Wordorigins.org Newsletter

The United States government is often referred to as Uncle Sam, who is rendered pictorially as a white-haired, goateed man wearing a suit and top hat that are adorned with the stars and stripes. Perhaps the most famous image of Uncle Sam is James Montgomery Flagg’s WWI recruiting poster,

To swiftboat a politician is to dishonestly call their former military service into question, to falsely accuse them of exaggerating or even lying about their combat experiences. The term arose in the context of the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, in which Democratic candidate John Kerry was a Vietnam veteran,

Rhodium is a hard, silvery-white metallic chemical element with atomic number 45 and the symbol Rh. Rhodium is quite rare, chiefly found as a component of platinum and nickel ores. It has a number of applications, including as a catalyst in chemical reactions, especially in automobile catalytic converters; in electrical

[Dredging this one up from the archives, originally published 16 August 2021.] Weird, as we most often use it today, is an adjective meaning strange, odd, or uncanny. But that’s a relatively new sense, only arising in the last two hundred years or so; the word, with a different

Intersectionality is an analytical framework for examining how an individual’s various identities interact to create discrimination or privilege. Originally conceived to examine how race and gender interact, intersectionality can take into account any number of factors, including ethnicity, class, sexuality, country of origin, religion, disability, age, and weight. For

The Pond is a jocular and understated way of referring to the Atlantic Ocean, often in the phrase across the pond. By reducing the tempestuous ocean to placid pond, it makes the ocean manageable and domestic, recognizing the cultural differences between Britain and America and Canada, while at the same

Winston Churchill is credited with coining a lot of pithy phrases, and many of these claims are false. The coining of the phrase iron curtain falls into a gray area. It is thought by many that Churchill coined the phrase in a 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri, but the sense

The archetype of the cat lady is an old one, but the phrase is relatively new. The cat lady is typically portrayed as a middle-aged or elderly, unmarried woman who has a plethora of cats. The archetype can be positive or pejorative. The word crazy is often attached when the

Rhenium is a chemical element with atomic number 75 and the symbol Re. Its history and etymology are characterized by a series of errors and nationalistic feelings that overshadow the scientific achievement of its discovery. It is a dense, silvery-white metal with the highest melting point of all the elements

The Streisand effect is when an attempt to censor or otherwise suppress information results in that information becoming even more widely known. The actual effect has existed for as long as authorities have attempted to censor information, but the name for it stems from a 2003 incident involving the singer

For Americans, at least, the primary sense of commode is that of a euphemism for a toilet. But they may encounter a very different meaning in the context of antique furniture, where a commode is an ornate chest of drawers. And the word has other, now historical, meanings of a

A brat is a spoiled or misbehaving child. The origin of the word is not known for certain, although there are at least two hypotheses that have some degree of evidence behind them. It may come from an Old English word of Celtic origin, bratt, meaning a cloak. The same

Radon is a chemical element, a radioactive noble gas with atomic number 86 and the symbol Rn. It has few practical applications. Radon has long history of use in medical quackery, and is still occasionally used in legitimate nuclear medicine, although it has largely been replaced by other substances. Because

Unidentified aerial phenomenon, or UAP, is another name for a UFO https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/flying-saucer, that is an unexplained observation of some object in the sky. Sometimes UAP is interpreted as unidentified anomalous phenomenon. The term is also an illustration of two general principles that can be applied

Slang terms often exist for years before the general public takes notice of them. Broligarchy and broligarch are examples of this. The words are a play on bro + oligarchy. And a broligarchy is small group of men who control a situation or political power structure. It differs from an ordinary