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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.
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The etymological underworld of “phony”
A few weeks back, Donald Trump caused a stir over his use of a certain p word. That’s a topic we generally treat on Strong Language, where I recently published a piece dealing with some not unrelated matters in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Speaking of Shakespeare, be sure to swing by Shakespeare Confidential if you haven’t… Read more.
Mashed Radish 