The word for what Renn is nowadays is “vehement.” “Yyyyyyyyeah!” she will say in answer to any old question. Or “NO,” with her hand starkly out in front of her, fingers splayed and ramrod straight. Especially to the dogs if she is holding a piece of apple, or anytime she thinks of the squirrel that … More Yes Wegh
I was just eating a cannoli, lucky me, and admiring its crisp tubishness, and wondered suddenly if the word has any relation to “can,” as in the metal kind, often also tubish. And it does! Both come from Latin canna, a reed or pipe*. So, for that matter, does “cane.” While what I can find … More Can You Even
Hello, have you wondered about -monger as a suffix? The words “scaremongering” and”fearmongering” have popped up in my world as a parent lately–from other parents describing the landscape of available advice for teaching a child about using the toilet. I realized I think of “-mongering” in these instances as like “generating, amassing, and stuffing the … More Bewitched by Fish
In this crazy world, it may be of comfort to know which words that look and/or sound the same do so because they are related, and which do so because chaos reigns but coincidence arises. So here you go. Kind (type) and kind (nice): related! You can think of both going back to “family”…so, type … More Wor d’oeuvres: Homo Nymous
First: Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar is here with me today to help make my point. Welcome, Kendrick! Now, I am pleased to announce a well-fed and beautifully groomed pet peeve of mine: when people upon whom a very clear honor is bestowed accept said honor by describing themselves as deeply humbled by that honor. … More Bah Humble
This week’s small news in words is here! 1. “Caper” the piccata ingredient and “caper” the film genre aren’t related. 2. “Sin” comes from the Proto-Indo-European for “to be.” That’s intense! 3. “Relish” in the sense of a “condiment which imparts flavor” started as Latin for “loosening/stretching” and then French for “leaving behind” and then … More Ever more wor d’oeuvres
Here’s the latest: 1. “Flan” and “flange” share no common root as far as I can tell, despite their common little flare outward. 2. Celery and accelerate share no common root*. Celery comes from French, and before that Italian, and before that late Latin, and before that Greek for parsley, and until it got to … More Even more wor d’oeuvres
Hi! Here’s the latest: 1. “Gossip” comes from two words you’d recognize: “God” and “sibb” (relative, as in “sibling”)–so, basically the godparent of your kid, meaning someone you are super close to and to whom you would presumably talk alllllll the shit. And thence the verb. 2. Honduras means “depths.” 3. “Tentacle” and “tentative” have … More Some more wor d’oeuvres
Hey folks: listen, I look up etymologies basically daily. And I’m always like couuuuld this be a whole post and doooooo I have that in me? And the answer is usually “god I don’t know but now I feel bad that I haven’t written one and probably won’t.” And then everyone loses! So guess what, … More Wor d’oeuvres
Something I dearly love about language is when a word we already know becomes a THING, especially when it manages to seem suddenly completely necessary (how did we live without being able to express what this expresses?!) AND totally unnecessary because we actually have words that do this well…we were just a little tired of … More Dog-Adjacent, Flea-Adsurgent