explore | Grilled Cheese

This metal's name began as a swindler's joke about worthless ore that looked like silver.

nickel · Ancient Greek → Proto-Hellenic → Latin → German → English

Wordle 1,938 6/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩c.1300 from Latin, via Old French.

Where does “aplomb” come from?

Aplomb is borrowed from French aplomb (“self-possession, perpendicularity”), from Middle French à plomb (“according to the plummet”), that is, standing upright.

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"Punch" the drink is related to the Hindi for "five". Maybe.

This proposed origin has problems in both timing and pronunciation but it is punchy.

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Where does “accolade” come from?

Accolade is borrowed from French accolade (“an embrace”), from French accoler (“to embrace”), from Old French acoler (“to embrace round the neck”), from Vulgar Latin *accollāre, from Latin ad- (“to”) + collum (“neck”).

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Review of a terrific new play at Tarragon Theatre.

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barczablog.com/2026/10/08/m...

Phrase: From Greek phrasis (“speech, expression”).

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Where does “tuxedo” come from?

Tuxedo is short for Tuxedo coat, named after Tuxedo Park, New York, where the jacket was first worn at a country club, supposedly in 1886.

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Where does “rehearse” come from?

Rehearse is inherited from Middle English rehersen (“to repeat”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman rehearser and Old French rehercier (“to go over again; to rake over”), from re- “again” and hercier “to harrow”, from herce…

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A grueling 26-mile race is named after a plant that just happened to grow near a battlefield.

marathon · Ancient Greek → French → English

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Wordle 1,937 4/6

🟩⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Old English, with many Germanic relatives.

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Where does “palindrome” come from?

Palindrome is borrowed from Ancient Greek παλίνδρομος (palíndromos, “running back again, recurring”), from pálin “again, back” and drómos “a running”.

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"Doubt" and "dubious": Why uncertainty comes in twos.

Both invoke a metaphor of "being of two minds". And those aren't the only words to do it.

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Where does “maudlin” come from?

Maudlin is an alteration of the name of Mary Magdalene, through Middle English Maudelen, borrowed from Old French Madelaine and from Late Latin Magdalēnē, from Ancient Greek Μαγδαληνή (Magdalēnḗ, “woman of Magdala”).

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A really good read. I did not know the origins of this commonly used word. Updating my lexicon!

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I’ve always loved this one. A bit of magic in the ordinary.
@susiedent
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Where does “harangue” come from?

Harangue is borrowed from Middle French harangue (“public address”), from Italian aringa (“speech, oration”), from aringare “to speak in public”, from aringo “public square, place of assembly”, which is of Germanic…

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