Word Facts

Wine is something that has been shared around the Mediterranean and beyond, both literally and also linguistically. Old, basic concepts tend to have lots of related cognated across related languages, but in the case of 'wine' it is actually shared across unrelated languages as well. 'Wine' in English comes from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root '*uoin-a-', and there are plenty of other PIE-descended words too, like the Latin 'vinum'. Likewise, there are many related non-PIE words like the Georgian ღვინო (gvino), the Armenian գինի (gini), the Hebrew יין (yáyin), the Amharic ወይን (wäyn), and the Swahili 'mvinyo'. Of course, many of these words, including those of Africa and Northern Europe especially will be borrowed, but there is no consensus as to whether this original root is from a Semitic, Indo-European, or even Kartvelian language; some theories will be more convincing than others though. Watch the newest video, about classifying historical lan

The NFL team formerly known as the 'Washington Redskins' has officially announced an interim name of the 'Washington Football Team' until another permanent name is selected. The move was done after years of calls to remove the title given its offensive and pejorative meaning. This is not the first time that a team has changed its name though without moving to a different location, such as the New York Titans to the New York Jets in 1963, or how the Pittsburgh Pirates, who shared the same name as the baseball team, became the Pittsburgh Steelers. Watch the newest video, about classifying historical languages . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

In France, there are two main words for a chocolate croissant, neither of which are 'croissant' despite the fact that English took that word from French. In most of France, this is known as a 'pain au chocolat' (chocolate bread) whereas in the Southwest region it is called 'chocolatine' as shown in the map below. The fact that is is called a 'croissant' at all in English is a bit odd anyway considering that it does not retain the shape of a true croissant (or 'cresent'), but in any case, the pastry actually originated in Austria using the name 'Kipfel' which may themselves been an old pagan tradition, so really what does it matter‽ Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Max Factor is a makeup company, but it actually comes from another name. Although the company name makes a certain amount of sense, it is actually from Polish originally. The founder was named Maksymilian Faktorowicz, who was a Polish beautician. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The word for 'suit jacket' in Japanese is 'sabiro', which may not sound like a loan word from English, but it is. It isn't a direct transfer for 'suit' however. The word comes from the association with the fashions of London at the time, specifically around the street Saville Row, known even today for its tailors and generally men's fashion. For the newest in Word Facts fashion, check out the new shirts .

A New York Times correspondent for the USSR and Pulitzer Prize winner in 1931, Walter Duranty, helped to cover up the Holodomor, a man-made famine in Ukraine. It is within this context of dismissing and suppressing this story while also glorifying the USSR that many accounts claim he helped to popularize the expression "you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs". Of course, most people who use it are unaware of this, and it has a generally neutral connotation. For further information, read the New York Times discretization of his work here, including other examples.

French is spoken in parts of North America, particularly around Quebec and possibly Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, but those aren't the only places. Louisiana still has some native French speakers descended from the original settlers, but far smaller communities like that also exist in places like Missouri and even Minnesota. The sizes of those communities those are very small—some estimates placing in the low double-digits. New Merch is available here

The word 'the' has had a number of spellings, in part because of how simple and common it is. Like other symbols including & for 'and' , 'the' used to be typed as 'ye' to make use of what was available on German printing presses , but actually this was just an approximation of another, older Germanic letter. In fact, it was often spelled in exotic ways to save space, as exhibited in the document shown below. New merch available from the store

English spelling and pronunciation don't always match neatly, but in the case of 'fiancé' and 'fiancée', or ' blond' and 'blonde' , the words (essentially) mean the same thing and are pronounced the same; the only difference is that the first ones, without the final -e are masculine, and the others feminine. This is changing in English, however. Since the mid-1970's uses of the phrase "blond woman" have actually been used even more than "blonde woman", though it is next to impossible to find instances of 'blonde man'; this period in time saw similar trends with 'fiancé'. In general, and as has been discussed here before, gendered words—especially when the only variation is in the spelling—are disappearing from English, but almost universally trending towards the masculine as a universal . Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Star Trek was in small part inspired by the actual exploration of Cpt. James Cook . Indeed, the name of the captain in the original 1960's show named James Kirk is named similarly in accordance. Moreover, the name for the spaceship, the Star Trek Enterprise was inspired after Cook's ship, the HMS Endeavour. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The standards for what make something a word that can be used for acronyms is variable, and this is even true of the words themselves. The Roman initialism SPQR stands for 'Senātus Populusque Rōmānus' (The Roman Senate and People) looks to only be made up of 3 words, but the suffix '-que' in Latin is one of the ways of expressing 'and'. Indeed, other languages with affixed conjunctions like Hebrew include these sometimes as well. Usually, conjunctions or prepositions etc. won't be included in English acronyms/initialisms however, but there are exceptions like DoJ (Department of Justice) . Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Lots of Arab countries use the Lira as currency because of Italian use in trade, and this is mostly true of the dinar. In Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as , Serbia and North Macedonia the dinar is used, but in the case of all former Yugoslav states динар and the rest this comes from Arabic دِينَار‎. 'Dinar' itself though stems back further to the Latin 'dēnārius' meaning 'ten each' once used in the Roman Empire. Other Muslim-majority states have used over the years as well. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The term for the Mughal Empire in the native language was Gurkani (Persian: گورکانیان‎ Gūrkāniyān) meaning 'son-in-law'. The word 'mughal' instead comes from the Persian form of 'mongol', because it is from this line who separated from the Mongol Empire of Chenkis Khan and went on to conquer the Indian subcontinent. The noun 'mogul' as in a powerful person also comes from connotations to this empire as well. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The Jewish philosopher Maimonides, also known as the Rambam wrote in Arabic, but people would be forgiven for thinking he wrote in Hebrew. For instance, his work 'The Guide for the Perplexed' was originally titled דלאלת אלחאירין‎ (Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn) and while this uses Hebrew letters is actually Arabic. Indeed, especially considering that the greatest center of knowledge at the time was probably Bagdad, even though he lived in Europe when he often quoted Aristotle, he would do so in Arabic. As such, here and elsewhere, many translations translate Aristotle from Arabic rather than going back to the Greek. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

There are some biblical names 'Elijah' or 'Isaiah' that end with -ah in English but look totally different in Hebrew. Eliyahu (אליהו) or Yeshayahu (ישעיהו‎) both have an final syllable that's totally different from the English but are similar to each other. The reason for the discrepancy is because of the Greek; they both got a Greek nominative ending -s as in Elias and Ēsaias respectively, which was dropped off when the named were Latinized and Anglicized later on. Also, in the case of 'Isaiah' Greek doesn't have a sound which approximated SH, hence the discrepancy there. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The Lira was the old currency of Italy before the Euro, along with Malta, San Marino and the Vatican. The fact then that it would come from Latin 'libra' for 'pound (of gold)' shouldn't be too surprising, but what's more surprising is that is is still used in Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria, and was used in Egypt, Israel, and Cyprus to name a few. Actually, this is because of the Venetian Lira which was once widely circulated around the Mediterranean and eventually the Ottoman Empire, but also other translations like the French Livre used for 1013 years or the still-used British pounds are actually quite common. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

'Proof' has a lot of meanings these days, but it all goes back to the same source. 'Proof' can relate to the experimentation as in " proof of the pudding.. ." [1] or also conclusive evidence [2], but it also means "able to withstand" as in 'waterproof', alcohol-content, or early tests of prints or coins. This is also etymologically related to 'probe' which also relates to examination, but in the case of 'prove/proof' there was a clear shift in the Middle Ages away from the meaning of 'to test' and towards ideas of security and established fact. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The symbols meant to punctuate the end of a sentence are fairly consistent, but there are some exceptions. The full stop as it is called is often represented with ⟨.⟩ was introduced by the Byzantine Greeks; before this, there would just be strings of words, and not necessarily even spaces. This is not the only use of that symbol, as it appears in math, after initials, and other uses, but also other cultures have developed other symbols in some way or another, including the Chinese ⟨。⟩, the Sinhalan (of Sri Lanka) ⟨෴⟩ though now they use the period, the Armenian ⟨:⟩, the Hindu ⟨।⟩, and the Amharic ⟨።⟩. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Some people may know that there is a Welsh-speaking community established in Patagonia , but fewer people probably know that there was also 40,000 acres in North America once designated to be for the Welsh colonials. This area known as the Welsh Tract was established in 1684 in Pennsylvania, and a Second Welsh Tract in Maryland and Delaware in 1701, were supposed to set up a government that would use Welsh, but this was not as successful. Much like Pennsylvania Dutch too, Welsh eventually faded, but in many of the place names, like Bala Cynwyd or Lower Gwynedd names were borrowed from existing Welsh places, and in the case of Uwchlan or Berwyn, created independently. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

As mentioned before, there are lots of sounds, 7 specifically, that -ough- represent in English. However, in the least used as in 'hiccough' also spelt ' hiccup ', there are two forms. The term itself is alliterative, but unlike other onomatopoeias, the form 'hiccough' was based off of the other word 'cough' for semantic continuity. Indeed, while this now might seem old fashioned, it was not always the most popular as seen in the graph below. Since then, the popularity of 'hiccup' has superseded that of 'hiccough'. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

English has a lot of sounds, ~40 depending on the dialect, but only 26 letters, some of which tend to represent the same things. As a result, we end up with di-, tri-, and quadgraphs, which are combinations of 2, 3, or 4 letters that make one sound. Lots of languages do this as with the German CH, SCH, and TSCH which even build off of each other, but these are not so consistent in English. English has some, like SH, TH, CH, PH, etc. but these do not always make the same sounds, in particular TH (as in 'that' and 'thin') or CH in 'chauvinist'. This is true (several times over) with the English quadgraph OUGH, which can represent 7 different sounds. See if you can find an example for each. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

'Cob' in Old English meant 'spider' , hence ' cobwebs ', but that is not the same one as in 'corn-on-the-cob'. Indeed, the word has many unrelated meanings, including 'a mound of clay or coal', 'a head', 'a male swan', and 'a short-legged horse' and a 'bread roll'. Some others have been argued to be from different though unknown etymologies, but the oldest sense of 'cob' meant 'strong man; leader'. From this it is believed that the rest came about, basically in the sense that each are sturdy or at least round. That said, with these old monosyllabic words, it is often difficult to discern if the common thread is coincidental or not. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

There is only one river in England where beavers live, and that is in the River Otter. Indeed, while there are many names for rivers in Britain derived from Celtic , far more than would be expected for any other name for natural features or settlements, this river was actually named for the otters who inhabit it, and it is only by a modern coincidence that it is arguably now more famous for the beaver population. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Of the 4 suits in a French card deck,  ♣ ♦ ♠ ♥ , the name which makes the least sense is probably the clubs ( ♣ ). In French these are 'trèfle' (clover), which helps to explain the shape of the card, but the name comes from the name in the Spanish deck 'baston' which means 'baton' or in other words, 'club'. The French name is retained in some other languages though, as with the Austrian German 'Treff' which would otherwise mean 'meeting' in German. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Some hobo-slang has entered into mainstream American English over the years, but perhaps more famous are the hobo-signs: systematized cryptic graffiti as a way to communicate with other hobos. These would be left around relevant places like railroads, personal homes, water-towers and doctors' offices to indicate things like "fresh water; safe place to sleep" (a squiggle with OXO underneath), "doctor won't charge" (plus sign with a circle in the top-right corner), or 'mean dog here'—or as they might have said, 'bone polisher'—(a box with 4 vertical lines connected by a horizontal line within). Many of these the subject of urban legends as well, but they had been in use since at least the 1870's. Watch the latest video . Get Word Facts Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

While the hobo-lifestyle diminished in the latter half of the 20th century, there are two significant linguistic developments they introduced, including slang, as well as hobo-signs, which will be discussed in the next post. Indeed, while much of the slang has faded into obscurity like 'Bone orchard' (cemetery), 'California blankets' (newspapers) or 'Blowed-in-the-glass' (a trustworthy person), many entered mainstream lexicon. Some of these, like 'bighouse' (prison), 'flop [house]' (a cheap hotel), and 'main drag' (busy road) to name a few are still frequently used in American English outside of the hobo-community. Check out the new video Get Merch: teespring.com/stores/word-facts Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

We probably don't think of biology as being terribly spiritual, but there are a few lingering terms that are. For instance, the 'sacrum' has for a long time been understood to be where the soul resides. For reference, the sacrum is the bone at the base of the spine between the hip-bones. Many cultures including the Egyptians, Greeks, and Israelites understood this to be so, and hence the name '(os) sacrum' comes from the Latin meaning 'sacred (bone)'. Check out the new video . Get Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

A number of words entered English from Yiddish, but due to the relative number of native speakers—at times nearly 100 times as many in the US as opposed to the UK—most of these were adopted into American English first. That wasn't always true though, as with the word 'gazump' which is part of British slang meaning 'swindle' or 'increase the price (of a house) from an original agreement' from the Yiddish meaning 'to overcharge'. Check out the new video . Get Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The word 'ghost' today mostly denotes a supernatural entity, but in its oldest forms it just related to breath; in Old English 'gast' meant 'breath'. Indeed, the Latinate form of that, 'spirit', comes from 'spiritus' which also meant 'breath'. This is why the Hebrew רוח הקודש (ruach hakodesh) and later the Greek πνεῦμα (pneuma, related to 'pneumonia') most literally translates as as 'holy breath', but is usually translated as 'holy spirit' or 'holy ghost'. Moreover, while the  connotations to supernatural beings is an old association it is not the only one, since even in English 'spirit' can just relate to vigor, and in German 'Geist' means 'mind' as well as the supernatural 'spirit'. Check out the new video . Get Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

The "Harry Potter" series is one of the most translated set of books, after the Bible. One extra challenge that it has, being a fantasy series is that there are lots of invented or otherwise repurposed words. Many of the totally made up words are supposed to sound British, which translators had to adapt to their oh well. languages, but also Rowling borrows a great deal of words and names from French (and Latin) which in English gives a sort of old and even high-class flair to it, but for those translations in particular does not; such as the characters Fleur Delacour ('Yard-Flower) or Voldemort (Flight of Death). There are lots more funny H.P. translation quirks so if you know any, leave a comment. Check out the new video . Get Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts

Scandinavia in common usage is somewhat of a vague term; it can refer to just the Scandinavian Peninsula, but in due to cultural and political relations, this sometimes relates also to other places, like Åland, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, or even Svalbard. Because of this, even parts of Scotland were considered Scandinavian, especially the North Island from about the 8th to the 15th century, due to colonization from Scandinavians like Norwegians. Check out the new video . Get Merch . Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts