Month: January 2025

• Newsy etymology: mercy, oligarchy, palisade, Greenland, emphysema, severance

  

  “Greenland” originated as a sales pitch. “Merchandise” lies behind “mercy.” And little separates “severance” and “separation.”

  John Kelly

  January 27, 2025

  Feature

• “Habitat”: a natural, and etymological, history

  

  How a frequentative verb connects Jimmy Carter and Carl Linnaeus

  John Kelly

  January 13, 2025

  Feature

• Chatting 2024 Words of the Year with Grammar Girl

  

  Watch and listen to John Kelly chat about the 2024 Words of the Year with Mignon Fogarty on the delightful and distinguished Grammar Girl podcast.

  John Kelly

  January 7, 2025

  media