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viking (paid)

  • Dave Wilton

Dave Wilton

21 Mar 2025 • 6 min read
B&W photo of a cat in a winged viking helmet and scale-mail breastplate, with the caption “Brünnhilde"

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Photo of a young boy raising his hand in class

keener

Having been born and raised in the United States, I was unaware of the slang noun keener until I came to the University of Toronto. Keener is used to denote enthusiastic and over-eager students and is mildly derogatory. One hears instructors uttering phrases like “I assigned extra reading, knowing that
24 Dec 2025 2 min read
Photo of a maroon football helmet sitting on a football field that bears a profile image of a Native American man
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redskin / red man (paid)

24 Dec 2025 2 min read
A stylized “2025” with the zero being a treasure chest with gold, while a young woman, dressed as a witch, and a cat look on

2025 Wordorigins Words of the Year (WOTY)

23 December 2025 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
23 Dec 2025 8 min read
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