Welcome to Origin of the words
Thoughts, stories, and ideas from this author.
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Origin of the word "Husband"
A spouse, and a steward In current English a husband is a man named in relation to the person he has married. The same spelling still works as a verb: to husband time, money, or fuel is to spend it ca
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Origin of the word "Week"
A seven-day stretch with an older name In ordinary English a week is any run of seven days, or the calendar block that starts on Sunday in much of American usage and often on Monday in Britain. People
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Origin of the word "Fight"
English uses fight for a punch-up, a lawsuit, a campaign, and the private effort of staying on one’s feet. The noun can name the clash itself or the spirit that keeps someone in it. Those later senses
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Origin of the word "Moment"
A brief stretch of time, and a heavier sense beside it In ordinary English a moment is a short, loosely bounded stretch of time, or a particular point inside time: wait a moment, at the moment, a defi
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Origin of the word "Wish"
What the word does now In present-day English the verb names a desire that may sit just out of reach. Speakers wish they had left earlier, wish a guest a safe journey, or wish an illness on nobody. Th
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Origin of the word "Hurt"
Pain, injury, and a verb of impact In current English, to hurt someone is to cause physical injury or emotional pain. The same verb, used without an object, names the sensation itself: a tooth hurts,
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Origin of the word "Daughter"
English daughter names a female child in relation to her parents, and a little more loosely a female descendant. That kinship sense has been stable for as long as English has written records. What has
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Origin of the word "Number"
What speakers mean by it In current English a number is a quantity, a mathematical object, or the written mark that stands for one. The same noun also names a place in a sequence, a telephone combinat
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Origin of the word "Story"
More than a tale In current English a story is an account of events, whether they happened, might have happened, or were invented for the telling. The same noun covers a child’s bedtime narrative, a n
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Origin of the word "Important"
A word for what still matters When English speakers call a fact, a person, or a decision important, they mean it has consequence. The adjective covers events that change a course of affairs, details t
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Origin of the word "Word"
A unit of speech, and more than that In ordinary English, a word is the smallest piece of language that speakers treat as a complete unit: something you can pause on, look up, or type with spaces arou
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Origin of the word "Party"
Several jobs, one borrowed noun In present-day English, party is unusually crowded. It can name a birthday gathering, a political organization, one side in a lawsuit, a search team, or, in older infor
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Origin of the word "Close"
Two sounds, one family In present-day English, close is two common words that share a spelling and a history but not a pronunciation. As a verb it usually ends in a voiced sound: close the door, close
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Origin of the word "Four"
The count in ordinary English Four is the English cardinal for 4: the integer after three and before five. It names a size of set, a digit, and, by extension, teams, scores, and objects that come in t
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Origin of the word "Dear"
English uses dear in several registers at once. It names a person you love, it opens a letter to someone you may never have met, and in older or British usage it still marks a high price. Those jobs l
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