Welcome to Origin of the words
Thoughts, stories, and ideas from this author.
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Origin of the word "Wife"
What speakers mean now In present-day English, wife is first of all a married woman considered in relation to her spouse. That is the unmarked reading in ordinary speech, in law, and in most forms. Th
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Origin of the word "Start"
A beginning that used to be a jump In current English, start is the everyday verb for commencing a task, a journey, a machine, or a conversation. The noun covers the first moment of an action, the lin
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Origin of the word "Whole"
Intact before it meant complete In everyday English, whole usually means entire: a whole loaf, the whole afternoon, a whole number. It can also mark food that has not been stripped of parts, as in who
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Origin of the word "Pretty"
Slight beauty, and a hedge In present-day English, pretty most often names a modest kind of attractiveness: a face, a room, a stretch of countryside that pleases without claiming grandeur. Speakers fr
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Origin of the word "Brother"
A word for kinship and company In everyday English, brother names a male sibling: a son of the same parents, or of one shared parent. The same form also stretches beyond the household. Speakers use it
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Origin of the word "Door"
What English speakers mean by it A door is the movable panel that closes an opening into a room, a building, a vehicle, or a piece of furniture. The same word also stands for the opening itself: peopl
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Origin of the word "Happy"
A feeling that used to be luck In ordinary English, happy names a state of pleasure or ease: a child with a gift, a guest who is glad to stay, a speaker who is willing to help. The same adjective stil
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Origin of the word "Hold"
What the verb does now In current English, to hold is first of all to keep something in the hand or against the body, and from that core it fans out. You hold a child so it does not fall. You hold a c
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Origin of the word "Idea"
What speakers mean now In ordinary English, an idea is a thought with some outline: a plan, an opinion, a notion of how a thing works, or only a faint sense that something is the case. You can float a
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Origin of the word "Head"
Head is one of the shortest common nouns in English and one of the most crowded. In ordinary talk it names the part of the body that holds the brain and the main senses. The same form also names a lea
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Origin of the word "Ready"
Prepared, willing, and at hand In present-day English, ready names a state of fitness more often than a single concrete object. A meal is ready when it can be served. A person is ready when the work c
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Origin of the word "Shit"
A native word for a basic fact In current English, shit is a vulgar term for feces and for the act of defecating. It also covers a wide slang range: stuff, nonsense, trouble, a contemptible person, an
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Origin of the word "Miss"
What English does with miss In current English, miss names several kinds of failure that still belong together. You can miss a target, a catch, a train, a class, a deadline, or the point of a remark.
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Origin of the word "Live"
Two spellings, two lives In ordinary English, live is first of all a verb: to be alive, to go on existing, to get through a day or a century. We live in towns, live on bread or a salary, live through
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Origin of the word "Room"
Space first, walls later In current English, room does two jobs that sit beside each other without being the same job. Used without a plural, it is the extent available for a body or an action: room t
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