In the course of being quarantined and following everything that was happening around the world, I ran across some interesting explanations for the origin of the term itself. The actual word “quarantine” is derived from the Italian quaranta, meaning “forty.” It is traced back to the language of Venice, Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries. During
We use a lot of expressions in everyday speech, and their origins are frequently lost to history. But I’ve found an interesting exception. A friend recently asked me if I thought the coronavirus pandemic is a black swan event. This was a new one; I’d never heard that phrase before. I went scrambling to the
You may have seen the expression “bleeding heart” used occasionally in political columns. Actually, it has a surprisingly long history in Western literature. According to Merriam-Webster, the phrase first appeared as “he felte his herte blede” in Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century poem Troilus and Criseyde. It also took on a religious meaning as an image of the
At the high school where I substitute teach, an English teacher has a poster for the National Sarcasm Society. Their symbol is a jackass and their slogan is “Like We Need Your Support.” Actually, there is a Sarcasm Society (https://www.sarcasmsociety.com/) and there’s plenty of “National Sarcasm Society” merchandise available on Amazon.com. I suppose this can
We all know that English is a flexible language, as in google becoming a verb. Yet some say it needs to be even more flexible — there is a word for being behind in your work (backlog), but what’s the word for forging ahead? A more pertinent example is the quest for a gender-neutral, third-person
How many words are there in the English language? I’ve seen estimates ranging from 400,000 to as many as a million if you count all the scientific and technical terms, although a quick Google search says the Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use (https://wordcounter.io/blog/how-many-words-are-in-the-english-language/). No matter who is counting, a
One way to keep up with what’s happening is to follow word trends, According to Merriam-Webster, here are some of the words people have been looking up recently. Kangaroo Court — Inquiries jumped 11,000% on October 8 after President Trump described the congressional impeachment hearings as “a totally compromised kangaroo court.” Merriam-Webster’s definition is either “a
As a history nerd, I’ve often wondered how any war could be considered civil. I’ve recently found a logical explanation, and it goes all the way back to the Roman Empire. Recall how most English words have more than one meaning. So it is with civil. The first definitions we usually think of are “quiet
The English language is fascinating, especially regarding the way new words are formed and how meanings evolve. Take “meme.” According to Merriam-Webster, the current meaning is “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) that is spread widely online especially through social media.” But the word itself isn’t new. It actually goes
September 11 was the birthday of William Sydney Porter, better know by his pen name O. Henry. Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, 1862, he is my favorite short-story writer, and his personal life was quite a story in itself. His birthday was remembered in The Writer’s Almanac of September 11, 2019 — As a young
