linguistics

Housewarming

Niall O'Donnell Leave a comment

Have you ever been to a housewarming party? Continue reading →

Ignoble

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

You might have heard of the Ig Nobel Prize: an annual award for trivial or unusual scientific research. The name of course is a play on both the Nobel Prize and the word ignoble. I read something about the Ig Nobel Prize today, and then thought about the word ignoble, specifically:

Ignoble? That’s weird, isn’t it? Continue reading →

Gnarly!

Niall O'Donnell Leave a comment

It’s the epitome of surfer-dude slang: totally gnarly dude!

Thinking about the word today though, it seemed a strange fit for surfing slang. Surely, I thought, it’s related to gnarled, as in knobbly, rough, or twisted. Not how you’d describe a wave really, is it? Continue reading →

Hotel

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

I’m writing this from a hotel room. The word hotel can be traced back to the Old French word ostel, which of course is also the origin of the word hostel. And, it might surprise you, hospital. Continue reading →

X Marks the Spot

Niall O'Donnell Leave a comment

Yes, but why? Continue reading →

Dead Right!

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

I had another of my common hmmm, I wonder why… moments while writing yesterday’s post, specifically when mentioning the meaning of dead ringer. I understand that dead meant precise in that context, but I wondered why we use it with that meaning? Continue reading →

Out, Damn’d Spot!

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

I was thinking this morning that the word spot is one of those simple unassuming words that actually has a lot of quite different meanings, and can be used as verb and a noun.

I find it particularly interesting in that it began with a more abstract, poetic meaning, and later on came to be used in more mundane ways. Continue reading →