Month: March 2017

• Who knew the word “insurance” was so complicated?

  Insurance ultimately comes from the Latin securus, “free from care.”  Health insurance was front and center this week as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan debuted his contentious plan to repeal Obamacare. As Washington continues to deal with the political complexities of health insurance, let’s deal with the etymological complexities of the word insurance.

  John Kelly

  March 10, 2017

  Feature

• Etymology of the Day: Eavesdrop

  You’re on a train or at a cafe. A juicy bit of conversation catches your ear. You pretend to mind your book or your phone. Secretly,  though, you go on eavesdropping. Does our auditory snooping actually have anything to do with the eaves of our houses? In fact, it has everything to do with them,…

  John Kelly

  March 9, 2017

  Etymology of the Day

• A country, a hat, a palindrome – “Panama”!

  What do rum and capybaras have in common? Why, the origin of “Panama.”

  John Kelly

  March 8, 2017

  Feature

• From telegraphs to Twitter: a short history of “wiretapping”

  One of the earliest recorded instances of wiretapping involves an anecdote about how Confederate general John Hunt Morgan bet a Union soldier two cigars if he could spell the word Lebanon. In a series of shocking tweets this weekend, President Trump, providing absolutely zero evidence, said President Obama wiretapped his phones during the 2016 campaign.…

  John Kelly

  March 7, 2017

  Feature

• Etymology of the Day: Butter

  Butter is a bread-and-butter vocabulary word, but it may have spread all the way from ancient Scythia.

  John Kelly

  March 6, 2017

  Etymology of the Day