Back in the mid 1990’s when I was studying at SOAS, one of the classes that I most enjoyed were those given by Professor Alexander Piatagorsky. He is said to have been […]
Repost: Tracing words back through time
10 Weird Words: Portmanteaus
The second installment of 10 Weird Words, featuring the vulgar history of wuss and the founding of Adidas by Nazis.
10 Weird Words: Surprising Roots
Sinister: from the Latin “left” because of the evil connotations of omens “on the left,” emphasized further by Latin Mass. Adds a fun layer to the hyper-Christian, left-handed Ned Flanders and the title character of “Dexter,” the Latin word designating the right-handed, good omens.
The Layman's Linguist 