Do you know which country is named after the second-highest mountain in Africa? How about the nation renamed in the 20th century to better reflect the people living there? Read on to find out! Algeria: Derived from the country’s capital city of Algiers, this name comes from the Arabic al-Jazair, meaning “the islands.” This refers to […]
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How much do you know about the word origins of our furry, scaly, and winged friends? Read on to learn 10 etymologies from the animal kingdom. Camel: This beast of burden traces its linguistic heritage from the Latin camelus and Greek kamelos. The word has resonances with the Arabic jamala, which means “to bear” or
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In anticipation of the inaugural meeting of the International Network of Language Museums, we spoke with Elaine Gold, Director of the Canadian Language Museum. For over 20 years, Dr. Gold has taught a variety of courses at the University of Toronto, including Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Sociolinguistics, Languages of Canada, and Canadian English. Here, she speaks with NML
Interview with Dr. Elaine Gold, Director of the Canadian Language Museum Read More »
Text and cartoons by Linda Thompson The Philogelos, typically translated as “the joker” or “the one who loves laughter”, is an ancient Greek collection of approximately 265 jokes. Dating to the 4th or 5th century CE, it typically bears the title of the world’s oldest surviving collection of jokes. After reading Dan Crompton’s translation of
The Philogelos: Joke #94 Read More »
These meteorological phenomena draw from languages across the world while paying homage to the Proto-Indo-European tree from which so many languages were born. Typhoon: Trailing behind it a multi-ethnic and multilingual history, this word finds resonance in the Greek typon, meaning “whirlwind” and the Persian, Arabic, and Hindi tufan, designating a major cyclone or storm.
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“I don’t need to worry about getting that report in on time; my boss is very laxadaisical about deadlines.” This fun and whimsical word suffers a beating most every time someone wishes to express how so-and-so maintains a cool, measured, or flippant attitude. Why do we have such a difficult time pronouncing a word we
Occlusive Discomfort: Why We Mispronounce “Lackadaisical” Read More »
Orin Hargraves began his career in lexicography in 1991 after answering an ad in a London newspaper. Since then, he has contributed language reference material to a variety of publications, including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Merriam-Webster. Here, Orin Hargraves speaks with NML Secretary Greg Nedved about the wonderful world of
A Lexicographer’s Lot: Interview with Orin Hargraves Read More »
Text and cartoons by Linda Thompson The Philogelos, typically translated as “the joker” or “the one who loves laughter”, is an ancient Greek collection of approximately 265 jokes. Dating to the 4th or 5th century CE, it typically bears the title of the world’s oldest surviving collection of jokes. After reading Dan Crompton’s translation of
The Philogelos: Joke #154 Read More »
There seems to be no end to the elaborate ways in which words flit from language to language, work their way into our daily speech, and become so comfortable and familiar as to overshadow their surprising etymologies. Below are three more examples of just such unexpected word origins to amuse any lover of language. Jealousy
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To mark tonight’s full moon, let’s take a linguistic look at the features and phases of our planet’s familiar satellite. Gibbous Just on either side of a full moon, between 51 and 99 percent of the moon’s surface is visible during the gibbous phase. It derives its name from the Latin gibbus, meaning “hump” or
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