In the olden days, “old” was “eld” and “oldest” was “eldest.” “Eld” is much older…er, “elder.”.. than “old,” having been a word in Old English, when it was “eald” — at least in the dialect of Old English spoken in West Saxony. Prior to Old English, “eld” goes all the way back to Proto-Indo-European. In… Continue reading

When you start reading this, you’re on the brink of a not-particularly-important discovery. To wit: what the heck is a “brink,” anyway? You can be “on the brink” of something good, like a singer “on the brink of stardom,” or a scientist “on the brink of a major discovery.” It’s more common to find “brink”… Continue reading

If one time-traveled to the here and now from, say, about 1650, probably the very first thing they’d animadvert is that nobody animadverts any more. Or more precisely, they might animadvert (at least on their phone), but practically everyone has forgotten what “animadvert” means. In fact, everyone has forgotten so completely that “animadvert,” which in… Continue reading

“Fustian” is a rare word, but not hopelessly obscure; you’ll still run across it occasionally. It dates from the 1200s, when it meant a kind of thick cloth that was used to make blankets. Nowadays it still retains that meaning, but over the centuries it acquired a second meaning: empty, overblown language. The sort you’d… Continue reading

If you write an academic paper, you include an “abstract;” a brief synopsis of the entire work. If you’re in business, you might work hard on an “elevator pitch” — a brief abstract of the product or service you’re trying to push, timed so you can deliver the whole thing while trapped in an elevator… Continue reading

There are quite a few people sick right now. Some of them probably have “the flu” — and it occurred to me, doesn’t it seem like “the flu” is a strange name for a disease? The real story is even stranger than you might think. “Flu” is short for “influenza,” which is the full name… Continue reading

When you’re in the process of using some words — or even sometimes just when you’re looking at them — they look misspelled even though they’re not. There’s something about those words that’s just awkward. One good example is “awkward” — a “K” in between two “W”s?? That combination is certainly unusual, apparently there’s only… Continue reading

A “complaint” is a form of the word “complain”, which comes from the Old French word “complaindre”, meaning “to lament”. The word’s roots go all the way back to Proto-Indo-European. Evidently people have been complaining for quite a while.  One of the things they complain about, at least once they reach a certain age, is… Continue reading

A “collocation” is two words joined by “and” or “or.” They’re quite common; you’ll immediately recognize “ladies and gentlemen,” for example. There’s also “night and day,” “bed and breakfast,” “bread and butter,” “salt and pepper,” and so on.  These are all in their common order; you seldom hear “gentlemen and ladies,” and I’m pretty sure… Continue reading

As some people (including you) know, “adroit,” which means adept and agile, is etymologically derived from the French phrase “á droit” (to the right). For some reason the French (I suspect they weren’t alone in this) used to think that being right-handed meant that you were capable of being adept, agile, graceful, and coordinated, and… Continue reading