word origins

Converse

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

Somewhere online today, I saw an ad or article about Hello Kitty Converse shoes. It probably wasn’t a targetted ad, or else whatever cookies are tracking me don’t know me at all. Curiously, for some reason, when I saw the word Converse, I pronounced it with an emphasis on the second syllable, like it was the verb to converse. Seeing the full title and accompanying picture of course made me realise that the word was Converse, the proper noun referring to the brand name, and not the verb. This was another interesting example of the difference in word stress between nouns and verbs. And of course at this stage, I’d got to thinking: why is the shoemaker named Converse, and how is that related to the verb to converse? Continue reading →

So Long, Marianne

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

I usually listen to music while I write, and sometimes while I’m thinking about what to write (usually I know long beforehand what I want to write, but sometimes I like to sit and let the ideas come. I think the music helps, and sometimes it gives me very specific ideas. Like this evening, for example. I was listening to the album Songs of Leonard Cohen (on vinyl, for extra hipster cred), and specifically the song “So Long, Marianne,” which of course made me think: why do we (well, Americans mainly) use so long to say goodbye? Continue reading →

Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

On Saturday afternoon, I decided I felt more like writing (this) while having a coffee in town (apparently the average noise level in a coffee shop is quite inducive to writing), rather than at home, so after wandering around a bit (I had to finish the album I was listening to, of course), I settled on a branch of Caffè Nero.

While queuing, I began thinking about the fact that I’m going to visit Rome next month. I’d always assumed the chain was named after the Roman emperor Nero, and considered that even though they seemed to use a lot of Ancient-Roman style design in their décor, the coffee shop probably doesn’t offer an authentic Ancient-Roman experience. And then I got to thinking about the famous myth that Nero sang and played the fiddle while the Great Fire of Rome raged around him (he probably didn’t: it’s more than likely propoganda spread by the Flavian dynasty that succeeded him).

And then I thought: why do we sometimes call a violin a fiddle? Continue reading →

Citizen and Subject

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

While writing about the word citizen, via denizen recently, I naturally thought of the word citizen in contrast to subject. Naturally, when describing people, they’re quite different. Continue reading →

Sweet Like Candy

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

MILK!!

Did you hear me!? I said MILK!!

I had to laugh when I saw this today. I get the idea of course. Milk seems pretty healthy, so why not emphasise that ingredient? If it were the main ingredient, the manufacturers wouldn’t need to do anything, as it’d be listed first (did you know that ingredients are always listed in descending order of how of them much are featured in the product?) Continue reading →

It’s Quite Quiet

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

I was sitting here watching the rain, and thinking about those two words, quite and quiet. Obviously they’re… rather confusing for a lot of people, given how similar they look and sound. I wondered if there might be some link between the two. Surely not, I thought. Their meanings are so different: surely this is just one of those cases of words evolving to be similar independently. Surely… Continue reading →

Mechanicsville, Georgia

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I’m always fascinated by the statistics of this blog, particularly the demographics of my visitors (i.e. you). I discovered recently that via Facebook, I can see some of the cities or particular regions that frequent visitors come from. That’s really interesting, but also kind of scary as I might recognise who some people are based on those places, and then know if they’re reading or not in a particular week.

I’m therefore not going to look at that report too much, but I did notice an interesting name crop up: Mechanicsville, Georgia (U.S). Continue reading →