Tag: etymology

• Why do we call them headphone “jacks”?

  Apple turned many heads this week when it announced it’s scrapping the headphone jack in the iPhone 7. The jack, that little socket you plug your headphones into and sometimes the word for the plug itself, has had a good run: It’s a durable bit of technology dating back to the 19th century. But why…

  John Kelly

  September 9, 2016

  Uncategorized

• From shoreline to sainthood: the origin of “canonize”

  This Sunday, Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa as a saint, joining her with 10,000 other such holy figures in the Catholic Church. That’s a lot of saints, but canonize is still a relatively rare word. So, why is this process called canonization? Canonize To canonize is to place a deceased person in the Church’s canon of…

  John Kelly

  September 6, 2016

  Uncategorized

• The controversial origin of “gawker”

  Gawker, the news and media gossip site, has shut down after 13 years. Gawker has had an influential, if controversial, voice in the online journalism and blogging landscape. And Gawker has had a distinctive name, suggesting a can’t-look-away amazement it experienced (or wanted its readers to) over the many stories it covered. Gawker A gawker is “one who gawks,”…

  John Kelly

  August 26, 2016

  Uncategorized

• Looms, lilies, and lifespans: The metaphorical stamina of “stamina”

  In recent campaigning, Donald Trump has been claiming Hillary Clinton “lacks the physical and mental stamina” to do the work of the presidency. His attacks in no way stand up to the facts, but one thing that does “stand up” is stamina, at least etymologically speaking. A well-planted metaphor The Oxford English Dictionary first attests…

  John Kelly

  August 23, 2016

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• Hauling out the origin of “overhaul”

  “Trump overhauls campaign again,” ran many headlines after news this week that Donald Trump took on Breitbart News’ Stephen Bannon as his campaign’s chief executive. Let’s haul out the etymology of this overhaul, abuzz as it is in the political ether. Overhaul As we see in many metaphorical extensions of words, overhaul originated as a…

  John Kelly

  August 19, 2016

  Uncategorized