dawn.vogel | May 10, 2024
Ever wonder what words were “born” the same year as you? With Merriam-Webster’s Time Traveler, you can find out! Just pick your birth year (or a year you’re interested in) from the dropdown menu and skim through the results! The results are specifically words in print, so it’s possible that a word was in the […]
dawn.vogel | April 19, 2024
If you’re curious about the etymology of a bunch of fairly common words, check out this article from Mental Floss! There are a ton of words there, and some of them might surprise you! You might also be inspired by this etymology to write something related to the origin of one of these words, so […]
dawn.vogel | March 15, 2024
Looking for some fun facts to share at your next awkward icebreaker? How about the etymology of the word “awkward”? Find that and fourteen other words in this article about interesting word origins!
dawn.vogel | February 9, 2024
I haven’t done an etymology post in a while for Fun for Friday, so maybe it’s time to bring those posts back into rotation! This week, I’ve got an article about the eight ancient Greek words for love! Perfect as we approach Valentine’s Day! Whatever kind of love you have in your life, there’s an […]
dawn.vogel | October 18, 2019
Ever wondered why English has such unusual spellings when it comes to some words? Some of it can be blamed on etymology, and others can be blamed on false etymology. This article talks about the origins of the English language dictionary and how etymology and false etymology impacted spelling. It’s a fascinating read, and lots […]
dawn.vogel | September 20, 2019
For all of the etymology nerds out there (and I count myself among you), check out this page of word roots. It will tell you a ton about prefixes that often get tacked on to words to change their meaning, but it goes back to the roots of those prefixes. It also breaks down which […]
dawn.vogel | July 19, 2019
When you run across a word that’s really interesting, but you can’t find anything about its etymology, what do you do? Check out these seven canons of etymology for some ideas on how to approach it! While the internet provides etymologies for plenty of words, sometimes it’s fun to try to sort one out yourself, […]
dawn.vogel | June 7, 2019
So many English words are derived from words from other languages. Things like cappuccino make sense–we know that’s an Italian word when we see it. But jeans? You’d think that’s one of the most quintessentially American words there is. Guess again. It’s Italian too! This article gives the etymologies of eight words, some of which […]
dawn.vogel | May 3, 2019
The Etymology Nerd is a fantastic site for those of us who love etymology and infographics! Here, you can find a BUNCH of etymology infographics, with a focus on place names in cities. But there are plenty of other etymology infographics too, dealing with a wide variety of topics. I particularly like this infographic with […]
dawn.vogel | April 5, 2019
If you’re a fan of etymology, check out Mashed Radish’s etymology of the day! Though it doesn’t seem to have any recent updates, there are a ton of word origins explained, complete with fun pictures!
