Not All That is Paltry is Trivial
Anatoly wonders why we double up on names in certain words.
Some Words Have A Reputation To Live Up To
It is not fortuitous that many words like ‘puzzle’, ‘conundrum’, and ‘quiz’ are themselves puzzles from an etymological point of view. They arose as slang, sometimes as student slang, and as we don’t know the circumstances in which they were coined, our chances of discovering their origin is low.
Wild Honey With and Without Locusts
Two opposite forces act on the brain of someone who sets out to trace the origin of a word. To cite the most famous cases, coward is supposedly a “corruption” of cowherd and sirloin came into being when an English king dubbed an edible loin at table (Sir Loin). Such fantasies have tremendous appeal.
Monthly Gleanings
Anatoly responds to comments on spelling reform.
Sneak—Snack—Snuck
Anatoly uncovers how sneaked became snuck.
Monthly Gleanings
Anatoly answers this month’s questions and explains the intriguing history of the words element and hocus pocus.
Quizzes and Gigs
Anatoly delves into word history for our entertainment.
Monthly Gleanings
September 2007
Anatoly looks at some questions from the past month.
Monthly Gleanings (August 2007)
Anatoly answers questions gleaned from your comments.
Wilhelm Oehl and the butterfly
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.
The Curmudgeon and the Catawampus
Anatoly weighs in on curmudgeon and catawampus.
On Faggots & Pimps
Anatoly weighs in on pimps and faggots.
Monthly Gleanings: March 2007
Anatoly’s monthly gleanings.
One, Two, Three, Alairy…
Girls, in some parts of England and the United States, say, or rather chant, while bouncing a ball: “One, two, three, alairy, four five, six, alairy,” and so on. According to an “eyewitness report,” they say so, while bouncing a ball on the ground, catching it with one hand, keeping the score, and accompanying each alairy with a circular swing of the leg, so as to describe a loop around but not obstruct the rising ball.
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.
Monthly Gleanings: January 2007
Anatoly’s monthly gleanings.