I like to think I have a pretty large vocabulary, and more than that I kind of pride myself on understanding why words mean what they do–what the history behind them is.
Even so, there are lots of times I find myself using a word or phrase in a way that I’ve heard it used before, [...]
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Things I Learned Today #1: “blackmail” is a Scottish word, and the Highland Scots invented the protection rackets.
World Wide Words: Blackmail
The mail in blackmail (at various times also spelled maill, male and in other ways) is an old Scots word for rent. This was usually paid in what was often called white money, silver coins. [...]
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(This is a bit journal-ish. Skip ahead if that kind of stuff doesn’t interest you.)
You know, the last time I can back from Australia, I was hungover and carrying the Aussie death flu bug, and I was wiped out for several weeks.
This time I seem to have been wiped out first, and then picked up [...]
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The expression “the worm turns”, commonly used (at least by me) to mean “the situation has changed and the previously disadvantaged party now holds the advantage”, is apparently an evolution of the old proverb, “Tread on a worm and it will turn.” The proverb was likely intended to say “even the lowliest creature will strike [...]
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