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dragon
For my latest on the OxfordWords blog, I brave the etymological lair of “dragon,” where I discover everything from herbs, guns, and sores: 23 April marks St. George’s Day. While St. George is widely venerated throughout Christian communities, England especially honors him, its patron saint, on this day. Indeed, his cross, red on a white field, flies as England’s flag. St. George, Read more.
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race
This past Sunday, talk show pundits analyzed the latest developments on the 2016 presidential race. Yesterday, runners braved the rain–and memories–to race in the Boston Marathon. Where does this word race come running from? Race The word race has a lot of legs–and many different meanings over the centuries. In reference to the “act of running,” the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates the word Read more.
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gyrocopter
This week, Florida mailman Doug Hughes landed a gyrocopter on the lawn of the US Capitol in a bizarre act of protest against the corrupting influence of money in politics. The incident has compelled many questions, not the least of which is: What’s a gyrocopter? I’ll leave the technical explanation of this rotorcraft to the experts, but let’s Read more.
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I have eaten ‘crap now’
This post originally appeared on Strong Language, a sweary blog about swearing. How could I deny my Mashed Radish regulars this language fun from afar? ..and it was delicious. Alright, there’s no coprophagy going on here, but I can’t resist sharing a scatological–and multilingual–anecdote with our readers. My wife and I recently had the fortune to visit Read more.
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nuclear
To its supporters, last week’s preliminary deal with Iran marks a momentous step towards nuclear nonproliferation. To its opponents, it’s plain nuts. Good deal or bad deal, nuclear is indeed nutty, etymologically speaking. Mixed “Nuts” Nuclear is evidenced in the English language since 1833, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Its nucleus, if you will, nucleus, is attested much earlier in Read more.
Mashed Radish 