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The Oikofuge: Words

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.

Message History

A discussion of the phrase "brass monkey weather", and a refutation of the folk etymology of "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

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Stable
A festive dissertation on the extensive etymological links of the word "stable", and a discussion of why some of use think of Jesus as having been born in a stable.

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English is remarkably well-endowed with words that imply utter defeat in a sporting contest. Here are eleven.

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Careen
A discussion of the word "careen", and its differing usage in American and British English---also "career" and "carom", for which it is sometimes used as a synonym

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Em Dash
If the em dash is an indicator of text generated by AI, then Shakespeare, Swift, Ruskin and Joyce were AIs. (Hint: they almost certainly weren't.) Here's the story of the em dash and its uses.

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