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“Football”: a simple word with striking roots
Cock-threshing. Shrovetide. Hocktide. I-mutations. Grimm’s Law. Octopodes. Pajamas. Private schools, private parts, and the resistance thereof. The origin of “football” has it all. And I go medieval on it. Read more.
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Dragged “kicking” and “spurring”—and “spurning”
There is a lot of interesting etymology afoot thanks to sports in summer 2026. Plus, the word “kick” is younger than you think. Read more.
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Why are they called the New York “Knicks”?
When it comes to the etymology of the name “Knicks,” Washington Irving is the MVP. But the real MVP? The Dutch. Read more.
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How “Ebola” got its name
To avoid stigmatizing the village at the center of the 1976 outbreak, researchers named the disease after a river in the central African region whose name French colonists modified from native Ngbandi. Read more.
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What is the “hanta-” in “hantavirus”?
“Hantavirus” is named after a Korean river where the virus was first isolated in the late 1970s. Read more.