Grime, Christ, and ghee share the same Indo-European root! The word “grimace” is also cognate, coming from French “grimace”, from Frankish *grima (mask), from the Proto-Germanic *grīmô. Greek Khristos is a calque of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (māšīaḥ), also meaning “anointed”. Māšīaḥ was also borrowed into Greek and Latin, eventually reaching English as the word “messiah”. […]
Surprising Doublets: Cow, Beef, and Bovine
Yet another surprising etymology graphic:“Cow” and “beef” are related words.After the Norman invasion of England in 1066, the country came under the rule of a Norman French speaking nobility.This lead to a situation where the live animals were handled by Middle English speakers, while the cooked animal was eaten by theirNormal French speaking lords.The result: […]
Etymological Tree of Sker
I started making an image showing how “skirt” and “shirt” are from the same origin, but got a bit carried away with all the other words also related. So here are 23 English words all from the Proto-Indo-European word “*(s)ker-” (‘to cut’). As a general rule: if a PIE word started with “sk”, and it […]
English has two unrelated -ing suffixes
Surprising etymology fact:The “-ing” suffix in phrases like “I like running” is etymological unrelated to the “-ing” suffix in phrases like “I am running”.“-ing” is actuall two unrelated suffixes in English, spelled the same. Quick grammar background:Gerunds are nouns that are made from verbs, formed by adding “-ing”, e.g. in sentences like “Reading is fun”, […]
Surprising Doublets: Hound-Canine and Wolf-Lupine
“Hound” is distantly related to “canine”, and “wolf” is similarly related to “lupus”. This makes these words two pairs of doublets. I enjoy the symmetry of this one, with the scientific species name of the grey wolf (which includes dogs), “Canis lupus”, being from the same origins as hound+wolf in English respectively. Another word related […]
British and Irish words for British and Irish nations
Infographics mapping out the various origins and etymologies of the names of seven British and Irish nations in the seven main languages of those nations. Before we get into the etymology, you may want to make sure you’re familiar with what all these words actually refer to. Here’s my post about how to use these […]
My Recursive Hexagonal Flat Earth Map
My proposal for a new Flat Earth map was rejected by the Global Flat Earth Society, so I guess I’ll share it here instead. Fun fact: circumnavigating the world will land you in an alternate version of your starting country:
The Ba Green: the land that Scotland won in a football game
Everybody loves weird borders right?Here’s my favourite: This is the Ba Green, a 3 acre meadow on the English side of the River Tweed that, for no clear reason, belongs to Scotland.Well, it turns out the reason is pretty unusual:Scotland won it in a football game!But this wasn’t football like you think of it today: […]
Races of Nirn: How are the races of the Elder Scrolls Universe related?
We were in full lockdown here in Hanoi over the summer, and I decided it would be a good time to get back into some of the games I played as a teenager. In particular, I played through 3 of the Elder Scrolls games: Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. As I played I was inevitably drawn […]
How a coastline 100 million years ago influences modern election results in Alabama
If (like me) you enjoy looking at maps, you might sometimes wonder why a map looks a the way it does. The events leading to a certain demographic being more common here, or a border being drawn there, can often be very complex, and fascinating.Here I’ve gathered 6 maps of the US state of Alabama. […]