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cotton
Last week, Donald Trump’s hot air inspired our look into bombast, where, for all of his bluster and braggadocio, we ultimately discovered the soft padding of cotton. They say all politics is local, but the etymology of cotton is global. Cotton Cotton cropped up in Middle English (coton) during the late 14th century, taking the word from the French coton. The Oxford English… Read more.
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pissants & culprits
When I tell people I blog about etymology, the study of word origins, they often confuse it with entomology, the study of insects. For my latest contribution to Strong Language, this confusion can for once be forgiven: I follow the trail of pissant back to its etymological anthill. It turns out to be a bit stinky there. A… Read more.
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bombast
Donald Trump continues to divide poles and conquer polls. His supporters hear his rhetoric as “straight talk” while his opponents hear it as bluster and bombast. Both can agree there is little softness to his style – except, ironically enough, for the origin of the very word bombast. Bombast The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) cites bombast as “high-sounding language on a trivial or commonplace subject” as early… Read more.
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meteor (re-post)
Somehow, the link to the original post on meteor burned up like, well, a meteor in Earth’s atmosphere. Or should I say it had a meteoric rise — and fall? After some fruitless troubleshooting, I’ve re-posted in the hopes this link, like a meteorite, makes impact. This week, we’ve had quite the show. No, I’m not talking about Donald… Read more.
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meteor
This week, we’ve had quite the show. No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump: I’m talking about the Perseid meteor shower. It’s fitting a stargazer can behold so many shooting stars during these annual Perseids, because the origin of meteor is in many ways all about plurals. Meteor The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) first cites meteor in the late 15th-century in a plural… Read more.
Mashed Radish 