Tag: Shakespeare
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Etymology of the Day: Heyday
Back in my heyday, we’ve heard our fathers so often begin some boast of long-lost glory. The heyday of the train, the heyday of radio, the heyday of the flip-phone – each of these remembers some technological golden age of yore. Perhaps you’ve wondered: What is the hey– in heyday? As it turns out, we’re…
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Why is it called the “Ides” of March?
We don’t know where the word “Ides” comes from or why the Ancient Romans used plural words for singular dates. Thanks, Caesar.
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Pens, penance, and pancakes: the origin of shrove
Shrove, as in Shrove Tuesday, and the related word shrift, as in short shrift, ultimately derive from the Latin scrībere, “to write.” For Francophones and many speakers of American English, today is Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday,” a day of gorging and gamboling before the solemn and abstemious Christian season of Lent. But a lot of other Anglophones will…
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Book review: What the Dickens?! by Bryan Kozlowksi
Last year, as you may recall, I read the complete works of William Shakespeare. It was an immensely rewarding project, to be sure, but I can’t lie: When I finished, I was really excited to read something else for a change. I immediately jumped for Bryan Kozlowksi’s What the Dickens?!: Distinctly Dickensian Words and How…
Mashed Radish 