A little while ago, I briefly mentioned the word currency. That’s got me thinking about the names we have for currencies: where do they come from?
Currency
English language
Give up the Ghost
This phrase, meaning to die or stop working, is probably a lot older than you think. A famous variation on the line is in the King James translation of the Bible from 1611:
Total Recall
Recall is an interesting word by virtue of how simple its etymology is.
Kind Regards
A lot of us write a lot more than we used to. If you work in a office, or even from home, there’s a good chance that your job requires you to send at least a few emails a day. I sent 34 work emails on Wednesday, for example (I also sent a lot on Thursday and Friday, but as the school I work in was closed because of the severe weather, I won’t count those). And this is still a relatively quiet period. Even if a lot of us are used to sending emails though, there’s something of an art to writing one.
Cryptocurrency
You’ve probably heard this term a lot recently, referring to digital currencies such as Bitcoin. What does that prefix crypto- mean though?
Super! Smashing! Great!
Why is Peggy Short for Margaret?
What do these four women have in common?
Why, the fact that they all have the same name of course!
OK, they don’t really, but it’s not entirely inaccurate to say so. Why not? Read on…
English-Language Thoughts 