Dave Wilton

Dave has a PhD in medieval English literature from the University of Toronto and has been publishing Wordorigins.org since 1997.

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yttrium (paid)

ytterbium

Ytterbium is a chemical element with atomic number 70 and the symbol Yb. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal that is yellow or golden in color. It has a few specialized uses: its radioactive isotopes are used as sources of gamma rays and in atomic clocks; it is

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Kris Kringle

(I’m reposting some older, seasonal articles. This article was first published on Wordorigins.org on 3 December 2021.) Kris Kringle is another name for Santa Claus. The name is a variation on the German Christkind, or Christkindl (Christ-child), a traditional gift-bringer at Christmas-time in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and elsewhere.

eggnog

Whence comes the name for the drink we know as eggnog? The egg is easy enough—it is made with eggs, but the nog is a stumper for most casual observers of the language. In an older entry, the Oxford English Dictionary dates eggnog to 1825, but the term has

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wassail (paid)

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carol / carrel / corral (paid)

juke / jukebox

A jukebox is a coin operated machine that plays selected musical recordings. The box part of the word is understood easily enough, but where does juke come from? Juke is actually two distinct words in English. The one that forms jukebox is recorded from the first half of the twentieth

anticipatory obedience

Anticipatory obedience is exactly what one would think, actions taken to obey what one perceives to be the wishes of a superior before being commanded to do so. The phrase is a relatively common in political science literature in reference to subjects’ compliance with the will of a totalitarian regime,

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"Nosh" and the perils of copyediting

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ytterbium (paid)

xenon

Xenon is a chemical element with atomic number 54 and the symbol Xe. At standard temperature and pressure it is a dense, colorless, odorless, noble gas. It is used in flash and arc lamps and as a general anesthetic. The name is a transliteration of the Greek ξένον, a neuter

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eggnog (paid)

gremlin

A gremlin is a mythical creature of the upper air who causes damage to airplanes. The term starts appearing in Royal Air Force slang during the interwar years. There are claims that gremlin was in use during the First World War, but while this claim is plausible, and perhaps even

Book Review: The F-Word

I have a review of Jesse Sheidlower's excellent The F-Word (fourth edition) over on the Strong Language blog. Get for that profane person in your life this holiday season.

crash blossom

A crash blossom is a poorly worded headline that can be read in more than one way. In most of the common examples one of the readings is humorous. (Non-humorous crash blossoms aren’t usually selected as examples, presumably because they’re not exciting enough.) An example of a crash

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juke / jukebox (paid)

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Black Friday / Cyber Monday

(I’m reposting some older, seasonal articles on the feed’s off days. This article was first published on Wordorigins.org on 21 November 2023.) In the United States, the Friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. The day is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season and

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Thanksgiving

vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element with atomic number 23 and the symbol V. It is a hard, silvery-gray transition metal. It has a variety of uses, primarily in steel alloys to increase hardness. The element was first discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río y Fernández in 1801. He initially dubbed

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xenon (paid)

Lucifer

Most people recognize Lucifer as a name for the devil, for Satan, but fewer know that it is also a name for the planet Venus. How did this rather odd double meaning come about? The name is from the Latin lucifer, or light-bearer (luci- / lux-, light. + -fer, bearing). The Latin

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gremlin (paid)

deer

Deer can be traced back to the Old English word deor, but the word’s use in Old English was somewhat different than deer’s is today. In Old English, deor was a more general term, referring to any, usually but not necessarily undomesticated, four-legged animal, including fabulous beasts of

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crash blossom (paid)

sodium

Sodium is a chemical element with atomic number 11 and the symbol Na. It is a soft, silvery-white, alkali metal that is highly reactive. It’s the sixth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. Sodium has myriad uses, perhaps most familiarly in the form sodium chloride or table