Posts in Origin of the word
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Origin of the word "Great"
A word that now cheers more than it measures In current English, great still names large scale and high rank: a great river, a great power, a great-grandmother. Just as often it is a ready verdict of
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Origin of the word "Night"
A stretch of darkness with a long memory Night is the dark interval between sunset and sunrise, and English also uses the same noun for evening, for a period of sleep, and for darkness as a condition.
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Origin of the word "Home"
A place, and more than a building In present-day English, home is the place where someone lives, but the word is rarely only architectural. A house can be empty of feeling. A home is the familiar sett
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Origin of the word "Talk"
Everyday speech, not a borrowed ornament Talk is the ordinary English verb for exchanging words: conversation, discussion, the sound of people speaking. As a noun it covers the same ground and then so
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Origin of the word "Call"
A verb that still means raising the voice In everyday English, to call is to shout so that someone far off can hear, to summon a person, to give something a name, or to reach someone by phone. The nou
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Origin of the word "Stop"
Blocking first, standing still later In present-day English, stop can mean to cease moving or acting, or to prevent something else from going on. The same spelling also names a pause, a station, a tra
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Origin of the word "Wait"
Stillness that used to keep watch In current English, to wait is to stay in place, or in a state of readiness, until something happens: a train, a reply, a turn. The verb can also mean to serve custom
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Origin of the word "Must"
A modal that does two jobs In current English, must is a small, defective modal. It tells you that something is required: a law, a physical need, a social pressure, or a speaker’s insistence. It also
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Origin of the word "Work"
Effort, job, and the thing produced In present-day English, work names both the doing and the done. As a noun it can mean paid employment, the effort itself, a workplace, or a finished product: a book
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Origin of the word "Life"
What speakers mean by it now In present-day English, life is the everyday name for being alive: the condition that marks organisms off from dead tissue and from things that never lived, the span betwe
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Origin of the word "Help"
A verb English never had to borrow Speakers reach for help when they need aid, when they offer it, and when they shout for it. The verb covers giving assistance, easing a difficulty, and, with cannot,
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Origin of the word "Thing"
A label for almost anything In everyday English, thing is the all-purpose stand-in. It can mean an unnamed object, an event, a problem, a possession, or a living creature spoken of with pity or fondne
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Origin of the word "Sorry"
Speakers reach for sorry dozens of times a day. It can mark regret after a mistake, sympathy at bad news, or contempt for a weak effort: a sorry excuse, a sorry state of affairs. The everyday apology
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Origin of the word "Mean"
Three jobs, three ancestries English speakers use mean for intending, for unkindness, and for a midpoint. Those jobs share a sound and a spelling. They do not share a history. Tracing the origin of th
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Origin of the word "Love"
A native English word Love covers several kinds of attachment at once: kinship, friendship, romantic or sexual desire, religious devotion, and ordinary fondness for a place or a habit. Speakers also u
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