quid pro quo 5 December 2025 Quid pro quo literally means “this for that” in Latin, but when did it appear and what does it mean in English? The catchphrase arose in post-classical Latin in the fourth century CE. An early appearance in English is in the 1535 translation of Erasmus’s A
OK Boomer 3 December 2025 Ok Boomer is a dismissive reply by a young person directed at a Baby Boomer (or Gen Xer—the traditional generational boundaries are not always observed in the wild. The phrase is rather disrespectful of their elders, but after years of being blamed for not getting “real”
hairbag 1 December 2025 What is a hairbag? And is it a bad thing? The term has been New York City police slang for a veteran officer since at least 1958, when it was recorded in a glossary of police slang in the October issue of Spring 3100, a New York
meme Most of us are familiar with memes, those images with varying text that propagate, often virally, through the internet, but where does the word meme come from? It may be surprising to many, but the word meme was coined by biologist and famed promoter of atheism Richard Dawkins in 1976.
smoot I usually don’t write up novelty words, but smoot has a neat ironic twist that is impossible to ignore. A smoot is a unit of linear measure equal to 1.7018 meters (5 feet, 7 inches). It is named after Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. (b. 1940). The smoot grew
terror / terrorism / terrorist Terrorism is not simply a modern phenomenon; it’s existed since time immemorial. But it wasn’t until the French Revolution that it was given its name. Its root, terror, dates to the fifteenth century in English use. It is a borrowing from the Anglo-Norman terrour and the Latin terror,
English Translations of the Bible 23 November 2025 There is perhaps no book as influential in the development of the English language as the Christian Bible. But to understand how the Bible influenced our language (and our history) we need to understand what the “Bible” is and how the translations we read today came into
prorogation / prorogue Prorogation is an arcane parliamentary jargon term meaning the suspension of a session of parliament without formally dissolving it. Prorogation is a commonly used without much public notice in a pro forma manner in the few days leading up to a new session or just prior to parliament’s dissolution
jones The exact origin of jones, meaning an overwhelming yen or craving, is unknown. It obviously refers to the name Jones, but exactly how it arose and developed is uncertain, although its early use is primarily in American Black slang. The first known use of jones in this context is the
pedophile Words in the News is a weekly, paid-subscriber feature of Wordorigins.org. If you’d like to see more, please upgrade your subscription to a paid level. 17 November 2025 Journalist and podcaster Megyn Kelly became the subject of the news this past week when she repeated a claim on
rapture Most people, at least in the United States, are familiar with the word rapture as it relates to the apocalyptic Christian doctrine. But that’s a relatively recent development in theology, starting in the eighteenth century and only picking up steam in the nineteenth, and it is one that is
computer / compute Computer has a rather straightforward etymology, although its original meaning may be a bit surprising. The word was originally applied to people, not machines. And in the modern era before the advent of electronic computers, many of these human computers were women, as calculation was considered mundane and repetitive work,
