Tag: word origins
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punctuation, part i
Recently, I reviewed the delightful Punctuation..? by User design. Since school is back in session, I thought a review of punctuation marks–that is, the origins of their curious names–may prove timely and instructive. Many of the names for our punctuation marks exhibit a common trend we see here on the Mashed Radish, especially for scholarly or technical words…
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school
For most students across the states, school is back in session this week–if the luxurious leisure of summer has not already ceded to new seat assignments or syllabuses. (Yes, syllabuses: I think the perfectly functional English plural is just fine.) Many teachers, however, may take a lesson from the etymology of school. School With widespread cognates, the word comes down…
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Bongo Bongo
If you’re a fan of the Mashed Radish, you’ll definitely want to fire up some episodes of Bongo Bongo. Magnet Media brought to my attention Bongo Bongo, a weekly web series from PBS Digital Studios whose host and writer, Ethan Fixell explores “the etymology and cultural impact of popular words we use.” (You had me at PBS.) It airs every Tuesday,…
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loot
Some etymologies drive the point home perfectly–and others have a way of bringing it all together. Such is the case with the word loot, which has surfaced–and I think in an insidiously racialized manner–amid the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Its origin, however, is far, far away from the American Midwest. Loot Loot derives from the Hindi lut, meaning “spoil,”…
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Ferguson
Sometimes etymologies just drive home the point perfectly. Ferguson, Missouri is named for one, William B. Ferguson, who allowed a railroad to go through his land in 1855. A train depot thereafter built there was named for him as part of the deal. The city–and now central station of an urgent debate on police militarization and racial inequality in the…
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