Mashed Radish

Etymology of the day: wilderness

#EtymologyOfTheDay: WILDERNESS goes back to the Old English for WILD DEER, originally any sort of WILD ANIMAL or BEAST. pic.twitter.com/ksMLGGJWP7 — John Kelly 🕳️🐇 (@mashedradish) July 20, 2017 m ∫ r ∫ Read more.

John Kelly

July 20, 2017

Etymology of the Day
Etymology of the day: hot dog

#EtymologyOfTheDay: The DOG in HOT DOG began as a wry reference to 19c beliefs that sausages contained, yes, dog meat. #NationalHotDogDay pic.twitter.com/6T8sd6DnBD — John Kelly 🕳️🐇 (@mashedradish) July 19, 2017 A quick note Earlier this year, I was posting short “etymologies of the day” on the blog, a practice that I’ve continued on Twitter. I Read more.

John Kelly

July 19, 2017

Etymology of the Day
Laughingstock, gaping-stocking, scoffing-stock, and other -stock compounds

“I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point,” Walter Shaub told the New York Times after he resigned as the head of the Office of Government Ethics earlier this month. Shaub felt the Trump administration’s conflicts of interest, inter alia, are severely undermining his office’s credibility and efficacy, and compelled him Read more.

John Kelly

July 18, 2017

Feature
Storming the etymological “bastille”

Today, the 14th of July, marks Bastille Day in France. The holiday commemorates the same date in 1789 when citizens stormed the Bastille—a state prison, armory, and symbol of royal authority in Paris—sparking the French Revolution. But what is a bastille, and where does this word come from? Read more.

John Kelly

July 14, 2017

Feature
Digging up “dirt”

Donald Trump Jr. stepped in some, er, dirt this week when the New York Times revealed he knowingly met with a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of the Kremlin’s effort to help Trump. Where does the word dirt come from, and when did it start referring to “compromising information”? As Read more.

John Kelly

July 11, 2017

Feature

Etymology of the day: wilderness

Etymology of the day: hot dog

Laughingstock, gaping-stocking, scoffing-stock, and other -stock compounds

Storming the etymological “bastille”

Digging up “dirt”