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Catch up with Mashed Radish
This past week has been a kind of High Holidays of etymological trivia. March 14th marked Pi Day: The Greek letter pi (Π, π) comes down from the Semitic Pe (𐤐), believed to originate as a pictogram of a little mouth.🥧🥧 #PiDay #Etymology — John Kelly 🕳️🐇 (@mashedradish) March 14, 2017 Pi Day inevitably makes… Read more.
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What’s up with that “-er” in “ouster”?
The big news of the day is that Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson—and all the headlines are describing his ouster or running some language of him being ousted. Where do this journalistic go-to term for “dismissal” come from? Read more.
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We can “retaliate,” but can we “taliate”?
Yesterday, Trump signed off on his new steel and aluminum tariffs, carving out exemptions for Canada and Mexico. But other trading partners, especially in Europe, are still threatening retaliation, a trade-warring word—and focus of today’s etymology. The legal talons of talio English first exacts retaliation in the 16th century, when it variously referred to a… Read more.
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If it weren’t for trade, there’d be no “tariff”
The word “tariff” goes all the way back to Arabic.View post to subscribe to the site’s newsletter. Read more.
Mashed Radish 