Year: 2021

At one point in time, a person’s wealth could be measured by the number of cattle they owned. The connection is so tight, in fact, that the two words are linked closely together. “Cattle” originally […]

When a person complains about someone else “stealing their thunder”, their meaning is somewhat obvious. Each of has our special ideas, knowledge, or skills that we can display, and when someone else upstages us by […]

By their very definition, mammals make milk. It’s one of the three things that make mammals who they are. So we shouldn’t be surprised that the very word “mammal” reflects that. The word originally comes […]

This one’s a simple one. An “arcade” is a place with a lot of arches (it’s from the Latin “arco”). So a place with a lot of arches – something like a public walkway with […]

The word “laconic” refers to someone whose speaking style is terse, short, and to the point. As a word, its origin goes back to ancient Greece, where it refers to the speaking style of the […]

Originally the word “meat” comes from the old English “mete” which refers to any type of food. “Mete” was simply whatever you were eating. That word is descended from proto-Indo-European word “matti” which originally meant […]

When you experience a catharsis, you feel cleansed by the experience of strong emotion. The word literally refers to the idea of purification, as it comes from the Greek root “Katharos”, which means “clean” in […]

What makes a biscuit a biscuit? Well, the word literally means “twice-baked”. It starts with “bi”, which means “two” — like binoculars. And then “cuit” is literally french for cooked. This is because in ancient […]