Ranked #1
Episode 61: International Names of Germany
Episode 61: International Names of Germany
There are more etymologically different names for Germany than there are for any other European country. This is due to ... Read more
17 Dec 2018
•
30mins
Ranked #2
Episode 54: Philosophy
Episode 54: Philosophy
In the pre-modern world, philosophy referred to all forms of intellectual knowledge. Today, the discipline of philosophy... Read more
2 Sep 2018
•
14mins
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Ranked #3
Episode 3: Weird
Episode 3: Weird
Today's episode looks at the Old English sense of the word wyrd. Originally, it wasn’t an adjective, but a noun that’s c... Read more
26 Jun 2016
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17mins
Ranked #4
Episode 4 (Bonus Episode): Polysemous Words
Episode 4 (Bonus Episode): Polysemous Words
This episode explores polysemy, the phenomenon by which a single word can have multiple meanings. Why do we use the word... Read more
8 Jul 2016
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17mins
Ranked #5
Episode 30: Days of the Week (General Overview)
Episode 30: Days of the Week (General Overview)
The days of the week are part of the core vocabulary of any language. In English, their etymologies are rooted in ancien... Read more
5 Jul 2017
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22mins
Ranked #6
Episode 5: Meat
Episode 5: Meat
The word ‘meat’ once referred to all forms of solid food, not just animal flesh. In today's episode, we explore the ambi... Read more
23 Jul 2016
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21mins
Ranked #7
Episode 78: Bohemian
Episode 78: Bohemian
As a common noun, ‘bohemian’ describes an artistic, carefree lifestyle usually marked by poverty and unorthodoxy. The wo... Read more
17 Nov 2019
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25mins
Ranked #8
Episode 46: God (and His Biblical Names)
Episode 46: God (and His Biblical Names)
The word ‘God’ is not derived from the original Biblical texts. Rather, it’s a term from Germanic paganism that was adap... Read more
24 Apr 2018
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29mins
Ranked #9
Episode 77: Gothic
Episode 77: Gothic
As someone who came of age during the late 90’s, my first encounter with the word ‘gothic’ was through alternative music... Read more
20 Oct 2019
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22mins
Ranked #10
Episode 67: The American Pronunciation of R (Rhoticity)
Episode 67: The American Pronunciation of R (Rhoticity)
One of the most defining characteristics of the Standard American English accent is its ‘rhoticity,’ or the pronunciatio... Read more
31 Mar 2019
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23mins
Ranked #11
Episode 69: OK
Episode 69: OK
‘OK’ is the most spoken and most written word in the entire world. It's such a fundamental part of modern communication ... Read more
5 May 2019
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23mins
Ranked #12
Episode 80: Cannibal
Episode 80: Cannibal
The word ‘cannibal’ comes to us by way of a familiar historical figure: Christopher Columbus. The word is ultimately a H... Read more
31 Dec 2019
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30mins
Ranked #13
Episode 31: Monday/Tuesday
Episode 31: Monday/Tuesday
In today's episode, we begin our investigation of the etymologies of each day of the week. Both Monday and Tuesday are u... Read more
14 Jul 2017
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18mins
Ranked #14
Episode 32: Wednesday
Episode 32: Wednesday
In Old English, the word for Wednesday was Wodnesdaeg, which literally meant ‘Woden's day.’ It comes from a loan transla... Read more
2 Aug 2017
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28mins
Ranked #15
Episode 43: Demon
Episode 43: Demon
Greek gods. Golden Age heroes. Our conscience. Guardian angels. Evil spirits. All of these things and more were once ass... Read more
20 Feb 2018
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32mins
Ranked #16
Episode 79: Philistine
Episode 79: Philistine
In common usage, a ‘philistine’ is a derogatory term for an anti-intellectual materialist. The word derives from the anc... Read more
14 Dec 2019
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25mins
Ranked #17
Episode 76: Wife
Episode 76: Wife
In Old English, the word ‘wife’ meant woman. In fact, the word ‘woman’ derives from the word wife! Today's episode is no... Read more
1 Sep 2019
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21mins
Ranked #18
Episode 81: Idioms (General Overview)
Episode 81: Idioms (General Overview)
This episode begins a new series on the etymology of English idioms. In this general overview of idioms, we discuss why ... Read more
13 Jan 2020
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22mins
Ranked #19
Episode 6: Comfort
Episode 6: Comfort
The word ‘comfort’ once described the spiritual consolation given by God to an individual. Today, it describes commercia... Read more
5 Aug 2016
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18mins
Ranked #20
Episode 18: Culture
Episode 18: Culture
According to literary critic Raymond Williams, culture is ‘one of two or three most complicated words in the English lan... Read more
4 Jan 2017
•
30mins