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Fun with Etymology (RSS)
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Finally! My kind of television show! http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/wordhunt/ I hope BBC America will pick it up!
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Once in a while, I hit the jackpot – c. 725 CE! I was at the gym last Sunday. My Swiss friend and I were loitering by the supplement display and the "Whey Protein" caught our attention, mostly because my friend laughed about how she first thought she
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I was writing an email to a colleague this morning and I used the verb "jibe." I don’t believe I've ever actually written the word before in my life and I was compelled to look it up out of curiosity. I was using the word in the American English meaning
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Today while listening to " Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk " by Angie Sage on CD with my son the word "erstwhile" caught my attention. It's not a word one comes across often, certainly not in American English (Angie Sage is British.) I thought it would
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English - flaps A hinged portion of an airplane's wing, generally on the trailing edge, that can be lowered during takeoff and landing to increase the wings' lift and drag. When partially extended, a flap adds lift by increasing the camber, or curvature,
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Tchotchke trinket: a trinket or piece of bric-a-brac [Mid-20th century. < Yiddish tshatshke ] Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This word came up yesterday during the workday. Now, I know what a tchotchke
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Aileron One of the hinged flaps on the trailing edge of a wing of an aeroplane for maintaining or restoring its balance when flying. From the French. aileron, diminutive of aile wing. First appearance in English in1909. Oxford English Dictionary, Second
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I wonder if anyone else has this happen to them: Most morning, driving in to work and listening to NPR, I hear a word and thing "Where did that come from?" I can't wait to get into work so I can access the Oxford English Dictionary Online to find out.
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"It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear." Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)
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