Category: Uncategorized

• From watchtowers to cellphone towers: the origins of “alert” and “alarm”

  It wasn’t just alarm clocks that went off on New York City cellphones Monday morning. Another noise also pealed: emergency alerts. The message, which The New York Times reports may be the first of its kind, was “an electronic wanted poster” for the since-arrested suspect of recent bombings in the area. Alerts and alarms haven’t just haven’t advanced in technology,…

  John Kelly

  September 20, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Gaudí gaudy or gaudy Gaudí?

  My wife and I are enjoying a long weekend in beautiful Barcelona, a city graced with the dreamy and daring architecture of Antoni Gaudí. Many like to claim that English gets its word gaudy thanks to the architect’s distinctive style. Gaudí looks and sounds like gaudy. Some may even characterize his works as gaudy. But…

  John Kelly

  September 16, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Fascist baskets? The controversial origin of “basket”

  At a recent fundraiser, Hillary Clinton turned heads when she remarked “you could put half of Trump’s supporters in what I call the basket of deplorables.” As political analysts consider the gaffe’s political fallout, the internet churns out hashtags and memes, and linguists inspect the odd usage of deplorables, etymologists are weighing a different controversy:…

  John Kelly

  September 13, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Why do we call them headphone “jacks”?

  Apple turned many heads this week when it announced it’s scrapping the headphone jack in the iPhone 7. The jack, that little socket you plug your headphones into and sometimes the word for the plug itself, has had a good run: It’s a durable bit of technology dating back to the 19th century. But why…

  John Kelly

  September 9, 2016

  Uncategorized

• From shoreline to sainthood: the origin of “canonize”

  This Sunday, Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa as a saint, joining her with 10,000 other such holy figures in the Catholic Church. That’s a lot of saints, but canonize is still a relatively rare word. So, why is this process called canonization? Canonize To canonize is to place a deceased person in the Church’s canon of…

  John Kelly

  September 6, 2016

  Uncategorized