Category: Feature
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Deducing the roots of “duke”
Upon their marriage today, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle don’t just become husband and wife. They also become the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Now, I won’t dare untangle the long and complex history of British peerage, but I will track down the origin of two of its titles, duke and duchess.
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It’s been five years of Mashed Radish. This calls for “punch.”
Mashed Radish turned five this week—and of course I forgot its birthday. Surely I was lost in the origin of some word or another. Still, the occasion calls for some celebration. Since we’re marking five years, why don’t we toast with some punch?
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The long, etymological trek of “caravan”
A so-called caravan has arrived at the US border after trekking thousands of miles across Mexico from Central America. Now numbering in the hundreds, the people, including many women and children, are seeking asylum in the US from violence back home. Caravan came to prominence earlier in April after Donald Trump tweeted an ominous reference…
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What is the “tres” in “trespass”?
The recent arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting for a business associate has sparked outrage, protests, a national conversation on racism, and efforts from Starbucks to address implicit bias among its employees. It has also sparked, from me, an etymological consideration of two words that have frequently come up in…
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Because there’s always a reason to talk about pets…and etymology
I could have written about Zuckerberg today, with the Facebook CEO in the congressional hot seat. His surname literally means “sugar mountain” in German—and I don’t think that’ll be the next Farmville or Candy Crush any time soon. I thought to write about raid, which the FBI did to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen on Monday. Raid…
Mashed Radish 