Back in, say, 1600 or so, if you were going to combine two things, you were probably very pleased to be able to choose between two relatively new words: “conflate” and “commingle.” “Conflate”, at least in the 1600s, meant “put together,” and “commingle” meant (and still means) “mix together.” Pretty close to the same thing, Continue reading

If you find yourself musing about something, are you in thrall of the Muses of ancient Greece? Is that where music comes from, which we can use for amusement and which, in some forms, we might find bemusing? Well…no. It’s more complicated than that. Although some of the words above are related, others aren’t. The Continue reading

After living in one place for an extended time, even if they don’t technically qualify as “hoarders,” many people find themselves surrounded by bric-a-brac. Tchotchkies. Knick-knacks. Odds and ends. Ornaments. Items, in other words, that were very likely purchased in those inexplicable establishments that seem to exist simply to purvey purposeless paraphernalia: gift shops (or, Continue reading

“Gotham” has been a nickname for New York City since 1807, when Washington Irving used it in a magazine called Salmagundi. The magazine ran for 20 issues, and besides writing for it, Irving was also the publisher. The whole point of the publication was to satirize the city and everyone in it.  The reason Irving Continue reading

For many centuries English speakers who were afraid of getting dirty got along pretty well by saying something like “I’m afraid of getting dirty.” Similarly, if they were afraid of spirits, they’d tell their friends “I’m afraid of spirits.” There are plenty of other examples. They didn’t need any special words for their fears. Anna Continue reading

The ancient Greek word for “city” is “polis.” The Greek word “polites” (pronounced with three syllables) is derived from “polis” and means “citizen,” and THAT word led to “politikos,” which means “having to do with citizens.” Latin adopted “politikos,” where it became “politicus,” and that led eventually to English (which adopts everything) and “politics.”  The Continue reading

Before the invention of GPS, before LORAN (a navigation system used before GPS), and even before airplanes had radios at all, if you wanted to fly long distances you might use sightings of the sun in the daytime or the stars at night. But if it was cloudy, you’d need a different system. You’d use Continue reading

Near the end of the 1500s, a word entered English that was destined for nearly universal and permanent…obscurity. The word would never, in its centuries of (lack of) usage, become anything more than a literary curiosity, used (when it was used at all) mostly to make a joke. The word is “perissology” (told you it Continue reading

Alfred Tennyson is usually referred to as “Alfred, Lord Tennyson”. He was Poet Laureate of England from 1850 to 1892, the longest stretch anyone occupied the position before or since. He wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade, which is pretty well known, but not very much of his other work is still read. He Continue reading

You can get a pretty good idea of the functions of a language by examining its words. This is more than that old saw about “Eskimo having 27 words for ‘snow’.” That was probably apocryphal anyway, but I’m not just talking about nouns. The nouns in a language do, of course, give some insight into Continue reading