Where the $ symbol actually comes from
Why is the $ sign an S? What does 'dollar' even mean? In this video, I answer both of those questions, while also explaining what the British pound is a…
Why French sounds so unlike other Romance languages
Sound changes left French unlike Latin, Italian, Spanish or Romanian.
How Old is ‘Haha’? The Sound of Medieval Laughter
Surviving in multiple copies, Ælfric’s work is not only the oldest Latin grammar written in English (or, indeed, any vernacular language), but it’s also been described as ‘one of the…
Time words don’t mean what you think
What is a second the "second" of? What time should noon actually be? And how can "hour" and "year" mean the same thing (because they do!)?
‘Morning Edition’ Returns: A Bubbly Girl Named Diot Coke
George Redmonds, a researcher with the British National Archives studying 14th-century names, finds a girl's moniker that pops with recognition: Diot Coke. Redmonds believes Coke was a corruption of "Cook,"…
Why Is It Called A Spelling “Bee”?
where lots of people gather socially to do a lot of work.
Why English is full of silent letters
English has a silent letter problem. The situation is so out of hand that it's often said that every letter of the alphabet can be found silent somewhere in our…
The etymology of “earthling”
and its interesting ending via Jess Zafarris
“Tu vis ta culture ou tu tues ta culture.”
la langue française dans Louisiane
Why doesn’t English have genders? Well… it did!
Pretty much every other language seems to have grammatical genders… so why doesn't English? Well, it used to. Old English had three genders, meaning there were at least three different…