When you think about it, battery can have a lot of different meanings. The most common way we use it is to refer to the cells that power so many devices like our phones.
But it can also be used to refer to physical beating (e.g. assault and battery) or a military attack like a bombardment. You can see how both of those uses share a sense of violence, specifically striking, so how is it that also use the word battery to refer to the little thing in our phones?
Well, let’s start with where it doesn’t come from.
It’s not, as you might have heard, an acronym of North, East, West, and South. This is a popular misconception, usually claimed to be based on the idea that news comes from all directions.
While this sounds cute, it’s really not the way words are formed at all. As I’ve pointed out before.
Instead, the truth is a bit stranger.
I’ll just be a minute!
This isn’t just! It’s not fair at all!
Here we can see two very different uses of the word just. How is it that we use it in such different ways?
I’ll have to make up some excuse for why I’m late.
They often argue, but they always make up soon afterwards.
Let me just finish putting on my make-up and then we can go.
I’m often impressed by the economy of the English language.
Welcome to 2018!
There are many things that annoy us about how others use our native tongue. That’s just the way our brains work. There’s one interesting example though, that’s often mentioned by British-English speakers: Can I get…?
First of all, if you want to know about why today is called Boxing Day, I wrote about that here last year. If you didn’t read it then, I encourage you to do so. Even if you did read it last year, why not read it again? You might have forgotten all of the details. I know I have.
If you’re looking for something new though, how about a few brief lines about that curious word playwright?
English-Language Thoughts 