NICOLE DAVIS WRITES “Octopuses Prefer To Use Different Arms For Different Tasks, Scientists Find,” The Guardian, September 11, 2025. The creatures, Davis recounts, favor front arms for most tasks, though … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
in the game of whist: the four of hearts, considered as an unlucky card—southeastern Scotland and northeastern England, early 19th century—origin unknown| word histories
a person who overestimates their own influence—1661—alludes to the fable of a fly sitting on the axletree of a moving chariot and saying, “See what a dust I raise”| word histories
a person who behaves as if he or she knows everything—UK, colloquial, 1860—the irony of the expression lies in the fact that clogs are mere functional pedestrian objects| word histories
UK, 1907: ‘to ghostwrite’ (to write a book, an article, etc., for another person, under whose name it is then published—USA, 1908: ‘ghostwriter’ (a person who ghostwrites)| word histories
dominated by a woman or by women—UK, 1809—past participle of ‘ride’, ‘ridden’ combines with nouns to form adjectives meaning: afflicted, affected or dominated by something or by someone specified…| word histories
In the deep South of the United States, when sunlight breaks through a gentle rain, you might hear someone say, “The devil’s beating his wife.” It’s a phrase that stops many outsiders in thei…| Atkins Bookshelf
1. Mod (noun): 1960s subculture. 2. Mod (noun): Software modification. 3. Mod (adjective): Modern or stylish. 4. Mod (verb): To customize. The word "mod" primarily refers to a modification made to something, particularly in gaming, technology, or fashion. It can describe a person who modifies items or belongs to the British youth subculture that emerged […] The post Mod: Definition, Meaning, and Examples appeared first on US Dictionary.| US Dictionary
1. Clown (noun): A comedic performer often found in circuses or entertainment venues. 2. Clown (verb): To behave in a humorous or silly manner. 3. Clown (noun): A person who acts foolishly or without seriousness. The word "clown" primarily refers to a comic performer, often in a circus or entertainment setting, who uses exaggerated makeup, […] The post Clown: Definition, Meaning, and Examples appeared first on US Dictionary.| US Dictionary
1. TL;DR (abbreviation): Too long; didn’t read. 2. TL;DR (noun): A concise summary or brief explanation of a longer text. The abbreviation "TL;DR" stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read" and serves as internet slang, indicating that a text is excessively lengthy for the reader's attention. It's commonly used as a dismissive response to lengthy posts […] The post TL;DR: Definition, Meaning, and Examples appeared first on US Dictionary.| US Dictionary
I’m delighted to announce the impending arrival of my third etymology book, Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds, featuring quirky, charming, and humorous word origin sto…| Useless Etymology
‘woodpushing’: chess-playing, draughts-playing—‘woodpusher’: a chess-player, a draughts-player—refers to the wooden pieces that chess-players and draughts-players move across the board| word histories
UK, 1951—‘mother-in-law’s chair’, ‘mother-in-law’s cushion’ and ‘mother-in-law’s seat’ are colloquial appellations for the globular spiny cactus Echinocactus grusonii, native to Mexico| word histories
an uncovered extra seat at the back or on the side of a two-seater motor car—USA, 1907| word histories
USA, 1874—a joke made at the expense of the joke-teller’s (real or fictitious) mother-in-law; this type of joke considered (especially depreciatively) as a genre| word histories
There are moments when a poem reaches you before you even read it, when the circumstance of discovery adds a layer of meaning to the text. That’s how I came across Stephen Kuusisto’s Letters to Bor…| Atkins Bookshelf
British, 1771—as an adjective: emaciated; weak and starving—as a noun: an emaciated or starving person| word histories
England; also: the British Parliament—UK, 1857—popularised in 1865 by the British politician John Bright| word histories
a charwoman, a cleaning lady—UK, 1940—popularised in 1942 by the charwoman’s name in the BBC radio comedy series ‘It’s That Man Again’| word histories
conventionally middle-class—UK, 1953—from ‘Mrs Dale’, the name of a conventional middle-class woman in Mrs Dale’s Diary, a BBC radio serial broadcast from 1948 to 1969| word histories
a narrow escape from danger, disaster or mishap—UK, 1820—refers to the act of shaving with a cutthroat razor, which may result in injury| word histories
looking or feeling ill or nauseated—1843, in a letter by Charles Dickens—when applied to a person, the plural noun ‘gills’ designates the flesh under the jaws and ears; also the cheeks| word histories
everyone is accountable for their own actions—17th century—may refer to herrings being hung when up for sale (that is to say: every piece of merchandise must sell on its own merits)| word histories
Explore the definition of the word "interim," as well as its versatile usage, synonyms, examples, etymology, and more.| US Dictionary
crowded or confined tightly together—Britain, 1706—in early use, this phrase often referred to the transatlantic slave trade| word histories
said of a great number of persons or things, especially when pressed against one another—UK, 1776—refers to herrings in a barrel| word histories
a conscientious objector—UK, 1916—from the initial syllable of the noun ‘conscientious objector’ and the suffix ‘-ie’, used to form familiar diminutives| word histories
a container used to store for posterity a selection of objects thought to be representative of a particular moment in time—USA, 1938—coined to specifically designate the container built by the West…| word histories
UK, 1931—sports (originally golf): a style of play characterised by an emphasis on luck rather than skill—the image is of a golfer who trusts to luck when hitting the ball| word histories
USA, 1982—characteristic, reminiscent or imitative of the films or television work of the U.S. filmmaker David Lynch (1946-2025)—also ‘Lynchean’, ‘David-Lynchian’ and ‘David-Lynchean’…| word histories
three daily meals plus a bed for the night (i.e., basic food and shelter)—USA, 1929—chiefly used in relation to the military, prison, and shelters for homeless people—‘hot’ designates a hot meal…| word histories
1901—a look inviting sexual interest—hence, the adjective ‘bedroom-eyed’ (1925), which means: giving a look inviting sexual interest| word histories
originally (1830): the rule, or the power, of paper money (as opposed to metallic currency)—later also (1940): the rule, or the power, of bureaucracy| word histories
(intransitive): to spend the summer—UK, 1797, in the following title: The Sea Side, a Poem, in a Series of familiar Epistles, from Mr. Simkin Slenderwit, summerising at Ramsgate, to his dear Mother…| word histories
very boring or unexciting—‘(as) dull as ditchwater’ (1770)—the later phrase ‘(as) dull as dishwater’ (1832) is probably due to mispronunciation of ‘ditchwater’ in the original phrase…| word histories
I’ve been joking lately that, “Tenacity is my middle name” as I keep pushing forward on all the aspects of house recovery. Yet, my 2025 WOTY was Patience. Is it tenacity? Patience? A recent blurb on the etymology of patience made me look further into the nuance meaning of these words. Am I being patient? Tenacious? Persistent? … Continue reading Practice Patience. Be Persistent.| retirementtransition
Explore the definition of the word "issue," as well as its versatile usage, synonyms, examples, etymology, and more.| US Dictionary
Explore the definition of the word "scandal," as well as its versatile usage, synonyms, examples, etymology, and more.| US Dictionary
Explore the definition of the word "driver," as well as its versatile usage, synonyms, examples, etymology, and more.| US Dictionary
Wandering among Words 12: the 1948 show Normally in this ‘Wandering among Words’ feature I explore a group of words or phrases related through meaning, sense and/or etymology. This time, however, I’m going to resort to a gimmick, by examining words and phrases which first appeared in print seventy-five years ago – in 1948. (Not … Continue reading Gimmickry| Calmgrove
Wandering among Words 11: Bookworm bookworm (n.)1590s, “person devoted to study;” by 1713 in reference to the larvae of certain insects that eat holes in the bindings and paper of old books. etymonline.com We all know the term bookworm, don’t we, and doubtless judge ourselves each to be a representative of that particular genus. Forget … Continue reading Bibliophages, unite!| Calmgrove
2nd-century CE funeral portrait of a Roman Egyptian officer wearing a gold wreath (detail). Faiyum, Egypt. Wandering among Words 10: Pupil What’s the link between a celebrity and a chrysalis,…| Calmgrove
Wandering Among Words No 9: Exclamation! I came across an interesting neologism the other day which, as usual, had me musing — and I thought, again as usual, I would share them with you. Here it is, courtesy of the popular BBC TV panel show QI and its busy QI elves on Twitter: Bangorrhea. Hint: … Continue reading Warning!| Calmgrove
A key part of becoming a skilled reader is understanding how words are built — that is, how small parts of words that carry meaning come together to form words. For example, the word unhappy is made up of two parts: un- and happy, and the word unhappiness includes both of these parts as well as a third part, -ness. These meaningful parts are called morphemes, and each one contributes in a specific way to a word’s meaning.Morphemes are important because knowing how they work helps us un...| rastlelab
“Some people have a way with words,” the comedian Steve Martin used to say, “and other people . . . uh, not have way.” Tom Lehrer very much have way. The American musician, mathematician, and songw…| Strong Language
The following is excerpted and abbreviated from the book Words from Hell: Unearthing the Darkest Secrets of English Etymology. English is a great language for verbal evisceration, a practice predic…| Useless Etymology
The term paparazzi orginated in the Fellini's 1960 film, La Dolce Vita, after the photographer character named Paparazzo. The name was probably rooted in an older Italian term, papariare, meaning to "wander about wasting time," but it remains unclear where exactly Fellini came up with the name. The term was used in the media to refer to photographers in Time article the following year.| Etymology Now
Where do common food names come from, and how does changing the name of a food reflect marketing and sales?| The Scholarly Kitchen
I’ve created a huge tree to show the relationship between 64 living Indo-European languages, and many dead or extinct ones.With this template I’m planning on making a series of images to show how various words in these languages have shared etymologies. This is the first image in that series: words for “name”. If it doesn’t […]| Starkey Comics
This word first described men—especially Northeasterners—with a penchant for fashion, worldliness, and foreign fare. It also boasts a curious connection to “macaronic language.” Hey dud…| Useless Etymology
A 12-year-old girl named Gloria Lockerman is the reason you learned the word “antidisestablishmentarianism” when you were a kid. Remember how you and your friends would toss it around, …| Useless Etymology
cue the trumpets| Etymology Now
The etymology of doom reveals a lot about the complicated relationship that mankind has had with the concepts of law and judgement throughout history. The modern sense of the term has been associated with implications of fear and ruin since the early 1600s. Originally, however, doom is rooted in the Proto-Indo-European dhe-, meaning "to put or set" and has been used for a variety of words associated with "law" throughout linguistic history.| Etymology Now
Following yesterday's etymology of money and its curious relationship to a warning from the gods, I spent a little bit of time before work this morning looking over some other similar words that have related roots. As the second part of what might be a series of posts on this dysfunctional family of divinely rooted words, the etymology of monster gives us a good picture of what we might be getting into here. The final Latin root for monster is monstrum, meaning "an omen, supernatural being o...| Etymology Now
Given the complicated relationship that most people have with money and the dramatic influence that money has over so many aspects of human life, it is hard to dismiss the synchronicity of the original meaning of the Latin root: warning.| Etymology Now
During the latter half of the 20th century, a brand's slogan was considered to be the hallmark of a successful advertising campaign. The modern sense of the word appeared in the early 20th century when commercial industries began manufacturing desire in consumers for products that they initially neither wanted nor needed. Prior to the dawn of modern advertising, a slogan was used to denote any type of catchphrase that an organization, political party or powerful family might adopt during the ...| Etymology Now
Galoshes. The name for those cheerful rubber boots that children have enjoyed wearing while jumping in fresh rain puddles for generations has a surprisingly ethnic origin that can be traced back to prehistoric Germanic.| Etymology Now
While most English speakers are familiar with the term hokey pokey as the popular children’s song and dance that first appeared during the middle of the 20th century. However, hokey pokey has been present in our lexicon for well over a century as the name of cheap type of fake ice cream. Hokey pokey itself the anglicized version of the mock Latin hocus-pocus that was used by stage performers like jugglers and magicians for some centuries.| Etymology Now
Etymology of Calendar| Etymology Now
The term "spunk" originated in the early 1600's in the British Isles meaning "a spark," having been adopted from the Gaelic spong for "tinder," which in turn comes from the Latin spongia. The Latin appears to be derived from how closely the popular kindling touchwood resembles natural sponges. "Spunk" became a colloquial term for courage and pluck in the late 18th century, assumably with the sense that the person showed some spark of life. The vulgar use of the term appeared about a century a...| Etymology Now
According to William and Mary Morris's 1967 Dictionary of Word and Phrases, the decidedly dorky colloquilism "hunky-dory" is probably rooted in the slang used at a Dutch settlement in New Amsterdam where hunk was close to the Dutch word honk, meaning goal.| Etymology Now
This is really cool. I never thought we’d get an answer to this one. My friend Rich Fisher at the Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Society posted a video on the old chestnut that “the whole nine yards” refers to the length of machine gun belts. As he shows for the Vickers and I’ve … Continue reading An Answer for “The Whole Nine Yards”→| The BS Historian
bizarrolord: socialjusticefail: eclecticcreative: socialjusticefail: eclecticcreative: So the conservative base has put it out there that a Social Justice Warrior is a hugely bad thing. But in history they are the people I love the most–sure they weren’t always perfect, but they are still the people who moved and shook the world to the core. Martin Luther King Junior Gandhi Sojourner Truth Nellie Bly MeToo Activists Yuji Ichioka Florence Nightingale Don’t you admire those who rose up ag...| Eclectic Creative
I've noticed some interesting parallels between Bigfoot research and vampire categorisation (a subject I've been discussing here and here). Time to wade back into that semantic quagmire.| Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist
I recently received an interesting comment from bshistorian, which gave me some food for thought: who was the first 'true' vampire?| Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist
"When a lady complained to Whistler that she did not see the world he painted, he is said to have replied: 'No, ma'am, but don't you wish you could?'"Owen Barfield, Saving the Appearances| Save The Phenomena
