What makes a house a home?
I’m sure you all have very different and interesting answers to that question.
Home
word origins
I’m no Expert
It’s true, I’m not.
No matter how much I might sound like I think I am, most of what I share here is from my own informal research. Of course working in an English-language school helps, as does my own interest in language, but I could never claim to be an expert in any kind of official sense. Though, if you look at where the word comes from, then maybe I am…
Green
Why do we say, mainly in American English, that someone’s green if they’re inexperiened or naïve?
It’s actually quite simple really: it’s because they’re fresh and new, like new green plants growing in the spring. Still, there could be many other adjectives we could use instead of green in this case. I think there’s a particular significance to the way we use green here. Perhaps more than other colours, green has a greater significance than just its surface detail.
Interesting Animal Names
Just double checking I spelled that correctly. After looking at panthers yesterday, I began thinking about other interesting animal names. One you might know is hippopotamus.
Black Panther
This isn’t about the film at all, I’ll let you know right now. The title is a blatant, shameless attempt to trick people into reading this. But now that you’re here, haven’t you ever wanted to learn more about the words leopard and panther?
Try, Try, and Try Again
I Put a Spell on You
At some point in the last few days I was writing about spelling, and a thought recurred to me: is it a coincidence that the verb to spell (as in, How do you spell that word?), and the noun spell (as in magic spell) are identical?
This time I’ve decided to pursue this line of inquiry, and the answer is basically: No, it’s not just a coincidence!
English-Language Thoughts 