Category: Uncategorized

• treadmill: a cruel & unusual history

  It’s no wonder our perennial New Year’s resolutions to lose weight fail. Working out it can be so punishing–and if you are on a treadmill, that’s historically all too true. Cruel and Unusual Punishment In 1822, the London-baed Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders published the Description of…

  John Kelly

  January 6, 2015

  Uncategorized

• new

  The word origins we encounter on this blog are compelling for a variety of reasons, I think. Oftentimes, an etymology takes us to some surprising places, like candy. Other times, it tells a fascinating story, such as turkey. With a word like new, though, I am struck by the word’s sheer durability. So, to bring in this New…

  John Kelly

  December 30, 2014

  Uncategorized

• twelve words of Christmas

  I am excited to share another guest post I’ve composed for Oxford Dictionaries’ OxfordWords blog. The post, “Twelve Words of Christmas,” delivers  some choice yuletide etymologies, turning up “fame-wolves” and “broken wind” and everything in between. Be sure to check it out–and enjoy the holidays. m ∫ r ∫ 

  John Kelly

  December 24, 2014

  Uncategorized

• embargo

  Last week, President Obama announced that he is normalizing relations with Cuba. This means we will be giving one word quite a bit of attention in the days ahead: embargo. Policy-wise, I’ll leave that matter to the experts, but we can give it some etymological attention here. Embargo The United States’ trade embargo with Cuba has been in place since…

  John Kelly

  December 22, 2014

  Uncategorized

• Strong Language

  I’m extremely excited to share Strong Language, a new “sweary blog about swearing” masterminded and managed by James Harbeck (@sesquiotic) and Stan Carey (@stancarey). (Those two are tops; you should be following their work in its own right, to be sure.) Follow the project on Twitter, too: @stronglang. Strong Language has assembled an impressive and growing cast of contributors, from the indefatigable…

  John Kelly

  December 18, 2014

  Uncategorized