Wordorigins.org

Wordorigins.org is devoted to the origins of words and phrases, or as a linguist would put it, to etymology. Etymology is the study of word origins. (It is not the study of insects; that is entomology.) Where words come from is a fascinating subject, full of folklore and historical lessons. Often, popular tales of a word’s origin arise. Sometimes these are true; more often they are not. While it can be disappointing when a neat little tale turns out to be untrue, almost invariably the true origin is just as interesting.

Old English uses a number of letters and punctuation marks, like the thorn þ and the eth ð, that do not exist in modern English. Typing these can be a challenge. This MS Word document has information on how to get your Windows computer to produce these characters, OELetters.doc (721 Kb). (I don’t know the Mac, but if someone sends me info on how to do this on the Mac, I’ll add it to the document.)

If you’re typing for the web, like on this site’s discussion forum, it’s probably best to limit yourself to the most commonly supported characters. The more esoteric characters will probably not be seen on other people’s systems.

If you’re a hardcore user of Old English, you’ll probably want to download the Junicode font and even this keyboard map.

Wordorigins.org has a twitter feed. If you are a twitterer, you can stay current with the latest updates to the Wordorigins.org site by searching for “wordorigins” on Twitter and following the feed. Only updates to the main site will be twittered. New postings to the discussion forum will not be.

This is in addition to the existing RSS feeds. RSS feeds exist for both the main site and for the discussion forum.

Dave Wilton

Dave Wilton is an independent researcher in historical linguistics, etymology, and slang origins. He is the author of Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004). He is also the author of two recent articles in Verbatim magazine: A Hoagie By Any Other Name, on the various names for the sandwich (XXVIII/3, Autumn 2003) and Journo’s Boffo Lingo: The Slang of Daily Variety (XXX/1, Spring 2005).

Dave has an M.A. from George Washington University in National Security Policy Studies and a B.A. from Lafayette College in Government & Law. Dave lives in in Emeryville, California.

Dexter

Dexter is the staff assistant here at Wordorigins.org. His duties include reception and greeting of visitors, multiple daily perambulations, pursuit of delivery persons, mastication of assorted objects, and olfactory investigations.

Dexter holds a diploma in Basic Obedience from the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society.

Wilton, D. (2004). Word myths: debunking linguistic urban legends. New York, Oxford University Press.

The paperback version of Word Myths is available.

Or click here if you want the hardcover version.

Did you ever think that Ring Around The Rosie makes reference to the Black Death of the Middle Ages? Or that the whole nine yards refers to the length of a machinegun ammo belt? Or perhaps that Eskimos have 500 words for snow? If so, then you have been taken in by a linguistic urban legend. Like classic urban legends, these linguistic legends are popular and pervasive. Instead of propagating cautionary tales about the dangers of modern life, linguistic urban folklore propagates stories and “facts” about language.