Tag: French

• Workplace Word Origins: Black Friday, chef, boutique

  

  Philadelphia traffic jams, Greek storehouses, and Latin heads.

  John Kelly

  November 28, 2025

  Workplace Word Origins

• My bad French makes for good etymology: the origin of “oui”

  

  What begins as a Latin demonstrative pronoun becomes an expression of Frenchness.

  John Kelly

  November 25, 2025

  Feature

• The 2025 Etymology of the Year

  

  “Fascism” is a challenging word for a challenging moment, and its origins may bear lessons for us.

  John Kelly

  November 4, 2025

  Etymology of the Year

• Workplace Word Origins: jargon, milestone, sesquipedalian, benchmark, team

  

  Can’t stand jargon? Blame it on the birds!

  John Kelly

  October 27, 2025

  Workplace Word Origins

• Newsy etymology, animals edition: frog, bunny, squirrel, blue jay

  

  “Bunny” was originally “squirrel,” and “squirrel” was originally … “shadow tail”?!

  John Kelly

  October 22, 2025

  Feature