My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Muslim Muslim, and the related words salaam, Islam, and Salem, ultimately comes from Arabic salam, “peace”. In Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Medium Medium began life as me, a preposition meaning “between” in Proto-Indo European. A suffix dhyo was Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Luck There are precious few words of completely unknown origin. This fact is a tribute to the Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Hobbit The word hobbit sprang without warning into Tolkien’s mind while he was grading exams. He simply Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Grammar Ultimately from Proto Indo European gerbh, “to scratch”; also the ancestor of carve, crab, crayfish, crawl, Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Genius Genius comes from Proto Indo European gen, meaning something like “produce” or “generate”, the progenitor of Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Faith Faith ultimately comes from Proto Indo European bhidh, meaning something like “persuade” or “compel”. When bhidh Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Disco Disco is the shortened form of discotheque, a French word meaning something like “nightclub with recorded Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Call From Proto Indo European gal, “to shout, shriek, call out”; it’s the ancestor of clatter as Continue reading

My old blog, the Word of the Day, is defunct, and I’m getting ready to take it down. Before I do, though, I’m going to repost some of the best words here over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Boycott Boycott is an eponym, a word derived from the name of a person. In this case Continue reading