List of All Articles with Tag 'etymology'

The words ‘fall’ and ‘autumn’ appeared around the same time in Great Britain, but only one of the seasonal names is still used there today.

From ‘cakewalk’ to ‘no can do,’ the origins of these common idioms and sayings are surprisingly dark.

Many bad words come and go, but these six have withstood the tests of time. Here’s how they came to be.

In the U.S., the terms ‘bison’ and ‘buffalo’ are used interchangeably—but they’re actually two different animals. Here’s how to tell them apart.

‘Of course’ is one of the most versatile ‘yes’ synonyms we have. But what does it actually mean?

When TVs became popular in the 20th century, some people started calling it ‘the tube.’ That nickname soon spawned an even catchier one: ‘the boob tube.’

Is it coleslaw or cold slaw? Deep-seated or deep-seeded? There are right answers, but the wrong ones seem kind of right, too.

The connections between words aren’t always as straightforward as the link between run and runner; often, figuring them out requires the subtle unraveling of linguistic evolution, the kind of detective work that makes etymology so fascinating.

The figurative phrase is more than 200 years old, but the obscure etymology of a 'red herring' is a fishy story that is itself a red herring.

Learning how to pronounce ‘biopic’ is one thing. Understanding why it’s such a commonly mispronounced word is another.

Why be sweltering and sunburnt when you can be swoly and birsled instead?