in the reception in England of the formerly unpronounceable “low” word bloody (which first turned up in texts in 1540 and, consequently, existed in colloquial speech earlier) goes back to 1914, when Eliza Dolittle, the heroine of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, uttered it from the stage. Nowadays, when in “public discourse,” the rich hoard of English adjectives has been reduced to the single F-word (at least so in the US), this purism of an age gone by cannot but amuse us.

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

Don’t be afraid to switch tenses

By Edwin L. Battistella

Reading a book on the 1992 chess match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, I came across this sentence: “Twenty years ago, to the very day, Fischer had swept to victory, to become crowed as the 11th World Champion, against the self-same Spassky, then the Soviet World Champion.”

Cover image of "The Enlightenment: An Idea and Its History' J.C.D. Clark

How to escape from a maze

By J. C. D. Clark

Assume you know nothing about the First World War, but had heard the name and wish to learn about it. Reasonably, you turn to the latest scholarship on the subject, only to find fundamental differences of view among professional historians.

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

A ride on an unbroken colt

By Anatoly Liberman

The blog Oxford Etymologist is resuming its activities. I expected multiple expressions of grief and anxiety at the announcement that I would be away from my desk for a week, but no one seems to have noticed. Anyway, I am back and ready to finish the series on the four cardinal points. Since it is in the west that the sun sets, I relegated this post to the end of my long story.

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

Westward Ho

By Anatoly Liberman

The blog Oxford Etymologist is resuming its activities. I expected multiple expressions of grief and anxiety at the announcement that I would be away from my desk for a week, but no one seems to have noticed. Anyway, I am back and ready to finish the series on the four cardinal points. Since it is in the west that the sun sets, I relegated this post to the end of my long story.

Book cover of "Britons And Their Battlefields" by Ian Atherton

Remembering the fallen

By Ian Atherton

This year as usual, on either Remembrance Sunday or Armistice Day, many people in the UK will gather at a local war memorial to remember the country’s war dead, those of the two World Wars and other conflicts since 1945.

Cover of "Extreme Overvalued Beliefs" by Tahir Rahman and Jeffrey Abugel

In the spirit of Oswald

By Jeffrey Abugel

It’s been more than 60 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Those who remember where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day in 1963 are becoming smaller in number. Since that afternoon in Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald has been viewed as a glory-seeking sociopath who, according to every official account, acted alone. No one offered him the adulation or hero worship he so desired.

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

All the way back: “South”

By Anatoly Liberman

This essay owes its title to local patriotism. In Minnesota, which has recently become one of the centers of world politics and in which I happen to live and teach, when people move in the direction of the state’s northern border, they often describe their travel as “going up north.” I too am moving in that direction with my heavy burden of words of unknown origin

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

Up north

By Anatoly Liberman

This essay owes its title to local patriotism. In Minnesota, which has recently become one of the centers of world politics and in which I happen to live and teach, when people move in the direction of the state’s northern border, they often describe their travel as “going up north.” I too am moving in that direction with my heavy burden of words of unknown origin

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

Self words

By Edwin L. Battistella

Reading a book on the 1992 chess match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, I came across this sentence: “Twenty years ago, to the very day, Fischer had swept to victory, to become crowed as the 11th World Champion, against the self-same Spassky, then the Soviet World Champion.”

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

Out for lunch

By Anatoly Liberman

My studies of medieval literature and folklore made me interested in tricksters, clown, jesters, and all kinds of popular entertainers. At least three essays in the Oxford Etymologist column bear witness to this interest: Clown (August 31, 2016) and Harlequin (September 16 and October 14, 2020).