As we lead up to the holiday season, here’s one of our older videos, about the history and etymology of “Yule” and other winter festivals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thKqObFOw08
As we lead up to the holiday season, here’s one of our older videos, about the history and etymology of “Yule” and other winter festivals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thKqObFOw08
Early morning pondering:
At least in the USA, if someone behind you is driving too close, people often say someone is on their tail.
I’m guessing “tail” is short for “tailpipe”, and that it isn’t instead an offensive or derogatory term.
So what do we call this phenomenon if you are driving an EV?
A whole new lexicon may have to be built for operating sustainable vehicles!
The surprisingly connected origins of "stereo" and "torpedo"#etymology https://youtube.com/shorts/NPzjOHaFLpI
The surprisingly connected origins of "stereo" and "torpedo"#etymology https://youtube.com/shorts/NPzjOHa
It’s #NobelPrizeDay, marking the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. Perhaps surprisingly, our video about the origin of Gospel also tells the story of Nobel’s establishment of the prizes that bear his name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K06AqhjjbdA
Sometimes I get a #word stuck in my head so I have to go look it up
Today's is "#Jingoism"
It's #etymology is facinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism
It originated in a song sang by the #British during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877
> We don't want to fight but by #Jingo if we do
> We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too
It came to symbolize national chauvanism
The phrase "by jingo" is a "minced oath" to avoid saying "by god", so it shares a lot of meaning with "bigot"
I grew up in Malaysia, so for me, "yam" can mean any of three different things...
Colocasia esculenta a.k.a. taro, is "yam" in Malaysia
Oxalis tuberosa a.k.a oca is "yam" in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Ipomoea batatas a.k.a. kūmara a.k.a. sweet potato is "yam" in North America.
#yam #food #etymology
#Etymology
Girls employed to dance in clubs, often in short skirts & high boots, were gogo dancers.
They were named for a Hollywood club (founded 1964) called Whisky a Go Go.
Which was named after a bar in the French town of Juan-les-Pins, Whisky à GoGo.
The club got its name from a film called Whisky à Gogo.
Whisky à GoGo was the French translation of Whisky Galore, a Scottish comedy film. (Gogo means "galore.")
So you see, if you explore anything deeply enough it leads back to Scotland!
It’s #BartenderAppreciationDay! We celebrated the history and art of the bartender in our first video about cocktails: https://youtu.be/QCXdXiTQtDs
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #Cocktails
Happy #StNicholasDay! Did you know it’s also #NationalPawnbrokersDay? There’s a connection, as it turns out – which is explained in our video about the history of Christmas stockings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dryPmMO1cSA
TIL that “rape” and “rapture” share a common etymological root and I don’t know why that surprises me.
cc: @PatrickoftheG
It’s #NationalBlueJeansDay – did you know that ‘jean’ is an eponym, a word that comes from a name (in this case, a place name)? Watch our video “Costume” to learn more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzgoxKvgAr0
#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #costume #jeans
It’s Little Richard’s birthday! You can celebrate one of the foundational figures of American music by watching our video on the history of rock and roll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXGubLQcnAg #LittleRichard
Anyone know when the word "master" gained the meaning "The original of a document or of a recording"?
Was it used that way pre-audio-recording? I can't find any instances of it used that way before audio recordings of the early 20th century, but it's common enough in other senses of the word that there's too much noise (heh) for me to believe I did an OK job searching.
If not, is there a story to how it took on that meaning in the context of audio?
The surprisingly connected origins of "advent" and "diabetes". #etymology