Word of the Week

Word history and etymology

Word of the Week – Cataclysm
In the world of the Awakened, I mention that there was a great tumult, an upset, a horrible catastrophe that shook the world in the distant past and sent a portion of humanity beneath the waves to survive. In my story world, I just call it "the Great Cataclysm." But...
Word of the Week – Apocalypse
When we hear the word apocalypse, we think one thing and one thing only these days: THE END OF THE WORLD! Ever wonder why? Apocalypse has come to mean that because it's the Greek name of the last book in the Bible, which we English-speakers today call Revelation. Its...
Word of the Week – Abibliophobia
Okay, so neither Etymonline.com nor Merriam-Webster recognize this word as a real word. But it IS, man. It is a REAL THING. You know it. I know it. The mug below certainly knows it. 😉 Abibliophobia. It's a word that modern book-lovers have absolutely made up, using...
Word of the Week – Biblioklept
You know the people. The ones you've learned not to lend books to because they always forget to return them. The ones who will swear they didn't have them or that they gave them back, even though you know that precious volume is right there on their shelves. Or...

Have you ever wondered when certain words started to be used in certain ways? Or how they even came about? If they’re related to other, similar-sounding words?

I wonder these things all the time. And so, for years I’ve been gathering interesting words together, looking at the etymology, and posting them in fun, bite-sized posts called Word of the Week. Here you’ll find everything from which definition of a word pre-dates another, to how certain holiday words came about, to what the original meaning was of something we use a lot today but in a very different way. And of course, the surprising words that we think are new but in fact are pretty ancient, like “wow”!