Word-Origin Wednesday

The origin of "octopus" helps us determine the preferred plural.

"Decimal" comes from the Latin word for "tenth." Its etymological cousins include "decade," "dime," "December" and..."de... Read more

This episode features a centuries-old Greek word and a new American word. Which is which?!?!

"Whiskey" has been through some changes in its journey to English from (no surprise) Gaelic.

There's a story floating around social media that attempts to explain the origin of "shot," as in a shot of whiskey. Is ... Read more

May 1 is May Day (two words) in the United States. Don't confuse it with "mayday" (one word), the distress call for pilo... Read more

By tracing "hiatus," meaning a break, back to its ancient Proto-Indo European roots, we find it has some modern cousins ... Read more

"Penultimate" and its cousin, "ultimate," both come from Latin. As the meaning of "ultimate" shifts, poor "penultimate" ... Read more

"Put up your dukes," which has been around since at least the 1800s, is one example of Cockney rhyming slang.

The Modern English "peruse" came from the Middle English "peruse" . . . or maybe it came from French.

"Fun" has been part of the English language for centuries, but its use as an adjective is fairly recent. The comparative... Read more

"Honey" and "moon" are very old. "Honeymoon" is relatively new, meaning it's a mere 500 years old.

"Escalate" is fairly new word, and the current definition has been around since just the 1950s.

The transition from "ekename" to "nickname" is a fine demonstration of the transition from Middle English to Modern Engl... Read more

The slang term "booze" goes back many years as a noun and many more years as a verb. And what's a boozeroo?

"Honky" has been part of African American Vernacular since the late 1950s, but its origins might go back to the 19th cen... Read more

"Humble" came from French, which took it from Latin. It's always meant "lowly," although that's not how people use it to... Read more

"Nice" has had at least a dozen definitions over the last few centuries.

With Labor Day approaching, let's look at "factory" and "manufacturing." They were both borrowed from Latin.

The current popular meaning of "carnival" goes back to the 1920s, but the original meaning, which involves meat, goes ba... Read more