I thought about this word recently, when writing about the story often shared about the origins of the word kangaroo. Obviously the word is now most associated with the native people of Australia. This hasn’t always been the case though.
Aboriginal
English language
Green
Why do we say, mainly in American English, that someone’s green if they’re inexperiened or naïve?
It’s actually quite simple really: it’s because they’re fresh and new, like new green plants growing in the spring. Still, there could be many other adjectives we could use instead of green in this case. I think there’s a particular significance to the way we use green here. Perhaps more than other colours, green has a greater significance than just its surface detail.
Que Sera Sera
… whatever will be, will be.
You might know the song. And you might know the language the title is in. Or you might think you might know…
Interesting Animal Names
Just double checking I spelled that correctly. After looking at panthers yesterday, I began thinking about other interesting animal names. One you might know is hippopotamus.
Black Panther
This isn’t about the film at all, I’ll let you know right now. The title is a blatant, shameless attempt to trick people into reading this. But now that you’re here, haven’t you ever wanted to learn more about the words leopard and panther?
Try, Try, and Try Again
I Put a Spell on You
At some point in the last few days I was writing about spelling, and a thought recurred to me: is it a coincidence that the verb to spell (as in, How do you spell that word?), and the noun spell (as in magic spell) are identical?
This time I’ve decided to pursue this line of inquiry, and the answer is basically: No, it’s not just a coincidence!
English-Language Thoughts 