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Mark Sundaram

@alliterative.bsky.social

Interdisciplinarian, historical linguist, philologist, medievalist; I make videos & podcasts about words, history, and literature. Married to @AvenSarah.

1,666 Followers  |  244 Following  |  975 Posts  |  Joined: 26.07.2023  |  2.1214

Latest posts by alliterative.bsky.social on Bluesky

Here they give it to over 70s and other vulnerable groups first (about a month ago) and now it’s open to everyone for free. I’m very grateful for the Canadian healthcare system

01.11.2025 15:58 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

They always hit me really hard. I have to plan on being out of commission the next day. A small price to pay though

01.11.2025 15:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Interesting Times | lyric video
YouTube video by Rockin’ Pneumonia Interesting Times | lyric video

Watch now the lyric video of my new single “Interesting Times”! 🎸🎬⏰
#NewSong #NewSingle #LyricVideo #InterestingTimes

youtu.be/DrQby_xnkRY?...

31.10.2025 23:56 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

ICYMI

31.10.2025 22:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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31.10.2025 22:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

COVID and flu vaccinations double whammy. Efficient, but which side will I be able to sleep on tonight… 🤔

29.10.2025 20:44 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Fingers crossed for you

29.10.2025 20:28 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Cancel/Culture/Polarize
YouTube video by Alliterative Cancel/Culture/Polarize

The surprisingly connected origins of "cancel", "culture", and "polarize".

m.youtube.com/shorts/clTMW...

#etymology #wordnerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #lingcomm #cancel #culture #cancelculture #polarizing #TaylorSwiftCancelled #CancelledSong

29.10.2025 17:06 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
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Check out my new single “Interesting Times” on your platform of choice!

distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

28.10.2025 01:38 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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Check out my new single “Interesting Times” on your platform of choice!

distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

28.10.2025 01:38 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
It’s spooky season, and right on cue there’s a new monster movie in the moneymaking Frankenstein franchise, and etymologically that’s appropriate. Mary Shelley named the creator of the monster Victor Frankenstein, and this German name means literally “stone of the Franks”, the Franks being one of the Germanic tribes that dates back to the middle ages, which moved into Gaul, or modern day France. It’s a common enough German name, often being used to refer to a rocky mountainous terrain, and there are a number of old fortifications in Germany named Burg Frankenstein or Castle Frankenstein. The Franks, who took their name from a type of javelin that was their preferred weapon (or it might have been the other way around), were conquerors, and so the word frank came to mean “superior” or “free” (in contrast to those they conquered who weren’t free), so when you speak frankly you’re speaking “freely” or “openly”. We can see this sense too in the Old French word franchise “freedom, exemption; right, privilege”, which came into English in the late 14th c. with the sense “a special right or privilege (by grant of a sovereign or government)”, later developing into “right to buy or sell” and “right to exclude others from buying or selling, a monopoly” and in the 20th c. “authorization by a company to sell its products or services” and by extension “a series of related works (such as novels or films) each of which includes the same characters or different characters that are understood to exist and interact in the same fictional universe with characters from the other works”. Monster comes from Latin monstrum, which could refer to a “monster” or something with an abnormal shape, but really had the more general sense of “omen” or “portent”, since such abnormalities were taken as a sign, usually bad, of what was to come.

It’s spooky season, and right on cue there’s a new monster movie in the moneymaking Frankenstein franchise, and etymologically that’s appropriate. Mary Shelley named the creator of the monster Victor Frankenstein, and this German name means literally “stone of the Franks”, the Franks being one of the Germanic tribes that dates back to the middle ages, which moved into Gaul, or modern day France. It’s a common enough German name, often being used to refer to a rocky mountainous terrain, and there are a number of old fortifications in Germany named Burg Frankenstein or Castle Frankenstein. The Franks, who took their name from a type of javelin that was their preferred weapon (or it might have been the other way around), were conquerors, and so the word frank came to mean “superior” or “free” (in contrast to those they conquered who weren’t free), so when you speak frankly you’re speaking “freely” or “openly”. We can see this sense too in the Old French word franchise “freedom, exemption; right, privilege”, which came into English in the late 14th c. with the sense “a special right or privilege (by grant of a sovereign or government)”, later developing into “right to buy or sell” and “right to exclude others from buying or selling, a monopoly” and in the 20th c. “authorization by a company to sell its products or services” and by extension “a series of related works (such as novels or films) each of which includes the same characters or different characters that are understood to exist and interact in the same fictional universe with characters from the other works”. Monster comes from Latin monstrum, which could refer to a “monster” or something with an abnormal shape, but really had the more general sense of “omen” or “portent”, since such abnormalities were taken as a sign, usually bad, of what was to come.

The word comes from the verb monere “to remind, admonish, warn, instruct”, so literally a monster is a “warning”, and because of a particular incident in ancient Rome when the sacred geese around the temple of the goddess Juno honked loudly warning the Romans of a surprise nighttime attack by the Gauls, a Celtic tribe, she was given the epithet Juno Moneta from that same word monere, which was transfered to the contents of that temple, which was where coins were struck and stored, passing through Old French to give us the English word money.

The word comes from the verb monere “to remind, admonish, warn, instruct”, so literally a monster is a “warning”, and because of a particular incident in ancient Rome when the sacred geese around the temple of the goddess Juno honked loudly warning the Romans of a surprise nighttime attack by the Gauls, a Celtic tribe, she was given the epithet Juno Moneta from that same word monere, which was transfered to the contents of that temple, which was where coins were struck and stored, passing through Old French to give us the English word money.

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is FRANKENSTEIN/FRANCHISE/MONSTER/MONEY #wotd #Frankenstein #franchise #monster #money

27.10.2025 17:20 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
Post image Post image

Nothing makes me feel happier than thinking of times spent with people I love and who love me, & I certainly love you dear Wombat. Here we are from the Beatles tour we went on together, seeing all the Liverpool sights and singing Beatles songs!
#SundayPixWombie
#SundayPixWombat
@wombat37.bsky.social

26.10.2025 19:57 — 👍 26    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Now available on all your favourite platforms: “Interesting Times”, a song about change!

distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

25.10.2025 02:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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24.10.2025 20:33 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

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24.10.2025 20:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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#NewSong “Interesting Times”! 🎸

distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

24.10.2025 04:08 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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New song coming tomorrow! 🎸
distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

23.10.2025 21:31 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Flu/Influence #Etymology
YouTube video by Alliterative Flu/Influence #Etymology

The surprisingly connected origins of "flu" and "influence".

youtube.com/shorts/HGVoe...

#etymology #wordnerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #lingcomm #flu #influence #influenza #astrology #flushot

22.10.2025 19:33 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1
Preview
Interesting Times by Mark Sundaram Stream and Pre-save Interesting Times - Distributed by DistroKid

🚨New song alert!🚨 Coming soon “Interesting Times”, a song about how change can be both positive and negative, both scary and exciting! 🎸

distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

22.10.2025 02:03 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Negotiators have succeeded in establishing a ceasefire, and in addition to this being a tremendous relief it’s also etymologically appropriate. Ceasefire first appeared in the 19th c., initially as a military command to stop shooting (as in sounding the ceasefire with bugles), and then as a (temporary) truce itself at the end of the First World War, developing from the verb phrase cease fire. The word cease first appeared in English around 1300, coming from Old French cesser “to come to an end, stop, cease; give up, desist”, from Latin cessare “to be remiss, delay, loiter, cease from, stop, give over”, the frequentative form of cedere “to go, to go from, to yield, withdraw, depart, retire, yield”, ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ked- “to go, yield”. Latin cedere was also combined with sub “under, below, beneath, underneath, behind” which as a prefix could have the meaning “next to, after, in addition to”, producing succedere “to go below, come under, enter; to follow, follow after, succeed”, which passed into Old French as succeder “to follow on”, and coming into English in the 14th c. initially with the sense “to come next after and take the place of”, as in “succeeding to a position of rule or an estate”, and then by the 15th c. developing its modern sense of “to turn out well, arrive at a happy issue, have a favourable result, terminate according to desire” as a shortening of the phrase to succeed well. And of course for a lasting peace, diplomacy is always necessary, a word also from this same PIE root, from the prefixed and suffixed form *ne-ked-ti- “(there is) no drawing back”, which became Latin necesse “inevitable, unavoidable” before passing through Old French into English.

Negotiators have succeeded in establishing a ceasefire, and in addition to this being a tremendous relief it’s also etymologically appropriate. Ceasefire first appeared in the 19th c., initially as a military command to stop shooting (as in sounding the ceasefire with bugles), and then as a (temporary) truce itself at the end of the First World War, developing from the verb phrase cease fire. The word cease first appeared in English around 1300, coming from Old French cesser “to come to an end, stop, cease; give up, desist”, from Latin cessare “to be remiss, delay, loiter, cease from, stop, give over”, the frequentative form of cedere “to go, to go from, to yield, withdraw, depart, retire, yield”, ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ked- “to go, yield”. Latin cedere was also combined with sub “under, below, beneath, underneath, behind” which as a prefix could have the meaning “next to, after, in addition to”, producing succedere “to go below, come under, enter; to follow, follow after, succeed”, which passed into Old French as succeder “to follow on”, and coming into English in the 14th c. initially with the sense “to come next after and take the place of”, as in “succeeding to a position of rule or an estate”, and then by the 15th c. developing its modern sense of “to turn out well, arrive at a happy issue, have a favourable result, terminate according to desire” as a shortening of the phrase to succeed well. And of course for a lasting peace, diplomacy is always necessary, a word also from this same PIE root, from the prefixed and suffixed form *ne-ked-ti- “(there is) no drawing back”, which became Latin necesse “inevitable, unavoidable” before passing through Old French into English.

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is CEASEFIRE/SUCCEED #wotd #ceasefire #succeed

20.10.2025 16:52 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

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17.10.2025 22:14 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Bicycle/Wheel #Etymology
YouTube video by Alliterative Bicycle/Wheel #Etymology

The surprisingly connected origins of "bicycle" and "wheel". #etymology #wordnerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #lingcomm #bicycle #wheel

youtube.com/shorts/UsRge...

16.10.2025 19:00 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
Thanksgiving is all about the harvest, but for many people food can be scarce even at this time of year. The word harvest comes, through Old English hærfest “harvest, autumn” and Proto-Germanic *harbitaz, from the Proto-Indo-European root *kerp- which means “to gather, pluck”, and the Latin word from this same root, carpere “to pick, gather”, also through Old French gives us the English word scarce which develops from the sense of being “plucked out” and therefore “rare”. That Latin word is perhaps most famous from the phrase carpe diem, usually translated as “seize the day”, but the metaphor at work there is really a harvesting metaphor, like “harvest your crops when they’re ripe before they go bad”. And this PIE root *kerp- goes even further back to the form *(s)ker- which means “to cut, shear”, eventually giving us many English words, including share from the idea of a division or portion — so sharing gets around scarcity. This root also leads to the Latin word caro/carnis “flesh, meat”, as in the English word carnivore, which might bring to mind your Thanksgiving turkey.

Thanksgiving is all about the harvest, but for many people food can be scarce even at this time of year. The word harvest comes, through Old English hærfest “harvest, autumn” and Proto-Germanic *harbitaz, from the Proto-Indo-European root *kerp- which means “to gather, pluck”, and the Latin word from this same root, carpere “to pick, gather”, also through Old French gives us the English word scarce which develops from the sense of being “plucked out” and therefore “rare”. That Latin word is perhaps most famous from the phrase carpe diem, usually translated as “seize the day”, but the metaphor at work there is really a harvesting metaphor, like “harvest your crops when they’re ripe before they go bad”. And this PIE root *kerp- goes even further back to the form *(s)ker- which means “to cut, shear”, eventually giving us many English words, including share from the idea of a division or portion — so sharing gets around scarcity. This root also leads to the Latin word caro/carnis “flesh, meat”, as in the English word carnivore, which might bring to mind your Thanksgiving turkey.

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is HARVEST/SCARCE #wotd #harvest #scarce #thanksgiving #CanadianThanksgiving #ThanksgivingCanada

13.10.2025 15:30 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

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Climate/Lid #Etymology
YouTube video by Alliterative Climate/Lid #Etymology

The surprisingly connected origins of "climate" and "lid". #etymology #wordnerd #linguistics #HistoricalLinguistics #language #words #lingcomm #climate #climatechange #lid
youtube.com/shorts/eaCWn...

08.10.2025 16:01 — 👍 1    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1
No one loves a furlough of government workers, but hopefully it won’t last a livelong time. Furlough, the temporary layoff of workers, originally meant a “leave of absence”, with the first element related to the English intensifying or negating prefix for- meaning “away, opposite, completely” and the second element related to the English noun leave meaning “permission” (from Old English leaf “permission” and not at all related to the verb leave meaning “to go away, cause to remain”). It was borrowed into English in the 1620s from Dutch verlof meaning literally “permission” from Middle Dutch ver- “completely, for” + lof “permission”, which comes from Proto-Germanic *laubo, ultimately traceable back to *loubh- the o-grade form of Proto-Indo-European *leubh- “to care, desire, love” from the notion of “pleasure, approval”. The zero-grade form of this root *lubh- in the suffixed form *lubh-a- came into Germanic as *lubo which became Old English lufu “love” and Modern English love. As for the somewhat old fashioned word livelong meaning “very long” most often seen in the phrase livelong day, the first element is completely unrelated to the word live, but in fact comes from the PIE root *leubh-, specifically the suffixed form *leubh-o-, which came into Germanic as *leubaz, becoming Old English leof “dear, beloved”, which not only gave us the now archaic word lief “dearly, gladly, willingly”, but was also used as an emotional intensifier with the word long in Middle English to give us livelong literally “dear long”.

No one loves a furlough of government workers, but hopefully it won’t last a livelong time. Furlough, the temporary layoff of workers, originally meant a “leave of absence”, with the first element related to the English intensifying or negating prefix for- meaning “away, opposite, completely” and the second element related to the English noun leave meaning “permission” (from Old English leaf “permission” and not at all related to the verb leave meaning “to go away, cause to remain”). It was borrowed into English in the 1620s from Dutch verlof meaning literally “permission” from Middle Dutch ver- “completely, for” + lof “permission”, which comes from Proto-Germanic *laubo, ultimately traceable back to *loubh- the o-grade form of Proto-Indo-European *leubh- “to care, desire, love” from the notion of “pleasure, approval”. The zero-grade form of this root *lubh- in the suffixed form *lubh-a- came into Germanic as *lubo which became Old English lufu “love” and Modern English love. As for the somewhat old fashioned word livelong meaning “very long” most often seen in the phrase livelong day, the first element is completely unrelated to the word live, but in fact comes from the PIE root *leubh-, specifically the suffixed form *leubh-o-, which came into Germanic as *leubaz, becoming Old English leof “dear, beloved”, which not only gave us the now archaic word lief “dearly, gladly, willingly”, but was also used as an emotional intensifier with the word long in Middle English to give us livelong literally “dear long”.

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is FURLOUGH/LOVE/LIVELONG #wotd #furlough #love #livelong #Shutdown2025 #GovernmentShutdown

06.10.2025 17:53 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

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