etymology

Hey! You!

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

Yeah, you.

It’s a strange word, you, when you think about it for too long.

You.

It’s the only personal pronoun to be both a subject pronoun and an object pronoun. You can say You talked to him and He talked to you, but never Him talked to you and You talked to he.

It’s also used as both a singular and plural pronoun, in standard English at least. Because it’s sometimes confusing when someone says you and we don’t know if they’re talking to us alone or to as part of a group, colloquial plural forms of you do exist around the world.

Continue reading →

Montenegro

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

Just a short post today, as it’s Sunday and I fancy a rest, but I think I’ll complement it with a reblog of one of my earlier posts.

I’m always amazed at the number of different countries you all hail from. I love looking at that little map on the stats page, and am proud and humbled to have had visitors from every continent. Yesterday I had my first visitor from Montenegro, or at least someone in Montenegro at the time (thank you, whoever you are!). In many ways, Montenegro is similar to Luxembourg: a small country with a complex history and an interesting name… Continue reading →

Honeymoon

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

Have you ever stopped to think about how strange the word honeymoon is? Why would honey and moon combine to create a compound noun meaning a holiday after getting married? Continue reading →

Turkey: International Bird of Mystery

Niall O'Donnell 9 Comments

Since most of us probably won’t be eating it for another 11 or 12 months, I think it’s time to give the turkey its due before we forget about it again.

The word turkey (used to refer to the bird) has a surprisingly convoluted etymology. And no, it’s not a coincidence that it’s also the name of a country… Continue reading →

Winter Solstice

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

Today is the Winter Solstice, or Midwinter, here in the Northern Hemisphere; the shortest day (or, if you prefer, the longest night) of the year.

The word solstice comes from the Latin solstitium, meaning point at which the sun seems to stand still. This meaning was probably inspired more by the Summer Solstice, in which the sun seems to hang around all day, especially up here on the 53rd parallel where it gets dark at about 11.30pm. But at the Winter Solstice, the sun probably seemed to move across the sky far too quickly. Continue reading →

A Bit of a Do

Niall O'Donnell 8 Comments

I’ll be getting ready for my office Christmas party soon.

And by getting ready I mean probably changing my clothes.

it reminded me of a now probably old-fashioned Irishism, which is to refer to any kind of social gathering on a larger scale and more  than simply going to the pub as a do.

Sorry, I can’t go out tonight, we’re having our work Christmas do.

We’re having a bit of a do next week, if you want to come.

I’ve been invited to the mass, but I won’t be able to make it, so I’m just going to the evening do. Were you at their engagement do? Continue reading →

-ish

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

“What colour are you painting the living room?”

“Ecru.”

“What?”

“You know, ecru. Kind of like magnolia, or eggshell.”

“Huh?”

“Whiteish.”

“Ah, ok! Why didn’t you just say that then?”

Is there a more useful suffix than -ish?

Sometimes we really don’t want to express ourselves in too extreme a way. If we don’t want to say something is fantastic or amazing, we can say it’s nice. Or, if it’s better than that, it’s great…ish. Continue reading →