Like many of us, I am a big fan of and user of words. One of my most popular blog posts is 102 great words that aren’t in English but should be102 great words that aren’t in English but should be. I’m also a fan of etymology, the study of the origin of words and… Continue reading Words that are becoming extinct
Tag: Etymology
Tracing words back through time
Back in the mid 1990’s when I was studying at SOAS, one of the classes that I most enjoyed were those given by Professor Alexander Piatagorsky. He is said to have been the greatest Russian philospher of all time and one of the lesser known but greatest thinkers of the modern world. Sasha was… Continue reading Tracing words back through time
How did countries get their names?
Have you ever wondered why your country has the name it has (in the English language anyway)? How did England get its name? There are two reasons and they are possibly linked. As with countless other countries, the name is largely down to a tribe of early settlers in this case the 5th Century Angles.… Continue reading How did countries get their names?
The Ædifying use of Æ
No, I haven’t been holding down random keys on my keyboard when writing the title of this post though I dare say that it might be the only published article anywhere on the internet today that features Æ.Whilst writing an upcoming blog post, I realised that it contained an awful lot of these things “Æ”.… Continue reading The Ædifying use of Æ