Etymologie, Étymologie, Etymology
US Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, les États-Unis d'Amérique, The United States of America (USA)
Wörterverzeichnisse, Vocabulaires, Lists of words
allwords
Dictionary, Language Guide, Foreign Language and Etymology
Links for Word Lovers!
(E?)(L?) http://blog.allwords.com/about/
About AllWords.com
AllWords.com was first considered in July of 1998, while we were building our first site, "allmath.com". We launched AllWords.com in January 1998. Since then we’ve strived to provide a simple, straightforward place to look up words and learn more about language sites across the web. Today we serve nearly 3/4 million visitors each month and hope that this blog and our soon to launch, AllGuides.com community will add to those numbers and help us all learn a bit more about the written and spoken word.
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Martha Barnette is author of "Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies" and "A Garden of Words".
musanim - Words of unknown origin - Word List - Wort-Liste
(E?)(L?) http://www.musanim.com/mam/unknown.html
Where do words come from? Most words are variations or combinations of words we knew already. This makes them easy to recognize and remember (and makes it easy to figure out where they came from). Some words created from scratch are coined by writers, which aids their popularization (and likewise makes it easier to determine the etymology). But most words of unknown origin have managed to make it into our vocabulary without either of these advantages.
What kind of word can make it against such odds? As you'll see in the list below, many have the advantage of onomatopoeia. But more than that, these are words that you love to know, love to hear, love to say.
I've given the dates of these words -- some from the Oxford English Dictionary, and some from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (which is where you go if you click the "definition" button); these two sources don't always agree. Some of the dates are obvious, for example, that moola, pizzazz, snazzy, jazz and tizzy are all from the early 20th century.
But there are some surprises. Who'd've guessed that things were nifty as early as 1868? Or that nobody had zits before 1966? Or that you could have taken a brief jaunt as long ago as 1570?
Or that people were nincompoops back in 1676? Actually, I can kind of believe that one ... some things never change ...
---Stephen Malinowski
(E?)(L?) http://www.nausetnewcomers.org/JustFor%20Fun/origin_of_words.htm
Here are some new Phrase Origins. How many do you know!
FEATHER IN YOUR CAP | CALLED ON THE CARPET | KING OF THE HILL | THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL | BARBECUE | PORT SIDE | CURFEW | BLURB | BOONDOCKS | BOONDOGGLE | BOOZE | BRASS TACKS | BROTHEL | BUCK | BULLS AND BEARS | BUNK | BY AND LARGE | CHARLEY HORSE | COTTON-PICKING | DOLLAR | DOPE | DAGO | DRAG RACE | DUNCE | EAVESDROP | Field Day | Five-By-Five | April Fools | GLITCH | FORTHNIGHT | Fore | acre | G.I. | Goody Two-Shoes
O
oreilly
On Interesting Words
(E?)(L?) http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/05/on_interesting.html
...
But music isn't the only interest that a lot of top nerds have: I think a lot of us are word nerds too.
I blogged earlier about "feague". Glenn Vanderburg recognized Mrs Byrne's and came back with one of his favourites:
"groak", which is the definition I remember word-for-word: "to stand watching someone eat, in the hopes they will ask you to join them."
I know Damian and Tom are classics nuts, as capable of emitting Latin as English. Damian even ported "Perl" to Latin. My favourite Tim O'Reilly story involves the day, many years ago, the dumb terminals got stuck on the Greek character set. Tim was the only one not to throw up his hands in disgust. He was quite happy putting his classics degree to good use by editing a computer book in "vi" with every letter transliterated into the Greek character set.
...
"feck" (FEK) n.
We often use negative words, quite common ones, without stopping to think that they are based on positive words that are uncommon and unfamiliar. Everyday examples are words like "impeccable", "untoward", "ruthless", "uncouth", and "disgruntled". We almost never give a thought to the positive terms in the senses that form the basis of the familiar negatives: "peccable" ("liable to error"), "toward" ("propitious"), "ruthful" ("compassionate"). So it is with "feckless", meaning "ineffective", "incompetent", "feeble", "helpless".
It must be obvious that there would be no such word unless there were also the word "feck", and there is such a word, as unfamiliar or obscure as it may be. "Feck", a mainly Scottish term that is also heard in the north of England, has a number of meanings, including "efficacy", "efficiency", and by extension, "energy", "vigor". It is deemed to be an aphetic form of "effect" ("aphetic" being the adjective from "aphesis", the linguistic phenomenon of the loss of an unstressed initial vowel or syllable). "Feck" gives rise to the adjective "feckful", meaning "vigorous", "efficient", "powerful".
In Robert Willan's List of Ancient Words at Present Used in the Mountainous District of the West Riding of Yorkshire (1811), "feckful" is defined as "strong and brawny". Hence our word "feckless"; and it all goes back to "feck". This is a different term from the slang "feck" (origin unknown) used by James Joyce in the sense of "swipe" or "pinch". In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) he describes persons who "... fecked cash out of the rector's room," and in Ulysses (1922) he writes of "fecking matches from counters." Nothing to do with the "feck" we've been discussing.
A word about "aphesis" (AF uh sis) and "aphetic" (uh FET ik):
"Aphesis" comes from the Greek, meaning "letting go", based on the verb "aphienai" ("to set free"), built of the preposition "ap-", a variant of "apo-" ("away") plus "hienai" ("to send"); cf. "aph(a)eresis" in my 1000 Most Challenging Words.
And from The Meaning of Liff:
"DOBWALLS" (pl.n.): The now hard-boiled bits of nastiness which have to be prised off crockery by hand after it has been through a dishwasher.
"GLEMENUILT" (n.): The kind of guilt which you'd completely forgotten about which comes roaring back on discovering an old letter in a cupboard.
"NAUGATUCK" (n.): A plastic sachet containing shampoo, polyfilla, etc., which is impossible to open except by biting off the corners.
As you might have guessed, there's no etymology in "Meaning of Liff" because they've taken all those things we needed names for (like the baked-on dishwasher nastiness) and applied them to placenames (which, after all, were just sitting around not doing much).
...
P
phrontistery
Phrontistery
English Word Lists and Language Resources
(E?)(L?) http://www.phrontistery.info/
"phrontistery" FRON-tis-te-ri, n a "thinking-place" [Gr "phrontisterion" from "phrontistes" a "thinker", from "phroneein" "to think"; applied by Aristophanes to the school of Socrates
(griech. "phronein" = "denken", "empfinden")
(E?)(L?) http://www.phrontistery.info/
Welcome to the Phrontistery! I'm your host, Forthright. Since 1996, I have compiled word lists in order to spread the joy of the English language. Here, you will find the International House of Logorrhea (an online dictionary of obscure and rare words), the Compendium of Lost Words (a compilation of ultra-rare forgotten words), and many other glossaries, word lists, essays, and other language and etymology resources. If you have a question, comment, addition, or suggestion, feel free to e-mail me. Happy word-hunting!
Language Resources
International House of Logorrhea
Compendium of Lost Words
2 and 3-Letter Scrabble Words
Lipograms
FAQ
Pronunciation Polls
Word Finding Tips
Linguistic Disquisitions
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Language Links
Numerals
Glossographia
Numerical Prefixes
Numerical Notation Bibliography
Paleolithic Notation Bibliography
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Numeration Books
Glossaries
Adjectives of Relation
Bearing and Carrying
Carriages and Chariots
Causation and Formation
Colour Terms
Contour Lines
Dance Styles
Divination and Fortune-Telling
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Fabric and Cloth
Feeding and Eating
Fighting and Combat
Forms and Shapes
Forms of Government
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Forthright's Forsoothery
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Isms
Killers and Killing
Latin Adverbs and Prepositions
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Pretenders and Dabblers
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Phrontistery: Origins and Symbols
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Sottisier
The Ingenious Internet
Archives
Erstellt: 2010-02
princeton
WordNet
Lexical Database for the English Language
Wordnet reference system
Cognitive Science Laboratory Princeton University
(E?)(L?) http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
About WordNet | Use WordNet online | Download | Frequently Asked Questions | Related projects | WordNet documentation | WordNet statistics | Publications | License and commercial use | Contact, Report
About WordNet
WordNet® is a large lexical database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. The resulting network of meaningfully related words and concepts can be navigated with the browser. WordNet is also freely and publicly available for download. WordNet's structure makes it a useful tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing.
...
(E?)(L?) http://www.questia.com/
(E?)(L?) http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59505424
BY GEORGE H. MCKNIGHT, PH. D. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK : : 1923 : : LONDON
Contributors: George H. McKnight - author. Publisher: D. Appleton. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1923.
449 Seiten online.
Zu jedem Kapitel gibt es kleine Appetithäppchen.
Questia offers free access to the first page of every chapter in a book and the first paragraph of each article for your review.
Unter "This Week's FREE Books - Click below to read the entire book" findet man jede Woche ein Werk, zum kostenlosen Zugriff.
Click on a chapter to start reading.
-Title Page
-Preface
-Contents
-Chapter I: Standard English
-Chapter II: Dialect
-Chapter III: American English
-Chapter IV: Slang
-Chapter V: Technical Words
-Chapter VI: The Native Element in the English Vocabulary
-Chapter VII: Borrowed Teutonic Elements
-Chapter VIII: Classical Element
-Chapter IX: The French Element
-Chapter X: Varied Sources
-Chapter XI: Blending of the Various Elements
-Chapter XII: New Creations and Compounds
-Chapter XIII: Folk-Etymology
-Chapter XIV: Some Figures of Syntax
-Chapter XV: Tropes
-Chapter XVI: Figures of Similarity
-Chapter XVII: Figures of Contiguity
-Chapter XVIII: Generalization and Specialization
-Chapter XIX: Euphemism and Hyperbole
-Chapter XX: Degeneration and Elevation
-Chapter XXI: Words and ArchÆology
-Chapter XXII: Words and Culture History
-Chapter XXIII: Words and Romance
-Chapter XXIV: Place-Names
-Chapter XXV: Personal Names
-Chapter XVII: Choice of Words
-Chapter XXVII: Words Past and Present
-Word Index
-Subject Index
questia - The Wonder of Words
(E?)(L?) http://www.questia.com/
(E?)(L?) http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=16234663
An Introduction to Language for Everyman
by ISAAC GOLDBERG, Ph.D.
D. APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY INCORPORATED NEW YORK 1938 LONDON
Contributors: Isaac Goldberg - author. Publisher: D. Appleton & Company. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1938.
485 Seiten online.
Zu jedem Kapitel gibt es kleine Appetithäppchen.
Questia offers free access to the first page of every chapter in a book and the first paragraph of each article for your review.
Unter "This Week's FREE Books - Click below to read the entire book" findet man jede Woche ein Werk, zum kostenlosen Zugriff.
Click on a chapter to start reading.
-Title Page
-Introduction
-Contents
-Foreword
-The Wonder of Words
-Chapter II: The Infancy of Language
-Chapter III: Sound Becomes Sense
-Chapter IV: The "Gesture" and the "Love" Theories
-Chapter V: Imagery and Metaphor
-Chapter VI: The Word as Magic
-Chapter VII: "A Local Habitation and a Name"
-Chapter VIII: Child and Woman in Language
-Chapter IX: How Sounds Are Made
-Chapter X: How Sounds Change -- and Perhaps Why
-Chapter XI: "Philologers. . ."
-Chapter XII: Janus Words
-Chapter XIII: How Meanings Change
-Chapter XIV: Word-History, or Etymology
-Chapter XV: What Are We Talking About? or Applied Semantics
-Chapter XVI: What is Grammar?
-Chapter XVII: Some Problems of Style
-Chapter XVIII: Purism
-Chapter XIX: Languages, Races, and Cultures
-Chapter XX: From Speech to Writing
-Chapter XXI: Forward from Babel
-Chapter XXII: To-Morrow
-Instead of a Bibliography
-Subject Index
-Word Index
questia - Unusual Words and How They Came About
(E?)(L?) http://www.questia.com/
(E?)(L?) http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8948096
By EDWIN RADFORD
PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY New York
Contributors: Edwin Radford - author. Publisher: Philosophical Library. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1946. Page Number: *.
318 Seiten online. - Allerdings sind zu allen Wörtern Hinweise zur Herkunft zu finden.
Zu jedem Kapitel gibt es kleine Appetithäppchen.
Questia offers free access to the first page of every chapter in a book and the first paragraph of each article for your review.
Unter "This Week's FREE Books - Click below to read the entire book" findet man jede Woche ein Werk, zum kostenlosen Zugriff.
Questia offers free access to the first page of every chapter in a book and the first paragraph of each article for your review.
Unter "This Week's FREE Books - Click below to read the entire book" findet man jede Woche ein Werk, zum kostenlosen Zugriff.
One of my many fun ventures has been to see if I could find certain non-standard words that I remember knowing as a child. I was not raised on anything but standard English (the only English my parents, neighbors and grandparents knew). Yet for some reason I took for granted that certain words were standard when in fact they were not, and despite the fact I had not heard anyone use them. As I got older, I went looking for where those words came from. Even the Oxford Dictionary didn't have most of them. I still haven't found about a third of them, but the others proved to be related to various Scandinavian, Lowland-Scot, East Anglian, Yorkshire and Lowland-Germanic languages or dialects. (My suspicion is that so are the others, but I haven't found them yet.) And I still have no idea where I got them from.
While I was out looking, I gathered some other words that sounded great, had a rich heritage, or had a special unique meaning. This includes words with certain letters or combinations. Such as
'qu-', (with origins)
'kn-', 'gn-' (with origins)
'tw-' (with origins)
S + consonant, and (with origins)
'-imp', (with origins)
A few of these are commonly understood but rarely used; most are rarely understood. Feel free to use them; none are my own inventions. (That would defeat my original childhood purpose.) A larger battery of words are also available for you to look through :
A through O (with origins)
P through Z (with origins)
a proto-Germanic wordlist (quite preliminary)
S
T
takeourword (tak)
Take Our Word for It
Word List
Wort-Liste
Words to the Wise Our world-famous question and answer column.
Curmudgeons' Corner Gripes and grumbles from the usual pedants.
Sez You . Wherein we graciously permit challenges to our profound erudition.
Laughing Stock Funny stuff we occasionally stumble across.
Mailing list Weekly previews of the Latest Edition, plus notification of other changes to the site.
The Etymology Book Store Here find loads of books for sale on etymology and related topics.
BLOG The TOWFI Blog TOWFI staffers Melanie and Mike post information on the site and etymological issues, and you can participate in the discussions!
The TOWFI T-shirt Store Help stamp out netymology by purchasing a TOWFI t-shirt or other goody.
Yes, we're on Facebook! We will post announcements on Facebook about new issues and other bits of information. TOWFI fans can also engage in discussions there!
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Issues 176 to the penultimate issue
Click the items in the right side of each table from Issue 110 to present to read them.
Issue 208 Spotlight How to speak Arabic - and not know it
Words to the Wise cool beans, Mass, scoop (journalism), out of pocket, yeehaw
10/30/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Guestmudgeon Robert has some issues...er...problems
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock No one is above suspicion
Issue 207 Spotlight Sensational Etymologies
Words to the Wise poodle, beagle, corgi, Pomeranian, mastiff
10/14/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Between her and you
Letters to the Editors various
Issue 206 Spotlight Saints and days
Words to the Wise damn your eyes/the torpedoes, at sixes and sevens/nines, abigail, upshot
9/19/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Several Pet Peeves
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock Things that make you say, "Hmmmm!"
Issue 205 Spotlight The low-down on high tea
Words to the Wise hussy, puma/cougar/mountain lion, daftar, fixing
8/31/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Several Pet Peeves
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock Things that make you say, "Hmmmm!"
Issue 204 Spotlight Clouds
Words to the Wise bootylicious, ye, bouillon/bullion, riding the rail
3/15/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Back Off
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock Restrooms and Physiology
Issue 203 Spotlight Drawing (or Drawring, if you like!)
Words to the Wise ings, dumpling, pee, pecan
2/28/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Curmudgeon Malcolm Tent is almost hysterical over historical
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock New breeds of dog
Issue 202 Spotlight The Danes
Words to the Wise the @ sign, sir, sign (singular), cob (steal)
2/14/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Guestmudgeon Lynn Nordhagen hates it when people pour...
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock Head Start to Misspelling?
Issue 201 Spotlight The Outdoors
Words to the Wise individual, The Who members' surnames, blog, mercaptan
1/30/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Curmudgeon Malcolm Tent gets it to a T
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock The MENSA Invitational?
Issue 200 Spotlight Embrace Your Braces
Words to the Wise hybrid, mule, bush league, sage, bigot
1/15/06
Curmudgeons' Corner Guestmudgeon Terry Berg complains about enverbing nouns
Letters to the Editors various
Laughing Stock What about the 22th and 23th floors?
Words to the Wise: pshaw, pot shots, garage, lagniappe
6/28/02
Curmudgeons' Corner longing for shorter words
Letters to the Editors Old Dart, qualifying absolutes, Latin plurals, dreckly (directly), to no end?, man words, alittle alot, ESL (and other) errors, cotton on to cotton, Jewish haikus source, more quarters, more aggravation, more lambaste
Laughing Stock Decisions, decisions!
Issue 160 Spotlight quarters
Words to the Wise: on the lam, quarters, [death] throes, men in female terms, indigenous
6/20/02
Curmudgeons' Corner disembarking
Letters to the Editors curses, oaths, etc., dosh again, presently, irregardless and unique, more enfeebled verbs, America from the Templars?, different from, than or to?
Laughing Stock Striking faces (ouch!)
Issue 159 Spotlight swinging in the hammock
Words to the Wise: cult and occult, inventory and invent, Jesus Christ, fiddle sticks
6/13/02
Curmudgeons' Corner available to avail
Letters to the Editors TOWFI serendipity, fond memories, cockney, more doughnuts, actually about actually, unmentionables, terminology
Laughing Stock Jewish mothers' haiku
Issue 158 Spotlight getting lost in the dictionary
Words to the Wise: choad and qif, diaspora, brown nose, doughnut
5/16/02
Curmudgeons' Corner restaurant-speak
Letters to the Editors impacted, push-back, highway-speak, actually, Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway, fan mail
Laughing Stock More news
Issue 157 Spotlight now
Words to the Wise: anal retentive, bangs, diaper, jackdaw, best thing since sliced bread
5/9/02
Curmudgeons' Corner what was your name?
Letters to the Editors cricket, back to boxty, yet more on highways and definite articles, Normans, nouns to verbs, Old English in the Bible, a link
Laughing Stock The News
Issue 156 Spotlight damn foreigners
Words to the Wise: reckless/wreck, English history, boxty, [what in] Sam Hill
5/2/02
Curmudgeons' Corner nouns as verbs
Letters to the Editors much more on definite articles and highway names, sign language, six ways from Sunday, we asked for it
Laughing Stock The $25 car
Issue 155 Spotlight Where the wild things are
Words to the Wise: buck/butt naked, purlieu, dogsbody,
4/25/02
Curmudgeons' Corner ten years ago...
Letters to the Editors Germans on "Berliner", hell bent for leather revisited, classical plurals again, to input or not, vending one's spleen, definite articles and highway names
Laughing Stock A hostile hostel?
Issue 154 Spotlight h-e-double-hocky-sticks
Words to the Wise: hell bent for leather, Pyrrhic victory, philanderer, rathskeller
4/18/02
Curmudgeons' Corner input/inputted
Letters to the Editors love apples, tomatoes, garlic, road apples, lobscouse, blind scouse, alumni, classical plurals, more berliner, irony, the last words on eggplant
Laughing Stock Venting [one's] spleen
Issue 153 Spotlight apples
Words to the Wise: take to task, peruse, celestial, kiln
4/11/02
Curmudgeons' Corner the state of Classical education
Letters to the Editors New Zealand slang; more "shorten and add y"; speccy; poor Margaret, espresso, pommy, more terms for "u-turn", congradulations, more congradulations, yet more congradulations, Berliner, more inhabitant terms, scouse, Teeries, Ramsbottom
Laughing Stock A serious health hazard
Issue 152 Spotlight inhabitants
Words to the Wise: john (toilet), awhile, espresso, pom/pommy
4/4/02
Curmudgeons' Corner congradulate the gratuates
Letters to the Editors censorship and other stuff; Australian vernacular; Laughing Stock; clichés, dashboard, curmudgeon merge
Laughing Stock Another groaner
Issue 151 Spotlight Personal matters (oh me, oh my!)
Words to the Wise: renaissance, Virgin Islands
3/29/02
Curmudgeons' Corner expressing espresso
Letters to the Editors might could; shorten and add y; fubar revisited; boogers again, dashboard, phrase coinage, *skep-
Words to the Wise: charleyhorse, cloth, coined the phrase, spats, dashboard
3/22/02
Curmudgeons' Corner coining phrases
Letters to the Editors the N word; the N word again; orris root; more on The Women's Dictionary
Laughing Stock More groaners (puns)
Issue 149 Spotlight Middle Earth
Words to the Wise: hymen/hymn, booger/bogy, alewife, happy hour, snafu
3/15/02
Curmudgeons' Corner palindrome or not?
Letters to the Editors puns continue; enjoying TOWFI; sitar and guitar; thank you
Laughing Stock A woman's dictionary
Issue 148 Spotlight The fundamentals
Words to the Wise: America, shamus, radical, logphile/philologist, synecdoche
3/7/02
Curmudgeons' Corner What he said
Letters to the Editors crossing fingers; ID id; eurology; altar horns; corners; perch pun; punctuation, more IDs , words, in connection with
Laughing Stock very punny again!
Issue 147 Spotlight horns, corns and corners
Words to the Wise: Mrs., cross your fingers, divide and conquer, silkie
1/23/02
Curmudgeons' Corner those that
Letters to the Editors the; more au jus; various topics; Cretan/cretin; spicy; euronating, definitions
Laughing Stock very punny!
Issue 146 Spotlight Dwellings
Words to the Wise: bitch, volcano, pizza
1/16/02
Curmudgeons' Corner coulda been a contender
Letters to the Editors daemon's evolution; more au jus; more on rabbits; more misacronyms; golf again; more on peppers; huh?
Laughing Stock sounds increditable to us
Issue 145 Spotlight More Hot stuff
Words to the Wise: take the Mickey, whipping boy, Welsh rarebit/rabbit, seven seas
1/9/02
Curmudgeons' Corner on a
Letters to the Editors hot words, giddy up; Gilbert and Sullivan; several points; misunderstood clichés; Aunty Curmudgeon; he's disorientated; golf again
Laughing Stock Where excellence is not an option
Issue 144 Spotlight Hot stuff
Words to the Wise: haw and gee, trauma
1/2/02
Curmudgeons' Corner and etcetera
Letters to the Editors intensive purposes, jigs; yogh; more on church; article abuse
Laughing Stock Camping in water
Holiday Issue Spotlight Holiday Words (from a previous issue)
Words to the Wise: rain check, pray/prayer, pagan, church, caribou
12/19/01
Curmudgeons' Corner for all intensive purposes?
Letters to the Editors Tagalog, Tagalog two; Tagalog three; an old octopus revisited; Richardsnary; Wynn
Laughing Stock No parking, indeed!
Issue 143 Spotlight cant
Words to the Wise: investment, consonant and vowel, -ber, get the hell out of Dodge
12/12/01
Curmudgeons' Corner flaunt vs. flount
Letters to the Editors corundum, Tagalog plurals; lost letters and Gaul; French/Welsh; more on Gaul; double laugh; Icelandic license plate; Websense makes sense; Russian in number
Laughing Stock Are they slow, or should we slow?
Issue 142 Spotlight lost letters
Words to the Wise: pornography, Gaul, aa, quenelle
11/28/01
Curmudgeons' Corner lay and lie
Letters to the Editors Websense, Apostrophe Protection Society, Tagalog plurals; animated curmudgeon, red and mimimum?, bad syntax, Mother Goose in French (sort of), human and earth in Hebrew
Laughing Stock large women and manual automatic doors
Issue 141 Spotlight gemstones again
Words to the Wise: called on the carpet, odds, sport, human
11/14/01
Curmudgeons' Corner who's at work
Letters to the Editors collective vs. plural nouns, translation, please, keeping up with the back issues
Laughing Stock how is that supposed to work?
Issue 140 Spotlight gemstones
Words to the Wise: red letter day, Farsi, wave, pickle
11/8/01
Curmudgeons' Corner more better
Letters to the Editors collective nouns, more on mondegreens, death and the sickle, "better" dictionary, they're just wrong
Laughing Stock but how could he fit in there?
Issue 139 Spotlight evil
Words to the Wise: goblin, cemetery, zombie, ectoplasm
10/31/01
Curmudgeons' Corner sentence adverbs
Letters to the Editors very punny, waffling about wlaffe, wl- pronunciantion, no, not more fonts!, spooling Miss Steaks, go slow and read it slowly, responses, more merry malapropisms, Arabic anthrax
Laughing Stock How does one close a waterfall?
Issue 138 Spotlight wl...
Words to the Wise: anthrax, afghan, midnight oil
10/24/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Losing -ly
Letters to the Editors German bonza, curmudgeonly pride, renege spelling, bad or missing links, spell check verse, wl- words, malapropisms, Cantonese
Laughing Stock Well, which is it?
Issue 137 Spotlight Topical Items
Words to the Wise: renege/renegue, discombobulate, bonzer/bonza, midwife
10/17/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Jive for jibe, tact for tack, etc.
Letters to the Editors Notarikon in Hebrew, language links, problems with page two, cats and dogs, Hebrew and Persian, Aunty Curmudgeon, hats and cattle, Ali quotation, how to fix font problems, browser environment and back issue snags, wl- words, quadratic help, mnemonics and a joke
Laughing Stock Must've been a very long tendon
Issue 136 Spotlight Arabs, Afghans, Muslims and Islan
Words to the Wise: muggles, notarikon, roster, all fur, no nickers
10/3/01
Curmudgeons' Corner A regime of regimens
Letters to the Editors Peachy and more, more peaches, possessives, more data, Richard Lederer sez..., spelling stumpers, more on font problems, infamous Isabella, metonym?, mistakes, curmudgeons and anti-curmudgeons, we're ok
Laughing Stock How to give a pill to a cat
Issue 135 Spotlight Dukes, and Eponyms
Words to the Wise: bank holiday, contractions, just deserts, idiot
8/28/01
Curmudgeons' Corner The data are in
Letters to the Editors It's not genitive, ginger peachy keen, tera, zetta and yotta, TOWFI display fonts, tough ones to spell, I/me usage
Laughing Stock Now how many doughnuts is that?
Issue 134 Spotlight Our Garden (again)
Words to the Wise: stock still, petabyte/terabyte/exabyte, mortgage, minutes, wrong side of the tracks
8/15/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Me me me or I I I?
Letters to the Editors A rhetorical question, a font of fonts, refreshing the site, Lucy, Utah's seagulls, Soylent Green/Soilent Green, difficult to spell
Laughing Stock See water. See water run!
Issue 133 Spotlight Notes from our garden
Words to the Wise: deep six, consulate/embassy, tapas, teenager, biscuit/bisquit
8/8/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Insured assurance
Letters to the Editors Back issue issue, logic vs. evidence, hell in a handbasket I, hell in a handbasket II, gruntle
Laughing Stock Sweeney Todd redux
Issue 132 Spotlight On the Money
Words to the Wise: earshot/hark/hearken, midget/dwarf, Suffolk Punch, monk, meander
8/1/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Looking forward
Letters to the Editors begging rhetoric, our search engine, Dutch correction
Laughing Stock Proofreed your ads
Issue 131 Spotlight Bad Etymologist! No Biscuit!
Words to the Wise: double dog dare, steward, g-string, (run) amok
7/25/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Beg the question
Letters to the Editors Redundant redundancy, thanks, so punny, apostrophemania, Palm OS dictionaries
Laughing Stock Nobody cares about Mom?
Issue 130 Spotlight English Ancestry (a repeat of a previous column)
Words to the Wise: throw one's hat into the ring, mistletoe, Hip hip! Hurray!, hold (down) the fort, blue blood
7/18/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Irritatingly redundant
Letters to the Editors Meanings vs. etymology, several comments, Kilkenny cats, Old Testament child-rearing, jazz revisited
Laughing Stock The true meaning of words (?!)
Issue 129 Spotlight Animation
Words to the Wise: rebel, daemon, cardinal
7/10/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Digitally recorded error
Letters to the Editors New mailing list, southern hemisphere readers unite!, Peter Pan an etymologist?, all monds, ah-monds, Anglo-centric views?, cats is cats, jewfish no more, Persian in Hebrew
Laughing Stock A w(h)ine joke
Issue 128 Spotlight Cats
Words to the Wise: caught red-handed, factotum, scrod, crayon, on tenterhooks
6/26/01
Curmudgeons' Corner An L of a time
Letters to the Editors: more flies, Persian influence, uptalk, ichthyetymology, more eggs and plants
Laughing Stock The birth of a word
Issue 127 Spotlight Nightmares, death and monsters
Words to the Wise: jewfish, scoop, natty, fly (zipper), gestalt
6/19/01
Curmudgeons' Corner heighth?
Letters to the Editors eggplant in Hindi and German, more would, Texan for W, more for Macs, more on merkin, old oxenfree
Laughing Stock what happens when you use an online translator
Issue 126 Spotlight Merkins, grimalkins, and Maid Marians
Words to the Wise: attorney, joy, vice-/vise, aubergine, Mexico
6/12/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Guess what?
Letters to the Editors fahrt, Getafix, dogleg, petard
Words to the Wise: glamour, warlock, hysteria, yonder/iterations/reiterate, gams
6/5/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Holded up?
Letters to the Editors Crisis in Language, fart, he found us!, Polish help, Wells Fargo
Laughing Stock Dumfart
Issue 124 Spotlight Frequentatives
Words to the Wise: Dough, fart, hiccup, moot, piggyback
5/29/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Vegetarian chickens
Letters to the Editors Poetry for Cats, French knee cognates, trunks and boots, Wells Fargo, not exactly macaronic, false friends , fletcher flowers, geranium vs. pelargonium
Laughing Stock All Your Base Are Belong to Us
Issue 123 Spotlight Flow and fly
Words to the Wise: Trunk, smarmy, pay attention/ heed/ a visit, remote, knee
5/22/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Free for $19.95
Letters to the Editors Loser, Latin poems, more Latin poems, yet more Latin poems, back issue format, Hindi and English
Laughing Stock Hamlet's Cat Soliloquy
Issue 122 Spotlight Skirt, shirt, skit and shinola
Words to the Wise: pedigree, butter, green room, haywire, doula
5/15/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Nuptual?
Letters to the Editors Latin poetry, more w, county, peppers and wolves, curmudgeoning in German
Laughing Stock Mary Jane in Idaho
Issue 121 Spotlight rank
Words to the Wise: cash, hullabaloo, titanic, the letter y, the letter w
5/8/01
Curmudgeons' Corner if I would have been
Letters to the Editors, UFO a ufo?, Dubyonics, Huxley and Darwin
Laughing Stock A true story (though not etymological)
Issue 120 Spotlight dictionaryisms
Words to the Wise: agnostic, loophole, best man, tantalize, several
5/1/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Whatever and whenever
Letters to the Editors humdinger, a French home, censorship, translations, other others, George III
Words to the Wise: lock, stock and barrel, high jinks, bun/hot cross bun
4/17/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Ironic isn't ironic anymore
Letters to the Editors Ishtar, French gender, more Latin plurals, 10,000, spurious etymology, pepperpot, Spanish, and New Amsterdam
Laughing Stock Yes + Yes = No?
Issue 117 Spotlight Compost
Words to the Wise: peter out, Buffalo, imp, sooterkin/zooterkins, lorry
3/13/01
Curmudgeons' Corner Where have all the female words gone?
Letters to the Editors Monday in Japanese, crocs of saffron, I'll give you 40 does for that saddle, Colombian gestures, two cents for a stadia rod, Spanish linguist to the rescue, going to the circus with Kate, more cat skinning
Laughing Stock Don't call, it'll be gone by now
Issue 116 Spotlight
Words to the Wise: kudos, cobweb, conjugate, spring, more than one way to skin a cat
3/6/01
Curmudgeons' Corner He's an-al and an-noyed
Letters to the Editors Arabic Spanish, Honday in Mungarian, god words, dropping d's, broads, and broads again, evil apple pancakes, time travel, co-curmudgeons, battle-axitude, troopers and e-mail, Latin rules?, Christianity and Chinese
Laughing Stock what a shocker
Issue 115 Spotlight days of the week...Tuesday
Words to the Wise: in the doldrums, Adam's apple, trooper/trouper, battle-axe, broad
2/27/01
Curmudgeons' Corner It's a phenomena to myself
Letters to the Editors Hungarian Mondays, more Albuquerque, what about the dunce cap?, more on couln'nt and prescriptivism
Laughing Stock time travel
Issue 114 Spotlight days of the week...Monday
Words to the Wise: thalweg, Albuquerque, randy, josh, entree
2/20/01
Curmudgeons' Corner couln'nt
Letters to the Editors p's and q's, on curmudgeonry, whet your whistle?
Laughing Stock lethal rolling pins
Issue 113 Spotlight netymology
Words to the Wise: easy as pie, crud, handle, yum/yummy, geoduck
2/13/01
Curmudgeons' Corner a coal forecast
Letters to the Editors brass monkey skeptics, monkeys on cruise liners, Finnish, morning star deities
Laughing Stock Husbands and varmints
Issue 112 Spotlight table manners
Words to the Wise: cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, bring home the bacon/chew the fat, catapult, Russia, lame duck
2/6/01
Curmudgeons' Corner piquing one's curiosity
Letters to the Editors we helped, Hebrew for "morning star", git, spell checkers, more gender vs. sex, the -orama craze, scab revisited
Laughing Stock What language does your dog speak?
Issue 111 Spotlight sticks and stones
Words to the Wise: quark, git, arrogant, alien, steal one's thunder
1/30/01
Curmudgeons' Corner taking a peek at pique
Letters to the Editors vegetarian derivation?, vegetarian joke, apt names, lingua franca, more eggnogs, Lucifer returns?, we can help, we can help Mac users, too
Laughing Stock What language does your dog speak?
Issue 110 Spotlight whales
Words to the Wise: migraine, universe, eggnog, vegetarian, Torpenhow (hillhillhill)
1/23/01
Curmudgeons' Corner this or next weekend?
Letters to the Editors posh, this/next weekend, ghetto blaster, more on obfuscation, naked what?, welcome back, error policy
Words to the Wise: hanky-panky and hokey-pokey, trot line, post haste, pompous, three sheets to the wind
9/11/00
Curmudgeons' Corner US spelling
Letters to the Editors More children's rhymes, hosey, Agent 99, braziers, sphagnum moss, heraldry,
Laughing Stock "No Man is an Ireland" - political boners
Issue 99 Spotlight swamp things
Words to the Wise: crony, bumbershoot, spank, bimbo, English from Basque
8/28/00
Curmudgeons' Corner Nutritious vs. nutritional and others
Letters to the Editors Sexual slang in music, punny readers, sailing details, Shakespeare's jacks, more dibs synonyms, commas revisited
Laughing Stock Dining in style
Issue 98 Spotlight the word-of-all-trades part II
Words to the Wise: dosh, creole, fair to middlin', squid, c*nt
8/21/00
Curmudgeons' Corner Growing a minimum horn
Letters to the Editors 1500s is 16th century, commas, bagging, meddlin' in middlin', jackets are old, jacks, and eight a's!
Laughing Stock Spam from Russia with Love
Issue 97 Spotlight the word-of-all-trades
Words to the Wise: humongous, soda, dibbs, fugue, bees' knees
8/14/00
Curmudgeons' Corner from between
Letters to the Editors, fuzzy wuzzy, oronyms
Laughing Stock Re-re-re-translations
Issue 96 Spotlight Mother of all tongues
Words to the Wise: library, colony, sorcerer, ex
8/7/00
Curmudgeons' Corner wherefore
Letters to the Editors English pronuciation, oronyms
Laughing Stock Spam from Russia with Love
Issue 95 Spotlight Edible words
Words to the Wise: curmudgeon, fix, hootenanny, soul, milquetoast
7/31/00
Letters to the Editors virgin, plurals, high tea, Lithuanian, injuries, Pali
Laughing Stock English as she are spoke
Issue 94 Spotlight The crippled creep
Words to the Wise: surgery/chirurgery, supper/dinner, dog days, washer, mischievous
7/24/00
Curmudgeons' Corner prepositions
Letters to the Editors virgin, more strange English, sexual slang, plurals
Laughing Stock Children's books
Issue 93 Spotlight English Ancestry Part II
Words to the Wise: fork, pew, screaming meemies, preterist, troilism
7/17/00
Curmudgeons' Corner depluralization
Letters to the Editors honky, poont*ng, noise words, virgin
Laughing Stock English is a stupid language
Issue 92 Spotlight English ancestry
Words to the Wise: siege, fell swoop, star (person), virgin, right track, poont*ng
7/10/00
Curmudgeons' Corner noise words
Letters to the Editors more Dutch, long lost friends, clapping, honky
Laughing Stock steamed children
Issue 91 Spotlight veg-edibles part II
Words to the Wise: loagy, sublime, clap, honky, crestfallen
6/19/00
Curmudgeons' Corner plural mispronunciation
Letters to the Editors more on product labels, belladonna returns, laughed so hard he flooded!
Laughing Stock George W. Bush, in his own words
Issue 90 Spotlight veg-edibles
Words to the Wise: thumb, eclipse, vitamin, to rare, scouse
6/19/00
Curmudgeons' Corner convincing and persuasive
Letters to the Editors more on product labels, to know you is to know you, Persian, not Arabic!, more on Azazel, it's a piece of cake, a name for the unnamed, hacking the etymology of hacker
Laughing Stock Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn
Issue 89 Spotlight wise acres
Words to the Wise: nadir, intact, panic, piece of cake
6/5/00
Curmudgeons' Corner the unnamed pet peeve
Letters to the Editors ollie ollie oxen free, Egypt, sending TOWFI to a friend
Laughing Stock Instruction (or is that DEstruction?) labels
Issue 88 Spotlight a little knowledge
Words to the Wise: chat, slavery
5/30/00
Curmudgeons' Corner role models
Letters to the Editors goats (Azazel), oxen (ollie ollie oxen free), mornings, Japanese, a fool's cap
Issue 87 Spotlight minced oaths
Words to the Wise: get one's goat, moonshine, naked as a jaybird, nihilism, ollie ollie oxen free, foolscap, Krishna, in the black/red
5/22/00
Curmudgeons' Corner hopefully it will not be momentarily
Letters to the Editors plural and not so plural possessive, yesterday in The Netherlands, back issues formula, reaching Indians, a suggested link
Issue 86 Spotlight Japanese words in English
Words to the Wise: Aryan, noodle (food), doozy, yesterday
5/15/00
Curmudgeons' Corner feral insurance companies
Letters to the Editors sesquipedalianism, it's in the roasting, so is one Jones a Jone?, Surdez you jest
Issue 85 Spotlight beer
Words to the Wise: nag, (bill of) lading, cobbler, nit, jingoism
5/8/00
Curmudgeons' Corner epicentrism
Letters to the Editors brine whine, a bitter taste, a German churl, lemoned water, in-store free-for-all, quanta, reusing absent items, corponyms, language anarchy
Issue 84 Spotlight blood-sucking parasites
Words to the Wise: ectoplasm, quay, heinous, quirk, churlish
5/1/00
Curmudgeons' Corner bitter words
Letters to the Editors more bunnies, more quantum leaps, whither the sticky wicket?, Indiastan, an edible noggin, it's Odin Tew you
Issue 83 Spotlight promotional materials
Words to the Wise: Indian, deadbeat, noodle, destiny
4/24/00
Curmudgeons' Corner close to the edge
Letters to the Editors A disgruntled anti-commercialite, write about Dutch wife and get chastised re gender!, voilà - a viola, down on the Welsh
Issue 82 Spotlight Holy Spirit
Words to the Wise: due south, sticky wicket, wet nurse, fantastic, podzol and chernozem
4/17/00
Curmudgeons' Corner Realty is reality
Letters to the Editors British pronunciation, more rabbits, French letters and cor anglaise, we're almost always right, and double Dutch alumni
Issue 81 Spotlight the Easter Bunny
Words to the Wise: asymptote, first/ second/third, [dog] pound, shepherd, poverty
4/10/00
Curmudgeons' Corner American as apple pie
Letters to the Editors Dutch terms, cricket, grim, and foundering citizens
Issue 80 Spotlight those darned foreigners
Words to the Wise: fusion and fission, nigh/near/next, along and belong, feudal, jewelry
4/3/00
Curmudgeons' Corner light years away
Letters to the Editors grim reaper returns, the etymology of Sahara, and comments on city words
Issue 79 Spotlight city words
Words to the Wise: brawl, puce, butt (heads), virtually
3/27/00
Curmudgeons' Corner associate
Letters to the Editors alfa?, more dudes, more African words, don't knock La Brea Tar Pits, a NASAism, redundancies return, the grim truth about the Grim Reaper, gorilla girls
Issue 78 Spotlight African words, part 2
Words to the Wise: agent, hearse and rehearse, Patagonia, ruthless, Grim Reaper
3/20/00
Curmudgeons' Corner literally
Letters to the Editors Tenses, phonetic alphabet, desert islands, more redundancies
Issue 77 Spotlight African words, part 1
Words to the Wise: stroke, a bone to pick, roger and wilco, cold feet, Teutonic
3/13/00
Curmudgeons' Corner can vs. may
Letters to the Editors Cowboy slang, more redundancies, dories, Thruber, and an old issue
Issue 76 Spotlight some phrases
Words to the Wise: ream (of paper), blue chip (stocks), dude, cowlick, hunky dory
3/6/00
Curmudgeons' Corner rice paddies
Letters to the Editors British hospitality; African roots; Diego clarification; spurious dago origin; thanks from Korea; more on waxy derivations
Words to the Wise: sincere, redneck, polecat, -ica, hospitality
2/28/00
Letters to the Editors The path of kwent- to "path-"; snobbish vs. style; a glutinous definition; dago revisited;
Issue 74 Spotlight animals as food
Words to the Wise: agglutinate, tarnation, dago, gadget, -path/path-
2/21/00
Curmudgeons' Corner nuclear errors
Letters to the Editors a week of praise
Issue 73 Spotlight eros
Words to the Wise: page, ardent, brouhaha and hubbub, nemesis, money grubber
2/14/00
Curmudgeons' Corner early
Letters to the Editors more on fishmongers, Life in the 1500s, barristers, and refutation
Issue 72 Spotlight fishmonger
Words to the Wise: know all men by these presents, bar, history, prize and price, signature
2/7/00
Curmudgeons' Corner refute
Letters to the Editors kind words; metheglin; urband legends and burials in England; a fortnight of critical thinking
Issue 71 Spotlight honeymoon
Words to the Wise: you're welcome, grapefruit, how come, Spam, hypocrite
1/31/00
Curmudgeons' Corner supposably
Letters to the Editors phonemes; wala is a Tagalog word
Issue 70 Spotlight peacock
Words to the Wise: duck, metaphysics, limehouse, down the pike, turn over a new leaf
1/24/00
Curmudgeons' Corner wa-LA
Letters to the Editors Lots of "is, is that"; dream or mirth?
Issue 69 Spotlight dances
Words to the Wise: dream, smart, shy, debt, on the ball
1/17/00
Curmudgeons' Corner the reason is, is that...
Letters to the Editors Eve length, Hebrew names, more maniacs
Issue 68 Spotlight Jesus
Words to the Wise: maniac, glitch, taxi cab, guy, autumn
1/10/00
Curmudgeons' Corner happy New Year's
Letters to the Editors revisionist history
Issue 67 Spotlight English words from Arabic
Words to the Wise: Limey, widow's peak, sallyport, cahoots, hobnob
1/03/00
Curmudgeons' Corner definitely not definately
Letters to the Editors skinny-dipping of the century; brogue shoes and brogue speech
Issue 66 Spotlight handicap
Words to the Wise: spiffy, prostitute, sheriff, skinny, black
12/27/99
Curmudgeons' Corner a very special century
Letters to the Editors more Welsh stuff; the longest place name in Britain; Greek chi; alveolar and bilabial
Issue 65 Spotlight holiday words
Words to the Wise: chuckwagon and chuckhole, castle and chaste, deer, Jew
12/20/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Imput and spayded
Letters to the Editors Etymology and entomology; a D.C. perspective; Etruscan has been deciphered; niger and the EEOC; Icelandic surnames; Welsh names; it's not the end of the millennium-yet
Issue 64 Spotlight fatidencies
Words to the Wise: grape; aisle, isle and island; tautology; snake oil, word
12/13/99
Curmudgeons' Corner various examples of misuse/abuse
Letters to the Editors words on television; Norwegian surnames; squaw; more on surnames
Issue 63 Spotlight acronyms
Words to the Wise: clean as a whistle, entertainment, marble, luck, surname
12/6/99
Curmudgeons' Corner more about acronyms
Letters to the Editors Macs; where to study etymology; title changes
Issue 62 Spotlight thanksgiving
Words to the Wise: swashbuckler, eavesdrop, secretary/secret, links, sarcasm
11/22/99
Curmudgeons' Corner lecterns and podiums
Letters to the Editors Latin declensions; Russian roulette and critical thinking; rave as an acronym
Issue 61 Spotlight Russian roulette
Words to the Wise: abracadabra, exotic, bulldozer, cheese, rave
11/15/99
Curmudgeons' Corner millenia/schmillenia
Letters to the Editors more on pluck you; John Locke and tabula rasa; bring vs. take
Issue 60 Spotlight Lynch
Words to the Wise: Amazon, red tape, tabula rasa, rube, bit (1/8 dollar), skid row
11/8/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Bring vs. take
Letters to the Editors -gry, -gry, go away; monthly correction; egregious usage; Swedish cognates; wallpaper paste from Korea
Issue 59 Spotlight Guitar
Words to the Wise: catch 22, watershed, jackass, crowbar, place, double whammy
11/1/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Egregious
Letters to the Editors Latin grammar, the important people
Issue 58 Spotlight Months
Words to the Wise: caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, made from scratch, sky, dunning letter, waive, pardon my French
10/25/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Enormity
Letters to the Editors Bizarre berserkers and paying our "dues"
Issue 57 Spotlight Hectic
Words to the Wise: bizarre, synergy, peccadillo, conundrum, wax [historical], ivy league
10/19/99
Curmudgeons' Corner About
Letters to the Editors Drunk skunks, our German, commas re-revisited, hobo histories, layout, praise, and barytons
Issue 56 Spotlight Some more musical instruments
Words to the Wise: mafia, mosaic, testify, drunk as a skunk, preponderance
10/11/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Arctic in the attic
Letters to the Editors More on hobo and gaudy, our German, p's and q's, punctuation, and titans or not?
Issue 55 Spotlight Holding your breath (and your nose)
Words to the Wise: Golf, Generation X, gaudy, run the gauntlet, flair
10/4/99
Curmudgeons' Corner A mere mirror
Letters to the Editors More on the -gry hoax and our new look
Issue 54 Spotlight Woodwind words
Words to the Wise: Ballpark (figure), bogus, catawampus, chicken pox
9/20/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Gourmet delights
Letters to the Editors New site/look comments
Issue 53 Spotlight Etymology vs. real meanings
Words to the Wise: Mushroom, metaphor, moist, mind your p's and q's
9/20/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Pronouncing -phth-
Letters to the Editors An OEDer and boobs again!
Issue 52 Spotlight Continental names
Words to the Wise: Dyed in the wool, atlas, boob, elite, electricity
9/13/99
Curmudgeons' Corner Quantum leap
Letters to the Editors Eck cetera, etc.
Issue 51 Spotlight Another internet hoax: hungry, angry, and ?
Words to the Wise: abecedarium, memorize by heart, plague and ague
8/23/99
Curmudgeons' Corner This is so different
Letters to the Editors Spurious obscenity etymologies, brogue and Mick
(E?)(L?) http://www.takeourword.com/et_h-j.html
H - J
hallowed | hamburger | hanged | heartstrings | hello | help | hem and haw | hero | hex | hobo | hocus pocus | hokum | holy | honky-tonk | hoodwinked | hoosegow | hope | horrible | horse of a different color | horseradish | humbug | hungry | hurricane | husband | hush puppy | illuminati | illusion | illustrate | impunity | inch | Indian | Indian summer | Isolde | it ain't over till the fat lady sings | jamboree | jaywalker | jazz | jeans | Jehovah | Jim dandy | John (toilet) | John Doe | judgment | juryrigged
(E?)(L?) http://www.takeourword.com/et_k-m.html
K - M
Kendall | ketchup | kick the bucket | kill the messenger | Kilroy was here | knight | knowledge | lam | lazy Susan | leader | league | learning the ropes | lemon | leviathan | life of Reilly | light fingered | like | lime | loaf | love | Luddite | lunatic | macrobiotic | malarkey | man | marriage | marry | mascara | master | matter | May Day | mediation | meter | Mexican standoff | mile | miscellaneous | mocha | mongoloid | monkey wrench | moonstone | more than one way to skin a cat | moron | mother | Ms. | Mulligan | muse
(E?)(L?) http://www.takeourword.com/et_n-p.html
N - P
narcissistic | Native American words in English | neck of the woods | neighborhood | Nelly | nerd | New York minute | nightmare | nincompoop | notions | nylon | obedience | obfuscate | obscenities | obsess | off the cuff | O.K. | okey dokey | Olga | -orama | orange | ordeal | other | paddy wagon | palooka | pancake/hotcake | paradigm | pariah | pass the buck | passion | peel | performance | persecution | physical fitness | physiognomy | picnic | pine tags | pink slip | pinkie | pint | plaintiff | politically correct (pc) | posh | priority | proactive | prodigious | propriety | psi- | pulling your leg | pundit
(E?)(L?) http://www.takeourword.com/et_q-s.html
Q - S
quart | quash | quest | rage | raining cats and dogs | Randall | rank and file | reality | receipt | recipe | red cent | religion | representation | research | ride | (in one's own) right | road | ruddy | rule of thumb | run the gauntlet | run the gamut | Rupert | sabotage | sacred | salary | salivation/salvation | saponification | scab | scholar | science fiction | scrooge | scuttlebutt | sea change | segue | semen | Semitic | sesquicentennial | shanks' mare/pony | shenanigans | sialic | silver | singlet | sirloin | six ways to Sunday | skirt | skosh | skullduggery | skunk | slang dictionaries | so long | solder | soldier | son | sophomore southpaw | sow wild oats | sphygmomanometer |spirit | squash | story/storey | straight from the horse's mouth | stumped | success | suck | sugar | sun | surf | surprise | Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Middlesex
(E?)(L?) http://www.takeourword.com/et_t-z.html
T - Z
team | teamwork | teller | they | tidbit | tidy | tiffin | toe the line | tom foolery | tomboy | traipse | transform | trial by fire | trinitrotoluene | trombone | tumbrel |turkey | typhoon | uncle | understand | vessel | veterinarian | virus | vowels in English | war | whole nine yards | which | wife | [on a] wild goose chase | window | wisdom | witch | woman | won't | wonder | xylophone | Yahweh | yard | yuck | zero | zymoscope
(E?)(L?) http://www.vocabula.com/
Dear Friend of the English Language,
Along with the evolution of language — the thousands of neologisms that new technologies and new thinking have brought about, for instance — there has been a concurrent, if perhaps less recognizable, devolution of language. The English language has become more precise for some users of it while becoming more plodding for others. Not a small part of this new cumbrousness is due to the loss of distinctions between words, the misuse of words, and other abuses of language.
...
The Vocabula Review strives to combat the degradation of our language.
Equally important, we celebrate its opulence and its elegance. The English language is wonderfully expressive and infinitely flexible. There are many thousands of words and many hundreds of ways in which to use them. The Vocabula Review seeks to promote the richness of our language.
In sum, The Vocabula Review battles nonstandard, careless English and embraces clear, expressive English. We hope we can encourage our readers to do as much.
...
meatspace | bistro | euonym | trepanation | lumpen | warren | Generation X | tchotchke / tchatchke / tsatske | skunk works | pieces of eight / bits | roman à clef | hipster | pentimenti | Bell, book and candle | frisson | defenestration | gallimaufry | le dernier cri | epicene | dudgeon | Anaheim | iridescence | carking | kipple | chickenhead | katzenjammer | boogie | juke | mojo | funky
westegg (wes)
Etymologically Speaking (wes)
(E1)(L1) http://www.westegg.com/etymology/
What follows is list of some curious word origins. Some of these are English, but some are French and German words from which we get some English words.
Newsletter:
Also, I run a mailing list called RT where I send out some new, interesting etymologies that I discover every month (and other, non-philological items as well).
For some of my favorites, see Companion, Kopf, Porcelain.
...
Am 12.06.2004 waren auf der Seite folgende Begriffe mit einer kleinen Wörtgeschichte zu finden:
Abacus | Allegory | Apple (Eng.)/ Pomme (Fr.) / Manzana (Sp.) | Apricot | Addict | Alarm | Alcohol | Algebra | Algorithm | Appendix | Assassin | Asthma | Ballot | Bead | Beserk | Biscuit | Boat | Boudoir | Broke (In the sense of having no money) | Bucolic | Bulimia | Butcher; Boucher (French); Beccaio (old Italian) | Cab (as in, Taxicab) | Cantelope | Cantar (Spanish) To Sing | Carnival | Catharsis | Candidate | Casarse (Spanish, to marry) | Cell | Cerveza (Spanish) Beer | Chapel | Chaos and Chasm | Charlatan | Cheers | Chocolate | Cider | Claim | Coffee and Croissant | Conejo (Spanish) Rabbit | Coward | Companion; Compañero (Spanish); Copain (French) Companion | Cretin | Cup | Currant | Curfew | Daisy | Debonair | Deer | Demon (German and English) | Derive | Deutsch (German for German) | Dexterity | Dibbs | Dollar | Elite | Escape | Essay | Exchequer | Faro (Spanish) Lighthouse | Fegato (Italian) Liver | Feo (Spanish) Ugly | Forest | Fowl | Freedom | Fromage (French); Formage (Medieval French); Formaggio (Italian) cheese | Gehen (German) To go | Genuine | Gewissen (German) Conscience | Gift | Gin; Ginebra (Spanish); Genievre (French) | Gorilla | Gymnasium | Hablar (Spanish) To Speak | Hazard | Heresy | Hierarchy | Host, Hospital, Hostel, Hospice, Hospitable, Hospitality | Humor | Husband | Idea, Ideal, Idol | Kampf (German) Struggle | Kike -- a vulgar, offensive word for a Jew | Knave | Knight | Kopf (German) Head | Lemon (Eng.); Limón (Sp.); Citron (Fr.); Zitrone (Germ.); Cytryna (Pol.); Citrom (Hung.) | Lettuce; and Leche (Spanish) Milk | Liberty | Library | Liebe (German) Love | Light; and Licht (German) Light | Lindo (Spanish) Beautiful | Lobster | Lord | Lucifer | Lukewarm | Madera (Spanish) Wood | Malaria | Mayonnaise | Marcher (French) To Walk | Mark (German) The German unit of currency (pre-Euro) | Mistress | Money | Mound; and Monde (French), Mundo (Spanish) World | Muscle | Museum, Mosaic | Nacht (German) Night | Nauseau, Navigate | Nemesis | Noon | Nostril | Occasion | Office | Ojalá (Spanish) "I hope [that...]" | Old; and Alt (German) Old | Omlette | Opportunity | Orange (Eng.); Orange (Fr.); Naranja (Sp.); Arancia (It.) | Ostracize | Pagan | Pavilion | Pedigree | Peach | Pecuniary | Pearl | Pedestrian | Planet | Porcelain (French) Porcelaine | Prom | Propina (Spanish; Tip) | Pseudo- | Queen | Quintessential | Regret | Reise (German) Travel | Rich | Right | Robot | Rodent | Romance | Rum | Saffron | Sanction | Salary; Salt | Schlaf (German) Sleep | Scapegoat | Scream | Scruples | Search; Circus | Senator | Second | Silly | Sinister | Sherry; and Jerez (Spanish) | Slave | Sleazy | Soup; Soupe (French); Sopa (Spanish); Zuppa (Italian) | Starve | Spill | Stool | Strawberry (Eng.); Fraise (Fr.); Fresa (Sp.)/ Fragola (It.); Erdbeer (Germ.--"earth berry"); Eper (Hung.) | Suede | Sugar; Candy; Caramel | Sweet | Sycophant | Tag (German) Day | Tarjeta (Spanish) Card | Tête (French) Head | Thermostat | Third Degree | Thesis | Threshold | Tide and Time | Tomato (Eng.); Tomate (Sp.); Pomodoro (It.) | Trabajar (Spanish); Travailler (French); Trabalhar (Portugues) Work | Travel | Trivia | Tsar or Czar | Tyranny | Umpire | Usted (Spanish) You (formal) | Utopia | Viande (French) Meat; and Vivir (Spanish) To Live | Victim | Villain | Vinegar | Walk | Wedding | Weird | Welt (German) World | Werewolf (German and English) | Window | Wine | Wit | Witness | Woman | Warm; Worm; and Wurst | Worm | Zeit (German) Time
wordle
word clouds
(E?)(L?) http://www.wordle.net/
Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
word-detective (wde)
The Word Detective
by Evan Morris
Word List
Wort-Liste
(E1)(L1) http://www.word-detective.com/
(E1)(L1) http://www.takeourword.com/bibliography.html
The Word Detective - An indexed archive (by word and date) of the monthly newspaper column on "word and phrase origins" by Evan Morris, son of William Morris, original author of the print column when it was known as "Words, Wit and Wisdom" (since 1953), and the useful reference book, The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins. Several hundred words and phrases included.
(E1)(L1) http://www.word-detective.com/backidx.html
This Index contains more than 1,300 columns posted since this site went online in 1995. For the past TEN YEARS, this index has remained a FREE resource for the net community and has been used by nearly two million readers.
Hundreds of words and phrases indexed in alphabetical order are lurking in our archive. (01.09.2005)
A: 20th Century Words (review) | Above the Salt | Abracadabra | Abdabs | Abscond | Acme | Adam's Off Ox | Adonis | Adultery | Affect | Agita | Akimbo | Alimony | All She Wrote, That's | Aloof | Alright/All Right | Alternivore | Aluminum/aluminium | Ampersand | Amuck | Anodyne | Anthrax | Arm and a Leg | Armed to the Teeth | Arms (as building name) | Assassin | Assorted Words | - -athon (suffix) | Aunt Sally | Autograph Hound | Avail | Awful/Awesome
B: Bachelor | Badda Bing | Bad Hair Day | Badger | Bailiwick | Bain | Balderdash | Ball of Wax | Baloney | Bamboozle | Banausic | Bane | Bangs | Bar (Exam) | Barbeque | Barf | Barmy | Barrack | Barnburner | Bartleby.com | Bated Breath | Bat Out of Hell | Bazooka | B.B. | Bean Counter | Beck and Call | Bed and Breakfast | Bedlam | Bee (spelling, etc.) | Beef (Argument) | Beefeater | Behoove | Beeswax | Beezer | Beg the Question | Beguine | Behave | Bells On (With) | Bellwether | Benchmark | Bennies | Berserk | Bespoke | Best Foot Forward | Beyond the Pale | Biddy | Big Girl's Shirt | Big Wheel | Bigwig | Billygoat | Bill, The | Bird in hand | Birds of a Feather | Bite the Bullet | Blackguard | Blackmail | Blacksmith | Blancmange | Bleachers | Blimp | Blizzard | Block and Tackle | Blockbuster | Blockhead | Bloke | Bloody | Bloody Shirt | Bloviate | Blue Blazes | Blueblood | Blue Chip | Blue Laws | Blue Moon | Blue Ribbon/Riband | Blues, The | Blurb | Boarding House Reach | Bobby | Bobby Pin | Bob Dole | Bodacious | Bodge | Bogart | Bogeyman | Boggle | Bog Standard | Bogus | Bohemian | Boilerplate | Boiler Room | Bombast | Bone to Pick | Bonfire | Bonkers | Boobytrap | Boondocks | Boondoggle | Boot | Boot Sale | Booze | Bought the Farm | Bound | Boxing | Boycott | Brass Monkeys | Brass Tax | Brand New | Brat | Bread and Butter | Break a Leg | Break One's Duck | Bridewell | Bridge (the game) | Broke | "Brook No Quarter" | Brouhaha | Bubble, on the | Bucket, Kick the | Buckle | Buckley's Chance | Buffalo | Buggy | Bulldozer | Bumper Crop | Bumpkin | Bunk | Bupkes | Buck | Buck Stops Here | Building | Bullpen | Bullseye | Bulls and Bears | Bully Pulpit | Bumbershoot | Bumps Under Nose | Bum's Rush | Bunco | Bungalow | Bungee | Bunny | Burton, Gone for a | Bus Boy | Bushel and Peck | Busker | Busman Holiday | Busting Chops | Busting Chops Part 2 | Butcher | Butter | Buy the Farm | BVD | By and Large | Bye
C: Cabal | Cabbage | Cabbage Night | Cahoots | Cakewalk | Calf Rope | Call the Shots | Candidate | Candle, Hold a ... to | Candy | Can of Corn | Canuck | Capers | Capricious | Carat/Karat | Card, He's a real | Carp | Carrot and Stick | Carry a Torch | Carry Water | Carte Blanche | Case Quarter | Cataract | Catawampus | Catbird Seat | Catch 22 | Cat Out of the Bag, Let the | Cats and Dogs, Raining | Catspaw | Catsup | Cattycorner | Cattywampus | Catwalk | Chad | Chairman | Chap | Chaperon | Charlatan | Charleyhorse | Chase, Cut to the | Chat | Chaperon | Cheesecake | Cheese It | Cheesy | Cheapskate | Cherish | Cherrypick | Chew the Fat | Chew the Scenery | Chimera | Chinese Fire Drill | Chip (on shoulder) | Chit | Chock full | Chops | Chortle | Chuckwagon | Chum | Chump Change | Churchkey | Clam, Happy as a | Clean Your Clock | Cliffhanger | Clock/Watch | Clothes horse | Clone | Cloud Nine | Club | Cobweb | Cock and Bull | Cockamamie | Cock A Snook | Cockles | Codswallop | Cohort | Cold Feet | Cold Shoulder | Cold Turkey | Coleslaw | Colon | Colors, Names of | Comprise/Compose | Conniption | Consult | Cook the Books | Cop a Plea | Coppish/Capeesh | Corker | Corny | Corporal's Guard | Cotton (verb) | Could Care Less | Coventry, to send to | Cracker | Crotchety | Cumshaw | Continually/Continuously | Cool | Cooter Brown, Drunk as | Cop | Copacetic | Copper Fastened | Coppish | Coruscating | Cottage cheese | Couch (verb) | Counting Sheep | Cowabunga | Crabs and Ice Water | Crackerjack | Crackpot | Cranky | Crazy | Crestfallen | Crib | Crimeny | Croker Sack | Cropper, Come a | Crowbar | Cry Uncle | Cuckhold | Culch | Cul de sac | Cummerbund | Cunning | Curates Egg | Curmudgeon | Curry | Curry Favor | Cut and Dried | Cut and Run | Cut Bait, Fish or | Cut the Fool | Cutlass | Cuts No Ice
D: Daft | Dapper | Darling | Dashboard | Date | Davy Jones' Locker | Daylights | Days of the Week | Deadline | Deadpan | Dead ringer | Dear John Letter | Decimate | Deep Six | Denmark, Something Rotten in | Derbies | Derring-do | Dessert | Devil and the Deep Blue Sea | Devil's Advocate | Devil Strip | Devious Derivations | Demean/Demeanor | Despot | Dewdroppers (book review) | Dibs | Dick | Dickens, the | Dicks Hatband | Die Is Cast, The | Diggings | Dimple | Dining with Duke Humphrey | Disaster | Discombobulate | Dismal | Dite | Dive | Dixie | Dog and Pony Show | Dog Days | Dog Eat Dog | Dog, Hair of the | Dog in the Manger | Doggo, Lying | Dogrobber | Dogsbody | Dog's Dinner/Breakfast | Doggerel | Dog Is Hung, Until the Last | Dog, Putting on the | Dog's Life, A | Dogwatch | Doily | Dollar Bill Symbols | Donnybrook | Don't Go There | Doornail, Dead as a | Doozy | Dope | Dope (Coke) | Dopp Kit | Dord | Dotage | Double Dutch | Doughboy | Doughnut | Down (computers) | Draconian | Draft | Drag | Drum (apartment) | Drunk as a Skunk | Dry Run | Ducks and Drakes | Ducks in a Row | Duck Soup | Dud | Dude | Dudgeon | Duffle | Dumbbell | Dumbledore | Dun | Dunce | Dungarees | Durance Vile | Dutch Treat | Dutch Uncle | Dyed in the Wool
E: Ear of Corn | Earmarked | Eat Crow | Eavesdrop | eBay | Effect/Affect | e.g. and i.e. | Egg in Beer | Egg On | Egg on Your Face | Eighty-Six | Elements of Legal Style (review) | Elephant and Castle | Engineer | English/Body English | Ept | Esq. | Etiquette | Euchre | Eyes Peeled | Eyeteeth | Exception Proves the Rule | Explode
F: Factoid | Fair Dinkum | Fair to Middling | Fanfare | Fantods | Fastfood | Fat Lady Sings, Until the | Faze | Feckless | Feedback | Feek | Feist/Feisty | Fell Swoop | Fiasco | Field Day | Filibuster | Fink | Fired | First Water (Of the) | Fisking | Five by Five | Flash in the Pan | Flat | Flummoxed | Flutter | Fly Tipping | Four Flusher | Frank | Free Lunch | Fettle | Fib | Flabbergast | Flammable | Flank Speed | Flapjack | Fleer | Flender | Flip | Fluke | Flummadiddle | Flummox | Fly by night | Flying Colors | Fogey | Folly | Foolscap | Footloose | Foot the Bill | Fortnight | Frame | Frank & Ernest | Fresh | Friend in Need | Frisbee | Frisk | Fritz, On The | Frog | Frog March | From Scratch | Fuddy Duddy | Fudge | Fungible | Fusty | Fuzz
G: Gadget | Galleywest | Gallows | Galoot | Galoshes | Gamut | Gandy Dancer | Gangbusters | Garbroth (Mean as a) | Gaslight | Gaudy | Gauntlet/Gantlet | Gazump | Gedunk | Geezer | Gender-free Pronouns | Geoduck | Gerrymander | Get-go | Get One's Goat | Ghost in Machine | Gibbous | Giddy | Gig | Gigalo | Gimlet | Gimmick | Ginger | Ginormous | Gist | Git | Gizmo | Glee Club | Gobbledygook | Gobsmacked | Going Jesse | Goldbrick | Golf | Golf Terms | Gone South | Good Books | Good Night | Goody Two-Shoes | Goofy | Googol | Goon | Gordon Bennett! | Gore | Gormless/Feckless | Gort | Gossamer | Gossip | Gotham | Gouge, the | Grain of Salt | Grapefruit | Grass | Grassroots | Grasswidow | Graveyard Shift | Gravitas | Gravy Train | Greenhorn | Green Room | Greyhound | Gridiron | Gringo | Grinney | Grog | Groom | Grotesque | Gry Part 1 | Gry Part 2 | Gubernatorial | Guinea Pig | Gullible | Gumshoe | Gunny Sack | Gurney | Gussied Up | Guy | Gyp
H: Haha | Halcyon | Ham | Hamburger | Hands Down | Hand Over Fist | Handwriting on the Wall | Hangar | Hanker | Happy as Larry | Happy Camper | Hara-Kiri | Hard Cheese | Hardware | Harlequin | Hat in the Ring | Hatter, Mad as a | Hat Trick | Hawk | Haywire | Head | Hector | Hedge | Heebee Jeebies | Heirloom | Heist | Hell Bent for Leather | Hell in a Handbasket | Hello | Hello2 | Hell Sued for Murder | Heyday | Hick | Highfalutin' | High Jinks | Hightail | Hijack | Hillbilly | Hip | History/Herstory | Hitchhike | Hobnob | Hobson's Choice | Hocus Pocus | Hog on Ice | Hogwash | Hogwild | Hoity-Toity | Holiday Books 97 | More Holiday Books 97 | Honeycomb | Honeymoon | Honkytonk | Hoodlum | Hoodwink | Hooker | Hookie | Hook or Crook, by | Hooligan | Hoopla | Hoosegow | Hootenanny | Hopscotch | Hornswoggle | Horse Apiece, A | Horse on Me | Hose | Hotbed | Huckleberry | Hullabaloo | Humongous | Hunkydory | Hurrah's Nest | Hush Puppies | Hussy | Hustings
I: I and I | Idaho | Idaho Part 2 | Indian Giver | Indian Summer | Idiosyncrasy | Ikea | Incent | Indefatigable | Indentured | Infantry | Influenza | In line/On Line 2 | Inscrutable | Irish Bull | Irish Twins | Irk | Ishkabibble | Italics | Its
J: Jackanape | Jackleg | Jackpot | Jaded | Jakebrake | Jaybird, Naked as a | Jaywalk | Jibe | Jig | Jimmies | Jingo | Jinx | Jeep | Joe (coffee) | John Doe | Jones | Joshing | Jubilee | Jumbi | Jumbo | Jump the Shark | Junket | Jury rig
K: Kangaroo | Kangaroo Court | Katie Bar the Door! | Keep Up with the Joneses | Kefuffle | Kemosabe | Kettledrum | Kewpie | Kibosh | Kick over the Traces | Kick the Bucket | Kiosk | Kipe | Kipper | Kit and Caboodle | Kludge | Klutz | Knickers | Knucklehead | Kowtow | Kudos
L: Lace | Lager Lout | Lagniappe | Lam, on the | Lame Duck | Landscape | Lapidary | Larruping | Lascivious | Late | Laughingstock | Lazy Susan | Lead Pipe Cinch | Leery | Leg, Pulling Your | Level Playing Field | Life of Riley | Like Flies | Line in the Sand | Liverpudlian | Lobby | Log | Loggerheads, At | Lollygag | Lollypop | Long (verb) | Long in the Tooth | Loon, Loony, Lunatic | Loop, Knocked for a | Lothario | Lousy | Lucky | Lukewarm | Lurch
M: Macabre | Macaroni | More Macaroni | Machete | Mafia | Maggot | Magnanimous | Main Squeeze | Malarkey | Marmalade | Maroon | Martinet | Mascara | Maverick | Mawkish | Mayhem | Mayday | Meander | Media | Megalomaniac | Meld | Melting Pot | Mentee | Mesmerize | Mess | Mettle | Mickey Finn | Miffed | Milktoast/Milquetoast | Mind Your Ps & Qs | Minx | Mistletoe | Moggies | Moider | Mojo | Mollycoddle | Momentarily | Mondegreens | Moniker | Monty, The Full | Mook | Moonstruck | Moot | Mopery | More so | Mortarboard | Mortgage | Mosaic | Mosey | Motel | Moxie | Mox Nix | Mufti | Mug | Mugwump | Mullet (haircut) | Mulligan | Mumchance | Murphy's Law | Mush | Mushfake | Music, Face the | Mustard, Cut the | My Bad | Myriad | Myrmidon
N: Name Is Mud | Napkin | Nap of the Earth | Nebbish | Neck of woods | Net Word Links | Newfangled | News | New York Minute | Nibs | Nick | Nick of Time | Nightingale | Nightmare | Nimby | Nimrod | Nincompoop | No Account | No Bones | No Cigar (Close, but) | No Flies On... | Nog | No Holds Barred | Nonplussed | Nonplussed, Again | Nook and Cranny | No Room to Swing a Cat | Nose, Cut Off Your to Spite... | Nose of Wax | Nose Out of Joint | Nosey Parker | Nostalgia | Nuclear (pronunciation) | Nut | Nuts (whacked) | Nutshell, In A | Nylon
O: Octothorpe (# sign) | OED CD-ROM | Off the Handle | Off the Cuff | O.K. | Olay | Ominous | On Line/In Line | On Point | On the Ball | On the Carpet | On the Nose | Oops | Orange | Ornery | Other Shoe Drops | Out in the Wash | Out of Pocket | Out of Pocket again | Over a Barrel | Over the Hill | Over the Top | Overwhelm | Oxymoron
P: P's and Q's | Paddy Wagon | Painter (rope) | Pajamas | Pandemonium | Panhandle | Pantaloon, Pants | Parachute | Paraphernalia | Pariah | Party Line | Patent | Patient | Peachy | Peacoat | Peanut Gallery | Pear-shaped | Peccadillo | Pecksniff | Pedigree | Peeve | Pejorative | Penguin | Pep | Per Se | Persiflage | Persnickety | Petard | Petcock | Pettifogger | Pharmacist | Philadelphia Lawyer | Phillips Head Screwdriver | Phony | Pickle | Pickled as an Owl | Pied Piper | Pig in a Poke | Pig Latin | Piker | Pillar to Post | Pinch, in a | Pine | Pink Slip | Pinky | Pins and Needles | Pip | Pipe Down | Pipe Dream | Piping Hot | Pipsqueak | Pith Helmet | Pixilated | Plaid/Tartan | Plastic | Platonic | Pleased as Punch | Plew | Plug (Promote) | Plugged Nickel | Plumber | Plus Fours | Plutocracy | Poach | Podiatrist | Po-faced | Politics | Polecat/Poltroon | Police | Pollyanna | Pommies | Pompatus | Pony | Ponzi Scheme | Poobah | Poodling | Pookah | Poop Deck | Pork Barrel | Port and Starboard | Portico | Posh | Posh II | Posh, Yet Again | Possum/Opossum | Posthaste | Potable | Potboiler | Pot, Go to | Pothole | Practical Joke | Prat | Primrose Path | Privy | Proactive | Prom | Proof (alcohol) | Proof of the Pudding | Pug | Pule | Pullet | Pull the Wool Over One's Eyes | Pundit | Pushing the Envelope | Put Paid To | Pyrrhic Victory
Q: Quack | Quid | Quintessential | Quire | Quirk | Quiz | QT, on the
R: Rabblerouser | Rack and Ruin | Racket/Racquet | Radio | Raft | Ragamuffin | Rammy | Rangy | Rap Sheet | Rasher | Ravel/Unravel | Ravenous | Real McCoy, The | Realtor | Reckless | Redd Up | Redhanded | Red Cent | Red Letter Day | Red Tape | Regime Change | Register | Res Ipsa Loquitur | Restaurant | Reticule | Revolution | Rhubarb | Riddle | Rifle | Right (vs. Left) | Rigmarole | Ring (of truth) | Rink | Riot Act, Read the | Roast or Bake? | Rock and a Hard Place | Rockbottom | Rodeo | Role vs. Roll | Rookie | Root | Rope Yarn Sunday | Rosie, Ring Around the | Roughneck | Round Robin | Rubber Game | Rubbering | Rule of Thumb | Rumpus | Runcible
S: Sabotage | Salad Days | Salisbury Steak | Salmagundi | Sally Port | Salver | Sam Hill | Sanction | Sandbag | Sandboy, Happy as a | Sandwich | Saunter | Scab | Scads | Scallywag | Scapegoat | Scapegrace | Schneid | Scissorbill | Scotch (verb) | Scot Free | Scotious/Stocious | Scut | Scuttlebutt | Sea Change | Seafaring Terms | Seat of Your Pants | Seconds Flat | Seeded | Seedy | See the Elephant | Segue | Serendipity | Serif | Shake a Stick at | Shampoo | Shamus | Shanks Mare | Sheeny | Shellac | Sherbet | Shiftless | Shill | Shindig | Shingles | Shrink | Shoddy | Shoe-in | Shower (bridal, etc.) | Shrift | Sic | Sick as a Dog | Sideburns | Sidekick | Silly | Simoleon | Sincere | Sine Die | Sirloin | Sixes and Sevens | Skeezix | Skell | Skidoo, 23 | Skid Row | Skiff | Skinflint | Skin of One's Teeth | Skinny | Skive | Skivvy | Skunkworks | Sleazy | Sleep Tight | Sleep Tight ii | Slew/Slough | Sliced Bread | Smithereens | Smorgasbord | Snake Oil | Snarky | Snipe | Snob | Somersault | Snook, Cock A | Snuck (vs. Sneaked) | Snuff, Up to | Soapbox | Soapbox 2 | Soccer | Socked In | Socks Off, Knock Your | Software | Soldier | Son of a Gun | Sophistry | Sorry, Charlie | Soup and Fish | Soup to Nuts | Soup to Nuts Again | Soup Up | Southpaw | Spade, Call a | Spam | Spatchcock | Specious | Spend a Penny | Spondoulick | Spendthrift | Spick and Span | Spiff | Spinster | Spitting Image | Spring | Sprog | Spooning | Spud | Square Meal | Squeegee | Squib | Stakeout | Stan (as in Pakistan) | Staple | Stark Naked | Stay the Course | Step (-brother, etc.) | Stevedore | Stick in the Mud | Stool Pigeon | Stinch | Stir Crazy | Stoked | Stop | Story (of a building) | Stove Up | Strand | Strawboss | Streaking | Stump | Stumped | Stupid | Sty/Steward | Stymie | Succedaneum | Succotash | Sundae | Sunshower | Superb | Surcee | Suss | Sussy | Svengali | Swain | Swannee | Swansong | Swashbuckler | Sweepstakes | Swindle | Swoop, One Fell | Sybarite
T: Tabs On | Tacky | Take the Biscuit | Talking Through One's Hat | Tarmac | Tarnation | Tattersall | Tawdry | Taxicab | Tchotchke | Teen | Tee, to a | Teetotaler | Tenterhooks | Thanksgiving Words | Thimblerigger | Three Sheets | Thumbing Nose | Ticket, That's the | Tickety-Boo | Tidbit | Tie One On | Time and Tide | Tinker's Damn | Tip | Tissue of Lies | Toast (to propose a) | Toast Soldiers | To Boot | Toe the Line | Tomato | Tomfoolery | Tommy | Ton | Tongue, cat got your? | Tongue in Cheek | Tontine | Tonto | Tony | Topnotch | Topsy | Topsy-turvy | Touch and Go | Tout | Towhead | Trenchcoat | Truck | Tryst | Tule Fog | Tump | Turncoat | Turnip Truck | Turnpike | Turn the Tables | Tutu | Tweak | Twee | Tweezers | Twenty-Three Skidoo | Twig | Two Cents Worth | Two to Tango | Tycoon
U: Umbrage | Umpire | Uncle, Bob is Your | Uncle, Say | Undertaker | Unrequited | Upper Crust | Upshot | Utopia | Uxorious
V: Vacation | Vain | Vaudeville | Vet | Veterinarian | Vice | Vig/Vigorish | Village Idiot | Visiting Fireman
W: Waffle | Wagon, on the | Wainscot | Wake | Wales | Warp and woof | Washer | Watch | Watch/Clock | Watershed | Wax and Wane | Weigh Anchor | Welsh Rabbit | Wet Behind the Ears | Wheel and Deal | Wheelbarrow | Wheelhouse | Whinge | Whistle, Wet Your | White Elephant | White Paper | Whippersnapper | Whistle, Clean as a | Whole Cloth | Whole Nine Yards | Whole Nine Yards Again | Widdershins | Widget | Widow's Peak | Widows' Weeds | The Willies | Willy-Nilly | Wimp | Wiseacre | Witch Hazel | Wonk | Wooden Nickels | Woolgathering | Woolly | Wop | Word-a-day | Wordsmith | Work Cut Out | Worm Turns, the | Wreak
X: None yet
Y: Yard | Yawn | Yellow | Yen | Yuletide
Z: Zulu Time | Zydeco
wordorigins (wor)
Origins of Words and Phrases
by David Wilton
Word & Phrase Origins
A Way With Words
Etymology of common words and phrases
History of the English language
Word List
Wort-Liste
Wordorigins.org is devoted to the origins of words and phrases, or as a linguist would put it, to etymology. Etymology is the study of word origins. (It is not the study of insects; that is entomology.) Where words come from is a fascinating subject, full of folklore and historical lessons. Often, popular tales of a word’s origin arise. Sometimes these are true; more often they are not. While it can be disappointing when a neat little tale turns out to be untrue, almost invariably the true origin is just as interesting.
A Way With Words is our weekly electronic newsletter. It's free. A Way With Words addresses the topics of language and linguistics for the lay person. It's not just about word and phrase origins, but slang, grammar, writing style, puns and palindromes, book reviews, names, and anything to do with words and language.
Last Updated 10 June 2005
This is the list, some 400 words and phrase origins. The words and phrases are selected because their origins are inherently interesting or because some bit of folklore, sometimes true and sometimes false, is associated with the origin. The etymologies of common words with straightforward explanations can be found in any good dictionary and I do not attempt to reproduce them here. Many, if not most, of the words have been added as a result of questions or suggestions from readers of the site.
(E?)(L?) http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/big_list/
The Big List (16.03.2007)
This is the list, some 400 word and phrase origins. The words and phrases are selected because their origins are inherently interesting or because some bit of folklore, sometimes true and sometimes false, is associated with the origin. The etymologies of common words with straightforward explanations can be found in any good dictionary and I do not attempt to reproduce them here. Many, if not most, of the words have been added as a result of questions or suggestions from readers of the site.
The Big List (01.09.2005)
A: All Your Base Are Belong To Us | America | Apron strings, Tied To | at sixes and sevens
B: Bailiwick | Baker's Dozen | Balling the Jack | Balls to the Wall | Bandwagon | Barbecue | Baseball | Bated Breath | Bedlam | Beefeater | Beeswax | Belfry / Bats In The Belfry | beyond the pale | Bigwig | Bimbo | Bit / Byte | Bit / Two Bits | Bizarre | black box | Blackbox | Blackguard | Blackmail | Blimp | Blind Tiger / Blind Pig | Blockbuster | Bloody | Blue / Blues | Blue Moon | Blurb | Bob's Your Uncle | Bogart | Bogey | Booby | Boondocks | Boondoggle / woggle | Booze | Brass monkey, cold enough to freeze the balls off a | Brass Tacks | Break A Leg | Broad | Brothel | Brownie Points | Buck (Dollar) | Buckley's Chance | bull & bear markets | Bullpen | Bulls and Bears | Bumper Crop | Bunk | Busman's Holiday | buy a pig in a poke | Buy The Farm | By and Large
C: Cabal | Call a Spade a Spade | Cancer | Capitol/Capital | Catch-22 | Caucus | Cesarean Section | Chad | Chairman | Charger Plate | Charley Horse | China | Chow | Church Key | Cinch / lead pipe cinch | Cloud Nine | Coin A Phrase | Cold...Brass Monkey | Cold Turkey | Cold War | Colonel | Commando | Condom | Cop | Cotton-Picking | Cracker | Crackerjack | Crap/Craps | Curfew | Curmudgeon | Cut the Mustard | Cut to the Chase | Cyber-
D: Dago | Dark and Stormy Night | Davy Jones Locker | Deadline | Debt/Trespass/Sin | Devil to Pay | Dirt Poor | Dixie | Dog Eat Dog | Doh / Duh | Dollar | Dollars to Doughnuts | Dongle | Doozy | Dope | Dork | Doughboy | Doughnut | Drag Race | Dressed to the Nines | Drink The Kool-Aid | Dry Run | Dukes | Dunce | Dutch Treat | Dyke
E: Eavesdrop | Eeny, Meany, Miney, Moe | Egg On | Eighty-Six | Elephant, To See The | Ethnic Cleansing | Eureka | Evolution
F: Face | Face the Music | Faggot | Fair to Middling | Fat Lady Sings | Field Day | Fifth Column | Filibuster | Fire | Five-By-Five | flea market | Flying Colors | Flying Saucer | Fortnight | Free-lance | freelance | Free Lunch | French Kiss | fritz, on the | frog march | Frog-march | Fudge | The Full Monty | Fuzz
H: hack | Hacker | Hackney | Handicap | Happy as a Clam | Harlot | Hat Trick | Hawk a Loogie | Heathen | hell in a handbasket | hellbent for leather | Hell-Bent for Leather | Hell in a Handbasket | Hello | Hermetic Seal | Hero | Hobson's Choice | Hock a Loogie | Hocus-Pocus | Hogan's Goat | Homecoming | Honeymoon | Honky / Hunky / Hunyak / Honyock | Hooch / hootchy-kootchy | Hoodwink | Hooker | Hooky | Hooligan | Hot Dog | Hotshot | Huckleberry | Humble Pie | Hunky-Dory | Hustings | Hysteria
I: In Like Flynn | Indian Giver | Indian Summer | Ivory Tower | Ivy League
J: Jack Robinson | Jackleg / Jackknife | Java / Joe | Jaywalk | Jazz | Jeep | Jerk / jerkwater / jerk-off / jerky | Jerry-Built / Jury Rig | Jinx | Jody/Joe The Grinder | John Bull | Jones | Joneses, Keeping Up With The | Jump The Shark
K: Kangaroo / Kangaroo Court | Katy, Bar the Door | Keeping Up With The Joneses | Keep Your Nose Clean | Keister | Kibosh | Kick The Bucket | Kilroy Was Here | Kit and Caboodle | Kitty-corner | Knickerbocker / knickers | Knight | Ku-Klux Klan
L: lam, on the | Lead-Pipe Cinch | Leatherneck | Left Wing | Lent | Let the Cat Out of the Bag | Life of Riley | lobby / lobbyist | Lock and Load | Lock, Stock, & Barrel | Lollygag | Long in the Tooth | Lord | lorem ipsum… | Lukewarm | Lynch
M: Man/Woman | Martini | Mayday | Mayhem | Milquetoast | mind your p’s and q’s | Misdemeanor / high misdemeanor | Mojo | Moll | Mondegreen | Morphology | Mortgage | Muckety-Muck | Mulligan | Murphy's Law
N: Narc | Neck of the Woods | Nerd | new / News | New York Minute | Nigger | Nightingale | Nightmare | Nose (Keep Your Nose Clean)
O: Off The Wall | OK | Old Army Game | On the Fritz | On the Lam | Orange | Outside the Box | over a barrel
P: P's and Q's | Pagan | Pale (Beyond The Pale) | Pandemonium | Pay Through The Nose | Peanut/Peanut Gallery | Peloton | Phat | Phony | Piccaninny | Pig | Pig in a Poke | Pipe Dream | Pizzazz | Plugged Nickel | Poindexter | Point Blank | Poker | Politically Correct | Poop Deck | Port / Larboard / Starboard | Pot-boiler | Pound Sand | Posh | Pros From Dover | Pull the Wool Over His Eyes | Pushing the Envelope | Pussyfoot
Q: Q.T., On The | Quiz
R: Rabbit Test / the rabbit died | Rain Cats and Dogs | rain check | Raincheck | Rap / Rap Sheet | read the riot act | Real McCoy | Redhanded | Redneck | Reggae | Rhubarb | Ring Around the Rosie | Riot Act | Roger | Rope-A-Dope | Round Robin | Rube Goldberg | Rule of Thumb
S: Sabbatical | Sabotage | Salad Days | Sam Hill | Sawbuck | Say "Uncle" | Scab | Scapegoat | Scot free | Screw the Pooch | Scuttlebutt | sea change | Sea-Change | Secretary | Seed | Shark | Shit | Short Shrift | Shrink | Sideburns | Sin/Trespass/Debt | Sixes and Sevens, At | Skedaddle | Skid Row | Sleep Tight | Smart Alec | Smoking Gun | Soccer | Soho | Son of a Gun | S.O.S. | Southpaw | Spam | Spic | Spick And Span | Spitting Image | Spud | Square Meal | Squaw | Star | State of the Art | Station Wagon | Stool Pigeon | Swan Song | Sweeps
T: Tabloid | tail wagging the dog | Taliban | Taps | Teetotal | Terrorism | Testify | that’s white of you | think outside the box | Third Degree | Third World | Three Sheets to the Wind | Threshold | Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater | Tinker's Damn | Tip | Toe The Line | Tongue In Cheek | Tow-Headed | Trench Mouth / Trench Foot | Trespass / Debt / Sin | Triage | Trip The Light Fantastic | Trivia | Truck Farm | Turkey | Twenty-Three Skidoo | Two Bits/Bit
U: Uncle Sam | Under the Weather | United Nations | up to snuff | Upset | Upsydaisy | Up To Snuff
V: Vampire | Vaudeville
W: Wag the Dog | Wake | Weapons of Mass Destruction | Weird | Welch | Whistleblower | White of You | Whole Nine Yards | Whole Shebang | Widow | Widow's Peak | Windy City | With a Grain of Salt | Wog | Woman/Man | Wop | World War #
Y:
(E?)(L?) http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/blog/
Archives
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General Dictionaries
These are general, all-purpose dictionaries that contain excellent etymological information.
American Heritage Dictionary
Dictionary of Americanisms
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
OneLook Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
Webster's Third New International Dictionary
Specialty Dictionaries
These are dictionaries specializing in particular aspects of the English language and etymology.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
Colonial American English
Dictionary of 1913 Baseball
Dictionary of American Regional English
Dictionary of Catch Phrases
Dictionary of English Place-Names
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
Dictionary of the Scots Language
Double-Tongued Word Wrester
Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic
F Word, The
Fantabulosa
Fifty Years Among The New Words
Hatchet Jobs and Hardball
Historical Dictionary of American Slang
How Not To Say What You Mean
Jargon Dictionary
Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories
Middle English Dictionary
New Dickson Baseball Dictionary
New Dictionary of American Slang
New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
New Words (Hargraves)
Official Dictionary of Unofficial English
Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names
Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases
Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation
Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories
Polari--The Lost Language of Gay Men
Safire's New Political Dictionary
Scots Dialect Dictionary
Trade Name Origins
Underground Dictionary
War Slang
Wordspy
Out-of-Date Sources
These sources are dated and don't reflect current scholarship, but they can often provide useful or historical insight into the development of the English language.
American Dialect Dictionary (Wentworth)
American Dictionary of the English Language
American Language, The
American Thesaurus of Slang
Bailey's Canting Dictionary
Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language
Dictionary of American Slang
Dictionary of Americanisms (Bartlett, 1848)
Dictionary of Forces Slang
Dictionary of the English Language (Johnson)
Dictionary of Word & Phrase Origins (Morris)
Etymological Dictionary of Modern English
Hobson-Jobson
Hog On Ice & Other Books By C.E. Funk
Lexicon Balatronicum
Modern English Usage
Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
Phrase & Word Origins (Holt)
Safire's Political Dictionary
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Slang and Its Analogues
Unusual Words (Radford)
Word Origins (Hunt)
Word origins and their romantic stories
General Language References
These works do not specialize in etymology, although they often contain useful etymological information.
America In So Many Words
Anatomy of Swearing
Australian Language, The
Australian Slanguage
Black Talk
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
Classic American Graffiti
Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language
Defining The World
Dictionary of Languages (Dalby)
Doing Our Own Thing
Early American Proverbs
Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe
Euphemism & Dysphemism
Familiar Quotations
Fanboys And Overdogs
Forbidden Words
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association
How Language Works (Crystal)
How We Talk: American Regional English Today
Language Report, The
Larpers And Shroomers
Lover's Tongue
Meaning of Everything
Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions
Modern Proverbs & Proverbial Sayings
Nice Guys Finish Seventh
Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
Oxford Guide to World English
Predicting New Words
Quote Verifier
Science Fiction Quotations
Studies In Slang
Swearing (Hughes)
Swearing in English
Word Myths
Word On The Street
Word Spy
Yale Book of Quotations
Historical Linguistic Sources
These are sources, other than dictionaries, that address etymology, historical linguistics, and the history of the English language.
Adventure of English, The
Book of Middle English
Cobbett's A Grammar of the English Language
Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
Dewdroppers, Waldoes, & Slackers
Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages
Dictionary of True Etymologies
English Language, The (Barber)
Guide to Old English
Historical Linguistics (Schendl)
Historical Linguistics: An Introduction (Campbell)
History of English in Its Own Words
Looking For Dr. Condom
Nineteenth-Century English
Old English and Its Closest Relatives
Origin of Language (Ruhlen)
Origin of the Term "Hot Dog"
Origins of English Words
Origins of the English Language
Power of Babel
Slang Through The Ages
Stories of English, The
Story of English (McCrum)
Word Origins (Liberman)
Oft-Used Sources
These are the sources habitually consulted in the creation of the words on "The Big List." The sources in this category are also listed in the other resources categories, as appropriate.
American Dialect Society Email Discussion List (ADS-L)
Dictionary of American Regional English
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Historical Dictionary of American Slang
Oxford English Dictionary
Word Origins (Liberman)
Yale Book of Quotations
Online Databases
These are links to online databases of literature, journalism, and other writing; useful for etymological research
19th Century Mormon Publications
Ad*Access
American Colonist's Library
Avalon Project
Brigham Young University Online Collections
British Library Online Newspaper Archive
Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online, 1841-1902
Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection
Cornell University Library Historical Monographs
Department of Transportation Online Digital Special Collections
Digital Book Index
Documenting the American South,
Eisenhower Battlefield Communiques
English Online Resources
Historic Missouri Newspaper Project
Historical Ricks College / BYU Idaho Scroll
Internet Public Library
Making of America Database (Cornell)
Making of America Database (Michigan)
Online Books Page
Proceedings of the Old Bailey
Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image
Southwest Historical Quarterly
Utah Digital Newspapers
Wright American Fiction
Grammar & Style Manuals
Books and sources on style and usage.
Alt.Usage.English Frequently-Asked Questions List
Associated Press Stylebook & Briefing On Media Law
Associated Press Stylebook & Libel Manual
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words
Cambridge Guide to English Usage
Common Errors in English Usage
Dictionary of Modern American Usage
Elements of Style
Modern American Usage (Barzun)
Modern English Usage, 2nd Edition
New Fowler's Modern English Usage
The Underground Grammarian
Webster's Dictionary of English Usage
Popular Press Language Books
These are intended for a mass audience and are generally not useful for research. The quality of the scholarship is variable: excellent in some cases; less than admirable in others.
Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, & Spuds
Berkeley High School Slang Dictionary
Common Phrases & Where They Come From (Korach)
Devious Derivations
Dictionary of Euphemisms & Other Doubletalk
Dictionary of Word Origins (Almond)
Dictionary of Word Origins (Ayto)
Dog Days And Dandelions
Dubious Doublets
Eats Shoots & Leaves
Facts On File Encyclopedia of Word & Phrase Origins
Jesse's Word of the Day
Made In America
Mother Tongue
On Language (series)
Poplollies & Bellibones
Sea of Words
Slang of Sin
They Never Said It
When a Loose Cannon...
Wicked Words (Rawson)
Language Web Sites & Blogs
The following are links to web-based general language sources and blogs about language. Online sources that fall into other categories, such as online dictionaries, are listed in those categories.
AFU & Urban Legends Archive
American Dialect Society Email Discussion List (ADS-L)
Bartleby.com
Blue Letter Bible
English 419
Ethnologue.com
Free Dictionary
Language Log
Old English at the University of Virginia
Old English Pages
Online Medical Dictionaries & Glossaries.
Roots of English Dictionary
Shakespeare Concordance
Silva Rhetoricae
Take Our Word For It
Verbivore
Whonamedit.com
Word Spy
World Wide Words
Yourdictionary.com
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Copyright 1997-2007, by David Wilton
words-l - Words-L mailing list
(E?)(L?) http://www.words-l.net/
(E?)(L?) http://www.words-l.org/
Welcome to http://www.words-l.net/, the alternate Words-L Web site. This is a temporary site supporting the electronic mailing list Words-L. This site will self-destruct upon completion of the rehabilitation of the permanent Words-L Web site at http://www.words-l.org/. Inasmuch as this is an interim site, one should not expect much in the way of polish, style, completeness, or timeliness.
The Words-L mailing list was created in 1989 to facilitate network discussions related to the English language. Famed on the Internet as a bog of self-reference, it nevertheless still attempts to serve its original purpose, but day-to-day discussions range over many topics and embrace many points of view.
wordweb
(E?)(L?) http://www.wordweb.co.uk/free
is a an excellent free utility that displays definitions, synonyms, antonyms, for any word that you highlight when typing.
wordwithyou
A Word with You - Word List - Wort-Liste
(E1)(L1) http://www.wordwithyou.com/
Bei meinem Versuch am 03.09.2005 war diese Site nicht erreichbar. Ich kann nur hoffen, dass sie lediglich temporär nicht verfügbar ist.
30 Jun 2005
Lawrence Paros and Dave Middleton's A Word With You site (www.wordwithyou.com) no longer exists.
worldwidewords
Words - How Words enter the language
(E1)(L1) http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/howdowords.htm
Is there a formal process?
A student recently e-mailed me to enquire how a word officially becomes part of the English language. He was certain that there must be some formal process involved. Surely, he said, there must be a body such as a group of lexicographers that decides when a word is really a word, as otherwise English would be anarchic.
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Bücher zur Kategorie:
Etymologie, Étymologie, Etymology
US Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, les États-Unis d'Amérique, The United States of America (USA)
Wörterverzeichnisse, Vocabulaires, Lists of words
amazon - Wörterverzeichnisse, Vocabulaires, Lists of words
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Bertram, Anne - In Other Words: Making Better Word Choices in American English
Synopsis
This is a 5,000-word thesaurus of everyday American English logically organised for users of all levels. Each word comes with a complete definition and example sentences to illustrate meaning.
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Crystal, David - Words, Words, Words
Quotations about Language and Languages
Synopsis
"Words, Words, Words" is all about the wonder of words. Drawing on a lifetime's experience, David Crystal explores language in all its rich varieties through words: the very building blocks of our communication. Language has no life of its own: it only exists in the mouths and ears, hands, eyes and brains of its users. As we are guided expertly and passionately through the mysteries and delights of word origins, histories, spellings, regional and social variations, taboo words, jargon, and wordplay, the contribution we all play in shaping the linguistic world around us becomes evident. "Words, Words, Words" is a celebration of what we say and how we say it. It invites us to engage linguistically with who we are: to understand what words tell us about where we come from and what we do. And as they continually shape our lives, it suggests ways that we can look at words anew and get involved with collecting and coining words ourselves.
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Kleinedler, Steve - 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
Kurzbeschreibung
* Rund 30.000 Stichwörter und Wendungen
* alle Haupteinträge in Blau
* sehr praktisch für alle USA-Reisenden: Bei Unterschieden zwischen dem britischen und amerikanischen Englisch ist nur der amerikanische Ausdruck angegeben, z.B. Wohnmobil/RV (recreational vehicle), Bagatellunfall/fender-bender, Spiegelei/fried egg sunny-side up, Rechnung (im Lokal)/check
LaRocque, Paula
On Words
Insight Into How Our Words Work - and Don't
In this slim but fascinating book, Morris reveals the history behind some of the most recognizable product names. Many still bear the name of their maker, such as Chef Boyardee, who was an actual person named Hector Boiardi. Others, like WD-40, refer to the product’s development process: the creators of WD-40 were looking for a "water displacement" substance to repel moisture, and after forty attempts, the product was perfected. ...The book contains a wealth of product information, but it is Morris’s jaunty prose and humorous sidebars -- on topics ranging from unfortunately named companies like Poolife to the association of product names and urban legends (e.g., Pop Rocks killed Mikey) -- that make this a delightful read. -- Publishers Weekly.
“We know the vocabulary of romance, but we don’t always know how the various sweet nothings we utter came to carry their emotionally charged meanings. Morris . . . shares his message with style and wit . . . a delightful little book.”-- Booklist
us-intern
Morris, Evan - The Book Lover's Guide to the Internet
There's been a lot of talk about how the Internet is endangering literacy. After spending some time leafing through The Book Lover's Guide to the Internet, you'll think otherwise. This guide for bookworms argues that traditional and digital cultures do mix and provides a list of worthwhile Web and FTP sites and newsgroups. Along with sites devoted to individual authors, the book includes resources for gay, lesbian, and bisexual literature; multicultural literature; poetry; and e-zines. The book's casual tone offsets the wealth of information it contains. For instance, the modem is described as "a little electronic device that allows your computer to communicate with others of its ilk over a telephone line."
"Here's a delightful romp through the English language that will remind word buffs of Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue and William Safire's collections of his On Language columns. ... Oh boy, is it fun! ... Morris not only solves his word mysteries but displays his laugh-out-loud sense of humor at full throttle. (Fans of humorist Dave Barry's "Mr. Language Person" will be on very familiar ground here, except that Morris isn't making anything up.) Morris does what few writers on language can manage: he informs and entertains at the same time." -- Booklist
Amazon.com
Who needs Sherlock Holmes when you've got a word detective? Evan Morris, whose Web site and syndicated column solve more mysteries than even Scotland Yard could manage, has assembled a book of entertaining questions and answers that will amuse, educate, and resolve arguments all at once. From "amok" to "zarf", the definitions and origins of words are explained with a delightful combination of wit and research that will leave curious readers delighted.
Each entry begins with the original question asked of Morris, complete with the writer's misspellings and misinformation, and a few of these may result in cringes from the serious wordsmiths out there. One query incorrectly remembers the metaphor "hair of the dog that bit you" as "Something like bite the dog's tail or the dog that bit you last night," and Morris makes plenty of entertaining suggestions regarding these incorrect versions before finally explaining that the phrase have been around since about 1546, and specifically refers to a hangover remedy. The author is in especially fine form while explaining the phrase "passing the bar"--who knew that it dates back to a requirement that lawyers wrestle a grizzly "bar" before entering into practice? The correct explanation follows Morris's whimsical tale, but 16th-century England just doesn't have quite the same entertainment value. Several special sections cover larger topics, such as food- and animal-based phrases (easy as pie, dog days), onomatopoeia, euphemisms, diner slang, and Yiddish expressions. While not as detailed as the alphabetical entries, words like "wreck", "mensch," and "throb" are given satisfying, if short, descriptions.
Jill Lightner
Synopsis
This work is a collection of 150 of Evan Morris's language columns, which have appeared in newspapers throughout America and on his popular Web site.
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Kvetch Press (June 2003)
Language: English
Synopsis
When you come right down to it, sex is easier done than said; so too with matters of the toilette. Limited to a few choice four-letter slang words? Know little of the word origins of curse words? Stumble as to their proper usage? Lack elegant substitutes for dirty sex talk? Here at last are the dirty words you need - words and more words: slang words, rich and colourful; euphemisms, flowery, arcane, and remote; quaint sexual terms rescued from English past. All are suggestive of the romanticism, cynicism, violence, and humour with which the actors, the parts, and the act itself have been viewed through the centuries. Travelling where few etymologists have gone before, Lawrence Paros now makes it possible to master the sexual lexicons. Combining a study of street-talk, with a survey of history, poetry, drama, and the great works of Western literature, "Bawdy Language" delves both into the word origins of curse words and phrases and the wide variety of synonyms for them. Here at last is the book that will show you how to talk dirty, yet command respect. No longer must your prurient thoughts remain inelegantly expressed. Add erudition and class to your gutter talk by mastering the argot. Remember, obscenity by itself is the last refuge of the vulgarian and the crutch of the inarticulate.
Klappentext
Ihre Kunden wollen sich im Urlaub unterhalten. Mit den Polyglott-Sprachführern ist die Verständigung auf Reisen einfach leicht. Im Herbst erscheinen weitere sieben neue Titel. Alle Sprachführer sind vierfarbig und enthalten ca. 25 Fotos. Sie überzeugen durch ihre übersichtliche Gestaltung und sind deshalb auch besonders benutzerfreundlich.
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Soukhanov, Anne H. - Word Watch: The Stories Behind the Words of Our Lives
From Booklist
Anne Soukhanov, lexicographer and executive editor of The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd ed.), has based this book about new words invading the vernacular on her monthly column "Word Watch" in the Atlantic Monthly. The book's meticulously organized 13 chapters are filled with food talk, sports speak, warrior words, businessese, and advertising lingo. Each chapter begins with a list of words and phrases that are then sprinkled in a fast-paced overview; later, the terms are defined individually with quoted passages demonstrating their initial use. Thus the reader can learn of softgel, address hygiene (approved by the U.S. Postal Service), grassy knollism, Paula Jones disease, and trawler in context and by definition and often who coined them. For example, populuxe was the idea of Thomas Hine, critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, who combined popular, popularity, luxury, and a fancy final e to portray the feel of the mid-1950s to mid-1960s when chrome, far-reaching tail fins, and split-level houses typified the lifestyle of postwar posterity. The way the words, anecdotes, and definitions are laid out, this book was built for browsing.
Jennifer Henderson
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Wallraff, Barbara - Word Court
Wherein Verbal Virtue is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice is Done
Do you find the errors on a menu before the waiter has a chance to recite the specials? Is "Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received" as grating to you as fingernails on a blackboard? Would you cringe if an advertisement for your child's school promised a "low teacher-to-student ratio"? If so, Barbara Wallraff's Word Court is a book without which you cannot live. For seasoned wordsmiths, books about language can entertain; on occasion they may also enlighten. But rare is the book such as this that can teach an old pro so many new tricks, and in such a delightful manner. If you are a reader of Wallraff's "Word Court" column for The Atlantic Monthly, you will have seen much of what is included here before. If not, caveat reader: though there is an index, this book is arranged in such a way that one may well find oneself reading the proverbial "one more page" long into the night.
Wallraff, Barbara - Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words
Synopsis
Based on the popular column in Atlantic Monthly, a humorous celebration of the English language looks at a series of recreational word coinages - none of which have been officially accepted into the language - ranging from "swervousness," the fear of running over squirrels, to "skivvy-dipping," going through the dirty clothes hamper to find something.
Paul West delights in the vicissitudes of language, and his enthusiasm is exquisitely catching. West particularly loves a good etymology (and who, deep down, doesn't?) and he's dedicated this most recent of his 30-odd books to 500 or so of his favourite words and phrases, and the stories that go with them.
Paul West delights in the vicissitudes of language, and his enthusiasm is exquisitely catching. West particularly loves a good etymology (and who, deep down, doesn't?) and he's dedicated this most recent of his 30-odd books to 500 or so of his favourite words and phrases, and the stories that go with them.
