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Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast

Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Host Ray Belli uses etymology as a way of examining broader changes in history, culture, religion, and more.
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Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast
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Now displaying: Page 3
Aug 11, 2019

What makes your parents' parents so ... grand? In today's episode, we trace the etymology and emergence of the French-influenced kinship prefix ‘grand.’ We also look at Old English words for ‘grandparents’ and ‘grandchildren’ before the ‘grand’ prefix became conventional. Just for good measure, we also take a look at the kinship prefix ‘great.’

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Jul 29, 2019

Today, ‘sibling’ is one of the most basic kinship terms. However, it wasn't introduced into English until 1903 by a pair of scientists working on genetics. More accurately, ‘sibling’ was reintroduced into the language after 1,000 years of dormancy. In this episode, we look at ‘sibling’ in its Old English context and explore its Indo-European roots. Furthermore, we look into the etymology of ‘brother’ and ‘sister.’ 

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Jul 12, 2019

In today's episode, we explore the origins of some of the universal characteristics of nursery father terms in languages from around the world, most of which include initial /p/, /d/, or /b/ sounds.

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Jun 30, 2019

‘Mama’ is a mysterious word. In the vast majority of languages around the world, the word for ‘mama’ sounds something like ... ‘mama.’ In today's episode, we uncover the reason for this peculiar universality.

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Jun 15, 2019

Noah Webster is best known as the father of the first truly American dictionary. However, Webster’s dictionary faced an uphill struggle for recognition during his lifetime. In today’s episode, we examine some of these struggles in addition to the things that made Webster’s dictionary so different from the English dictionaries that preceded it. 

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May 26, 2019

Noah Webster is best known for his ‘all-American’ dictionary, but in today's episode, we take a look at Webster's earlier works including The Grammatical Institute of the English Language and Dissertations on the English Language. In these works, Webster lays the groundwork for his future dictionary, revealing his political motivations for his spelling reforms and advocation of American English.

 

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May 5, 2019

‘OK’ is the most spoken and most written word in the entire world. It's such a fundamental part of modern communication that it's hard to imagine the world without it. But in spite of its ubiquity and compact versatility, ‘OK’ is under two hundred years old. Today's episode tells the story of the word's origins in 19th century America. If the leading theory is correct, then OK might just be the most successful inside joke of all time. 

Apr 13, 2019

Today, the most relevant usage of the word ‘Yankee’ is probably in the name of the baseball team, but etymologically, ‘Yankee’ has nothing to do with baseball. ‘Yankee’ is an elusive word whose ultimate etymology is unknown and whose connotations may change depending on who’s using it.

Mar 31, 2019

One of the most defining characteristics of the Standard American English accent is its ‘rhoticity,’ or the pronunciation of the letter R. Unlike Standard British English, Standard American English always pronounces the letter R regardless of its position within a word. In today’s episode, we trace the origins and evolutions of this feature of Standard American English. (Spoiler alert: The prevalence of rhoticity in American English has ebbed and flowed over time.) 

Mar 12, 2019

The English spoken in America began to diverge from the English spoken in Britain shortly after British settlers arrived in the New World. In today’s episode, we look at several ways how ‘Americanisms’ began to form and how English speakers on the other side of the pond reacted to them. 

Mar 4, 2019

In today's episode, I interview linguist, professor, blogger, and author Lynne Murphy about her book, The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English. We talk about topics such as the British media's take on ‘Americanisms,’ nonsensical prescriptivism, national attitudes toward language, and so much more. 

Lynne's blog, Separated by a Common Language:

https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/

To purchase The Prodigal Tongue:

https://theprodigaltongue.com/

 

 

 

Feb 20, 2019

‘American English’ is the variety of English spoken in the United States of America ... obviously. But is American English a language unto itself or a dialect of British English? In this episode, we discuss the differences between dialects and languages (if there are indeed any at all) from a linguistic point of view. Part 1 in a series on American English.

Feb 1, 2019

The name of France derives from the name of a Germanic tribe called the Franks. In addition to the name of France, the namesake of the Franks also produced a handful of other common English words, such as ‘frank,’ ‘franchise,’ and ‘Franklin,’ among others. Today, these words have little to do with France, but as we investigate their etymologies, subtle connections begin to emerge.

Jan 14, 2019

In today’s episode, we explore the etymological connection between Turkey the country and turkey the bird. Even though turkeys are native to North America, thanks to 16th century trade routes, these birds are mistakenly named after a country on the other side of the world. We also explore how these trade routes influenced the words for ‘turkey’ in other European languages.

Jan 5, 2019

The American city of Cincinnati derives from a patriotic fraternal organization called The Society of Cincinnati. The society itself is named after Cincinnatus, a legendary figure in Ancient Roman history. Revolutionary Americans saw Cincinnatus as an idealized epitome of political virtue. In today's episode, we explore Cincinnatus' life from the point of view of early American idealism.

Dec 17, 2018

There are more etymologically different names for Germany than there are for any other European country. This is due to a long history of disunity among Gemanic tribes and the geographical location of the Germanic homeland smack dab in the middle of Europe. In today’s episode, we explore the history and linguistic distribution of the etymological roots of Germany’s many international names.

Dec 2, 2018

The English name for the country of ‘Wales’ is not native to Wales itself. It actually has origins in a derogatory term given by the AngloSaxons to their Celtic neighbors. The word ‘Wales’ has cognates in all of the Germanic languages, yet most of these cognates have nothing to do with the modern country of Wales. In general, these cognates are associated with speakers of Romance languages throughout Europe. Strange! In today's episode, we connect the dots among these various cognates across languages. 

Nov 16, 2018

Today's episode kicks off a new series on ‘toponymy,’ or the study of place names. In this general overview, we take a look at some of the historical and etymological trends that often impact place names, such as colonialism and the commemoration of important individuals.

Oct 30, 2018

Nowadays, a gym is a place for fitness and exercise. It’s a shortening of the word gymnasium, which derives from the Greek word gymnasion. In the Ancient Greek world, a gymnasion was not only a place for exercise, but also a hub for philosophical study and learning. Today’s episode explores the evolution of the gymnasium as a cultural institution and also looks at how some of the word’s cognates in other languages differ in meaning.

Oct 15, 2018

In the court system of Ancient Athens, the kategoria was a formal accusation. However, when the philosopher Aristotle borrowed the word kategoria to enumerate his ‘categories of being,’ he intended it to mean the ‘highest order of classification.’ Over the course of this episode, we explore the subtle link between an ‘accusation’ and ‘categorization.’

Oct 1, 2018

The Modern English word ‘apology’ derives from the Ancient Greek word apologia. However, in the Ancient Greek work known as Plato's Apology, Plato doesn't ‘apologize’ for anything––at least not in the modern sense. That's because an ‘apology’ was originally a self-defensive manner of speech. In this episode, we look at how this rhetorical technique developed into an expression of sincere regret. 

Sep 12, 2018

In Modern English, sophistication is a desirable characteristic. However, the word derives from sophistry, an Ancient Greek intellectual movement with a historically bad reputation. In today's episode, we consider this bad reputation from various perspectives and how it has impacted the development of ‘sophistic’ words over the course of history. 

Sep 2, 2018

In the pre-modern world, philosophy referred to all forms of intellectual knowledge. Today, the discipline of philosophy is just one aspect of the traditional field of philosophia, or ‘love of knowledge.’

Aug 20, 2018

The pronoun ‘they’ was borrowed into English from Old Norse. Pronouns within a language tend to be conservative over time, so this borrowing of a foreign pronoun into English is a bit unusual. In today's episode, we explore the entire history of "they," from its roots as a Proto-Germanic demonstrative adjective to its modern usage as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun in English.

Aug 1, 2018

Subjectification is a unique linguistic process by which a word evolves to reflect the subjective viewpoint of the speaker using it. For example, the word ‘very’ used to mean ‘true,’ but over time, it lost its objectivity and merely became a way of emphasizing subjectivity. In this episode, we explore this process in a broad sense and look at a few more examples. 

Further reading:

https://web.stanford.edu/~traugott/resources/TraugottDavidseIntersbfn.pdf

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1028.5275&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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