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Whales, antelopes, monsters, & pigs: a deep dive into the many names for the orca
This week, Sea World announced that it’s ending its controversial captive orca breeding program. Orca, killer whale, blackfish: this inspiring cetacean has known many names in English. Let’s take a deep dive into their origins. Orca Popularly, the orca goes by the “killer whale,” which has been in use, often just as “killer” early on, since the 1720s. In Read more.
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Four-leaf etymologies: slew
A good etymology is like finding a four-leaf clover. So often, we stroll through words as if through a field of common trefoil. But sometimes, for reasons I don’t think any of us wholly understand, we chance upon something special hidden in the otherwise ordinary green. This happened to me for the word slew. I think Read more.
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Tico talk
I don’t usually have a taste for kitschy souvenirs, but in Costa Rica, whose beautiful lands my wife and I recently had the pleasure to visit, I couldn’t resist. See, Costa Ricans – or Ticos, their more colloquial demonym – really know how to market to a very specific segment: tourists obsessed with etymology. Surely, I’m Read more.
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Where did the @ symbol come from?
Computer programmer Ray Tomlinson died this week at the age of 74. He definitely left his mark. In 1971, Tomlinson invented email. As if that isn’t enough, he also first used @ – the at sign – to separate the username from the domain in the first electronic mail, now the standard symbol around the world. Read more.
Mashed Radish 