Word of the Week
Word history and etymology
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”!
Word of the Week – Intelligence
Intelligence is a pretty old world. It's been around since the 14th century, meaning exactly what it does now. And even the secondary meaning--"information gathered, especially by spies"--dates back to the 1580s. I found this pretty surprising. As I'm doing research...
Word of the Week – Debut (And a debut!)
Today I'm tickled pink to announce the debut of a new group blog called Colonial Quills. About, you guessed it, authors and books focused on early American history! I'm proud to be a contributor to the blog thanks to my upcoming Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland...
Word of the Week – Understand
I can't say as I've ever understood why, when we comprehend something, we stand under it. So this week we're working to understand the word understand. =) According to the wonderful world of www.etymonline.com (one of the best resources IN THE UNIVERSE!), this word,...
Word of the Week – Amen
Every night, the family gathers around for bedtime prayers. I start off with a prayer of thanks for the day, for protection that night, for a good day following, and for anything else pertinent to that particular day. Then Xoe adds her bit, Rowyn either cheerily says...
Word of the Week – Coffee
You can tell I'm longing for my first cup, right? Yes, this week we're looking into the wonders of coffee. I mean, of the word. 😉 Word of the Week - coffee The best guess of the awesome www.etymonline.com is that our word coffee came from the Italian caffe, which...
Word of the Week – Fiasco
I was actually going to talk about the word "fiance," and how it entered (or perhaps re-entered after British folks stopped speaking French in the middle ages) English surprisingly late, but I mis-typed, got curious, and discovered that "fiasco" is way more...
Word of the Week – Adorable
My best friend Stephanie put in a word of the week request, so today's dedicated to her. 😉 Today's word of the week is . . . Adorable. And Stephanie brings it up for a good reason. As modern parents, we use the word adorable a lot. And usually for our cute little...
Word of the Week – Giddy
Can't say as I've ever looked up the etymology of "giddy" before, but since I've been using it to describe my emotional state all week, I decided it would be an appropriate Word today. =) (For any who haven't yet heard why I'm giddy, check out my "Woo Hoo!" post.) In...
Word of the Week – Handsome
I don't often pause to examine the etymology of words like "handsome," which have meant what they mean for centuries, and so I can use freely in all my manuscripts. But once in a while, it's fun to see how it came to mean what we know all those hundreds of years ago....
Word of the Week – Cheat
First of all, I'd like to say I think about this phrase for my books ONLY. 😉 It recently came up in a manuscript I'd read, where a character says, "He cheated on me." Obviously, we all know what she meant. "Cheat," is in fact the most common way these days to say...
Word of the Week – Schadenfreude
Perhaps I ought to start with a pronunciation guide of this one, eh? 😉 Schadenfreude (SHAHD-en-FROY-de) is something we've all probably felt, and felt the sting of. Loosely defined, it's a noun meaning 'malicious satisfaction taken at the misfortune of others.' When...
Word of the Week – Gus (the mouse from Cinderella, of course)
Okay, so this week's word isn't so much a simple word as the explanation of a name. And maybe I'm the only nerd in the world to get excited about realizing the reason for this one, but just in case . . . Remember in Disney's Cinderella, when the alert her that a new...
Word of the Week – Cleave
I maintain that "cleave" is one of the most bizarre words in the English language. Why? Because it means two exactly opposite things. Cleave, definition 1 - to stick, cling, adhere to something closely. Cleave, definition 2 - to divide, to split, to cut Um . . ....
Word of the Week – Macaroni
Yes, you read the title right. Today I'm bringing to you an enlightening treatise on the word "macaroni." =) Now, in my house "macaroni" is synonymous with "the most common food to be found, because it's the only thing my kids are 100% guaranteed to eat." But as with...
Word of the Week – Pedestrian
While I'm far, far away from working on modern books, I thought I'd introduce a new feature on Mondays for now. Actually, I owe the idea to two Facebook friends, who responded to one of my word-nerd moments with the thought that I should do a word-a-day on my blog....