explore | Grilled Cheese

"Ambidextrous" means having two right hands.

The right hand is usually dominant so that's generally seen as a good thing. But it can also mean you're a double dealer, able to play both sides equally well.

#etymology #linguistics #right #ambidextrous #language

Where does “pipe” come from?

Pipe is inherited from Old English pīpe (“musical pipe; tube”), an early West Germanic borrowing, like Old Frisian pīpe, Old High German pfīfa and Dutch pijp, of Vulgar Latin *pīpa (“pipe”), a back-formation from Latin…

#etymology

wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/aftermath?... This week's substack looks at the aftermath before we all get mown down. #aftermath #etymology #appliedlinguistics

"Words the Weather Gave Us" is coming on November 9th. A feast of unusual words, weather lore, and historic weather. If you want to be the first to read it, then check out the pre-order for the #Kindle edition at www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJHVHC5... #etymology #weather 🌦️☀️🌨️❄️☔

Where does “joy” come from?

Joy is inherited from Middle English joie, borrowed from Old French joie (“pleasure, delight, bliss”) (11th century), from Latin gaudia, plural of gaudium “joy, gladness”, taken as a feminine singular, from gaudēre “to…

#etymology

Annie's Origin of Words and Phrases
"Gone to Pot"
#etymology, #wordorigins, #linguistics, #languagehistory, #wordnerd

Where does “speech” come from?

Speech is inherited from Middle English speche, inherited from Old English spǣc (“act or manner of speaking; utterance; statement; language”), spēc, a variant of earlier sprǣc, related to sprecan (“to speak”), specan…

#etymology

Fine china owes its name to a shellfish's curves, not to clay at all.

porcelain · Italian → Middle French → English

#etymology #wordoftheday

Wordle 1,944 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩1570s, named after pre-reformation Scottish scholar - so pedantic - that his followers gave this name for stupidity.

#etymology

Where does “buxom” come from?

Buxom is inherited from Middle English buxsum (“obedient”), inherited from Old English *būhsum, built on the stem of Old English būgan (“to bend, bow”) and the suffix -some. Etymologically it means “able to be bent”.

#etymology

@taoish Fascinating article indeed! & demonstrating the ongoing value of a classical education...
Adding a few more hashtags for reach:
#classics #etymology #WashingtonDC #Roman #arch #WordPlay

"Sinister" and "gauche": why "left" is sometimes considered negative.

Both are words meaning "left" to became insults. But the logic is a bit more complicated than just "righties rule, lefties drool"

#etymology #linguistics #left #sinister #gauche

Where does “video” come from?

Video was coined from Latin videō (“I see”), the first-person singular present of vidēre (“to see”), as a visual counterpart to audio. Barnhart suggests its adoption was helped by the ending of radio.

#etymology

An entangled history of the Mediterranean shipbuilding regarding etymology (corrections are welcome!):

As for the shipyard and naval arsenal: 🧵1/

#MaritimeHistory #shipyard #NavalArsenal #EntangledHistory #etymology

Where does “giraffe” come from?

The modern form is borrowed from French girafe, from Italian giraffa, from Arabic zarāfa, probably of African origin. Random House suggests instead a Persian source.

#etymology

Where does “lilac” come from?

Lilac is borrowed from obsolete French lilac, now lilas, from Arabic līlak, from Persian līlak, a variant of nīlak “bluish”, from nīl “indigo, blue”, from Sanskrit nīla (“dark blue”).

#etymology