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- Almost no names are ‘English’
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Category Archives: English
Grammarian drops into Errorist’s secret L’error
Part III – The Grammarian saga continues . . . Professor Grammarian visits Misprint Manor to spring a daring trap for the diabolical Errorist. […]
Language Expert Answers Word Origin Questions | Tech Support | WIRED
University of Cambridge Research Fellow Dr. Stephen Turton joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about the logic (and many quirks) of the English language. Why are so many English words not pronounced the way they’re spelled? Why is … Continue reading
What did North, South, East & West originally mean?
[…] From mountain high to valley low, Rob Watts and Jess Zafarris are exploring the origins of geography words. 🐻❄️ Why are the poles called ‘poles’? 🗻 What is the difference between a hill and a mountain? 🧭 What do … Continue reading
How could one man write a dictionary? | SAMUEL JOHNSON
[…] Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary was one heck of an achievement. But it is also far from perfect. In this episode, Jess and Rob discuss some of the more amusing entries within its pages, and even the words that landed … Continue reading
Why is it called a ‘cockpit’? | AVIATION WORDS
Welcome aboard flight WU321 bound for Etymology Island. In this episode, Rob and Jess take to the skies and soar through the word origins of a multitude of aviation terms. ✈️ Is it an ‘airplane’ or an ‘aeroplane’? 🐓 Why … Continue reading
STRESS-SHIFT: stress, accent, and rhythm EXPLAINED
[…] The stresses shown in dictionaries are so often different from the reality of English speech. To understand why, we need to unpack STRESS, ACCENT and RHYTHM! For animations, a big thankyou to Marta at / @3dprintsandleaves 0:00 Introduction 3:36 … Continue reading
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate — The Allusionist
MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT The other day was the 53rd anniversary of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, which not only caused a lot of political uproar, it had a big linguistic legacy: the … Continue reading
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