Posts in Origin of the word
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Origin of the word "Morning"
The first stretch of the day English speakers use morning for the early part of the day: from midnight to noon in clock time, or from sunrise to noon in ordinary talk. It also names dawn itself, and i
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Origin of the word "Hell"
English hell is a short native noun with several jobs at once. It names a Christian place of punishment after death, a more general underworld, a stretch of misery in this life, and, in loose speech,
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Origin of the word "Best"
Superlative of a different stem In present-day English, best sits at the top of two everyday scales. As an adjective it is the superlative of good: most excellent, most suitable, or, in a looser use,
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Origin of the word "Friend"
A chosen companion, and an older job for the noun In present-day English a friend is someone you like, trust, and keep by choice, usually outside the innermost family circle. The noun also stretches w
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Origin of the word "Mind"
What the word covers now In present-day English, mind names the inner life of a person: thought, feeling, will, memory, and attention. We speak of a sharp mind, a change of mind, a frame of mind, and
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Origin of the word "Dead"
A small word for a final state In current English, dead is the plain adjective for what has stopped living. It names people, animals, and plants, and it also names things that only behave as if life h
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Origin of the word "Woman"
What speakers mean by it now In present-day English, woman is the ordinary word for an adult female human. It also names women as a class, and it is the second half of many role and nationality compou
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Origin of the word "Care"
A word that still sounds like worry English speakers use care for several things that feel related but are not the same job. As a noun it can mean close attention, the work of looking after someone, a
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Origin of the word "Found"
Three histories, one spelling In modern English, found is the ordinary past tense of find. It is also a separate verb meaning to establish a city, a charity, or a company, and a rarer industrial verb
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Origin of the word "Show"
What speakers do with it now In present-day English, show is the everyday verb for making something visible to someone else. A person can show a photograph, show a visitor to a seat, show that a claim
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Origin of the word "Today"
This calendar day, and this age English uses today for the date of speaking and, just as often, for the age the speaker inhabits. The adverb still answers a simple when-question. The noun can mean thi
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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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