The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

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Forsyth, Mark (27 November 2013). "The Turkey's Turkey Connection". The New York Times . Retrieved 17 January 2015. However it happened, and whoever said what, the term flying saucer came into being as a result of this event 74 years ago today.

There are few things more fun in life than seeing the utterly familiar in a new way. It’s like finding out about your boring work colleague’s criminal record. The New York Times Book Review called it an “entertaining bar-hop through the past 10,000 years.” [43] Other books [ edit ]Then Renaissance Italians noticed that, in fact, a year was 365 and just less thana quarter days. This upset them terribly. Start with something simple. We've got the verb give, which we all know, and the thing that you give is a gift. They're quite obviously related. This is Not Interesting. And there are so many more. Film "buffs" originate from "buffalo", computer "bugs" refer to the "bogeyman", the term "cyberpunk" etymologically means "well-governed homosexual", and the oil company Shell really did go into business initially to sell seashells (possibly by the seashore). The pelican theory is a bit silly. It attempts to explain away a not-that-believable story with an even less likely one. It would be a lot simpler to suggest that Mr Arnold imagined the whole thing. The pelicans are unlikely, and if I have learned anything in this life, it is that one should never rely on an unlikely pelican.

Mark Forsyth takes you through an entertaining, amusing, and absolutely enlightening romp through the etymology of words. Hard to explain but better told : You know, frank gets its meaning here from the idea of belonging to the Franks and therefore being free – in the same way that slave originally meant being in servitude due to being a Slav.The etymology, by the way is Greek. Pan means everything, as in a pandemic which is a disease that has spread to all the people. The demic there is the same as democracy, which is government by the people. a b c Copping, Jasper (5 November 2011). "Idioms in a nutshell". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario: Infomart, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. p.B.3. Today is, of course, the 74th anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting. The event is celebrated by lexicographers everywhere because it gave the English language two new terms: flying saucerand pelicanist. Uxbridge gets its name from the Wixans, an Anglo-Saxon tribe from Lincolnshire who settled in the area in the 7th century and had a bridge over the River Colne - a River Thames tributary which marked their territorial boundary.