Word Facts

There is a no word 'linch' despite the existence of the compound 'linchpin'. Indeed, the fact that it is around in the way it is comes from that there is no 'linch'. In Old English, the origin 'lynis' meant 'axle', hence a linchpin holds the wheel to the axle, but it could also mean the whole axletree. It is not to say that 'linchpin' is therefore not etymologically redundant, but with the introduction of 'axle' from Old Norse 'ǫxultré' it only survived from the compound. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Margarine can contain lots of things, from vegetable to animal fats, but almost certainly not real pearls. Nevertheless, the name comes from the Greek μαργαρίτης (margarítēs), meaning ‘pearl’. This was in reference to the color of the crystals of various esters which is how it was made originally. This is especially clear in older uses, which would use 'margarine' to refer to any solid form of any fat, including human or animal fat, which is much more believable that it isn't butter. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

When one refers to something, or someone's heyday, this is used to denote the height of success in some way or another, but this only even became a noun recently. Indeed, this used to be an exclamation—not much unlike 'hooray'—as is still kept with the interjection 'hey', though the two are probably not related except for syllabic simplicity. It is generally held that 'heyday comes as a variation of 'high day', and other similar phrases from Dutch and German support this. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

In these trying times, it is important to trust medical professionals. That said, there has always been a distrust of doctors, hence where the verb 'to doctor', as in 'to alter' comes from. 'Doctor' comes from Latin, but the verbal form is attested at least from 1509 meaning "to give someone a doctoral degree". This was originally not a negative idea at all, but by the 18th century it eventually took on the meaning of "change; disguise; forge". Support Word Facts on patreon.com.wordfacts

English and German differ in many key ways, but share many lexical and cultural traits. For instance, the word 'heiß' in German is 'hot' in English—German [s] often is realized as [t] in English—but is doesn't share every connotation. 'Heiß', like 'hot' relates to physical temperature, and to physical attraction, but not to spice as it does in English. For that, Germans use 'scharf', which is related to 'sharp' . Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

English is by no means the only language lacking diacritic marks on its letters regularly, but for known for having plenty of loan words, or words that have different meaning depending upon the stress, it is strange. However, there are some exceptions, and especially with proper nouns . For instance, there are only 5 places in the USA which have an Ñ in their names, those being Cañon City, Colorado, La Cañada Flintridge, California; Española, New Mexico; Peñasco, New Mexico; and Cañones, New Mexico. Support Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts

Alphabets, and what is or isn't included therein, are just as if not more cultural than linguistic in many cases. For instance, English speakers do not consider any combinations of letters separate, even if they regularly make a distinct sound like SH for ʃ, but Spanish speakers do, considering LL, RR, and CH as distinct in the alphabet. Moreover, the Spanish Ñ was created as a sort of shorthand for a double-n, and as such it too is given its own spot in the alphabet. This shouldn't be too strange for even English speakers, since W was originally just a double-V (which was the same as U in Latin for a long time, hence the name), and it has its own place. However, this is not true in the Spanish alphabet for any vowels, and likewise the French Ç is not given its own spot in the French alphabet; it really comes down to history and culture. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

When we think of 'paste', most people probably associate that with a thick liquid made as a blend of ingredients, so the fact that the word is also related to the more solid 'pastry' and 'pasta' might come as a surprise. However, consider that both pastas and pastries must first begin as a dough and the connection becomes clearer. Its original meaning from the Latin 'pasta' was something closer to 'glue-mixture', and so thick liquid, doughs, pastes, or even 'pâte' (also from this root) were lumped in together. Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts