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Where does “flamboyant” come from?

Flamboyant is borrowed from French flamboyant (“flaming, wavy”), the present participle of flamboyer “to flame”, from Old French flambe (“flame”), a variant of flamme, from Latin flammula (“little flame”).

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A word for tangled wilderness that started out meaning the exact opposite — bare, dry land.

jungle · Sanskrit → Hindustani → English

#etymology #wordoftheday

Wordle 1,936 6/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩c.1200 from Old French.

The word had many more senses and broader application in Middle English than Modern English. A few archaic uses still extant.

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Stop saying tock tick. Here is why tick tock is the right way #etymology #englishtips #grammarhelp #learnenglish

Where does “chagrin” come from?

Chagrin is borrowed from French chagrin (“melancholy; vexation”), of uncertain origin. It is perhaps related to Old Northern French chagreiner (“to become gloomy”), or to dialectal chagraigner “to distress”, and…

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"Rocinante's name, then, signifies his change in status from the "old nag" of before to the "foremost" steed."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocinante
#etymology

"Cipher" and "zero" come from the same word.

This is how one Arabic word came to mean both "zero" and "a secret code"

#etymology #linguistics #language #words #educational

Where does “haggard” come from?

Haggard is borrowed from Middle French hagard (“wild”), from Old French, “wild hawk”, perhaps of Germanic origin.

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Where does “pariah” come from?

Pariah is from Tamil paṟaiyar, plural of paṟaiyan, literally “drummer”, from paṟai, a large drum used at festivals. Etymonline allows that it may have come via Portuguese paria.

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Wiccaphobia - Fear of witches or witchcraft. From the Old English word wicca (a male sorcerer, wizard, or necromancer) or wicce ( a female witch), and the suffix -phobia (fear, dread, or deep aversion). #grammar #grammardiva #Halloween #phobia #wordoftheday #etymology #language

A knight with no lord to answer to gave us a word for anyone who works without one.

freelance · English

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Wordle 1,935 4/6

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Old English, with relatives in Old Norse, Frisian and Old High German.

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This "naughty" #etymology is all for naught

It may seem obvious but I never noticed that "naughty" comes from a word meaning "zero".

#linguistics #language #words #educational

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is CLITORIS/CLIMAX #wotd #clitoris #climax #ladder

TIL the coxswain, the person in charge of the boat, was used to refer to the person in charge of the cockboat (tee hee *12 year-old me giggles). Cockboat, a utility boat/vessel, is now referred to as a dighy, emergency boat, or rubber boat, but we still use coxswain. 🤔 the more you know. #etymology

This week on the blog - a weather word - monsoon - with roots in Arabic, Portuguese and of course India. wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2026/10/05/t...
#etymology #rainwords #windwords

Long before you paid one, this word grazed in a field.

fee · Proto-Indo-European → Proto-Germanic → Old English → Middle English → English

#etymology #wordoftheday