Category: Etymology of the Day

• Etymology of the Day: Trigger

  Yesterday, British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered—as so many media outlets reported it—Article 50, which begins a two-year process of negotiations culminating in the UK’s exit, or Brexit, from the European Union. Let’s pull the etymological trigger on this truly historic word.

  John Kelly

  March 30, 2017

  Etymology of the Day

• Etymology of the Day: random

  The survey collected a random sample. The clerk organized the random boxes in the storeroom. She got a weird text message from this random stranger. Can I ask you a random question? He’s so random, like, sometimes he’ll chew gum while drinking coffee. Random kinda seems like a random word, doesn’t it? Where does it…

  John Kelly

  March 29, 2017

  Etymology of the Day

• Etymology of the Day: What is the “stir” in “stir-crazy”?

  After a long winter, the short days and dark nights, our cold houses and heavy coats, begin to feel like a prison. They make us go stir-crazy, as we say. But why stir? Is it because the confinement make us stir with restlessness? Confinement, it turns out, is behind the stir in stir-crazy, just much more…

  John Kelly

  March 27, 2017

  Etymology of the Day

• Etymology of the Day: Puppy

  It’s been another busy week for politics in the US, and so today, National Puppy Day, couldn’t come at a better time. So, too, the origin of the word puppy. It’s pretty adorable.   

  John Kelly

  March 23, 2017

  Etymology of the Day

• Etymology of the Day: Litmus

  Litmus, as in litmus test, is just one of those words that looks like it’s from Latin. For one, it ends in -us, a signature case ending in the language. For another, many of us first encounter the word in chemistry class, and science, we know, brims with Latin derivatives. So, why don’t we put…

  John Kelly

  March 22, 2017

  Etymology of the Day