Category: 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. 

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“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” (Wikimedia Commons)

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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.

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Etymologies are like a bowl of jellybeans—you enjoy them more than you think you do. Every time. (Pixabay)

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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.

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