Even if you’re not a full-blown grammar nerd, you’ll find the origins of these words that changed meaning over time completely fascinating The English language is alive—and like any living thing, it ...

“Every word was coined by a resourceful individual or borrowed as a result of language contact in a certain place at a certain time,” writes Anatoly Liberman in his new book, “Word Origins and How We ...

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From left: MirageC/Moment/Getty Images; Narongsak Noinash/EyeEm/Getty Images; Jordan Lye/Moment/Getty Images; Justin Dodd/Mental Floss (background) Etymologies can be hard to establish beyond a ...

Sir, Why all the fuss about deipnosophist? (Letters, January 2.) Jeremy Paxman was simply quoting from the oldest and perhaps most fascinating cookery book, The Deipnosophists of Athenaeus (translated ...