Category: Uncategorized

• More from Mashed Radish

  Mashed Radish is off this week, enjoying some craic with family in town. I have been terribly remiss, though, in linking you to my other writing online. Since the spring, I’ve been writing weekly on Slate about various language topics. Some recent pieces have included: How 80s Is the Slang in Stranger Things? and Branger.…

  John Kelly

  August 30, 2016

  Uncategorized

• The controversial origin of “gawker”

  Gawker, the news and media gossip site, has shut down after 13 years. Gawker has had an influential, if controversial, voice in the online journalism and blogging landscape. And Gawker has had a distinctive name, suggesting a can’t-look-away amazement it experienced (or wanted its readers to) over the many stories it covered. Gawker A gawker is “one who gawks,”…

  John Kelly

  August 26, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Looms, lilies, and lifespans: The metaphorical stamina of “stamina”

  In recent campaigning, Donald Trump has been claiming Hillary Clinton “lacks the physical and mental stamina” to do the work of the presidency. His attacks in no way stand up to the facts, but one thing that does “stand up” is stamina, at least etymologically speaking. A well-planted metaphor The Oxford English Dictionary first attests…

  John Kelly

  August 23, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Hauling out the origin of “overhaul”

  “Trump overhauls campaign again,” ran many headlines after news this week that Donald Trump took on Breitbart News’ Stephen Bannon as his campaign’s chief executive. Let’s haul out the etymology of this overhaul, abuzz as it is in the political ether. Overhaul As we see in many metaphorical extensions of words, overhaul originated as a…

  John Kelly

  August 19, 2016

  Uncategorized

• “Redeeming” etymological features

  Towering over the city, arms outstretched, is Christ the Redeemer. Built in the 1920s, this 100-foot statute of Jesus Christ is an icon of Rio de Janeiro and the 2016 Olympics Games it’s hosting. But if we were speaking the English of the Middle Ages, we’d be calling this monument by another, less pious-sounding name:…

  John Kelly

  August 16, 2016

  Uncategorized