By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The origin of the word ‘tragedy’ involves wine, singing, and goats. More predictably, it involves the origins of theatre itself, back in ancient Greece. But in order to understand the etymology (or, at least, the commonly accepted etymology) of the word ‘tragedy’, we need to go back over two thousand years and take a closer look at those singing goats.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
What does the word ‘sinister’ have to do with being left-handed? And what was the meaning of the word ‘ambidextrous’ when it was first coined? And what do these two questions have to do with each other? Let’s take a closer look at the interesting origins of the word ‘sinister’.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The word ‘girl’, like many everyday words which we might assume have perfectly ordinary and straightforward histories, actually has a surprising etymology. To explore the origins of the word ‘girl’ we need to think about both the word’s etymological meaning and its use over time.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
What does the word ‘tantalise’ have to do with the chemical element ‘tantalum’? And what is the connection of both of these to the figure of Tantalus from Greek mythology? The etymology of the word ‘tantalise’ is bound up with a mythical king and a curious story about a punishment he was forced to suffer. So let’s take a look at the story of King Tantalus and how this relates to an everyday word we use to describe the act of teasing someone with something that always remains just out of reach.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
What are the origins of the word ‘Babel’, and what does it have to do with two similar-sounding words: ‘Bible’ and ‘babble’?
The word ‘Babel’ – capitalised to show that it has not managed to shake off its origins as a proper name – is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a confused or disordered medley of sounds, esp. of voices’. But where did the word ‘Babel’ come from?