Words worth knowing.
Etymology, language, and the stories hiding inside the words you use every day.
petrichor·
sonder·
hiraeth·
serendipity·
ephemeral·
mellifluous·
liminal·
syzygy·
vellichor·
apricity·
petrichor·
sonder·
hiraeth·
serendipity·
ephemeral·
mellifluous·
liminal·
syzygy·
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apricity·
Word of the week
Petrichor
The smell of rain on dry earth. Everyone knows this smell. Almost no one knew there was a word for it.
petra = stone · ichor = the fluid in the veins of the gods
Recently added
All words →
Sonder
Noun
The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
Coined · Bittersweet
Hiraeth
Noun
A Welsh longing for home — not a place that exists, or ever existed.
Welsh · Melancholy
Liminal
Adjective
Occupying a threshold — the space between what was and what comes next.
Latin · Mysterious
Why do we say that?
All origins →
Why do we say “bless you” when someone sneezes?
It started with the plague. The answer is weirder than you think.
Why is it called a deadline?
It was a literal line. Cross it and you’d be shot.
Why do we call it a honeymoon?
Honey, the moon, and a month of mead. The origin is as romantic as it sounds — and stranger.
One word a week.
The one that made us go — wait, what? With the full story. Free.
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On this day
May 3
In 1978, the first spam email was sent to 393 people. They were furious. The sender was not.
The word “spam” for junk email wouldn’t exist for another 15 years. When it arrived, it came from Monty Python. As these things do.
Go on →This week
Petrichor
The smell of rain on dry earth. Everyone knows this smell. Almost no one knew there was a word for it until right now.
petra = stone · ichor = the fluid in the veins of the gods · so: divine blood on stone
Wistful
Vivid
Tender
Wait, what —
Homophone
bear / bare
Same sound. Completely different everything.
One is an animal. One means naked. Both can be verbs. English is fine.
Homograph
wound
Same spelling. Different pronunciation. Opposite situations.
You wound (past tense of wind) the bandage around your wound (injury). Read that again.
Contronym
cleave
One word. Two meanings. They are opposites.
To cleave = to split apart. Also to cleave = to cling together. Both correct. English did this on purpose.
Phrasal verb
give up / give in / give out
Same word. Different direction. Completely different meaning.
Give up = quit. Give in = surrender. Give out = distribute, or collapse, depending on your day.
Semantic drift
awful
It used to mean the opposite of what it means now.
“Awful” once meant inspiring awe — full of wonder. The same root as “awesome.” They went in very different directions.
False friend
Gift
Looks the same in English and German. Means something very different.
In German, Gift means poison. Giving someone a Gift in Germany is not a nice thing.
Not quite the same thing
angry
→
furious
→
livid
→
incandescent
All mean angry. None of them mean the same thing. There’s a whole spectrum here and it matters which one you pick.
said
→
whispered
→
muttered
→
barked
Synonyms for “said” that writers argue about. Each one changes the whole sentence.
big
→
large
→
enormous
→
vast
“Big” is casual. “Vast” implies something you can’t quite comprehend. Same idea. Very different feeling.
Recently added
Noun
Positive
New
Sonder
/ˈson.dər/
The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
Coined 2012
·
Informal
sonder comes from the French “sonder” — to probe or fathom. John Koenig invented this one in 2012 and the internet immediately claimed it had always existed.
Wistful
Mysterious
Noun
Negative
Hiraeth
/ˈhɪər.aɪθ/
A Welsh longing for home that never existed, or can never be returned to.
Welsh · Celtic
·
Welsh
hir = long · aeth = gone. Literally “long-gone.” The Welsh have a word for missing something that never was. The rest of us have been feeling it without a name.
Melancholy
Wistful
Adjective
Bittersweet
Ephemeral
/ɪˈfem.ər.əl/
Lasting for a very short time. Beautiful precisely because it ends.
Greek · ephῃmeros
·
OED c.1576
ephemeron = lasting only a day. The ancient Greeks used it for insects that live for 24 hours. Now we use it for everything that passes too quickly.
Poetic
Wistful
Slang
Reclaimed
Trending
Slay
/sleɪ/
To do something exceptionally well. Originally drag culture, now everywhere.
Drag culture c.1970s
·
MW 2023
·
AAVE → Gen Z
Old English slæan = to strike. Went from killing to excellence via drag culture. The traveling is the whole story.
Playful
Vivid
Why do we say that?
Why do we say “bless you” when someone sneezes?
Nothing to do with politeness. Everything to do with plague.
Why do we say “bite the bullet”?
Because before anesthesia, that is literally what you did.
Why do we say “raining cats and dogs”?
Nobody knows. Genuinely. Several theories, none confirmed.
Why do we say “cold turkey”?
Originally referred to skin. Yes, skin.
Why do we say “rule of thumb”?
The most repeated origin story is completely made up. The real one is boring. That’s the story.
Why do we say “the whole nine yards”?
Etymologists have been fighting about this for decades and still no one wins.
“Sonder: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.”
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows· John Koenig
→ See the word entry
“For years the word ‘bimbo’ applied to men. The women’s version was ‘bimba.’ Somewhere along the line the genders got switched.”
The Mother Tongue· Bill Bryson
“The internet didn’t ruin language. It gave language new ways to be alive.”
Because Internet· Gretchen McCulloch
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Same Word?
Homophone, homograph, or homonym? You might know more than you think.
Mood Sort
Given a word, guess its mood. Is petrichor wistful or vivid? Both. That’s the catch.
Not Quite
Angry vs furious vs livid vs irate. What’s actually the difference? Pick the right shade.
When Was It?
Guess the decade a word first appeared in print. More surprising than you’d think.
Finish the Saying
“A stitch in time saves…” How many of these can you actually finish?
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