EtymoLex https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html Gossip Once Meant ‘Godparent’ — The Fall of a Sacred Word Barbarian, Berber, and the Universal Habit of Mocking Foreign Languages The Word Hazard Comes from an Arabic Dice Game The Word Sarcasm Literally Means ‘To Rip Flesh’ — The Greeks Took Words Seriously Mortgage, Mortal, Murder: Three Words Born from the Same Root Ambulance Comes from a French Word That Means ‘Walking’ How a Misplaced ‘N’ Gave English the Word Nickname Muscle and Mussel Both Come from the Latin Word for ‘Little Mouse’ Captain Boycott Was So Hated That His Name Became a Verb Clue Originally Meant ‘Ball of Yarn’ — The Minotaur Explains Why Sandwich Was a Nobleman’s Name Before It Was a Meal Pan, Panic, Pandemic: Three Words, Two Different Roots, One Confusion Candidate and Candle Come from the Same Latin Word for ‘White’ Robot, Robota, Rab: The Slavic Roots of the Most Modern Word in English From Eye Makeup to Whiskey: The Bizarre Journey of the Word Alcohol Quarantine Started as Thirty Days, Not Forty — Venice Changed the Math Algorithm Is Not a Greek Word — It Comes from a Place in Uzbekistan Chocolate, Tomato, Avocado: Three Words English Owes to the Aztecs The Word Coffee Comes from an Arabic Word That Once Meant Wine The Hashish Theory Behind the Word Assassin Is Probably Wrong Shakespeare Used ‘Disaster’ to Mean a Literal Bad Star — We Forgot Salary, Salad, Sausage: The Latin Word for Salt Left Its Mark Everywhere Mortgage Has a Silent T Because of Latin — Here’s the Full Story The Vikings Replaced the English Word for Window with ‘Wind-Eye’