This is the Words feed from The Oikofuge---exploring the origins and meanings of interesting words, with occasional forays into the topic of accented characters from other languages, or old letters from English.
“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Luke 2:20, (King James Version) Luke’s is the only gospel that mentions the Annunciation to the Shepherds, by an unnamed angel bring...
A pint’s a pound the world around. Traditional American mnemonic A pint of water’s a pound and a quarter. Traditional British mnemonic There’s something odd going on there, isn’t there? I learned that British mnemonic at primary school, and I can still viv...
rəʊˈtɪsɪtɪ rhoticity: pertaining to a variety or dialect of English in which r is pronounced not only in pre-vocalic position but also before a consonant or word-finally So, there’s an American professor of theology visiting England for the first time. As ...
ˈædvənt Advent: in the ecclesiastical calendar, the season immediately preceding the festival of the Nativity, now including the four preceding Sundays Advent comes from Latin adventus, “arrival”, and the capitalized Advent refers, of course, to the arriva...
Never [before] has the Cenotaph, in its 103 years of standing sentry on Whitehall, been “defended” on Armistice Day by a Port Vale fan supping a can of Stella Artois. Mark Townsend, The Guardian, 11 November 2023 The Cenotaph stands in central London, at t...