Passing through some of the suburbs of Dublin on Hallowe’en Night, I was heartened to see a few bonfires burning.
Bonfire
etymology
Write or Wrong
Have you ever wondered why some words like write and wrong begin with a silent W?
Of course you haven’t, but luckily for you, I have.
All Souls’ Day
Or if you prefer, The Day of the Dead. Which is today, because confusingly, yesterday was All Saints’ Day (AKA All Hallows’ Day). Both days are quite different though.
Don’t be Afraid…
Yes, it’s Hallowe’en again! Time to have a look at an appropriately spooky word. But first, a challenge:
Riveting Stuff!
Have you ever noticed that riveting can have two meanings? It can mean fascinating, but also the action of fixing rivets (metal pins) to a surface (I was thinking about this recently after hearing someone talk about the riveters who worked on the Titanic). It might seem odd that it can have these two meanings, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
Is Your Water Running?
Then you’d better catch it!
Ha!
Isn’t it a little strange that we refer to running water?
Begging the Question
Writing about the etymology of the word clock yesterday reminded me of when I wrote about the word to decimate recently, and how people are fond of citing its original meaning as being to reduce by 10%, even though that’s not true.
As I said before, I can understand people having this misconception, and I can understand the instinct to correct people. There have always been people who’ve acted this way about language, but recently I’ve noticed more and more people taking such a prescriptive approach to English.
English-Language Thoughts 