Today's word is sour grapes, from the Aesop’s fable The Fox and the Grapes, in which a hungry fox tries to reach grapes hanging on a high vine and when unsuccessful, declares that the grapes are probably sour. Earliest documented use: 1760.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/sour_grapes.html

  

Within one linear centimeter of your lower colon there lives and works more bacteria (about 100 billion) than all humans who have ever been born. Yet many people continue to assert that it is we who are in charge of the world.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and author (b. 5 Oct 1958)

A dog has no more to do with someone dogmatic than a cat has to do with someone who acts as a catalyst.

 

A caterpillar has connections to both a cat *and* a dog. The English caterpillar is, literally speaking, a hairy cat. French for a caterpillar, chenille,* on the other paw, is from chien (dog).

 

That's language for you. Appearances can be deceiving. Try not to apply logic to human languages. Gives me a headache, when I think about them.

 

Now computer languages, those are easy.

 

Well, it's raining cats and dogs this week (do not step into a poodle). All of the words have something to do with animals, of the canine and feline persuasions. Sometimes it's obvious, other times not so much -- you may have to pay more attention to the etymology.

 

*It's the same chenille that is borrowed into English for the woolly fabric. In French, it describes both the fabric and the caterpillar.

 

Today's word is cynegetic, from Greek kunagos (hunter), from kuon (dog) + igetis (leader). Earliest documented use: 1716.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/cynegetic.html

Passengers boarding an airplane from inside of the main cabin

 

Update: Featured photo in this blog post about what would make airlines better according to flyers on social media www.budgettravel.com/blog/7-things-airlines-should-do-bet...

 

And in another BudgetTravel post about a new airline passenger payment model www.budgettravel.com/blog/should-airlines-charge-passenge...

 

Featured photo in this post about how to get better seat on an airline flight www.moneytalksnews.com/2013/08/14/how-to-get-the-best-air...

 

Used in this blog post about why airplane seat are so small northjerseysmallbusinessforum.org/2013/12/23/are-these-se...

 

Featured photo in this post about FAA changes to rules about using electronic devices in flight www.thelawinlife.com/?p=176

 

As seen in this Smithsonian blog post about how passengers subconsciously prefer to sit on the left side of the aisle www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/on-airplanes-people-ten...

 

Used in this blog post about the dirty secrets of airplanes budgettravel.com/feature/airlines-dirtiest-secrets,33050/ which was republished in the Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.com/budget-travel/airlines-dirtiest-se...

 

As seen in this blog post about business networking while traveling blog.refresh.io/post/93225166436/turn-travel-time-into-a-...

 

Used in this blog post about an in-flight networking app called wingman 640x480.com/?p=447

 

Featured in another blog post about Airline's dirty secrets www.budgettravel.com/feature/airlines-dirtiest-secrets,33...

 

As seen in this blog post about how to avoid getting sick on flights travel.iafrica.com/departurelounge/967961.html

 

Used in this blog post about aggressive seat-swapping passengers roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/04/13/how-to-handle-an-aggress...

 

As seen in this Australian news story about how airline are packing seats in closer in economy class www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/the-safety-risk-of-s...

 

Used in this CBS News story about airline customer ratings www.local12.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/The-air...

 

As seen in this story about EU privacy standards and sharing passenger info in Denmark www.thelocal.dk/20150519/denmark-plans-to-leapfrog-eu-on-...

 

Featured photo in this Mashable news story about how airline seats are getting slimmer, and the challenges posed by packing more passengers on existing airplanes mashable.com/2015/04/14/slim-seats-airplane/

 

Used in this Korean blog post about picking the perfect airplane seat ssrla.tistory.com/7

 

As seen in this blog post about securing your home by not mentioning your travel plans over social media (and thereby inviting intruders) www.bargainmoose.ca/5-frugal-ways-to-secure-your-home-fro...

 

Featured photo in this blog post about hidden fees by airlines for cancelations or rebooking tickets www.forbes.com/sites/annabahney/2015/06/30/the-hidden-fee...

 

Used in this blog post about a passenger who got fined after an altercation on their flight travel.iafrica.com/bulletinboard/998765.html

 

As seen in this listicle of pet peeves while flying www.charter-a.com/top-10-public-plane-journey-pet-peeves

 

Featured photo in this blog post about the cleanest airlines www.budgettravel.com/blog/budget-travel-tips-the-worlds-c...

 

Used in this chinese blog post meditating on the nature of luck lrandcom.com/luck

 

As seen in this Forbes blog post about how passengers are willing to pay fees for extra priveledges, such as baggage tracking and getting off the plane first www.forbes.com/sites/kateashford/2015/07/30/air-fees/

 

Used in this blog post testing which areas of an airplane carry the most germs www.techtimes.com/articles/82905/20150908/scientists-reve...

 

Featured photo in this USA Today post about whether obese passengers should pay more for airplane seating roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/09/10/poll-shows-people-want-o...

 

Used in this editorial about banning reclining seats in the coach class www.palisadeshudson.com/2015/09/banning-reclining-seats-i...

 

As seen in this op-ed about why it's time to applying on-demand economics a la Uber to air travel www.moneytalksnews.com/why-its-time-uber-ize-air-travel/

 

Used in this listicle of flying etiquette www.cheapflights.com/news/top-9-rules-of-airtiquette/.

 

Included in this HuffPost article about how to be a smarter airplane passenger, as an example of respecting personal space for your fellow travelers www.huffingtonpost.com/cheapflights/top-9-rules-of-airtiq...

 

As seen in this listicle about secrets of airplane travel la20s.com/10-travel-secrets-that-you-should-know-before-y...

 

Featured in this graduate students blog about how to travel for an academic convention www.gradpsychblog.org/a-comprehensive-list-of-student-tra...

 

Used in this humorous listicle about how to prepare for an uncomfortable flight www.cheapflights.com/news/most-uncomfortable-flight-ever/

 

As seen in this blog post about travel award nominees blogs.plos.org/thestudentblog/2016/07/08/ecrawards1/

 

Featured in this California Public Radio post about Memorial Day travel plans www.capradio.org/74485

 

Used in this clickbait slideshow about toilet humor true stories, as an example of someone who ran for the airplane bathroom shortly after seating on their flight www.suggest.com/lifestyle/1534822/bathroom-emergency-stor...

 

As seen in this Lifehacker post about how airlines pack in more seats on modern planes twocents.lifehacker.com/cheap-airline-tickets-aren-t-as-g...

 

TravelPulse featured this photo in their article about changes i American Airlines' boarding policy www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/did-american-just-make-...

 

Used in this story about a passenger who wasn't allowed to bring their kid on a their flight www.littlethings.com/plane-ticket-guardian-angel/

 

As seen in this health article about why some passengers experience inner-ear pain when flying ic.steadyhealth.com/flying-and-ear-problems

 

Included in this list comparing air travel with RVs www.doityourselfrv.com/rv-beats-air-travel/

 

Used in this Chinese blog post about why it's so cold in airplane cabins technews.tw/2017/07/09/heres-the-real-reason-why-its-so-c...

 

Included in this listicle about aisle seat hacks www.naukad.com/10-secretos-debes-conocer-coger-proximo-av...

 

As seen in Business Insider's post about why you get sick on airplanes www.businessinsider.com/why-airplanes-make-you-sick-2017-10/ and their syndicated post on Yahoo News www.yahoo.com/news/why-sick-flight-164939860.html

 

Used in this story about the "Mile High club" intriper.com/todos-los-consejos-necesitas-saber-sexo-avio...

 

As seen in this article about sexual assault on airline flights newyorkminutemag.com/victims-of-in-flight-sexual-assault-...

 

Featured in this blog post about how to make airplane seating more efficient www.anoj.net/consumeronomics/how-do-we-make-airport-board...

 

Used in this listicle about the most germ infested places in airplanes www.onlyinyourstate.com/travel-tips/germiest-places-on-an...

 

As seen in this Australian blog post about flying pet peeves www.3ba.com.au/shows/alex-withers/latest-from-alex/76930-...

 

Used in this article about sexual assaults on airlines newyorkminutemag.com/victims-of-in-flight-sexual-assault-...

 

As seen in this blog post about the effects of flying on your health www.bitoeverything.com/is-flying-good-for-your-health-sho...

 

Included in this listicle of travel hacks news.shareably.net/60-airport-travel-hacks/

 

Featured in this FlyerTalk article about a flight grounded after a crew member was charged with a crime www.flyertalk.com/articles/american-airlines-pilot-linked...

 

As seen in this Fodor's Travel article about the best spots to sit of the airplane www.fodors.com/news/travel-tips/the-best-seats-on-the-pla...

 

DYK fact #7 in this blog post about the best plane seat for motion sickness? didyouknowfacts.com/10-facts-about-airplanes-that-may-soo...

 

Used in this Korean blog post about why travelers use Uber travelpost.kr/2016/01/05/uber-travel/

 

As seen in this Taiwanese article about picking window vs aisle seats technews.tw/2019/09/14/is-the-aisle-seat-better-than-the-...

 

Featured in this blog post about the most efficient ways to board an airplane yourmileagemayvary.net/2020/02/14/astrophysicists-may-hav...

 

Should You Cancel Your Flight Because of COVID-19?https://www.esquiremag.ph/life/health-and-fitness/travel-covid-19-coronavirus-a2099-20200303-lfrm

 

Used in this article about traveling to Mexico www.mexicanist.com/l/what-to-know-before-you-travel-to-me...

 

As seen in this blog post about what airlines are doing to fix "bumping" from flights globaledge.msu.edu/blog/post/55701/what-is--bumping--and-...

 

Used in this list of Engineering jokes donpettygrove.blogspot.com/2021/03/25-best-engineering-jo...

 

Included in this blog post about things flight attendants look for when passengers board 12tomatoes.com/flight-attendants-greeting/

and why you shouldn't change seats 12tomatoes.com/reason-not-to-change-seats-airplane/

and what the most efficient way to board a plane would be 12tomatoes.com/best-way-to-board-airplane/

 

Used in this list about common travel mistakes www.simplemost.com/travel-myths-debunked/

 

As seen in this blog post about airplane etiquette takeoffwithme.com/airplane-etiquette/

 

Featured in this Business Insider blog post about airplane boarding methods featured on Mythbusters www.businessinsider.com/mythbusters-airlines-boarding-pla...

 

As seen in this Business Insider listicle about how to fly like a gentleman www.businessinsider.com/7-rules-for-flying-like-a-modern-... and this blog post about how to meet influential people while flying www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-air-travel-to-meet-inf...

 

Today's word is timbrology. Learn more and see the rest of this week's words at: wordsmith.org/words/timbrology.html

Today's word is raven messenger. In the Bible, Noah sends a raven to go scout the scene, but the bird never returns to the ark. Earliest documented use: 1400. Also known as a corbie messenger.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/raven_messenger.html

 

Today's word is bombinate, from Latin bombinare, from bombilare (to hum, buzz), from Latin bombus (humming), from Greek bombos (booming, humming). Earliest documented use: 1880. A perfect synonym is bombilate.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/bombinate.html

 

This purple vegetable has names. In American English it goes as an eggplant, in South African and South Asian Englishes as a brinjal, in British English as an aubergine, and in the language of emojis, well, we’ll talk about that some other time.

 

In all the names for this bulbous vegetable, there is one that truly sticks out. Many words have traveled, but when it comes to linguistic miles covered, it would be hard to beat the aubergine. It rises above all.

 

The aubergine spread its seed far and wide before reaching the English language. It came to English from Sanskrit via Persian, Arabic, Catalan, and French. That’s some serious wanderlust.

 

This week we’ll look at some other words that have earned the well-traveled designation, words that have bounced around before planting their flag in the English language.

 

On a different note, this Saturday I drove all the way to Lumen Field, a football stadium here in Seattle, and it turned out no game was taking place. So disappointing! Not!

 

Some 8,000 people were getting vaccinated that day. I too had an appointment. Got my first Pfizer shot. Here's to science! And to adults being in charge of running the country again!

 

Today's word is zen, after Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism. From Japanese zen (meditation), from Chinese chan (meditation), from Pali jhanam (jhanam), from Sanskrit dhyana (meditation). Earliest documented use: 1727. Also see satori.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/zen.html

 

This week's final word is vaccinate, which comes from Latin vacca (cow), because in the beginning the cowpox virus was used against smallpox. Earliest documented use: 1803.

 

Don’t vacillate when it’s time to vaccinate. But until a COVID-19 vaccine appears, the next best thing is to wear a mask. Some are resistant to the idea, so we see billboards with encouraging messages: “Real Heros Wear Masks”

 

No, wearing a mask does not make you a hero. Neither is having to wear a mask some sort of tyranny any more than having to wear a seat belt is. But if you need a medal, we can nominate you for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. They are going cheap these days.*

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/vaccinate.html

 

* www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-giving-rush-limbaugh-...

Today's word is yahoo. For noun: After Yahoos, a race of brutish creatures in Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". Earliest documented use: 1751. For interjection: Apparently of echoic origin. Earliest documented use: 1976.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/yahoo.html

 

Today's word is Yarborough, after Charles Anderson Worsley, 2nd Earl of Yarborough (1809-1897), who is said to have bet 1000 to 1 against the occurrence of such a hand. The actual odds are 1827 to 1. Earliest documented use: 1900.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/yarborough.html

Today's word is votive, from Latin votum (vow), from vovere (to vow), which also gave us vow, vote, and devote. Earliest documented use: 1582.

 

If you have ever tossed a coin into a wishing well, you have made a votive offering: giving a coin to the wishing well god(s) in the hope they fulfill your wish. More often, a votive offering takes the form of lighting a candle in a church. These offerings could be made in fulfillment of a vow or in devotion. In an extended sense, the word votive is also used as a noun to refer to those candles.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/votive.html

Magawa the rat is retiring from his job detecting landmines. In his long and distinguished career, this gold-medalist creature has sniffed out dozens of landmines and other explosives in Cambodia. (www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57345703)

 

Magawa is special, but even ordinary rodents are smarter than some humans. They have inspired poems. Robert Burns’s “To a Mouse” tells us: “The best-laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry.”

 

They do. And best-laid landmines kill and maim decades after they have been planted. I propose a journalistic standard that whenever someone writes an article about landmines somewhere, they should also mention who put them there in the first place.

 

Also, I propose that after a person steps on a landmine, if they survive, when they hobble out of the hospital on crutches, a representative of the armament factory meets them at the hospital gate and presents them with a certificate of authenticity. It’s the least they can do.

 

On the other hand, why worry about all this? Phnom is probably the wrong religion and going to hell anyway. And if she didn’t want her legs blown off, why did she choose to be born in the wrong country? Why did she pick the wrong skin color? And, above all, why did she go out to play in the open instead of staying in the nicely fenced and manicured backyard in her home?

 

Fortunately, treaties are in place banning landmines, but some countries have not signed on. No, we haven’t maimed and killed enough people yet. H. sapiens,* literally “wise man”. Wise indeed! Can we rename ourselves to something else? What happened to the truth-in-advertising laws? I propose H. nesciens or H. malevolens.

 

Enough about humans and their despicable actions. Sometimes it takes a rat like Magawa to clean up after humans. This week we’ll feature five words derived from rats and mice.

 

*We are so wise that if I spell out the H in H. sapiens this email would be blocked by email filters at many schools and corporations as containing a slur. Because smart computers! High-tech! AI! If these email nannies were any smarter, they would filter out “landmines”.

 

Today's word is myology, from myo-/my- (muscle), from Greek mys (mouse, muscle). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mus- (mouse, muscle), which also gave us mussel (a respelling of muscle), mustelid (any member of the weasel family), and mysticete (baleen whale), from Greek ho mus to ketos (literally: the mouse, the whale so called). Earliest documented use: c. 1649.

 

NOTES:

What does a muscle have to do with a mouse? Some thought a flexing muscle (especially of the upper arm) resembled the movement of a mouse. Note that myopia has nothing to do with mice. Rather it’s from Greek myein (to shut) + ops (eye), referring to the squinting of a myopic person. That said, people have used the term myopia as if relating to the mouse and used the term mouse-sight as a synonym for myopia.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/myology.html

James Nicoll, a book reviewer, once said:

 

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

 

Or as Mary Trump would say: Too Much and Never Enough.

 

Given its colorful history, it's no wonder the English language boasts one of the largest vocabulary of any language.* Who knows, perhaps "Forbes" magazine is working on an annual list of Richest Languages in the World.

 

English has acquired its vocabulary from far and wide. One might say that some words were forced into English's pockets when England was ruled by the Vikings and Normans and it acquired others when it itself went plundering around the world.

 

This week we'll take a tour of its golden mansion and see artifacts acquired (or "borrowed", in linguistics) from languages around the world.

 

*Counting number of words in a language is not an exact science. For starters, what counts as a word? The question is not as simple as it sounds. Run (verb) and run (noun) : two separate words or one? Singular and plural forms? Runs, ran, running? And so on.

 

Today's word is cushy, from Hindi/Urdu khushi (pleasure, happiness), from Persian khushi. The second sense probably influenced by the word cushion. Earliest documented use: 1887.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/cushy.html

Today's word is Cinderella, named for Cinderella, the fairy-tale character who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters. With a little help from a fairy godmother, she attends a royal ball thrown by a prince. Ultimately, she marries the prince and lives happily ever after. What’s behind the name Cinderella? It’s a pseudo-translation of the French name of the girl, Cendrillon, from cendre (cinder), perhaps an allusion to her day-to-day existence, tending to the fireplace and hearth, and as a result she has cinders all over her. It may also be a hint to the hidden spark in her otherwise dismal life. Earliest documented use: 1840.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/cinderella.html

Do you believe there’s something to nominative determinism? It’s a fancy term for the idea that our names determine our destiny. Perhaps the lexicographer Noah Webster’s (16 Oct 1758-1843) name did determine his destination.

 

A webster is, literally, a weaver. And what is compiling a dictionary but assembling it one thread/word at a time? Also, if you go by his first name, he did herd words in one place, in the style of Biblical Noah:

 

Noah Webster,

Word herder.

Herded words from A to Z*

Into An American Dictionary.

 

He’s best known for his An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), but he published all sorts of stuff, including textbooks, his own version of the Bible (Common Version), newspaper articles, and more.

 

Besides writing, he served as a legislator in two states (Connecticut and Massachusetts), started an anti-slavery group (Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery), co-founded a college (Amherst College), founded a newspaper (American Minerva, New York’s first daily), and served as a teacher, lawyer, soldier, and more.

 

And you thought you didn’t have time?!

 

This week marks Webster’s 262nd birthday and in his honor we’ll feature words about words and language.

 

*Yes, Z rhymes with dictionary around here. If that puppy answers to zed in your part of the world, you get to write your own verse! Zee or zed, let inspiration flow! Share your Webster tributes (in verse) below or email us at words@wordsmith.org.

(The one I wrote is a clerihew, but you can choose any format for your verse.)

 

Today's word is endonym, from Greek endo- (inside, within) + -onym (word, name). Some related words are endogenous and endogamy.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/endonym.html

The final word in this week's theme of "Words derived from body parts" is hysteric. Via Latin from Greek hystera (uterus), from the former belief that disturbances in the uterus resulted in such behavior. Earliest documented use: 1652.

 

Learn more, and see the rest of this week's words, at: wordsmith.org/words/hysteric.html

Today's word is mundificative, from Middle French mondificatif, from Latin mundificare (to cleanse), from mundus (clean). Earliest documented use: 1440.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/mundificative.html

  

They have been around for thousands of years. They are called fairy tales, even though most don’t have any fairies. Nor do they have anything to do with fairs. The term comes to us from French conte de fées (fairy tales). French fairy tales apparently did include fairies.

 

A better term might be folk tales that include talking animals with a sprinkling of magic and enchantment. We have the term “fairy-tale ending” which implies a happily-ever-after, but what we have these days is really a sanitized version of the stories. Originally, fairy tales rarely had a fairy-tale ending, a reflection of hard life in those days.

 

After years of telling and retelling, these stories have left a mark on the language. Many of the characters have stepped out from the pages of the books and walked into the language. This week we’ll meet five terms coined after fairy-tale characters.

 

As you might've guessed, today's word comes from Goldilocks, the golden-haired girl in the fairy tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. In the story, she visits a bear house and chooses Baby Bear’s chair, bed, and porridge because they are just right. Papa Bear’s porridge is too hot, Mama Bear’s too cold, for example. Earliest documented use: 1949. The story was first published in 1837. The earliest documented use in the literal sense of the word is from 400 years earlier.

 

Did you know? The word is often seen in astronomy, as the Goldilocks zone, meaning an area that’s at just the right distance from a star for a planet there to support life.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/goldilocks.html

Today's word is Halifax, after Halifax, a town in West Yorkshire, England. Earliest documented use: 1630.

 

NOTES:

Halifax, a town in England, today may be known for toffee, but at one time it had a reputation for harsh punishment. Even petty crime meant being sent to the gibbet (an early form of guillotine). The poet John Taylor wrote a poem “Beggar’s Litany” (1622) that includes the line: “From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord, deliver us!”

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/halifax.html

Today's word is quaestuary. In Ancient Rome, a quaestor was an official dealing with financial matters. Later it was the term for a prosecutor. In the Roman Catholic Church, a quaestor was the official removing sins in exchange for money (aka granting indulgences). In modern times, in the European Parliament, quaestors are officials elected to oversee financial matters.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/quaestuary.html

 

I have been diving in the dictionary for decades, but this ocean of words is so immense I get pleasantly surprised from time to time. A few weeks ago someone shared the word misericord. I was able to get a faint idea of what it might mean, but I was not prepared for all of its facets.

 

You mean there’s a word in the English language for a place that may be, basically, a monks’ frat house? This word also means a dagger. And you can also use it for a hinged seat. Yes, yes, and yes. There’s such a word, and there is an unexpected common theme in all these senses of the word, as you’ll see below.

 

A language is a reflection of its speakers. It expands to fill a need. If they need a word for a bachelor pad to chill out, away from the prying eyes of the abbot, who is the language to get in the way? Do your thing, it says, I’m here to make you happy. Feel free to twist me, make me play another role, whatever. No morality police here.

 

This week we’ll share with you five words that may make you say: I didn’t know there was a word for it. Use them any way you like. A language is an ABC (abbacy?) with no humorless enforcers taking all the joy out of it.

 

Today's word is misericord, from Old French misericorde, from Latin misericordia (pity or mercy), from misereri (to pity) + cor (heart). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kerd- (heart), which also gave us cardiac, cordial, courage, concord, cordate, accord, discord, record, and recreant. Earliest documented use: 1230.

 

NOTES:

If you were to summarize misericord in plain words, it would be a mercy, a mercy seat, a mercy room, and a mercy weapon. A misericord was built under a church seat for worshipers to support their bottoms when standing (a small projection from the underside of a hinged seat that can be used for support when the seat is turned up). Since a misericord under a seat was usually out of sight, it was an inviting proposition for the woodcarver to depict something naughty, subversive, or forbidden. [See examples on our website]. The fact that a misericord supported the undersides of a person during long homilies probably inspired many a scene of mooning.

 

A misericord in a monastery, on the other hand, was not just a seat, but a whole room or an apartment where rules were relaxed. One could eat what was forbidden in the regular refectory. Another word for a refectory is frater and the misericord was called flesh-frater. So it was a frat house, in a manner of speaking. A flesh-frater? See the usage example below.

 

Finally, misericord as a mercy weapon delivered the death stroke (also known as the mercy stroke or coup de grâce) to hasten the death of a mortally wounded person.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/misericord.html

We have tragicomedy (tragedy + comedy), comitragedy (comedy + tragedy), and dramedy (drama + comedy). The latest genre blend that appeared on my radar is crimedy, perhaps a blend of (crime + comedy) or (crime + tragedy), though with Steve Martin, my guess is it’s the first one:

 

“’Only Murders in the Building,’ a new Crimedy series with Selena Gomez, Martin Short and me, starts on Hulu August 31st.” Permalink

 

These are examples of blend words, coined by fusing two or more words. Such a word is also known as a portmanteau.

 

There’s still a lot of genre-mining to be done. What new genre blends can you come up with? Pick two or more from this list of genres and come up with your own blockbuster motion picture. Post your new genres below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Also include an explanation of that brand-new genre. Hollywood agents, please contact our readers directly.

 

Meanwhile, this week we’ll feature some words that appeared to be coined by fusing two words together.

 

Today's word is grum, probably a blend of grim + glum. Earliest documented use: 1640.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/grum.html

Today's word is Red Queen hypothesis, which was proposed by biologist Leigh Van Valen (1935-2010).

 

In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass" the Red Queen tells Alice: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen used that as a metaphor to describe how competing species must keep up with one another. For example, in a predator and prey relationship, if the prey evolves to run faster, the predator must keep up or go extinct.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/red_queen_hypothesis.html

Today's word is gremlin. Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from an alteration of the word goblin or from Irish gruaimin (a gloomy person). Earliest documented use: 1929.

 

Originally, the word gremlin was Royal Air Force slang for a low-level employee. From there it evolved to refer to a mythical creature responsible for problems in aircraft. The word was popularized by the novelist Roald Dahl, a former fighter pilot with the RAF, when he published his children’s book The Gremlins in 1943. It’s not certain how the term was coined.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/gremlin.html

Today's word is Scheherazade, named after Scheherezade, the wife of a king in One Thousand and One Nights.

 

In One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories from the Middle East, the king Shahryar discovers his wife being unfaithful. He learns that his brother’s wife is unfaithful as well. He kills his wife and decides to take revenge on all women by marrying a virgin every day and executing them the next morning so they never get an opportunity to cheat.

 

One day it’s the turn of Scheherezade, the vizier’s daughter, to be the bride. She asks the king if she could say farewell to her sister Dunyazad first. The king agrees and the sister, who has been prepared in advance, asks Scheherezade to tell a story. The story is engrossing and the king is awake listening. Scheherezade stops the story just before dawn saying there’s no time left to finish. The king spares her life to find out what happened. The next night she finishes the story and starts another, even more captivating story. And so it goes for 1001 nights and by that time the king has fallen in love with her beauty and intelligence and makes her the queen.

 

Sheherazade is the patron saint of television script writers, who decide just where to put commercial breaks in a TV show.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/scheherazade.html

 

Today's word is Typhoid Mary, named after Mary Mallon (1869-1938), a cook in New York, who was a healthy carrier (contagious but showing no symptoms: asymptomatic) of typhoid. She died of pneumonia. Earliest documented use: 1909.

 

One Typhoid Mary is enough in the history of humankind. Don’t let yourself be the new Typhoid Mary. Wear your mask when out and about.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/typhoid_mary.html

Today's word is tuffet, diminutive of tuft, from French touffe (tuft). Earliest documented use: 1553

 

The nursery rhyme goes:

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet ...

 

What was that tuffet? Nobody knows. Apparently, it was a mound, but it has been variously interpreted as a cushion, a stool, etc., and accordingly developed those senses in the English language.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/tuffet.html

 

Today's word comes from the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Ugly Duckling", in which a young bird believes himself to be a duck and is unhappy because he doesn't look like a duck, only to later learn that (spoiler alert) he is a beautiful swan. Earliest documented use: 1877.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/ugly_duckling.html

Each word has a story. It tells us where it has been and how it reached us. From Latin, Greek, whatever. But not every word has a story story.

 

By that I mean a word that comes with a whole mythology or a novel behind it. This is a word with a backstory, because it’s coined after a person. We call such words eponyms, from Greek epi- (upon) + -onym (name).

 

This week we’ll introduce you to five eponyms. These are coined after characters from real life and fiction. They have been in the language for hundreds of years or just a couple of decades. They are words coined after people on both sides of the Atlantic. They are all part of the language now. Say hello to them.

 

If you were to turn into an eponym and become a part of the language, what would your dictionary entry read? Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. As always, include your location (city, state).

 

Today's #WordOfTheDay is brewstered. After Montgomery Brewster, the title character of the 1902 novel Brewster’s Millions by George Barr McCutcheon. Earliest documented use: 2001.

 

NOTES:

In the novel Brewster’s Millions, Montgomery Brewster inherits $1 million when his grandfather dies. An uncle who hated this grandfather promises Brewster $7 million if he could spend that one million from the grandfather within a year. There are certain conditions, of course. He can’t just give the money away, he must get something of value in return, etc. The novel has been adapted into musicals, radio plays, and dozens of movies in many languages.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/brewstered.html

 

#AWAD #Money #Brewster #Cash #English #Language #LanguageLearning #Educational #Education #Literature #DidYouKnow #DidYouKnowFacts

Rock-a-bye, baby, on a treetop ... Twinkle, twinkle, little star ... A mother's soothing voice singing a lullaby or a nursery rhyme to her child. What could be a more blissful sight than that! Reminds us of nursery rhymes we heard as babies that since then have become a part of us.

 

While the nursery rhymes appear innocuous, on second thought, they can be gruesome*, can be taken as a metaphor or riddle**, interpretation of political events, and more.

Today we see them in memes***, parodies****, science*****, and they are such a part of us that characters and things from theserhymes have become a part of the language.

 

This week we'll see five words and phrases that have their origins in nursery rhymes.

 

Today's word is Humpty Dumpty, after Humpty Dumpty, a character in a nursery rhyme, who is irreparably broken after a fall. He’s typically shown as an anthropomorphic egg. Earliest documented use: 1785.

 

The most common version of the nursery rhyme goes:

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.All the king’s horsesAnd all the king’s menCouldn’t put Humpty together again.

 

Did you know who pushed Humpty Dumpty? The mystery is finally solved. See the investigative book "Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries" amazon.com/dp/0375841954/ws00-20

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/humpty_dumpty.html

 

* me.me/i/so-these-three-little-mice-are-blind-and-the-farm... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty#Meaning *** me.me/i/trumpty-dumpty-ca-nursery-rhyme-update-trumpty-du... poetryarchive.org/poem/jack-and-jill/***** en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty#In_science

Today's word is hypogeusia, from Greek hypo- (under) + -geusia (taste). Earliest documented use: 1888.

 

NOTES: A complete lack of taste is ageusia (feel free to use the word metaphorically). And an extremely keen sense of taste is oxygeusia, from Greek oxy- (keen or sharp). How does the word oxygen fit in here? In 1778, Lavoisier named the newly discovered gas oxygen (literally, sharp giving) because he mistakenly believed that it was part of all acids. He was guillotined, not for misnaming of the gas we now know as oxygen, but for the charge of adulterating France's tobacco with water. He was exonerated posthumously.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/hypogeusia.html

 

Today's word is razz, from the shortening and alteration of raspberry, from the rhyming slang raspberry tart ⇨ fart. Earliest documented use: 1917.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/razz.html

  

The English language is overstaffed with words. There’s freedom. And if that doesn’t make you happy, you are welcome to take liberty. You could buy stuff or you could purchase it. Fill your belly or your stomach. That’s because the English language went around shanghaiing words from distant shores. Sometimes other languages came over and gave it words. Example: It received a generous infusion of words from French when William of Normandy conquered England in 1066.

 

So what to do with all those words? Over time even synonymous words develop shades of meanings. For example, the words beautiful and pretty are close, but not perfect equivalents.

 

That said, there are a few words in the language that have perfect synonyms. This week we’ll look at five of them.

 

Today's word is polyhistor, from Latin polyhistor, from Greek polyistor (very learned), from poly- (much, many) + histor (learned). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which is also the source of words such as guide, wise, vision, advice, idea, story and history. Earliest documented use: 1588. A perfect synonym of this word is polymath.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/polyhistor.html

Ever metaphor? You do meet them every day, whenever you speak, read, or write. A language is a giant shoebox of metaphors. This box has lead balloons, loose cannons, dirty linen, and more. Help yourself to whatever you like. Yes, you can even cherry-pick.

 

Some language metaphors are obvious, but many others aren’t. Did you know that a muscle is, literally speaking, a little mouse? That’s because someone thought the movement of a muscle, such as the biceps, resembled a mouse scurrying around.

 

This week we’ll feature words that are often used metaphorically.

 

MIXED METAPHOR CONTEST:

Usually, I’d not recommend mixing metaphors, but with a special arrangement with the language directorate we have secured a literary license to share with you. Go ahead, mix things up! It’s valid for a limited time only, so go nuts!

 

What mixed metaphors can you come up with using one or more words featured this week? The mixier the better!

 

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Share them below or email us at words@wordsmith.org.

2. Include your location (city, state).

3. Send them by Fri.

Original entries only, not something you read elsewhere.

 

PRIZES:

Selected entries will receive a signed copy of any of my books or a copy of the game Word Up!

 

To get you started, here’s a mixed metaphor I came up with:

“You used papier-mache to create this village?” Prince Grigory chewed out his underlings. “Why not something sturdier like cardboard?”

 

Let a thousand mixed metaphors breed and spread the light!

 

Today's word is papier-mache, from French paper-mâché (chewed paper). Earliest documented use: 1753.

 

Learn more about today's word at: wordsmith.org/words/papier-mache.html

If you have never enjoyed the pleasure of wikiholing, here are a few starting points:

List of common misconceptions en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions

List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

List of paradoxes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes

 

(Disclaimer: We are not responsible for the time lost or knowledge gained.) 😄

 

Stay up to date with A Word A Day and join our mailing list at: wordsmith.org/awad/index.html

 

Today's word is pigeonhole, from pigeon, from Old French pijon (a young bird), from Latin pipio, from pipere/pipare (to chirp) + Old English hol. Earliest documented use: 1577.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/pigeonhole.html

Today's word is Devonshire, from Devonshire, a county in SW England. It’s not clear how the place came to be associated with the clearing of land. Earliest documented use: early 1700s.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/devonshire.html

  

Today's word is Janus-faced, after Janus, the Roman god of doors, gates, and transitions. Earliest documented use: 1682. The month of January is named after Janus.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/janus-faced.html

Today's word is hoover, after the industrialist William Henry Hoover (1849-1932). Earliest documented use: 1934.

 

NOTES:

Have you suction-swept your place this week? What? Before there was Hoover, there was the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. It was founded by a janitor/inventor, James Murray Spangler, in Ohio. His was not the first vacuum, but it was the first practical one. He showed it to his cousin, Susan Hoover, who told her husband and son about it, and they bought into the business.

 

The company started a subsidiary in the UK and the US company was eventually sold to others. As a result, the word hoover as a synonym for a vacuum is common mostly in the UK. If you thought there should be a hovering hoover, you are not alone. In the 1950s the company made a vacuum named Hoover Constellation that kinda hovered.

 

If you have already started thinking about what to give to women in your life this holiday season, consider this Hoover ad from 1940. It suggests men give their mothers, wives, and daughters a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. “You can show that devotion by giving each of them the same gift ... a Hoover Cleaner.” Good old times! Showing appreciation for three generations of women in the family with a thoughtful, practical gift! Of course, Hoover was not the only one. The ad was a product of its time. Check out this Sears vacuum cleaner ad.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/hoover.html

Today's word is Grand Guignol, from Le Grand Guignol (literally, The Great Puppet), a theater in Paris that specialized in such entertainment. Earliest documented use: 1905.

 

Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol started in 1897 in a former chapel in Paris. Its specialty was gruesome and gore. A typical evening featured a series of short plays. It’s said that the theater measured the success of a play by how many in the audience fainted. As a marketing gimmick, the theater management hired doctors to be in attendance. The theater closed its doors in 1962. Charles Nonon, its director at the time, said: “We could never compete with Buchenwald. Before the war, everyone believed that what happened on stage was purely imaginary; now we know that these things -- and worse -- are possible.”

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/grand_guignol.html

Today's word is echoism, from Latin echo, from Greek ekho, from ekhe (sound). Earliest documented use: 1880. Another word for echoism is onomatopoeia. Here are some words coined by this process.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/echoism.html

This week's final A Word A Day is a term you might already be familiar with: seat-of-the-pants. The term has its origin in aviation (hence the phrase "flying by the seat of one's pants".

 

Before modern instruments, a pilot flew a plane based on how it felt. For example, in fog or clouds, in the absence of instrumentation one could tell whether the plane was climbing or diving by how heavy one feels in the seat. Seat of the pants is the area where one sits, i.e. the buttocks. Earliest documented use: 1929.

 

Learn more, and see the rest of this week's words, at: wordsmith.org/words/seat-of-the-pants.html

Today's word is kersey, after Kersey, a village in Suffolk, England. Earliest documented use: 1390.

 

NOTES:

The word is believed to be coined after the village Kersey in England where a kind of coarse cloth was apparently first made. The word kersey today is applied to the coarse ribbed cloth and clothing made from it. An opposite of this word could be fustian, also coined after a cloth, and this word also is, perhaps, coined after a place name.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/kersey.html

In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Portia’s suitors get to pick one of three caskets: gold, silver, and lead. Each casket has a scroll that informs the suitor if they have won her hand. A prince picks a gold casket and when he opens it, a scroll inside it says:

 

All that glisters is not gold;

Often have you heard that told:

Many a man his life hath sold (Many have sold their lives/souls)

But my outside to behold. (To see my shiny surface)

Gilded tombs do worms enfold. (But gilded tombs actually hold worms)

 

All that glitters is not gold. Shakespeare said it 500 years ago, but many still haven’t learned it. Take elections, for example, when voters sometimes go for a gilded casket, instead of a solid, not-so-flashy candidate.

 

Of course, writers before and after Shakespeare have been warning us of fool’s gold and even gold:

 

“Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision.”

-Hsi-Tang

 

“How can you sing if your mouth be filled with food? How shall your hand be raised in blessing if it is filled with gold?”

-Kahlil Gibran

 

“Art is like baby shoes. When you coat them with gold, they can no longer be worn.”

-John Updike

 

Also see Midas touch, goldbrick, and more.

 

This week we’ll see five words derived from gold and other metals. Last week we told you how to start a rock band and this week we might even introduce you to heavy metal.

 

Today's word is golden calf. In the biblical story Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying stone tablets with the Ten Commandments only to find Israelites worshiping a calf made of gold. Earliest documented use: 1575.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/golden_calf.html

Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!

- Yuri Gagarin, first human in space (9 Mar 1934-1968)

Today's word is Mother Hubbard, after Mother Hubbard, a character in the nursery rhyme “Old Mother Hubbard”. Earliest documented use: 1877.

 

NOTES:

“Old Mother Hubbard” is a nursery poem which details adventures of Mother Hubbard and her dog. In illustrations she’s depicted as wearing a loose-fitting unbelted gown. The first stanza of the poem goes:

 

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the Cupboard,

To give the poor Dog a bone;

When she came there,

The Cupboard was bare,

And so the poor Dog had none.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/mother_hubbard.html

It takes a village to raise a child, they say. The same can be said for a language. In the case of the English language, it took many countries.

 

England is considered its home, but to nurture it and to help it thrive, the language had generous assistance* from assorted Germanic tribes, the Vikings, and the French. Also, from people who spoke many other languages around the world. A global village raised it and made it what a good little language it is. Empires come and go, but languages last longer.

 

Many of the words in English are named after places in England. The cheddar cheese is named after Cheddar (a village in Somerset, England), worsted cloth is after Worstead (a village in Norfolk, England), and the Oxford comma is named after Oxford University Press (in Oxford, England).

 

This week we’ll look at five other toponyms† coined after places in England. These are unusual words, and chances are even people in the UK may not be familiar with most of them. If you live in the UK, drop us a line (words@wordsmith.org) and tell us about your experience with these words or places.

 

*”Generous assistance” in this context should be interpreted by taking ample liberties with the words “generous” and “assistance”. England was conquered and/or populated in many different forms (see a very brief history of the English language). They, in turn, went around and conquered and colonized other countries. Whenever two languages come into contact, they borrow words from each other.

 

†A toponym is a word derived from the name of a place, from Greek topos (place) + -onym (name, word).

 

Today's word is Piltdowner, after Piltdown, a village in Sussex, England, where a fossil skull, called the Piltdown Man, supposedly from an early human, was found. Earliest documented use: 1941. Also see neanderthal.

 

NOTES:

In 1912, the lawyer and amateur archeologist Charles Dawson claimed to have found a fossil skull, supposedly belonging to an early human, in Piltdown, England. It was later proven to be fraud. Dawson made a career out of forgeries. Before the Piltdown Man he had presented a toad entombed in flint, a Chinese vase, a horseshoe, among dozens of other archeological finds, all fraudulent. The word skulduggery, also spelled as skullduggery, has nothing to do with the Piltdown saga.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/piltdowner.html

Today's word is war hawk, after hawk, a bird of prey + war, from Old English (werre) + hawk, from Old English heafoc. Earliest documented use: 1792.]

 

NOTES: A war hawk (or, simply, hawk) advocates for war, a dove (or, peace dove) for peace. Then there's the species which clamors for war only to send others to fight and do the dirty work while staying safely behind. Most war hawks are simply chicken hawks.

 

The term war hawk was especially applied to members of the 12th US Congress (1811-1813) who advocated for war with Britain. Among other motives for the war was the annexation of Canada. They got their war, now known as the War of 1812. The British burned the White House and the Capitol, among other federal buildings. The war ended in 1815. Some 25,000 died. It was a draw. The US national anthem came out of this war when the lawyer Francis Scott Key, who went to negotiate with the British, saw a US flag still flying after a heavy bombardment and was inspired to write a poem that later became the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/war_hawk.html

Today's word is smarty-pants, which comes from smart, from Old English smeart + pants, short for pantaloons, plural of pantaloon. St. Pantaleone/Pantalone was a popular saint in Venice. As a result, it was also a common name among the Venetians. As a result, a comic character in the Italian commedia dell’arte was named Pantalone. The leggings this character wore became known as pantalone (plural pantaloni). And that became pantaloons in English. Earliest documented use: 1932.

 

Learn more at: wordsmith.org/words/smarty-pants.html