Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast: Recent Episodes
Ray Belli
Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Host Ray Belli uses linguistic evolution as a way of understanding larger historical and cultural changes.
In this episode, Ray chats with Mignon Fogerty, aka the Grammar Girl. "Good grammar" may seem like the epitome of prescriptivism, but when it comes to her "Quick and Dirty Tips", Mignon leans on a more ideologically neutral approach. Might you even call "good grammar" ... a style choice?
What can we learn about the nature of translation by reading a warning message in hundreds of different languages? In this episode, Keith Kahn-Harris discusses his latest book, The Babel Message, in which the mundane, multilingual warning message found inside Kinder Surprise Eggs ignites profound observations about the nature of language and the written word.
To buy The Babel Message, click here.
Rhetoric has a bad reputation. We tend to think of it as a linguistic tool used by polticians and marketing execs to maipulate the masses. While this stereotype is true, rhetoric is more than just snake oil––we use it in apologies, negotions, and love letters, all without even realizing it. In this episode, speech writer and author Guy Doza takes through a wide range of rhetorical techniques and the psychology behind their effectiveness. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For 10% off your first month, click here.
Buy Guy Doza's new book, How to Apologize for Killing a Cat.
Instead of criticizing deviations from Standard English as "wrong," what if we celebrated them as expressive lingusitic innovations? In this conversation with Valerie, we take a look at some of the quirky features of English that our language teachers taught us to avoid, and in true Words for Granted fashion, we attempt to understand how and why they emerged. To buy Valerie's new book, "Like Literally, Dude," click here.
What goes into building a language learning curriculum? How do designers choose features within a language learing app? Are some approaches to language learning better than others, or is it up to the indiviudal? In this episode, I explore these questions and more with Rob Paterson, Content Production Manager at Memrise. To get 50% off an annual plan with Memrise, go to: https://memri.se/WFG50
As Lead of Language Research at Grammarly, Courtney Napoles is building systems to better help people from around the world communicate. In this episode, we discuss things such as the fundamentals of linguistic machine learning and how AI learns linguistic biases––not to mention how those biases are undone.
To get 50% off an annual plan with Memrise, go to: https://memri.se/WFG50
Place names are not random––behind the name of every country is a story of how it came to be. From stories of invasion and rebellion to the fantastical and mundane, in his latest book, author Duncan Madden takes us on a journey across the world in his latest book Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names. To order or pre-order the book, go to https://www.duncanmadden.com/.
In this interview with linguist Danny Bate, we go deep on all things gender––grammatical gender, that is. Why do some languages have gender while others don't? Where does gender come from? What is the function of gender?
To get 50% off your first month of Lingoda courses, follow this link: https://try.lingoda.com/Words_Nov
In this interview with linguist Danny Bate, we go deep on all things gender––grammatical gender, that is. Why do some languages have gender while others don't? Where does gender come from? What is the function of gender?
To get 50% off your first month of Lingoda courses, follow this link: https://try.lingoda.com/Words_Nov
Trivia refers to obscure or useless information, but this definition is a far cry from the word's etymology. Trivia, or tri-via, literally means "three roads," and in Ancient Roman times, it referred to three-way intersections. These heavily trafficked intersections were places where common people would chat, trade, gossip, and bicker, and it is in this context that the seeds of our modern sense of the word were first sown.
You can sign up for the Lingoda Sprint Challenge here:
https://try.lingoda.com/WordsforGranted_Sprint
In this episode, I speak with Tracey Weldon, linguist and board advisor on the Oxford Dictionary of African American English project. We discuss the origins of AAE, the role of code switching within its speech community, AAE's contributions to mainstream English, and more.
For $25 off your Lingoda Sprint Challenge enrollment, use this link:
https://try.lingoda.com/Ray_Sprint
What does "standing under" have to do with "understanding?" Nothing at all, which is why most of us probably overlook the obvious fact that "understand" is actually a compound word comprising "under" and "stand." In our exploration of this confusing etymology, we look at some archaic meanings of the preposition "under" in addition to words with similar semantic constructions in other languages.
Today's episode is sponsored by Lingoda. To get 25% off your enrollment in the Lingoda Sprint Challenge, go to https://try.lingoda.com/Ray and use promo code WORDSFORGRANTED at check out.
In Old English, the word "world", or weorold, did not refer to a place. It was a compound word comprising wer, meaing "man", and ald, meaning "age". "World" literally meant "the age of man", and in many of its earliest usages, it's more closely related to a man's "lifetime" or "lifespan" than the earth he inhabits. We also look at some unlikely cognates of "world", all of which share etymologies related to "manliness".
Have you ever wondered how writing was invented - or, how many timesit was invented? How many undeciphered scripts has the ancient world left us, and is there any hope in eventually deciphering them? In this interview with Silvia Ferrara, author of The Greatest Invention, we explore these questions and many more.
To buy Silvia's book, click here.
You can also support Words for Granted on Patreon!
The etymology of "grotesque" is hiding in plain sight: "grotto-esque". Originally, the word was used to describe a style of ancient art that was discovered in underground grottos––or at least what appearedto be underground grottos. In the Renaissance, this style was emulated and innovated upon, influencing the evolution of the sense of "grotesque" familiar to us today.
In Ancient Greece, an "idiot", or idiotes, was a "private person", which meant someone who did not hold a political office. In this episode, we explore how the word's modern pejorative connotation emerged. We also look into the word's 19th and early 20th century association with the IQ test.
Though people of extraordinary talents and intellect have always existed, the modern sense of "genius" didn't emerge until the relatively recent 18th century. In Ancient Rome, a "genius" was neither a person nor their brilliant works, but a mythological deity whose function within society evolved over the course of antiquity.
Most Malay loanwords in English describe the local flora, fauna, and food of Southeast Asia. "Amok", however, is different. Amok, which describes a violent killing spree, is ultimately a Malay word that entered European languages during the era of European colonial expansion. Did Europeans encounter something unique in Southeast Asia that prompted them to adapt this word?
"Hyperbola" and "ellipse" are geometrical curves, while "hyperbole" and "ellipsis" are rhetorical terms. At face value, it's not clear how the meanings of "hyperbola" and "ellipse" relate to those of "hyperbole" and "ellipsis", but the history of these pairs of cognates are indeed closely intertwined.
To start learning a new language for free with native speakers from around the world, check out the HelloTalk app at: https://go.hellotalk.com/wordsforgranted
The meanings of "parabola" and "parable" have very little to do with one another, yet these words are etymological doublets of a single Greek work, parabole, which meant "a throwing aside". In this episode, we explore how this literal meaning connects to the literary and mathematical developments of this Greek word.
This month's bonus episode explores the syntax of predicate adjectives. Become a member on Patreon.com for to every WFG bonus episode.
Before Google was the name of one of the world's biggest tech companies, "googol" was an obscure math term that meant "ten to the one hundredth power". Five decades before the founding of Google, the word "googol" emerged spontaneously out of a conversation between an American mathematician and his nephew.
Click here to listen to this month's FREE bonus episode on Patreon.
The word "average" has anything but an average etymology. If the leading theory is correct, "average" ultimately derives from an Arabic word meaning "defect". In this episode, we explore how this Arabic word made its way into European languages through sea trade and how, given this unlikely origin, its mathematical sense emerged over time.
English may be spoken by a whopping 1.5 billion ESL speakers around the world, but that doesn't mean it's an "easy" language to learn. For native English speakers, it's easy to take for granted just how irregular the English language is. In this interview episode, I chat with Arika Okrent about her new book, Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme and Other Oddities of the English Language.Today's episode is brought to you by italki. Go to https://go.italki.com/anniversary-wordsforgranted to claim your $140 of italki credits.
In many English works printed before the late 19th century, a letter unfamiliar to us today, ſ, is often used in place of the letter S. However, that unfamiliar f-looking letter is actually just an archaic form of the letter S called "long s". In this episode, we explore the origins and decline of this odd orthographical relic. As a coda to our series on lost letters, we also explore the history of the ampersand (&), which up until the late 19th century was often listed as the 27th letter of the alphabet.
Examples from the episode:
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Us'd, Clos'd
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Always puffs, offset, satisfaction; never puffſ, offſet, satiſfaction
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17th century: mask, disbelief; 18th century maſk, diſbelief
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Confuſ-ed, diſ-appearance
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Geneſ.
If you've ever encountered the ligatures æ and œ in old texts, you may have wondered: what are they called? Where do they come from? How exactly are they pronounced? Why don't we use them any more? The ligatures ash and ethel are rare in English writing today, but in previous centuries, they were common. (In Old English, the sound we today associate with "short A" was actually not represented by the letter A, but by æ!)
Fck. Sht. Cck. These are some of the most profane words in the English language, but what exactly makes them profane? Is there something about profanities that makes them different from ordinary vanilla words? In this interview, I speak with John McWhorter, preeminent linguist and author of Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and*Forever.
Click here to order Nine Nasty Words.To hear more from John, listen to the Lexicon Valley podcast.
Before the letter W was invented, the rune wynn was borrowed into the Latin AngloSaxon alphabet as a way of representing the /w/ sound. The letter yogh evolved out of Insular G, an Irish variation of the traditional letter G. The phonetic value of yogh varied. It could represent the /y/ sound, the guttural /x/ sound as in the Scottish "loch," and others. Many Modern English words spelled with GH digraph (laugh, though, night, etc.) were once spelled with the letter yogh.
Interested in taking part in our virtual Latin 101 course this summer taught by Harvard PhD candidate Rebecca Deitsch? Learn more here: https://www.wordsforgranted.com/latin-course
In Modern English, we use the TH digraph to represent the voiced and voiceless dental fricative sounds. However, English previously had two unique letters that did this same job: eth and thorn. In this episode, we look at the origin and decline of eth and thorn in English in addition to some places outside of the English alphabet where these ancient letters have survived. Also, check out these links:
Ticket link to Intelligent Speech 2021: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
The International Phonetic Alphabet interactive chart: https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/
Ticket link to Intelligent Speech 2021: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
The International Phonetic Alphabet interactive chart:
https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/
You can't have the English language without the ABC's, right? Wrong. In this overview episode, we look at the history of the alphabet and the many changes it has undergone from its Phoenician origins to today. We also consider the significance of the runic alphabet known as futhorc, the first alphabet used to write English. Two of the lost English letters, thorn and wynn, were directly adapted from this older Germanic script.
Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a Technology
https://soundcloud.com/lingthusiasm/52-writing-is-a-technology
Runic alphabet (futhorc):
https://omniglot.com/writing/futhorc.htm
‘Pasta’ is first attested in English during the 1800's, which is later than one might expect. However, in prior centuries, a handful of its closely related cognates such as ‘paste,’ ‘pastry,’ ‘pastel,’ and others were borrowed into English. We consider how these words relate historically and etymologically to the beloved Italian food. We also examine the semantic relationship between the words pasta, macaroni, and noodle.
In today's episode, we look at the etymologies of our meal words––not to mention "meal" itself. (As it turns out, "meal" has a long history of usage as a measurement word.) The meanings of our meal words have shifted over time in concert with the standard time at which these meals are eaten. Spoiler: "Dinner" was the original "breakfast," and etymologically, the two words mean almost the same thing.
To support the show, go to: https://www.patreon.com/wordsforgranted
In this interview episode, I speak with Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project. Among many other things, we discuss why preserving endangered writing systems is so important to the cultures that use them, how writings systems become endangered in the first place, and Tim's fundraiser to raise awareness about the Mongolian script through an original board game.
You can learn more about Tim and his work at the links below.
https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/endangeredatlas/ulus-a-game-to-save-a-culture/
In ancient Greek botanical literature, there is a reference to a spiny plant called a kaktos. This word would pass into Modern English as "cactus," though the kaktositself was certainly not a cactus as we know it. More likely, it was an undomesticated "artichoke," a plant whose name ultimately comes from Arabic. In this episode, we take a look at the intertwined history of these two words and the plants they designate.
In this episode, we explore the etymology of the most culturally ubiquitous fruit, the apple. Etymologically, the ubiquity of the apple is fitting, since it originally used to refer to apples and all fruits in general. We also explore the Latin and Greek words for ‘apple,’ the derivatives of which are hiding in plain sight in a handful of modern English fruit and vegetable words.
In the episode, we explore the etymology of ‘cheese,’ a Latin-derived word that entered the Germanic languages through trade long before the emergence of English. We also consider why the Italian and French words for cheese, formaggio and fromage, are not its cognates and how the adjective ‘cheesy’ (meaning something lacking subtlety) evolved.
The word ‘egg’ plays a part in one of the most famous anecdotes in the written record about the evolution of the English language. In this episode, we consider the implications of that story and look into the etymology of ‘egg’ and some of its cognates. We also look into the ‘egg’ in the idiom ‘to egg on.’
This episode features a conversation I had with Kevin Stroud of the History of English Podcast at this year's virtual Intelligent Speech conference. We discussed reasons why the history of the Proto Indo-Europeans––the linguistic ancestors of nearly half the world's population––remains obscure to the general public. If you think it has something to do with racist, pseudoscientific scholarship that led to the concept of the Aryan race during World War II, we think so too.
For the video of our conversation, follow this link:
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/intelligentspeech/40
The idiom ‘dead ringer’ comes down to us from horse-racing slang, but a widely believed folk etymology links the idiom's origins to being buried alive. In this episode, we debunk the myths and get down to the written evidence behind the emergence of this phrase.
I'll be speaking with Kevin Stroud from the History of English podcast about the Proto Indo-Europeans at this year's Intelligent Speech Conference. To purchase tickets, follow this link.
The idiom ‘red herring’ is used to describe a distraction from the matter at hand. Literally, a ‘red herring’ is a kipper––that is, a smoked and salted sliced fish––but why would such a fish become an expression for a distraction? In this episode, we debunk a popular myth surrounding the idiom's etymology by close reading a handful of selections from the written record and drawing on the most recent scholarship.
Of all places, why do we put the ‘proof’ in the ‘pudding?’ Like many idioms whose origins date back several centuries, the connection between the literal and figurative meanings of ‘the proof is in the pudding’ is no longer clear in Modern English. ‘The proof is in the pudding’ is actually a shortened corruption of the idiom ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating,’ but that's still not the full story. In the 17th century when the idiom was first used, both ‘proof’ and ‘pudding’ had different meanings than they do today.
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In today's episode, I talk with Simon Horobin, Oxford professor and author of "Bagels, Bumf and Buses: A Day in the Life of the English Language," a book that explores the etymology of common words we encounter every day. In addition to discussing Simon's latest book, we discuss a range of language topics including the standardization of grammar, the history of spelling, and more. You can purchase "Bagels, Bumf, and Buses" here.
Click here 25% off your first order with Literati.
Listen to Words for Granted on Lyceum, a curated podcast app featuring educational podcasts.
The etymology of ‘break a leg’ is disputed, but some theories hold up better than others. In today's episode, we look at a handful of plausible explanations for how ‘break a leg’ became theater slang for ‘good luck’ and also bust a few etymological myths surrounding the idiom.
Today's episode is brought to you by Yabla. Click here for your risk-free 15-day trial.
As we all know, the idiomatic meaning of ‘apple of the eye’ has nothing to do with apples. As it turns out, the origins of the idiom also have nothing to do with apples. In this episode, we look at how the English translation of an old Hebrew expression found in the Old Testament unintentionally defined our modern sense of the idiom ‘apple of the eye.’
"In a pickle" is one of the oddest sounding idioms in English. It means "in a predicament or bad situation," but it's not clear what pickles have to do with anything. In this episode, we look at the origins of both the phrase and the word "pickle" itself.
This episode begins a new series on the etymology of English idioms. In this general overview of idioms, we discuss why idioms are syntactically and semantically peculiar, how idioms emerge, how idioms fossilize archaic grammar, and more.
The word ‘cannibal’ comes to us by way of a familiar historical figure: Christopher Columbus. The word is ultimately a Hispanicization of the name of an indigenous American group today known as the Caribs. Through Columbus' unreliable portrayal of the Caribs in his travel log, ‘cannibal’ came to refer to ‘a person who eats human flesh.’ In this episode, we explore the evolution of the meaning of ‘cannibal’ in Columbus' own journal and how that single word impacted the colonial history of the Americas.
In common usage, a ‘philistine’ is a derogatory term for an anti-intellectual materialist. The word derives from the ancient Middle Eastern Philistines, a people best known as an early geopolitical enemy of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. The historical Philistines were far from philistines––note the lowercase P. Bizarrely, circumstance by which the latter derives from the former can be traced back to a 17th century murder in the German city of Jena.
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As a common noun, ‘bohemian’ describes an artistic, carefree lifestyle usually marked by poverty and unorthodoxy. The word is derived from Bohemia, a region in the modern Czech Republic, but its semantic connection to actual Czechs is nearly nonexistent. In this episode, we trace the long history of the word ‘bohemian’ from its origins as an ancient Celtic homeland to the present.
As someone who came of age during the late 90’s, my first encounter with the word ‘gothic’ was through alternative music and fashion. However, the word was originally the name of a Germanic tribe most famous for sacking the Roman Empire. The evolution of the word ‘goth’ over the last two millennia is a classic but complicated story of linguistic appropriation and misunderstanding.
In today's episode, I interview Steve Kaufmann. Steve is a polyglot and co-founder of LingQ. He also hosts a popular language learning Youtube channel under the name LingoSteve. Our conversation covers a range of language-related topics such as language learning myths, how language learning has changed with new technology, the relationship between language and culture, and more.
In Old English, the word ‘wife’ meant woman. In fact, the word ‘woman’ derives from the word wife! Today's episode is not only an exploration of the word ‘wife,’ but also of a handful of woman-related words whose etymologies and usages share a confusing, intertwined history.
What makes your parents' parents so ... grand? In today's episode, we trace the etymology and emergence of the French-influenced kinship prefix ‘grand.’ We also look at Old English words for ‘grandparents’ and ‘grandchildren’ before the ‘grand’ prefix became conventional. Just for good measure, we also take a look at the kinship prefix ‘great.’
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Today, ‘sibling’ is one of the most basic kinship terms. However, it wasn't introduced into English until 1903 by a pair of scientists working on genetics. More accurately, ‘sibling’ was reintroduced into the language after 1,000 years of dormancy. In this episode, we look at ‘sibling’ in its Old English context and explore its Indo-European roots. Furthermore, we look into the etymology of ‘brother’ and ‘sister.’
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In today's episode, we explore the origins of some of the universal characteristics of nursery father terms in languages from around the world, most of which include initial /p/, /d/, or /b/ sounds.
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‘Mama’ is a mysterious word. In the vast majority of languages around the world, the word for ‘mama’ sounds something like ... ‘mama.’ In today's episode, we uncover the reason for this peculiar universality.
For a free 1-month trial of The Great Course plus, click here.
Noah Webster is best known as the father of the first truly American dictionary. However, Webster’s dictionary faced an uphill struggle for recognition during his lifetime. In today’s episode, we examine some of these struggles in addition to the things that made Webster’s dictionary so different from the English dictionaries that preceded it.
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Noah Webster is best known for his ‘all-American’ dictionary, but in today's episode, we take a look at Webster's earlier works including The Grammatical Institute of the English Language and Dissertations on the English Language. In these works, Webster lays the groundwork for his future dictionary, revealing his political motivations for his spelling reforms and advocation of American English.
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‘OK’ is the most spoken and most written word in the entire world. It's such a fundamental part of modern communication that it's hard to imagine the world without it. But in spite of its ubiquity and compact versatility, ‘OK’ is under two hundred years old. Today's episode tells the story of the word's origins in 19th century America. If the leading theory is correct, then OK might just be the most successful inside joke of all time.
Today, the most relevant usage of the word ‘Yankee’ is probably in the name of the baseball team, but etymologically, ‘Yankee’ has nothing to do with baseball. ‘Yankee’ is an elusive word whose ultimate etymology is unknown and whose connotations may change depending on who’s using it.
One of the most defining characteristics of the Standard American English accent is its ‘rhoticity,’ or the pronunciation of the letter R. Unlike Standard British English, Standard American English always pronounces the letter R regardless of its position within a word. In today’s episode, we trace the origins and evolutions of this feature of Standard American English. (Spoiler alert: The prevalence of rhoticity in American English has ebbed and flowed over time.)
The English spoken in America began to diverge from the English spoken in Britain shortly after British settlers arrived in the New World. In today’s episode, we look at several ways how ‘Americanisms’ began to form and how English speakers on the other side of the pond reacted to them.
In today's episode, I interview linguist, professor, blogger, and author Lynne Murphy about her book, The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English. We talk about topics such as the British media's take on ‘Americanisms,’ nonsensical prescriptivism, national attitudes toward language, and so much more.
Lynne's blog, Separated by a Common Language:
https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/
To purchase The Prodigal Tongue:
https://theprodigaltongue.com/
‘American English’ is the variety of English spoken in the United States of America ... obviously. But is American English a language unto itself or a dialect of British English? In this episode, we discuss the differences between dialects and languages (if there are indeed any at all) from a linguistic point of view. Part 1 in a series on American English.
The name of France derives from the name of a Germanic tribe called the Franks. In addition to the name of France, the namesake of the Franks also produced a handful of other common English words, such as ‘frank,’ ‘franchise,’ and ‘Franklin,’ among others. Today, these words have little to do with France, but as we investigate their etymologies, subtle connections begin to emerge.
In today’s episode, we explore the etymological connection between Turkey the country and turkey the bird. Even though turkeys are native to North America, thanks to 16th century trade routes, these birds are mistakenly named after a country on the other side of the world. We also explore how these trade routes influenced the words for ‘turkey’ in other European languages.
The American city of Cincinnati derives from a patriotic fraternal organization called The Society of Cincinnati. The society itself is named after Cincinnatus, a legendary figure in Ancient Roman history. Revolutionary Americans saw Cincinnatus as an idealized epitome of political virtue. In today's episode, we explore Cincinnatus' life from the point of view of early American idealism.
There are more etymologically different names for Germany than there are for any other European country. This is due to a long history of disunity among Gemanic tribes and the geographical location of the Germanic homeland smack dab in the middle of Europe. In today’s episode, we explore the history and linguistic distribution of the etymological roots of Germany’s many international names.
The English name for the country of ‘Wales’ is not native to Wales itself. It actually has origins in a derogatory term given by the AngloSaxons to their Celtic neighbors. The word ‘Wales’ has cognates in all of the Germanic languages, yet most of these cognates have nothing to do with the modern country of Wales. In general, these cognates are associated with speakers of Romance languages throughout Europe. Strange! In today's episode, we connect the dots among these various cognates across languages.
Today's episode kicks off a new series on ‘toponymy,’ or the study of place names. In this general overview, we take a look at some of the historical and etymological trends that often impact place names, such as colonialism and the commemoration of important individuals.
Nowadays, a gym is a place for fitness and exercise. It’s a shortening of the word gymnasium, which derives from the Greek word gymnasion. In the Ancient Greek world, a gymnasion was not only a place for exercise, but also a hub for philosophical study and learning. Today’s episode explores the evolution of the gymnasium as a cultural institution and also looks at how some of the word’s cognates in other languages differ in meaning.
In the court system of Ancient Athens, the kategoria was a formal accusation. However, when the philosopher Aristotle borrowed the word kategoria to enumerate his ‘categories of being,’ he intended it to mean the ‘highest order of classification.’ Over the course of this episode, we explore the subtle link between an ‘accusation’ and ‘categorization.’
The Modern English word ‘apology’ derives from the Ancient Greek word apologia. However, in the Ancient Greek work known as Plato's Apology, Plato doesn't ‘apologize’ for anything––at least not in the modern sense. That's because an ‘apology’ was originally a self-defensive manner of speech. In this episode, we look at how this rhetorical technique developed into an expression of sincere regret.
In Modern English, sophistication is a desirable characteristic. However, the word derives from sophistry, an Ancient Greek intellectual movement with a historically bad reputation. In today's episode, we consider this bad reputation from various perspectives and how it has impacted the development of ‘sophistic’ words over the course of history.
In the pre-modern world, philosophy referred to all forms of intellectual knowledge. Today, the discipline of philosophy is just one aspect of the traditional field of philosophia, or ‘love of knowledge.’
The pronoun ‘they’ was borrowed into English from Old Norse. Pronouns within a language tend to be conservative over time, so this borrowing of a foreign pronoun into English is a bit unusual. In today's episode, we explore the entire history of "they," from its roots as a Proto-Germanic demonstrative adjective to its modern usage as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun in English.
Subjectification is a unique linguistic process by which a word evolves to reflect the subjective viewpoint of the speaker using it. For example, the word ‘very’ used to mean ‘true,’ but over time, it lost its objectivity and merely became a way of emphasizing subjectivity. In this episode, we explore this process in a broad sense and look at a few more examples.
Further reading:
https://web.stanford.edu/~traugott/resources/TraugottDavidseIntersbfn.pdf
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1028.5275&rep=rep1&type=pdf
The word ‘the’ is the sole definite article in the English language. It's also the most common word in our language. However, for such a grammatically fundamental word, its history isn't as straightforward as one might think. Old English had a whopping twenty different forms of the definite article, all of which collapsed into the single, versatile word ‘the’ by the time of Modern English. We discuss some of these older forms and their evolutions.
In this conversation, Steve and I discuss the linguistic influence of the King James Bible and some common English idioms that have Biblical etymologies.
Adverbs ending in the -ly suffix are all contractions hiding in plain sight. -ly is cognate with the word ‘like,’ and indeed, it literally means … ‘like.’ Sadly is literally sad-like. Madly is literally mad-like. Amazingly, both ‘like’ and ‘-ly’ derive from a root word meaning ‘body or corpse.’ Over the course of this episode, we try to make sense of this semantic evolution.
To be or not to be? Well, if you're conjugating the verb, you're most likely using a form that does not sound like ‘to be.’ ‘To be’ is the most irregular verb in the English language, and in today's episode, we explore why this is the case.
Grammar is one of the defining features of language. In today's episode, we look at some of the fundamentals of grammar in general, and then take a brief tour through the historical evolution of English grammar itself. Part 1 in a five-part series.
Today's episode serves as an epilogue to the series on Biblical etymology. Secular means ‘unaffiliated with religion,’ but originally, it was a word used to describe the measurement of long spans of time. Roughly equivalent to a century, the saeculum, as it was known in Ancient Rome, was celebrated with pagan rituals (ironic), theater, and games. Over the course of the episode, we trace the development of the saeculum from antiquity to the 19th century philosophical movement of secularism.
The word ‘God’ is not derived from the original Biblical texts. Rather, it’s a term from Germanic paganism that was adapted to Christianity. In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, God is called by many names, and these diverse titles don't necessarily translate clearly into English. In today's episode, we dissect a handful of Hebrew terms for God that are used in the original Hebrew of the Bible.
In the Bible, the word Hell is a common English translation of three Greek and Hebrew words, but the meanings of those words hardly resemble Hell as we know it today. In addition to the etymology of ‘hell’ itself, this episode explores the doctrinal implications of those original Biblical terms.
The letter J is a direct descendent of the letter I. Based on their dissimilar sounds, it's an unlikely genetic connection, and today's story explores how this development took place. To keep the theme of Biblical etymology going, we examine this development through the evolution of the name Jesus.
Greek gods. Golden Age heroes. Our conscience. Guardian angels. Evil spirits. All of these things and more were once associated with the word daimon, the Ancient Greek predecessor of the Modern English ‘demon.’ Originally a neutral term that did not imply good or bad, today's episode looks at how this pagan Greek term became the embodiment of evil spirits.
On average, the word ‘church’ appears in English bibles 115 times. However, kuriakon, the word from which ‘church’ derives, only appears in the original Greek text twice, and its usage has nothing to do with a place of worship. The word ‘church’ is a translation of ekklesia, a different Greek word meaning ‘assembly.’ In this episode, we examine the long and complex history of how the translation of how ekklesia was codified as ‘church’ and how this translation probably isn't correct.
Up until Modern English, the English language distinguished between its singular and plural second-person pronouns. Thou was the singular, and ye was the plural. Today, these have been replaced by a single pronoun, ‘you.’ Thou and ye are common Biblical pronouns in English, but there's more to their usage in the Bible than just preserving an old linguistic tradition. In today's episode, we examine the semantic implications of these archaic pronouns in English translations of the Bible.
Today's episode serves as an introduction to an extended series on Biblical etymology. In it, we discuss the difficulties of translating ancient texts--particularly holy texts--into modern languages. Over the course of this series, we’ll gain insight into the overall development and evolution of Judaism and Christianity from the unlikely perspective of etymology.
When compared to the other numbers between ten and twenty, the words for eleven and twelve stick out like a sore thumb. If they followed the construction of the rest of the teen numbers, they'd be called one-teen and two-teen, but of course, this isn't the case.
The emergence of the words algebra and algorithm can be traced back to the life of one man, an Arabic mathematician named Al-Kworizmi. Today's episode looks at the history of Al-Kworizmi's works and their impact on the Western world, particularly on European languages.
Chemistry as we know it is a rational science. However, both the word chemistry and the science of chemistry itself evolved out of the pre-scientific practice of alchemy. In today's episode, we look at the origins of alchemy, a few theories regarding its etymology, and how medieval Arabic plays into Europe's inheritance of this word. Finally, we consider the circumstances under which alchemy became chemistry as we know it today.
Unlike most Arabic loanwords, the word serendipity was not borrowed from a foreign language, but invented by an eighteenth century Englishman. It's based on Serendip, an old Arabic word for the nation of Sri Lanka, and was inspired by an Italian folk tale originally composed in Persian. The odd coinage of ‘serendipity’ is an international story that spans many cultures, languages, and time periods.
Today's episode serves as an intro to a series on Arabic loanwords in English. As a Semitic language, Arabic is very foreign to English. We take a look at some of the basic linguistic and cultural features of Arabic that make it stand apart from the rest of the languages discussed on this podcast thus far.
At last, the finale in the Words for Granted series on days of the week! ‘Saturday’ comes from a root that literally means ‘day of Saturn.’ Unlike the rest of the English names for the days of the week, it’s a direct etymological descendent of the original Latin word for Saturday. And Sunday—you guessed it—literally means ‘day of the sun.’ We also compare and contrast these English names with their Romance language equivalents.
Part four of the days of the week miniseries! This time, we investigate Thursday and Friday, or Thor's Day and Frigg's Day. Like the other days of the week discussed thus far, the names ‘Thursday’ and ‘Friday’ are loan translations of the Latin names for the days of the week.
In Old English, the word for Wednesday was Wodnesdaeg, which literally meant ‘Woden's day.’ It comes from a loan translation of the Latin dies mercurii, which literally meant ‘day of Mercury’ (Woden was the Germanic god associated with the Roman god Mercury). This much is for certain. But how did the O in Wodnesdaeg shift to the E in ‘Wednesday?’
In today's episode, we begin our investigation of the etymologies of each day of the week. Both Monday and Tuesday are ultimately loan translations of the Latin words dies lunae (Luna's day) and dies martis (Mars's day). Luna, the Roman moon goddess, was identified with Mani, the Germanic moon god; Mars, the Roman god of war, was identified with Tiw, the chief deity in the original Germanic pantheon. But that's just scratching the surface. Both ‘Monday’ and ‘Tuesday’ contain unexpected stories that reveal to us the cultures of our linguistic ancestors.
The days of the week are part of the core vocabulary of any language. In English, their etymologies are rooted in ancient pagan mythologies. In this episode, we trace the history of our modern calendar back to ancient Rome. As the seven-day week was transmitted from the Romans to the Germanic tribes that would eventually produce the English language, a series of loan-translations took place.
The Latin verb, secare, meaning ‘to cut,’ has produced English derivatives such as ‘section,’ ‘sector,’ and ‘insect,’ among others. One root word, many derivatives. So, how exactly can a single root word produce so many offshoots? In attempt to answer to this question as deeply as possible, we discuss linguistic topics such as morphology, semantics, and more.
The word scene has always had close ties to the theater, but it did not always refer to ‘subdivisions within in a play.’ The meaning of the original Greek skene was ‘tent or booth.’ It's an odd etymology, and today's episode explores multiple theories that seek to explain where this original sense may have come from.
Today, ‘comedy’ is a genre of entertainment that makes us laugh. However, this was not always the case. The word derives from a Greek compound that most likely meant ‘revel song,’ and it's culturally rooted in an ancient festival called the ... penis parade? Yes, the penis parade. Yet humor was not always the main component of comedy as it is today. Exploring topics as disparate as Dante's Divine Comedy to Punch and Judy puppet shows, this episode covers a condensed history of the genre of comedy.
The word ‘tragedy’ is rooted in ancient Greek theater. It's a dramatic form that stills exists today, but what’s the word’s etymology? Is it connected to suffering? Despair? Heartache? No, no, and no. It most likely comes from a Greek word meaning ‘goat-song.’ In today's episode, we look at a few theories that explain this strange etymology.
The word ‘tyrant’ is steeped in the political history of Ancient Greece. However, it didn't always refer to cruel rulers. Originally, a ‘tyrant’ was a morally neutral word for someone who usurped the throne and took over leadership on their own terms. Most of the early Greek tyrants were actually lauded by their subjects.
Joining me in the historical exploration of tyrants and tyranny is Ryan Stitt from the History of Ancient Greece.
English uses many different suffixes to indicate ethnicities. Each suffix entered the language independently, and each suffix has a story to tell. This episode attempts to elucidate the geopolitical distribution of the four main categories of ethnic suffixation in English: -an (including -ian and -ean), -ish, -ese, and -i.
Today's episode looks at the evolution of the modern sense of the word filibuster. Borrowed from a Dutch word meaning ‘pirate,’ ‘filibuster’ originally referred to Americans who organized unauthorized military invasions of Spanish colonies in Central America and the West Indies.
In this episode, we explore the origins of the word ‘candidate.’ It derives from candidus, the Latin word for ‘white,’ which describes the typical attire worn by Roman politicians running for office. We also examine some unlikely cognates derived from this same root word.
The presidential inauguration is a tradition inherited from Ancient Rome. The word ‘inauguration’ is rooted in augury, the Ancient Roman practice of interpreting omens based on the flight patterns of birds. Over the course of today's episode, we discuss how how this unlikely religious tradition gave us the sense of ‘inauguration’ used today.
The letter C has split personalities. Sometimes it has a hard K sound, and sometimes it has a soft S sound. Sometimes it's a part of letter combinations whose pronunciations vary from word to word. The causes of these split personalities are rooted in a complicated history that begins in Ancient Phoenicia.
Words for ‘tea’ in languages around the world fall into one of two etymological categories: te-derived and cha-derived. Both are ultimately derived from different dialects of Chinese. Based on the geolinguistic distribution of these two etymological categories, we can learn a lot about the history of the tea trade itself.
According to literary critic Raymond Williams, culture is ‘one of two or three most complicated words in the English language.’ Today's narrative traces the word's unexpected origins as a farming term to its social and anthropological senses today. Along the way, we'll explore many different perspectives on what a ‘culture’ really is is.
The spelling of the word ‘two’ is un-phonetic. Today's episode explores the origins of its silent W and the circumstances that eroded its pronunciation. Along the way, we explore some less-than-obvious derivatives of the word "two" and the technical characteristics of vowels.
Men's perfume known as cologne takes its name from the German city in which it was invented. But if Cologne is a German city, why does the perfume named after it have a distinctly French name? Why does the German language spell Köln with a K, while French and English spell ‘Cologne’ with a C? And where does the name of the city itself ultimately come from? Today's episode tackles the answers to these questions and more.
Today's episode explores the etymological and cultural connections between the words ‘sinister’ and ‘left,’ as in, ‘left-handed.’ In the world of Ancient Rome, the left hand was surrounded by an unlucky superstition. Though the superstition has faded away, the original word denoting this connection––sinister––has not. While the evolution of ‘sinister’ is the focus of today's episode, it fits into a larger theme of etymological biases against left-handedness found in languages around the world.
Calques are words or phrases whose meanings have been literally translated from one language into another, aka ‘loan translations.’ Words such as flea market, skyscraper, and translation itself all came into English this way. Today's episode looks at a number of words that have been calqued into English and out of English.
What is the ‘true’ meaning of the expression ‘to beg the question?’ Well, it depends on what you mean by true. Today, ‘to beg the question’ is often used as a synonym for ‘to raise the question,’ but historically, ‘to beg the question’ had a very different meaning. It involved neither ‘begging’ nor a ‘question,’ but rather, a philosophical fallacy of circular reasoning that traces back to Aristotle. Over the course of about two thousand years, a series of mistranslations and semantic corruptions have resulted in the phrase’s modern ‘misusage.’
The word ostracism can be traced back to Ancient Athens. For the Ancient Athenians, ostracism was not a sociological phenomenon, but an electoral vote that sought to protect the integrity of democracy. Today's episode provides a concise overview of Ancient Athenian society and looks at the details of the ancient ostracism vote.
The professional/amateur dichotomy portrays amateurs as inept and inexperienced, but amateurs haven’t always had a bad name. In fact, ‘amateur’ derived from the Latin word for ‘love.’ Today's episode explores the negative evolution of the word as a product of capitalist values.
In today's episode, we look at the etymology of mouse, but really, it's a springboard into a far more complicated topic: the word "mice," its irregular plural form. Why do we say "mice" and not "mouses" when referring to more than one mouse? The answer lies in the grammar of an ancient tongue that predates modern English by thousands of years. This is the most linguistic-heavy episode of Words for Granted yet, so first-time listeners, beware!
The English language uses the word ‘cell’ in a handful of contexts. We have prison cells, brain cells, battery cells, and of course, cell phones. At first glance, these various uses of the word ‘cell’ seem unrelated, yet they’re all etymologically connected and can be traced back to a single source: medieval monasteries. In today's episode, we explore the unlikely historical relationship between the living quarters of Medieval Christian monks and the modern technology behind the cellular phone.
Today's episode begins a short mini-series that explores the origins of technology-themed words. Although digital technology didn't permeate our culture until the twentieth century, the word ‘digital’ has ancient roots. Originally, it simply referred to … our fingers and toes!
The word ‘comfort’ once described the spiritual consolation given by God to an individual. Today, it describes commercialized products like air conditioners, tennis shoes, and sofas. A pretty drastic change, to say the least. How did this evolution take place? Today's episode looks at the impact of capitalism and consumerism on our ideas about what ‘comfort’ is.
The word ‘meat’ once referred to all forms of solid food, not just animal flesh. In today's episode, we explore the ambiguities of the word ‘meat’ as it appears in the King James Bible. We also debunk a popular myth surrounding meat words such as pork, beef, and veal.
This episode explores polysemy, the phenomenon by which a single word can have multiple meanings. Why do we use the word ‘foot’ in the compound word ‘footnote?’ Why does the word ‘decimation’ derive from the Latin word for ‘ten?’ Will books eventually become extinct? We answer all of these questions and more, all through the lens of polysemy.
Today's episode looks at the Old English sense of the word wyrd. Originally, it wasn’t an adjective, but a noun that’s commonly translated into Modern English as ‘fate.’ However, this oversimplified translation doesn't tell the word's full story. By comparing and contrasting etymological and cultural evidence, it’s clear that wyrd and "fate" are really not the same thing at all.
‘Nice’ has gone through more changes than almost any other word in the English language. Over the course of seven centuries, it has been used to mean stupid, promiscuous, elegant, and effeminate, among a handful of other things. In this episode, we try to make sense of its perplexing evolution.
Welcome to Words for Granted! In this debut episode, we'll be looking at how villanus, the Latin word for ‘farmworker,’ became the Modern English word ‘villain.’ From Medieval England farmworkers to comic book antagonists, the meaning of ‘villain’ has changed drastically over time.