Etymology
Word origin stories

Six Degrees of Geek

Now's a good time to hunt the "uncertain origin" words with roots in the 20th century. We have tools to track their paths and smoke them from their lairs. [D.R.H.]
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Word origin stories

Ancient Echoes

Germanic words are mushrooms growing on the same rotten log, to steal a priceless image from Anatoly Liberman. [D.R.H.]
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Word origin stories

Spooky Speculation

A Halloween word with a history. [D.R.H.]
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Word origin stories

Sure About Sherbet

The poor relation of American dessert recipes. By Talia Felix, Assistant Editor.
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Word origin stories

Who Lusts for Certainty Lusts for Lies

We need to talk about the Google Ngram Viewer n-grams. They are wrong. [D.R.H.]
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Word origin stories

A Fig for Dates

reprinted from ten thousand e-mail replies [D.R.H.]
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Word origin stories

Search and Research

Inside the etymonline staff lounge. This is the fun part, if you have a job here. [D.R.H.]
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Word origin stories

Homing in on Harlequin

Etymology ideas about the famous old time clown, by Talia Felix, Assistant Editor.
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Word origin stories

An Intimate Encounter with Digital Archival Mania

When the assistant editor doesn't have much to say about links to the Cuthbert Gospel online, she conjures up the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson via ChatGPT
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