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English & Linguistics / Re: Eggcorns
« on: January 29, 2026, 03:17:45 PM »
That tweet from Brian Allen says "sicko fan", though it looks like I was wrong to say he's with CNN. His bio says he's an independent journalist.
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: January 29, 2026, 03:03:17 PM »
Thanks for sharing! I'm not qualified to evaluate how accurate that is either, but my impression is that r/AskHistorians is usually pretty reliable, and I assume a moderator there would know her stuff.
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: January 29, 2026, 02:18:58 PM »
I was reading something about Jewish ethnic divisions and saw that Ashkenaz meant 'Germany' in medieval Hebrew (though a different source said it referred to a region centered on the Rhineland). Ashkenaz comes from an earlier Ashkuz (apparently due to scribal error), which was borrowed into Hebrew from the Akkadian Iškuzāya, meaning 'Scythia'. The Scythians were a group of Iranic nomads who migrated into the area around the Caucasus Mountains and Black Sea beginning in the 9th century BC.
I'm not sure how the Hebrew word went from referring to the region where to the Scythians lived to part of modern-day Germany. I'm guessing it first broadened to refer to the lands to the north more generally and then narrowed again to refer to a specific but different land to the north.
The name Scythia comes from the endonym Skuδa, from the Proto-Indo-European root *skewd-, meaning 'shooter, archer'. And at least one site I checked said this etymology is disputed, but the English word shoot may come from the same root.
Anyway, I thought it was funny to see how it went from Scythian (an Indo-European language) to Akkadian (an Afro-Asiatic language) to Hebrew (also Afro-Asiatic) to English (Indo-European again) and how it shifted from one specific region and group of people to a completely different region and then to the Jews who lived in and around that region.
I'm not sure how the Hebrew word went from referring to the region where to the Scythians lived to part of modern-day Germany. I'm guessing it first broadened to refer to the lands to the north more generally and then narrowed again to refer to a specific but different land to the north.
The name Scythia comes from the endonym Skuδa, from the Proto-Indo-European root *skewd-, meaning 'shooter, archer'. And at least one site I checked said this etymology is disputed, but the English word shoot may come from the same root.
Anyway, I thought it was funny to see how it went from Scythian (an Indo-European language) to Akkadian (an Afro-Asiatic language) to Hebrew (also Afro-Asiatic) to English (Indo-European again) and how it shifted from one specific region and group of people to a completely different region and then to the Jews who lived in and around that region.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Eggcorns
« on: January 29, 2026, 08:51:42 AM »
Speaking of eggcorns, just the other day someone at CNN apparently transcribed "sycophant" as "sicko fan".
https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2015597373766963644
https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2015597373766963644
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: December 09, 2025, 09:14:18 AM »
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English & Linguistics / Re: I hate journalistic writing
« on: September 26, 2025, 08:49:08 AM »Quote
Trump has unveiled a number of moves aimed at cutting drug prices in recent months, but he has yet to move the needle on reducing costs – much less slashing them by 1,500%, which is mathematically impossible, experts say.
"experts say"
link
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: September 09, 2025, 10:39:40 AM »
Huh. I'd never thought about its etymology before.
link
Quote
compound bone at the base of the spine, 1753, from Late Latin os sacrum "sacred bone," from Latin sacrum, neuter of sacer "sacred" (see sacred). Said to be so called because the bone was the part of animals that was offered in sacrifices. The Late Latin phrase is a translation of Greek hieron osteon. Greek hieros also can mean "strong" (see ire), and some sources suggest the Latin is a mistranslation of Galen, who was calling it "the strong bone."
link
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: August 12, 2025, 12:14:09 PM »
Mouseover text: "Achilles was a mighty warrior, but his Achilles' heel was his heel."
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English & Linguistics / Re: I hate journalistic writing
« on: August 11, 2025, 12:48:05 PM »
""Ford hits the pedal on EV production with $2 billion overhaul of Kentucky plant"
Which pedal, though? Most cars have at least two, and they have very different functions.
Which pedal, though? Most cars have at least two, and they have very different functions.
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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day
« on: June 17, 2025, 11:09:37 AM »
Side note: I love that that's the name of the species. 
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: May 26, 2025, 09:19:19 AM »
It's a pretty common nonstandard pronunciation, along with "asteriks".
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: January 13, 2025, 08:36:01 AM »
*nods vigorously*
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: January 07, 2025, 01:59:52 PM »
Merriam-Webster does list is as the second pronunciation, but it does make me wonder if the speaker has studied français.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: January 06, 2025, 08:20:20 AM »
Huh. I've never heard that before either.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...
« on: October 08, 2024, 05:55:57 PM »
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English & Linguistics / Re: English-to-English translation
« on: October 05, 2024, 09:13:59 AM »
We just started watching an Australian show too, and we learned "esky" as a generic term for a portable cooler.
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English & Linguistics / Re: English-to-English translation
« on: September 21, 2024, 10:14:37 AM »
I also knew arvo, root, and combi, but the rest were new to me.
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English & Linguistics / Re: English-to-English translation
« on: September 20, 2024, 07:57:56 AM »
I thought a ute was just a truck based on a passenger car chassis, like an El Camino, but Wikipedia says the term expanded at some point.
"You've got tickets on yourself" is pretty great.
"You've got tickets on yourself" is pretty great.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: August 19, 2024, 07:42:34 PM »
No problem! I didn't even realize before now that there was variation in how some people said it or that my pronunciation didn't match the standard dictionary pronunciation.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: August 19, 2024, 08:48:44 AM »
It doesn't strike me as the kind of variation that's typically regional. And if it were regional, there's a fair chance it'd be in listed in the dictionary. I think it's more likely just an idiosyncratic thing, but I'm really not sure.
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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations
« on: August 18, 2024, 01:08:40 PM »
Merriam-Webster says "län-ˈje-və-tē" (so a regular "n" sound followed by a soft "g"), but I guess I pronounce it like "long-gevity" (with an "ng" sound followed by a soft "g"). I'm not really pronouncing the "g" twice, because there isn't actually a "g" in the "ng" sound—it's just a nasal sound pronounced in the same place as a hard "g". But it makes sense why someone would think of that as pronouncing the "g" twice, since most people think of pronunciation in terms of spelling (which is why people also talk about "'g' dropping" in words like "singin'").