Posts in Origin of the word
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Origin of the word "Bleach"
What speakers mean by it now Ask for the origin of the word bleach and most people point at the bottle: a chlorine or peroxide solution used to whiten cloth, kill germs, or lighten hair. The verb cove
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Origin of the word "Maine"
In present-day English, Maine is almost always a proper name. It names the northeasternmost state of the United States, and also a former province of northwestern France whose old capital was Le Mans.
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Origin of the word "Crispin"
What English still means by it Call someone a crispin in older English and you are naming a shoemaker, usually with a smile. The word turns up in slang lists, comic essays, and dictionaries of familia
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Origin of the word "Exculpation"
What the word names now In present-day English, exculpation is the act of clearing a person from alleged fault, guilt, or a criminal charge. It can also name the excuse, proof, or argument that does t
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Origin of the word "Flintlock"
A spark, a latch, a gun In modern English a flintlock is two related things: the firing assembly that made a spark by striking flint on steel, and, by a later stretch, the musket or pistol built aroun
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Origin of the word "Fallow"
English keeps two different histories under the same spelling. In ordinary talk, fallow is the field left unsown after the plough, or a stretch of time when nothing is being produced. Naturalists stil
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Origin of the word "Gossip"
English speakers use gossip for two things that feel related: the talk itself, and the person who carries it. The talk is informal news about other people's private lives, often unkind or unverified.
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Origin of the word "Tepee"
A conical lodge, not a generic tent In present-day English, a tepee is a portable conical dwelling: long poles bound near the top, their feet opened into a circle, and a covering of hide or canvas wra
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Origin of the word "Humanistic"
Several uses, not one creed English speakers now call something humanistic when it puts people at the centre: a syllabus in the humanities, a novel that treats character with sympathy, a secular ethic
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Origin of the word "Altazimuth"
A two-axis name In present-day English, altazimuth names an instrument or a mounting that turns on two perpendicular axes. One axis is vertical, so the device can sweep around the horizon. The other i
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Origin of the word "Trustworthy"
What the adjective does now In present-day English, trustworthy names a person, a source, or an object that deserves confidence. A babysitter, a dataset, a newspaper, and a lock can all take the word.
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Origin of the word "Semicentennial"
English uses semicentennial for a fiftieth anniversary and for the gathering, sermon, or civic program that marks it. As an adjective it describes anything tied to that fifty-year point, or anything t
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Origin of the word "Heteroptera"
A learned name for typical bugs In English, Heteroptera is a technical name, not a word people use at the kitchen table. It labels a large group of insects that entomologists call typical true bugs: s
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Origin of the word "Metre"
English metre does two jobs that look unrelated until they are traced to the same noun. In British and most other standard varieties it is the SI unit of length: a little over three feet. In the same
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Origin of the word "Forebrain"
A front-room name for a front-room organ In current English, forebrain is the ordinary anatomical name for the anterior division of the vertebrate brain. In the embryo it is the first of three primary
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