By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The term ‘scapegoat’ is well-known: it refers to an innocent person who has to carry the blame for something on behalf of other people. As the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word: the ‘scapegoat’ is ‘one of two goats that was chosen by lot to be sent alive into the wilderness, the sins of the people having been symbolically laid upon it, while the other was appointed to be sacrificed.’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
What connects the word ‘gobbledygook’ with the word ‘maverick’? To discover the link, we need to delve into the origins, or etymologies, of both words. But first, let’s consider how we came to have the word gobbledygook to refer to meaningless jargon or nonsense.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Anyone who has eaten an avocado has, at least etymologically speaking, eaten a testicle. How is this so? Let’s delve into the curious origins of the word for the fruit, avocado and see how they got bound up with the world of the legal profession and with male genitalia.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The word ‘naked’ is so well-known, so familiar to us, that it’s easy to overlook its strangeness. It rhymes with no other word in English, and looks like a weird hybrid or cross between a verb and an adjective. How did the word naked come about, and what are its origins?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Where does the word mayonnaise come from? Many people will confidently say they know the answer, but perhaps the matter is a little more complex – and a little more interesting – than is widely believed.
Before we plunge ourselves into the origin of ‘mayonnaise’, then, let’s make it a multiple-choice quiz question.
Where does the word ‘mayonnaise’ come from?
a) The port of Mahon
b) The French manier
c) The town of Bayonne
d) Nobody’s quite sure