I saw the word predicament recently, and thought that it would be an interesting case for a little bit of etymology figuring-out. It looks so Latin, with such clearly separate sections, each of which could have its own meaning, and which could all be added up to clearly show the meaning of the word as whole. Continue reading
If you want peace, prepare for war.
An ancient, but enduring adage, first found in the 5th century De re militari (Concerning Military Matters) by the Latin writer Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus.
I was thinking about this phrase recently, inspired by the subtitle of the latest John Wick film – Parabellum. 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.
Today I was playing a quiz online. I like quizzes. I also like money, which I would have won, except that I got a question wrong. That question was:
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.
The Bible.
I’m not an expert on the Bible by any stretch of the imagination. I did read a few passages of the Book of Revelations as a younger man, out of sheer curiosity, but that’s about it. Still though, it’s a very interesting name, even if you haven’t read any of it.
Do you like rhubarb? Its taste is a bit sharp, but it can be quite nice alongside something gentler, like custarb. It’s one of those funny words with an Rh at the beginning, when really it seems like a simple R would do fine.
