Category: Repost

• How “weird” got weird

  

  What do mythology and Macbeth have to do with origin of “weird”?

  John Kelly

  July 30, 2024

  Repost

• I still have a “dream” (repost)

  Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. In honor of the great leader we lost far too soon, I wanted to repost a piece* on the origin of a word whose legacy is indelibly his: dream. 

  John Kelly

  April 4, 2018

  Repost

• Mesomerica, squirrels, and puffy leather bags: an etymological Easter basket

  Did you get any chocolate bunnies or eggs in your Easter basket—or just a bunch of black jellybeans as some sort of April Fools’ prank? Well, I’ve got you covered with plenty of timely etymological goodies for this double holiday.

  John Kelly

  April 1, 2018

  Repost

• Taking “taxes” to the etymological task (repost)

  With House Republicans unveiling sweeping tax cuts in a bill this week, I figured it was a good time to repost this piece on the etymology of tax from 2014. Over three years later, I still find it incredible that tax comes from the same Latin root that gives us task, taste, and taxi.

  John Kelly

  November 3, 2017

  Feature, Repost