Welcome to Origin of the words
Thoughts, stories, and ideas from this author.
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Origin of the word "Three"
A count that English never replaced English three names the integer after two: three chairs, three miles, the third item in a short list. Speakers also stretch it to any set of that size, whether a th
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Origin of the word "World"
Not a globe at first In present-day English, world covers a great deal: the planet and the life on it, the universe as a whole, human society, a trade or pastime, secular life as opposed to the life t
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Origin of the word "Wrong"
A word for what is off the straight line In modern English, wrong covers a wide stretch of ground. It can name a moral failure, a legal injury, a factual error, or a simple mismatch: the wrong key, th
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Origin of the word "Mother"
A native kinship term In present-day English, mother names a female parent. The same word also covers people who raise a child without giving birth, and, more loosely, a source, a native language, or
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Origin of the word "Left"
A side, a remainder, a party In ordinary English, left names the side of the body that is not the right, the direction toward that side, and the matching half of a street, a hall, or a formation. The
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Origin of the word "Stay"
What the word does in English now In current English, stay most often means to remain in a place, to keep a quality or condition, or to lodge for a while as a guest. The matching noun names that perio
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Origin of the word "Course"
A path, a sequence, and a dinner plate English uses course for a ship’s heading, a series of lectures, a stage of a meal, a golf layout, and the ordinary run of events. Those jobs look scattered until
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Origin of the word "House"
A building, a family, and a verb with a different sound In ordinary English, house is the everyday name for a building people live in. It is also the household that lives there, a dynastic line, one c
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Origin of the word "Kind"
Two uses that still share a family English speakers meet kind in two places that feel far apart. As a noun it names a class or sort: several kinds of paper, a new kind of argument. As an adjective it
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Origin of the word "Girl"
A familiar word with an unclear past In present-day English, girl names a female child. The same short word also covers a young woman, a daughter, a girlfriend, and, among friends, a casual form of ad
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Origin of the word "Nice"
A soft word with a hard start In everyday English, nice is the default mild compliment. A meal can be nice, a neighbor can be nice, and a walk can be nice and short. The adjective also still marks pre
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Origin of the word "Father"
What speakers mean by it now In ordinary English, father names a male parent: the man who begets a child, who adopts one, or who raises one. The same word also covers a male ancestor further back, a p
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Origin of the word "Place"
A general English word with a wide job Place is one of the most general location words in English. It can mean a spot on a map, a seat at a table, a rank in a contest, a job, a home, or a named street
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Origin of the word "Name"
A word that points, and a word that weighs In ordinary English, a name is the word or short phrase that picks out a person, a place, a thing, or an idea and keeps it distinct from others. The noun doe
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Origin of the word "Money"
What speakers mean now In current English, money is the medium people use to pay for goods and services: coins, notes, balances in an account, and, more loosely, wealth counted in those terms. A perso
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