From wordorigins.org
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20 December 2024 Zinc is a chemical element with atomic number 30 and the symbol Zn . It is a brittle metal at room temperature with a shiny, gray color. Trace amounts of zinc are essential for life as we know it, and the metal is used in a wide variety of alloys. The name comes from the German
on Fri, 2PM
From wordorigins.org
merry / God rest you merry — Wordorigins.org
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18 December 2024 Merry has a quite straightforward origin, although the title and first line of the Christmas carol God rest you merry, gentlemen is confusing to some. Merry comes from the Old English myrige , meaning pleasant or delightful. When applied to people, the sense of being happy
on Wed, 2PM
From wordorigins.org
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16 December 2024 Reindeer, Rangifer tarandus , are a species of deer native to the arctic and subarctic of Europe, Siberia, and North America. The word is a borrowing from the Scandinavian languages—it’s hreindýri in Old Icelandic and rendjur in Swe
on Mon, 2PM
From wordorigins.org
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13 December 2024 Yttrium is a chemical element with atomic number 39 and the symbol Y . It is a silvery transition metal. It is used in the production of numerous electronic devices, notably in the phosphors in LED lights and formerly in cathode-ray tubes. Yttrium is toxic, and exposure to airbo
on Dec 13
From wordorigins.org
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11 December 2024 Wassail and wassailing are associated with Yuletide revels and overindulgence, although many people are a bit fuzzy on what the words mean. That’s somewhat understandable as the words have a variety of meanings. Wassail started out
on Dec 11
From wordorigins.org
carol / carrel / corral — Wordorigins.org
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9 December 2024 Why do we call them Christmas carols ? The word carol was introduced into English by the Normans and comes from the Old French carole . It shares a root with words like chorus and choir . But in what may be surprising to most, the first English carols were not just songs; the
on Dec 9
From wordorigins.org
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6 December 2024 Ytterbium is a chemical element with atomic number 70 and the symbol Yb . It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal that is yellow or golden in color. It has a few specialized uses: its radioactive isotopes are used as sources of gamma rays and in atomic clocks; it is sometimes
on Dec 6
From wordorigins.org
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4 December 2024 Whence comes the name for the drink we know as eggnog ? The egg is easy enough—it is made with eggs, but the nog is a stumper for most casual observers of the language. In an older entry, the Oxford English Dictionary dates eggno
on Dec 4
From wordorigins.org
juke / jukebox — Wordorigins.org
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2 December 2024 A jukebox is a coin-operated machine that plays selected musical recordings. The box part of the word is understood easily enough, but where does juke come from? Juke is actually two distinct words in English. The one that forms jukebox is recorded from the first half of t
on Dec 2
From wordorigins.org
anticipatory obedience — Wordorigins.org
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1 December 2024 Anticipatory obedience is exactly what one would think, actions taken to obey what one perceives to be the wishes of a superior before being commanded to do so. The phrase is a relatively common in political science literature in reference to subjects’ compliance with the will of
on Dec 1
From wordorigins.org
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27 November 2024 Xenon is a chemical element with atomic number 54 and the symbol Xe . At standard temperature and pressure it is a dense, colorless, odorless, noble gas. It is used in flash and arc lamps and as a general anesthetic. The name is a transliteration of the Greek ξένον , a neuter
on Nov 27
From wordorigins.org
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27 November 2024 A gremlin is a mythical creature of the upper air who causes damage to airplanes. The term starts appearing in Royal Air Force slang during the interwar years. There are claims that gremlin was in use during the First World War, but while this claim is plausible, and perhaps ev
on Nov 27
From wordorigins.org
crash blossom — Wordorigins.org
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25 November 2024 A crash blossom is a poorly worded headline that can be read in more than one way. In most of the common examples one of the readings is humorous. (Non-humorous crash blossoms aren’t usually selected as examples, presumably because they’re not exciting enough.)
on Nov 25
From wordorigins.org
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22 November 2024 Vanadium is a chemical element with atomic number 23 and the symbol V . It is a hard, silvery-gray transition metal. It has a variety of uses, primarily in steel alloys to increase hardness. The element was first discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río y Fernández in 1801. He initi
on Nov 22
From wordorigins.org
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20 November 2024 Most people recognize Lucifer as a name for the devil, for Satan, but fewer know that it is also a name for the planet Venus . How did this rather odd double meaning come about? The name is from the Latin lucifer , or light-bearer ( luci - / lux -, light. + - fer , bearing).
on Nov 20
From wordorigins.org
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18 November 2024 Deer can be traced back to the Old English word deor , but the word’s use in Old English was somewhat different than deer’s is today. In Old English, deor was a more general term, referring to any, usually but not necessarily undomesticated, four-legged animal, including fab
on Nov 18
From wordorigins.org
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15 November 2024 Sodium is a chemical element with atomic number 11 and the symbol Na . It is a soft, silvery-white, alkali metal that is highly reactive. It’s the sixth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. Sodium has myriad uses, perhaps most familiarly in the form sodium chloride or tab
on Nov 15
From wordorigins.org
Dreamtime / Songline — Wordorigins.org
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13 November 2024 Dreamtime and Songline are two words associated with Australian Aboriginal culture. But they are terms that have been misunderstood by Western popular culture, and the English calques are poor translations of the Aboriginal words. Tony Swain, who has studied Aboriginal religion
on Nov 13
From wordorigins.org
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11 November 2024 Originally a noun (and still a noun in some isolated uses), the adjective dismal comes into English, like many of our words, with the Normans, a compound formed from the Old French phrase dis mal , which in turn is from the Latin dies mali (evil days), a name for two days each
on Nov 11
From wordorigins.org
armistice / Armistice Day — Wordorigins.org
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6 November 2024 An armistice is a formal suspension of hostilities. In early use, the word was used to refer to a ceasefire or short truce, and later it came to refer to the end of all hostilities between warring nations prior to negotiating a formal peace treaty. The English word is a borrowing
on Nov 6
From wordorigins.org
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4 November 2024 If you became aware of the phrase the fully monty from the name of the 1997 film (e.g., you’re an American) you might think the phrase refers to being totally nude, but that is only a particular subsense of the phrase. More generally the full monty means everything, the works,
on Nov 4
From wordorigins.org
titanium / menaccanite — Wordorigins.org
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1 November 2024 Titanium is a chemical element with atomic number 22 and the symbol Ti . It is a lustrous, silver, transition metal with low density and high strength. It is also corrosion resistant. It is widely used in alloys for objects ranging from spacecraft to jewelry. The element was ind
on Nov 1
From wordorigins.org
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30 October 2024 Acre , the unit of land measurement, comes down to us from the Old English æcer , which inherited it from a common Germanic root. The word has cognates in other Indo-European languages too, like the Latin ager (which gives us the agri - in agriculture ), the
on Oct 30
From wordorigins.org
close, but no cigar — Wordorigins.org
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28 October 2024 The phrase close, but no cigar is traditionally uttered when someone falls just short of achieving a goal. The phrase comes to us from the early twentieth-century practice of giving out cigars as prizes for winning games of chance or skill at carnivals, fairs, an
on Oct 28
From wordorigins.org
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25 October 2024 Tin is a chemical element with atomic number 50 and the symbol Sn , which is from the Latin name for the metal, stannum . It is a soft, easily cut, silvery metal. It has been known since antiquity and has myriad applications. The word tin comes from a common Germanic root, wi
on Oct 25
From wordorigins.org
beam me up, Scotty — Wordorigins.org
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23 October 2024 Beam me up, Scotty! is a slang catchphrase inspired by the original Star Trek television series (1966–69). It used as a jocular expression of a desire to be somewhere other than the present place or situation. To beam is a verb used in the series to describe the process of the
on Oct 23
From wordorigins.org
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21 October 2024 Holt , a word for a wooded area, a copse, goes back to Old English. Its root is common Germanic, with cognates found in Old Norse, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German, and others. The word appears in Beowulf when the hero’s men abandon him when faced with the dragon:
on Oct 21
From wordorigins.org
heaven / seventh heaven — Wordorigins.org
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16 October 2024 The word heaven can be traced to the Proto-Germanic root *hemina- / *hemna- . That root gives us the Old English heofon , which is cognate with the Old Saxon heƀan , the Old Icelandic himinn , and the Old High German himil , among others. Going further back, the exact conne
on Oct 18
From wordorigins.org
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9 October 2024 Moving to another country can be disorienting. But moving to Canada, at least to the anglophone provinces, from the United States is different. To the casual observer, things in Canada seem pretty much the same as in the States. When it comes to language, aside from minor variations
on Oct 9
From wordorigins.org
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7 October 2024 Tarot is the name of a type of playing card which is often also used for cartomancy (i.e., divination or fortune-telling using cards). There are a wide variety of games that can be played with a tarot deck. Over the centuries, there have been many variations in what tarot decks con
on Oct 7
From wordorigins.org
October surprise — Wordorigins.org
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27 October 2020 Political columnist and word maven William Safire defined an October surprise as a “last minute disruption before an election; unexpected political stunt, revelation, or diplomatic maneuver that could affect an election’s outcome.” The term is often applied, but not exclusively so
on Oct 5
From wordorigins.org
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4 October 2024 Strontium is a chemical element with atomic number 38 and the symbol Sr . It is a highly reactive, soft, silver-white/yellowish metal. The isotopes found in strontium ores are all stable, but nuclear fission produces radioactive ones, including strontium-90, which has a half-life
on Oct 4
From wordorigins.org
ass / arse / donkey — Wordorigins.org
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2 October 2024 An ass is domesticated equine , Equus asinus , otherwise known as a donkey . But an ass , or arse , can also refer to the human buttocks. These are two distinct words that happen to be, at least in American English, pronounced and spelled the same. Both can be traced with confid
on Oct 2
From wordorigins.org
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30 September 2024 Sanewashing is the portrayal of a radical or beyond-the-pale political idea as being within the mainstream of political discourse, making an insane idea appear sane. It is formed on the model of greenwashing (making an ecologically untenable idea or practice seem environmental
on Oct 1
From wordorigins.org
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27 September 2024 Tennessine is a synthetic chemical element with atomic number 117 and the symbol Ts . It was first synthesized in 2010 by an international team of researchers from Russia and the United States. The collaborating institutions included the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JI
on Sep 27
From wordorigins.org
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25 September 2024 In current usage, nimrod is often used as a disparaging term for an inept or foolish person. This usage is often said to come from young viewers misinterpreting a 1940s Bugs Bunny cartoon, but that is not quite true. A Warner Brothers cartoon does play a role in the word’s histo
on Sep 25
From wordorigins.org
Boston marriage / Wellesley marriage — Wordorigins.org
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23 September 2024 A Boston marriage is term for a long-term cohabitation of two women that dates to the late nineteenth century. The term allows for the possibility of the relationship being a sexual one, but it does not require it. As such it not only gave women more freedom in structuring their
on Sep 23
From wordorigins.org
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20 September 2024 Tellurium is a chemical element with atomic number 52 and the symbol Te . It is a brittle, silver-white metalloid. It is rather rare on earth, but more abundant in the cosmos as a whole. Tellurium is chiefly used in copper and steel alloys to improve machineability and in solar
on Sep 20
From wordorigins.org
holy mackerel — Wordorigins.org
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18 September 2024 “Holy mackerel” is what is called a minced oath, a phrase where an offensive term is replaced with a non-offensive one. In this case, turning a potentially blasphemous utterance into a silly or humorous one. There are a number of “holy X” ones: holy cow , holy Moses , and holy
on Sep 18
From wordorigins.org
equinox / equilux — Wordorigins.org
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16 September 2024 The Encyclopedia of Astronomy & Astrophysics defines equinox as:
on Sep 16
From wordorigins.org
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13 September 2024 Technetium is a chemical element with atomic number 43 and the symbol Tc . It is the lightest element with no stable isotopes and the first element to be artificially produced. The name comes from the Greek τεχνητός ( technetos ), meaning artificial. Technetium is used as a
on Sep 13
From wordorigins.org
kibosh / put the kibosh on — Wordorigins.org
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11 September 2024 To put the kibosh on something means to stop or end it. There have been any number of proposed origins for the word and phrase, but only one of them has any substantial evidence to support it, and that is that kibosh come from the Turkish qirbach , or kurbash in its Engli
on Sep 11
From wordorigins.org
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9 September 2024 Perhaps the most common sense of hotshot today is that of a very capable person, especially one who is brash and flashy, but the word has had a variety of meanings over the centuries. The underlying metaphor underneath all the senses, however, is that of a bullet, warm from havin
on Sep 9
From wordorigins.org
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6 September 2024 Tantalum is a chemical element with atomic number 73 and the symbol Ta . It is a hard, ductile, blue-gray transition metal. It has a high melting point and is corrosion resistant and relatively inert chemically, making it useful in reaction vessels, jet engines, nuclear reactors
on Sep 6
From wordorigins.org
trek / Trekkie / Trekker — Wordorigins.org
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4 September 2024 Trekker and Trekkie mean the same thing, but the words have different connotations. Both refer to fans of the science fiction television show, and now movie franchise, Star Trek , which started airing on American television in 1966. The two terms are sometimes differentiated,
on Sep 4
From wordorigins.org
nova / supernova — Wordorigins.org
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2 September 2024 Today, novas and supernovas (or supernovae ) are considered to be distinct phenomenon. But prior to the 1930s, the term nova was applied to both. In current usage, a nova occurs in binary star systems consisting of a white dwarf star and a larger star where the white dwarf i
on Sep 2
From wordorigins.org
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30 August 2024 Sulfur is a chemical element with atomic number 16 and the symbol S . It is a yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature. By mass, it is the tenth most abundant element in the universe and the fifth most abundant on earth. It has been known since antiquity but only recognized a
on Aug 30
From wordorigins.org
troop / troops / trooper — Wordorigins.org
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28 August 2024 A troop is a unit of people, most often soldiers, especially a unit of cavalry, but it is also used for other groups of people collected in bands, such as entertainers (in which case it is usually spelled troupe ). It is also used for a group of animals, especially apes or monkeys
on Aug 28
From wordorigins.org
nepotism / nepo baby — Wordorigins.org
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26 August 2024 Nepo baby is slang for a child of a famous person who achieves professional success based on who their parents are. The term is from nepo [ tism ] + baby , and nepotism is from the Latin nepos (nephew) + - ism . The word nepotism begins to appear in English in 1669 with the
on Aug 26
From wordorigins.org
gay / gaycat — Wordorigins.org
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11 December 2023 Gay traditionally meant joyful or light-hearted but in the last century came to mean homosexual. The word, in its various meanings, is of somewhat uncertain origin. We’ve got a pretty good, albeit by no means beyond doubt, idea where the word originally comes from, and there are
on Aug 24