By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Where did the word ‘agnostic’ come from, and what does it mean? And what links the originator of this handy term and one of the great writers of twentieth-century dystopian literature?
Agnostic is a term that’s often misused and misunderstood, so let’s take a look at the word’s meaning and etymology to discover the truth about ‘agnosticism’ and what it means to be an ‘agnostic’.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Where does the term ‘thought police’ come from? If you’re tempted to answer, ‘George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four’, read on. In fact, read on anyway, because the answer may surprise you. Although Orwell popularised the phrase thought police in his classic dystopian novel, he was not the first person to use it.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Here’s a question for you. When the word ‘virus’ was first used in English, what did it mean? Let’s make it a little easier by making the quiz multiple-choice. Did ‘virus’ originally mean:
a) venom or poison
b) violent animosity
c) semen
d) an infectious agent?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
What connects vaccinations with cows? And how did a young boy and a milkmaid help to change the course of medical history? These questions are both related to the origin, or etymology, of the words ‘vaccine’ and ‘vaccination’. So let’s take a closer look at these words.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Some words have curious, and revealing, etymologies. The origins of the word ‘plagiarism’ are certainly revealing. The meaning of the word is fairly well-known: ‘plagiarism’ means stealing another person’s work, especially their writing, and passing it off as your own. To plagiarise is to seek to get the credit for something you didn’t produce yourself.