Dave Wilton

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

inauguration

Our present-day English word inauguration comes from the Latin inauguratio. Augury was the practice of interpreting the behavior of birds as omens. Hence inauguratio connoted the beginning of an endeavor with favorable omens. The Latin noun appears in the writings of Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220 CE), but the word

B movie

A B movie is a low-budget, low-budget film. The division of films into two quality-based groupings dates to the earliest days of the film industry and has precursors in the practices of vaudeville theater. But the B movie as we know it today arises out of the distribution methods used

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ADS 2024 Word of the Year (WOTY)

The American Dialect Society has selected rawdog as its 2024 Word of the Year (WOTY 2024). Rawdog is an excellent choice for a number of reasons. The word dates to at least 2002—to be considered, words need only to be newly prominent, not newly coined, in the year in

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ruthenium

Ruthenium is a chemical element with atomic number 44 and the symbol Ru. The metal is a member of the platinum group and usually found in platinum ores. Like other members of that group it is generally unreactive. Ruthenium is used in alloys, especially in electronic equipment, to increase hardness

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soap opera / horse opera / space opera

A soap opera is a melodramatic, serial drama. The term is also used figuratively to denote real-life events of the type that would be dramatized in the genre. Soap operas got their start in radio before moving on to television and were typically broadcast in the daytime with a target

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luxury

Today, we associate luxury with wealth, opulence, and indulgence, but the word originally meant lust, sexual intercourse, or just more generally sensual pleasure. The word was imported into English by the Normans, coming from the Old French luxure (lust, lechery), which in turn is from the Latin luxuria, which meant

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gold

Gold is a chemical element with atomic number 79 and the symbol Au. It is a bright, orange-yellowish, malleable, and ductile metal. It is also one of the least reactive of the elements, which, in addition to its use in jewelry and as an item of monetary value, makes it

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furry / plushie / furvert

2024: My Year in Astrophotography

In case you didn’t know, I not only do word origins and historical linguistics, I’m also an amateur astrophotographer; that is, I take pictures of the night sky. I’ve been doing it, off and on, since 2008. This is a collection of the images I’ve taken

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Epiphany / Twelfth Night

The Christian festival of Epiphany celebrates the visit of the Magi to worship the newborn Jesus. It falls on the sixth of January. According to tradition, Christ’s baptism and the wedding at Cana, where he turned water into wine, fell on the anniversary of the Magi’s visit. Doctrinally,

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auld lang syne

What should be a straightforward history is muddled by an incompetent 19th century editor

calcium

Calcium is a chemical element with atomic number 20 and the symbol Ca. It is a reactive, alkaline earth metal, dull gray or silver in color with a yellow tint. When exposed to air it forms a dark oxide layer on the surface. Calcium is essential for life as we

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2024 Wordorigins Words of the Year (WOTY)

As in past years, I’ve come up with a list of Words of The Year (WOTY). I do things a bit differently from other sites in that I don’t try to select one term to represent the entire year. Instead, I select twelve terms, one for each month.

poinsettia

This flower (Euphorbia pulcherrima), native to Mexico and associated with Christmas, has a rather straightforward etymology. It is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, who served as the U.S. minister (i.e., ambassador) to Mexico from 1825–30. An amateur botanist, Poinsett sent samples of the flower back to the

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Santa Claus

(I’m reposting some older, seasonal articles on the feed’s off days. This article was first published on Wordorigins.org on 13 December 2023.) The name Santa Claus is a dialectal variation on the Dutch Sint Klaas. The Sint, or Sante in the Dutch dialect of early New York,

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Boxing Day

(I’m reposting some older, seasonal articles on the feed’s off days. This article was first published on Wordorigins.org on 20 December 2023.) Boxing Day is 26 December, the day after Christmas. It is celebrated in Britain and many of the Commonwealth countries, including Canada, but not in