Mashed Radish

Mashed Radish

Etymology at the intersection of news, life, and everyday language.

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  • Behind the name of the next US president: “Hillary” or “Donald”

    …and then there were two: Hillary and Donald. A week after Donald Trump accepted his party’s nomination for president, Hillary accepted hers, the first woman to be nominated by a major political party in US history.  Running up to the big day in November, we’ll be hearing  a lot of these two names. So, what Read more.

    John Kelly
    July 29, 2016
    Uncategorized

  • The downs and ups of “bounce”

    Last post, I looked into the history of keynote, a word getting a lot of airplay during the US party conventions. Another word basking in the lexical limelight right now is bounce, that post-convention boost in the polls each candidate historically enjoys. Where did this bounce etymologically spring from? Bounce’s bouncy past  Outside of its polling sense today, bounce Read more.

    John Kelly
    July 26, 2016
    Uncategorized

  • The origin of “keynote” is an incredible lesson in American history

    It’s political convention season in the US, and that means the fanfare of hats, the ritual of state roll-call votes, balloon drops, and lots and lots of keynote speakers. But keynote addresses aren’t just part of the great tradition of US party conventions: the very usage of this word keynote is rooted in American history. From music Read more.

    John Kelly
    July 22, 2016
    Uncategorized

  • Coping with “coups”

    Over this past weekend, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan quelled an attempted military coup. While failed, the coup still delivered a harsh “blow” to the country – and lived up to its own etymology. Coup A military coup is short for a coup d’état, which literally means a “stroke of state” in French. The “stroke” Read more.

    John Kelly
    July 19, 2016
    Uncategorized

  • The winged victory of “Nice”

    “Words cannot express,” our leaders begin their remarks on the horrific attack in Nice, France. The carnage shocks us and saddens us into the disbelief of speechlessness. But just as words fail us, we also turn to them to make sense, some sort of sense, of tragedy. So it is with the word Nice, whose Read more.

    John Kelly
    July 15, 2016
    Uncategorized

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