Tag: English
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Etymology of the Day: Hoity-toity
Hoity-toity is a very punchy way to dismiss someone as “arrogant” or “snooty.” But what’s so “superior” about hoity and toity?
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Etymology of the Day: random
The survey collected a random sample. The clerk organized the random boxes in the storeroom. She got a weird text message from this random stranger. Can I ask you a random question? He’s so random, like, sometimes he’ll chew gum while drinking coffee. Random kinda seems like a random word, doesn’t it? Where does it…
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Etymology of the Day: Litmus
Litmus, as in litmus test, is just one of those words that looks like it’s from Latin. For one, it ends in -us, a signature case ending in the language. For another, many of us first encounter the word in chemistry class, and science, we know, brims with Latin derivatives. So, why don’t we put…
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10 words with surprising Irish roots
From bother and trousers to slogan and slew, the English language has Irish etymology galore. We’re all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, as we like to say, but so too are many of our words – and not just the more obvious ones like leprechaun or shamrock. There are many other everyday words whose Irish origins…
Mashed Radish 