Answering the age-old question, "Why do we say it?" this handy dictionary gives the intriguing origins of hundreds of everyday words and expressions. How did lollipops get their name? (In the northern part of England, "lolly" means "tongue.") What is "long" doing in the word "longshor...
We don't know how large this village was, but the chances are excellent that it was of similar or larger size than Israel. This means that after Dinah's revenge, Israel's gene pool was a Babylonian-Hivite hybrid. When Israel left Egypt, it was joined by a mysterious "mixed multitude"...
Godly fire, and how to get it To the Greeks, the fire of civilization had to be stolen from Zeus, while to the Hebrews it was a gift from YHWH. Moses was out herding his father-in-law's sheep when he serendipitously happened upon the burning bush. When he decided to investigate that...
The wordwilderonly turned up in the early 1600s and there are no specific traces of how the word came to be beyond the fundamental inventiveness of English speakers and the willingness of people to pick up on a new word when it appealed to them. Samuel Johnson the famous dictionary maker ...
Most of our staff has been or hosted an au pair in the past, so we know how important it is to find the right person to add to your household. Once you've found an au pair candidate you're interested in, we'll help facilitate interviews. We'll set up video chats online, or ...
How did the term Gothic originate? Where did the standard language form of English come from? What is heritage language in linguistics? What is the oldest spoken language? Who coined the term feminism? Where does the word tapas come from? What are the four most contemporary Romance languages?
When Luke asks what that is, Han brags "It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs!" But it turns out that what Luke asks about is what a falcon is. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed...
How did polytheism come to exist, one might ask? Well, examine the people of ancient societies and imagine how they sought to understand the natural world. What makes the rain come down from the clouds? How does the village ensure that there is enough food for the winter months? What are...
our verb may imply a state beyond ripe (higher than ripe, overripe), which thus refers to rotting and being maggot riddled. This means that to the ancients, higher did not simply mean better, and an arrogant political status that was higher than it should be equaled rot and worms (Acts...
Apparently the oxen that drew the cart did something that "nearly" upset the Ark and Uzza(h) reach out and put his hands on it. Immediately, YHWH struck Uzzah dead for "the irreverence". Uzzah's death became one of the most discussed executions of the Bible. It seems pretty unfair to...