#WordNerd
Our word nerd minds were blown learning about the base-20 counting system that gives us the word "score." It originally had to do with sheep herders counting their flocks!
If you'd like to learn more fascinating facts about the ✨vigesimal✨ counting system, check out Grammar Girl podcast 929.
APPLE PODCASTS: https://lnkd.in/g6KJevF
SPOTIFY: https://lnkd.in/gveZnac
TRANSCRIPT: https://lnkd.in/gZN5EsWB
YOUTUBE: https://lnkd.in/gWjmSAa9
Happy #Shavuot! If you’re preparing to celebrate, or just want to know more about the holiday and some of its unexpected connections, you could watch our video about the word “Sabbath”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kB0ShV8IDU
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Sabbath
Happy #SherlockHolmesDay! One of our earliest videos was all about Holmes – and his connections to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGJ1fdAdn5w
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #SherlockHolmes #Holmes #Gawain
What better way to celebrate #WorldWhiskyDay than with our video about the wild history of the Mahattan, that iconic whisky cocktail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7L2B9qj6N8
It’s #NationalRiverCleanupDay – so here’s our #TeamSeas video about cleaning up waterways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kKFrUr9Ffk
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Sea #River
Happy #FlowerDay! Here are some lovely etymological blooms to help celebrate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Dpzgcm9jY
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Flowers
Happy #InternationalMuseumDay! Celebrate with this short video about the early history of museums: https://youtu.be/tbvvu2NDL-A
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Museum
The surprisingly connected origins of "occasion" and "cheat".
https://youtube.com/shorts/bjf8WlWbGPE
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #occasion #cheat
I'm editing some video, and in it, I enthusiastically said, "Another thing I think people would really enjoy hearing about is semicolons," and my husband just burst out laughing. "You're such a dork." #WordNerd
Happy #DinosaurDay! Time to dig back into our past videos, for the early history of fossil hunting and paleontology’s roots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9yNwRBlKtU
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Dinosaur #Fossil #Paleontology
Happy #LoveATreeDay! Have an arboreal etymology to celebrate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl-WunKwjrY
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Tree
It’s #WorldCocktailDay! So what better time to pour yourself a drink and settle in to learn all about the history of the cocktail, and some of the fascinating connections of some iconic drinks, with our Cocktail playlist! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlDwZNRMgsJK9YKaDhE7Gl-xQ_O2Ur8ZC
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Cocktail
@brianbilston This is beautiful. I think might cry. #WordNerd #writer
Happy #LimerickDay! In lieu of a (bad) limerick of our own, we’ll point you to our video about Verse, which talks about the basics of poetic form, including the limerick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxFzgH0y9Jw
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Limerick #Verse #Poetry
I'm having a blast researching words such as "whithersoever," as one does.
The surprisingly connected origins of "chaste" and "castle".
#ytshorts
https://youtube.com/shorts/l57YLzhpd4Q
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #chaste #castle
Good morning... just can't seem to early at the moment 😀
And I'd just like to state that I am all for #verbing, verbing is fun :) nothing wrong with playing around with words, the dictionary is not a rulebook. #Buffy would approve.
On the other hand I am frequently exasperated by things like apostrophe abuse and people mixing up your/you're, than/then, there/their/they're, want/won't, etc. And particularly stupid spelling errors such as writing "diden't" instead of didn't. #wordnerd
Perhaps my favorite related etymology is handkerchief. Hand + kerchief is pretty straightforward, but what's a kerchief? It comes from 13c *kovrechief* from Anglo-French *courchief*, "cover head," a head covering, especially a woman's head-cloth or veil.
So a handkerchief is a hand head cover 😆
I meant to credit Etymonline with a link earlier, a lot of this I had learned before, but my memory refresher and fact checking is coming from them: https://www.etymonline.com/
3/3
As you might guess, if you don't already know, we also have a bunch of words starting with "cap-" from the same root(s), usually most recently via Latin *caput* (head, headland) and *cappa* (cape/hooded cloak, head covering). In English both the cloak and the jutting land come via French. Cap, meaning hat, comes from here too, 13c for women, 14c for men, and 15c it was a generic covering for anything, like an end-cap. Chief (head person) and chef (head of the kitchen) are closely related, as are captain and capital.
English head, which has a lot of the same meanings, is from the same Porto-Indo-European root as Latin *caput*. English hat is of uncertain origin, according to Etymonline, but seems like it should be related?
(Here's where I pass on making a cobbler/PIE pun 🙂)
2/
I just had some peach cobbler, and it got me wondering what the food had to do with people who made shoes. Is it cobbled together? It turns out the answer is "maybe." Not very satisfying. But along the way, I was reminded that cobble is also a paving stone. Two cobbler nouns, a cobble noun, and a cobble verb?
Cobbler (a shoemaker) and cobble (originally mend or patch, especially shoes) seem obviously linked. The "cobble together" sense seems to be related to that. The common connection to "cobble" is one of the myriad senses of "cob," a set of related words that all have a literal or figurative sense of "lump, rounded" or "head," which themselves have somewhat related meanings. A corncob is rounded. A cobweb was spun by an (Old English) *atorcoppe*, literally "poison-head." ("spider" is also from Old English, related to "spinner"). Cob meaning male swan seems to be from the meaning "head/chief." I don't know much about swans, but I assume that's mostly sexism.
1/
Happy #NationalCartoonistsDay! And tomorrow is #FreeComicBookDay! So here’s our video “Marvel” about the history of comics, to celebrate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_V7GSoi314
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Marvel #Comics
Happy #MuseumLoversDay! Did you know that ‘museum’ and ‘music’ are related words? We got into that in our video on Music, but we talked about the early history of museums in this Endnote: https://youtu.be/tbvvu2NDL-A
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Museum
It’s #BirdDay! So here are some bird etymologies to celebrate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HITkoa7q5J0
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Birds
Happy #StarWarsDay! #MayTheFourth be with you!
We have several podcast episodes about Star Wars movies: The Force Awakens http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2016/1/14/i2k30txxe8x86bcc3tyvx56w42gjjf, Rogue One http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2017/1/13/episode-26-rogue-one, and Rise of Skywalker http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2020/6/1/episode-81-the-rise-and-fall-of-skywalker #LukeSkywalkerDay
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #StarWars #Podcast
The surprisingly connected origins of "king" and "genealogy". https://youtube.com/shorts/QMbkklWeEdY
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #lingcomm #king #coronation #genealogy
You'll have to take care of the food and drinks, but in this week's Grammar Girl podcast, we have tasty tidbits of knowledge you can bring to your Cinco de Mayo parties!
Impress your friends with five fun facts about Spanish.
Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/expletives-spanish/transcript
Listen: https://pod.link/173429229/episode/04b2fbcdb1385b28d32c0ee8344195d3
Watch: https://youtu.be/y-czLIHkRBw
#SpanishLanguage #CincoDeMayo #WordNerd #WordLover #Podcast #GrammarGirl
Happy #NationalLifeInsuranceDay! We actually have an appropriate video, that covers the origins of life insurance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejaOKvarqkg
It’s actually the third in a series about insurance and mathematics and coffee, if you’re looking for more!
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Insurance #Math
Happy #MayDay! Solidarity to those on strike and thank you to the unions fighting for workers’ rights. Here are some labour-related etymologies to celebrate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2o__MMn88
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #LabourDay #LaborDay #Union
Happy #ArborDay! Here’s one of our videos celebrating trees and tree-planting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl-WunKwjrY
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Trees
It’s #NationalSuperheroDay! You can trace the history of the superhero back to long before the comicbook characters we think of now – and we do that, while looking at related words, in our video on Avenger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebdtmBqkIM
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Superhero #Avengers
The surprisingly connected origins of "coerce" and "exercise".
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #coerce #exercise
Join us for the YouTube premiere of our March chat with Amy J. Schneider, author of the "Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction," at 4:30 p.m. ET today! Watch it here: http://bit.ly/ThatWordVideo
It’s #WorldBookDay! Here’s our video about the history of the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOK6kB9ytIo
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Evolution #Book
Happy #EnglishLanguageDay! For a look back at the origins of this language, here’s our video on looking for the Earliest English Word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5QxjzaL1Wc
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #EnglishLanguage #HistoryOfEnglish
Happy #ShakespeareDay! Why not celebrate by making it Weird – with our video about the history of that word, and its connections to Fate, Shakespeare, and witches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYPoTrHTXVQ
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Shakespeare #Weird
Happy #EarthDay! To celebrate, here’s our video about the Food Web, and how it’s a better model for ecosystems than the food chain. We made it for our friend the @RvingNaturalist’s channel, and she has a lot more videos there about nature and ecology that you should check out! https://youtu.be/OxKvcA4NpaQ
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #FoodWeb #FoodChain
Hey, it’s #BigWordDay! Surprisingly, few of our etymological videos centre on big words, but we’ve done a couple of shorts about some bigger words, like Kenspeckle and Bedizened: https://youtu.be/rpFH70CPMWA
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words #Language #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Kenspeckle #Bedizened
The surprisingly connected origins of "calm" and "ink".
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #calm #ink
https://youtube.com/shorts/vpjfydZcMiA
Happy #WorldArtDay! We’ve got a video that’s about the history of art, and in particular the role of patronage in the Renaissance, and how that connects to the Bellini cocktail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVRP2EDTyCM
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #Art #Bellini #Cocktail
Just heading home after a week in Catalunya. It's been great!
I've enjoyed learning a little bit of Catalan. It's fun how in many ways it's about halfway between Spanish and French, but it's very much its own language and sometimes it'll do entirely its own thing.
So 'I' in Castilian Spanish/Catalan/French is yo/jo/je which is beautiful.
'Do you speak English' is formally 'parlez-vous anglais?' in French, but you can also ask 'tu parles anglais?' which is pleasingly close to Catalan 'parles anglès?' and which is also not far from '¿hablas inglés?'
(Side-note: in Spanish and Catalan you can often omit pronouns, because the word endings tell you enough about what they would have been; that doesn't work in French because many of the verb endings are pronounced the same in modern French, even though they're spelt differently.)
But then you get things like 'salad'...
Spanish: ensalada
French: salade
Catalan: amanida.
🤷🏼♀️
#linguistics #wordNerd #castellano #català #français #angles
The surprisingly connected origins of "bleach" and "black". #etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #bleach #black https://youtube.com/shorts/Yl0u8VUYMhQ
Happy #NationalPetDay! To celebrate the pets in your life, you could listen to our podcast episodes on ancient and medieval pets – from dogs and cats to monkeys and birds. http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2018/2/27/episode-54-our-pet-topic-part-one & http://www.alliterative.net/podcast/2018/3/18/episode-55-our-pet-topic-part-two-with-cats
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #Pets #Cats #Dogs
It’s #BarbershopQuartetDay! The history of this musical form is closely connected to the history of Rock & Roll, in spite of its seeming distance from those roots today. Learn more in our video about the history of Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXGubLQcnAg
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #Music #RockAndRoll
The time has come, the Tomtit said, to talk of many things: Of ODDs and BALLs and POCKETBOOKS, and why some words take -INGS! Happy Poetry Month, #Hivemind! Celebrate with a brand new episode of T&B at https://apple.co/3GsS8lG or wherever you get your #podcasts. #NYTSpellingbee #nytsb #spellingbee #nytgames #nytwordplay #wordplay #wordnerd #wordnerds
It’s #GolfDay – and we have a video for the occasion! Ever heard of the phrase “golf widow”? Well, it turns out that there are in fact some connections between widows, golf, and, surprisingly, India! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX1bFAs7MdM
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #Golf #India #Widow
Not sure this one lived up to its pangram! #NYTSpellingbee #spellingbee #nytsb #hivemind #nytgames #nytwordplay #wordnerds #wordnerd #podcast #wordplay @tomtitbaobab
The surprisingly connected origins of "easy" and "reject". https://youtube.com/shorts/5sY7QhVFuqA
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #easy #reject
What's a #WordNerd to do when you've finished the Bee before breakfast? Easy! T&B has you covered! Listen to this week's episode at https://bit.ly/S3E8_BestEntertainmentEver #NYTSpellingbee #spellingbee #hivemind #nytsb #nytgames #nytwordplay #wordplay #podcast
The surprisingly connected origins of "leprechaun" and "lung". #YTShorts https://youtube.com/shorts/378Uza1MX24
#etymology #WordNerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #leprechauns #lung #SaintPatricksDay #StPatricksDay #StPaddysDay
This week's #wordnerd post is up for all patrons. Taking a look at the philosophy and action of identity through etymology. Thank you!
It’s #NationalGrammarDay! To celebrate, here’s a short video on the surprisingly murky development of a basic piece of English grammar, the pronoun “She” https://youtu.be/sbzbdMym8wA
#She #Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words #HistoricalLinguistics
For #WorldBookDayUKIreland, we’ve got our video on the word “Evolution”, which also unrolls some history of the book, from tablets to scrolls to codices and back to tablets! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOK6kB9ytIo
#BookDayUKIreland
#WorldBookDayUKIreland
#BookDayUKIreland #Evolution #Books #Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words
Our video “Gospel” is also appropriate for the combination of #BlackHistoryMonth and #WomensHistoryMonth, with a focus on some of the amazing women of the early days of Soul, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe. https://youtu.be/K06AqhjjbdA
#BlackHistoryMonth #WomensHistoryMonth #Gospel #Music #SisterRosettaTharpe #Video #Etymology #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words
As #BlackHistoryMonth comes to a close, and in anticipation of #WomensHistoryMonth, it seems a good time to repost our video on Soul Food and Early Black Women's Writing: https://youtu.be/QbuABBPej9E
#BlackHistoryMonth #WomensHistoryMonth #SoulFood #RecipeBooks #Video #Etymology #WordNerd #Linguistics #Words
Here's another interesting article about words for colors. I especially love the parts at the end about "impossible or forbidden colors" and made-up colors in fiction.
I'm always interested in words for colors, and I found this article particularly fascinating: Apparently, warm colors are easier to communicate than cool colors (based on how quickly someone can pick the correct color chip when given clues).
14 kinds of love ... or is it 15? (Spoiler: I think it's 15!)
In this week's Grammar Girl podcast, we look at the way words for love in many languages tell researchers about the universal kinds of love.
And then we go from the vast to the mundane: Are you wearing a *wool* sweater or a *woolen* sweater?
Listen: https://pod.link/173429229/episode/4a350486ba309ee358c516685d5aacb2
Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/kinds-of-love/transcript
Here's an interesting word-cognition thing.
I saw the phrase "swim goggle," and it took me about 15 seconds to realize it didn't say "swim Google." I was confused. What is a "swim Google."
I've seen linguistics studies on things like this before!
I probably see the word "Google" 2000x more than I see "goggle."
"Goggles" obviously goes with "swim" though. But because I usually see it plural— "swim goggleS"— my brain didn't process it.
I always enjoy the posts @stancarey writes about Irish English. Grand. Codding. Culchie. And more.
#linguistics #IrishEnglish #WordNerd #dialect
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2022/12/19/10-more-words-from-irish-english-dialect/
Pay attention to the words you use each day: both the ones you use when talking w/others & when talking to yourself. Your words are the syllabic foundation upon which you build the world you inhabit.
Full blog post (and dog references) here:
https://mollycantrellkraig.co/these-two-words-pave-the-way-for-possibility/
#Manners #Growth #GrowthMindset #Opportunity #kids #dogs #leadership #magic #LifeHack #life #LifeLessons #Author #WordsMatter #words #WordNerd
Flex your linguistic muscles and see if you know the answers to Joshua Blackburn's League of the Lexicon! Watch the YouTube premiere of #ThatWordChat ep. 58 starting today at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Stream it here: http://bit.ly/ThatWordVideo
The fabulous Kory Stamper (@korystamper), author of "Word by Word," joins me this week on the Grammar Girl podcast to talk about words of the year: how they get chosen, what makes each one different, and what people yearn for in their words of the year.
Goblin mode, homer, woman, and more.
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/words-or-the-year/transcript
WATCH: https://youtu.be/dwg-hBGg9KE
LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229
#woty #woty2022 #WordNerd #podcast #lexicography #dictionaries
@bookstodon
NEW RESOURCE ALERT 🚨
Just come across these guys as a sustainable and ethically run alternative to Bezos for #audiobooks
https://xigxag.co.uk/
#bookstodon #books #sustainability #ethicalconsumption #climate #thereisnoplanetb #wordnerd
I just moved to a new instance, so here's a new #introduction
I'm the host of the Grammar Girl #podcast. You may have hit my website searching for something like "semicolons." I love #writing books, #teaching online courses, and I founded the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
I post about #usage, #editing, #etymology, #books, and other #wordnerd stuff. I'm a fan of #linguistics, #librarians, #podcasting, #journalism, #scifi, #fiction in general, and I'm on the #nanowrimo writers board.
Hi. I'm Ellie Faye. I #write and spend too much time online. I love #gifs and all things #dorky. I am a self-proclaimed #WordNerd who is working on #editing my first #novel while writing my sequel, because of course I am.
#Kitsch is cool in my world; I collect #GardenGnomes. Massive #Seahawks fan & love all things #PNW. #Creativity of all sorts makes me geek out. I'm a #caffeineaddict & love sharing #foodpics. Real life #introvert - I only play outgoing on the interwebs.
Hey #edibuddies, want to have a group on here? My understanding is that we can follow @edibuddies like it’s a person, and mentioning that acct makes that message go to all its followers. Info at https://a.gup.pe ❤️ #editing #copyeditor #amediting #stetwalk #editors #proofreader #consciouslanguage #wordnerd
I’m a brown, round, #neurodivergent, #nonbinary, #trans, #NewYorker, #desi potato.
When I’m at work, I endeavour to help the 1Password team provide consistently compassionate customer care; when I’m not, I play #VideoGames, read, and watch tv and films—especially #bollywood and #punjabi ones.
I’m a #WordNerd and like helping friends polish their written work. I’m also a perennial dabbler, fascinated by #3DArt, #PixelArt, and #FlameFractals.
#tea and #PascalCase are my friends.
