Etymological Cocktail
Anatoly looks at the origin of the word “cocktail.”
Raining cats and dogs
This is an old chestnut. How did ‘Raining Cats and Dogs’ come into being, and stay, in the language? The possibilities are few. A foreign phrase is occasionally repeated verbatim or nearly so, and turns into gibberish. It is possible that the first ‘cats and dogs’ were not even animal names.
Friday procrastination: link love – fun facts and fake news
Links we like.
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Women’s History Month: Feminism and Art
There is no perfect marriage between feminism (as a political ideology) and art (as a cultural activity). Feminism promises at the same time to enrich the products of art, to expose the pretensions and vested interests in art and to break open the category of art altogether.
Women’s History Month: Feminism
A Women’s History Month salute!
Our Favorite Books: Part Two
Oxford University Press staff share their favorite books.
Monthly Gleaning: October 2007
Monthly Gleanings.
Totally Weird and Wonderful Words
Weird Words!
Many Happy Returns of the Day
Or, Study Etymology and Live Long
Anatoly Liberman ponders longevity.
Undetermined Scholars Confront Indeterminate Numbers
The Oxford Eytmologist takes on more words.
Deliberation and Infotopia
By Cass Sunstein What happens when people deliberate with one another? Do they arrive at the truth? Do they go toward the middle? Can we predict the effects of deliberation? A few months ago, I tried to find out, collaborating with David Schkade (of the University of San Diego) and Reid Hastie (of the University […]
“Jes’ copasetic, boss,”; Being also a Note on Frank Vizetelly
For some reason, interest in the etymology of copasetic never abates. This adjective, a synonym of the equally infantile hunky-dory, is hardly ever used today unless the speaker wants to sound funny, but I cannot remember a single talk on words without someone’s asking me about its derivation and thinking that the question is of a most imaginative kind.