I’ve spent the last two days in Agrigento, a town on the south coast of Sicily, and close to an impressive Ancient Greek temple complex known as the Valley of the Temples. While on my way there, I wondered: why do we call the areas to the side of our forehead temples? Continue reading
The word adamant (unwilling to change one’s opinion, certain in one’s belief) is a very interesting word. And if you read Greek mythology, fantasy literature, and/or comic books, you might know why… Continue reading
By now, you’re probably well aware that I’ve always got time for an interesting etymology.
You’re also probably equally aware that I’m always wary of an apparent etymology that just seems too good to be true.
Yesterday, I came across what I assumed was a case of the latter. Continue reading
Have you ever wondered why both F and Ph can have the same sound in English?
Phone, philosophy, Philadelphia: force, far, fair etc. Continue reading
After writing about the term bohemian recently, I realisd that there are a few other cases in English of adjectives relating to certain regions having a particular meaning. Continue reading
About a week or so ago, when Avengers: Infinity War was released, I thought, I wonder if there’s any interesting points related to language raised by the Avengers and their ancillary characters? If you clicked on that link in the first line of the paragraph, or read this post inspired by Black Panther, you can see that these films often give me a lot to think about.
Some of you might go to the gym regularly, to keep fit. Good for you, if you do. You might know that gym is short for gymnasium, which would be quite a long word to say all the time, so the abbreviation makes sense.
English-Language Thoughts 