Recent Posts

1

English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« Last post by Jonathon on March 26, 2026, 01:37:04 PM »

Apparently the baby cow sense is from an Old English word, while the back part of the lower leg sense is from an Old Norse word. It's possible that they're ultimately from the same Germanic root, but it's not clear where the latter came from or how that sense might have developed.

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« Last post by Tante Shvester on March 26, 2026, 12:33:58 PM »

So strange that the word for the bottom part of my leg is the same as the word as for a baby cow.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...

« Last post by Tante Shvester on March 02, 2026, 08:46:17 AM »

Kyoto : Tokyo

Babka : Kabab

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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations

« Last post by Ela on March 01, 2026, 08:05:50 AM »

I just heard a newscaster say "tampening down." Pretty sure that's not a thing.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Eggcorns

« Last post by pooka on February 02, 2026, 12:47:16 PM »

I got to explain what "revved up like a deuce" was to the kids at work last week. 

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« Last post by rivka on January 29, 2026, 10:13:48 PM »

Yeah, once I realized that was the reason, it made perfect sense.

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« Last post by Ela on January 29, 2026, 06:04:35 PM »

Oh, yeah, I saw several PubMed things about the genetics of Ashkenazi Jews.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Eggcorns

« Last post by Ela on January 29, 2026, 06:03:32 PM »

Yeah, absolutely, rivka.

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« Last post by rivka on January 29, 2026, 03:35:47 PM »

It's fairly consistent with what I have read from various sources before.

And there's also this: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5478715/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAshkenaz%E2%80%9D%20is%20one%20of%20the,(Jeremiah%2051%3A27).

(I was initially confused as to why this was appearing in PubMed of all places, but it's about genetics. Just like that Reddit post, actually. I guess Dara Horn is right.)

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English & Linguistics / Re: Eggcorns

« Last post by rivka on January 29, 2026, 03:27:05 PM »

my friend who used to do close captioning says automated closed captioning in use now makes these kind of mistakes all the time.

Your friend is very correct. It's one of the easiest ways for me to tell if CC has been done by a human or AI. Humans make mistakes too, but they are different.