Wordorigins.org

Your Daily Stella: that frisbee has somehow managed to survive the dog park for weeks

Turtle Island — Wordorigins.org 2 March 2026 Turtle Island is a calque of a Native American term from the creation accounts of tribes speaking languages of the Iroquoian and Algonquian families. It originally was a name for the w...

Turtle Island

#etymology #wordorigins #language

arch — Wordorigins.org 27 February 2026 Arch , in English, encompasses three broad senses. It can be a combining form signifying chief or high as in archangel or archbishop , it can mean clever or cleverly humorous, an...

arch

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I don't recall ever using or hearing "wet run," but "dry fire" (training without live ammunition) and "going wet" (shooting live ammunition) were common terms during my days in the artillery in the 1980s

dirigible — Wordorigins.org 25 February 2026 Today, the word  dirigible  is almost always used as a noun, referring to a zeppelin -type airship , and I always had it in my head that the word was related to rigid , ...

dirigible

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sapphire — Wordorigins.org 23 February 2026 Sapphire is a gem, usually blue in color, a variety of corundum. The word came into English from the Anglo-Norman saphir , which is from the Latin sapphirus , which, in turn, is ...

sapphire

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A photo posted to the Denver airport instagram account with Hennifer an 8 foot disco ball chicken on the tarmac about to be shipped to Houston. Denver artist Lauren Young created this beauty.

The world is full of horrors but also this

A black dog watching television

Your Daily Stella: Watching "The Blob" starring Steve McQueen

William Shatner as Capt Kirk screaming

Post an image you can hear

airship — Wordorigins.org 20 February 2026 As we use the word today, airship generally refers to a dirigible , but that specific usage became common only after 1900 and the launch of Ferdinand Zeppelin’s aircraft. The ...

airship

#etymology #wordorigins #language #aviation

I think the association with the Grateful Dead had a lot to do with it's catching on. There are lots of such in-group slang terms that go nowhere because they don't have a famous band with a legion of fans to take up the usage.

four-twenty / 420 — Wordorigins.org 18 February 2026 There are many origin stories for  420 , a slang term referring to marijuana, but unlike most slang terms, researchers have been able to pin down its actual origin with specific...

four-twenty / 420

#etymology #wordorigins #language

ring / ringleader — Wordorigins.org 16 February 2026 Ring comes down to us from the Old English hring with much the same meaning as today, a circlet, often made of metal, to be worn as an ornament, or more generally, any similar ci...

ring / ringleader

#etymology #wordorigins #language

No, I am saying that I can subordinate my own desires to the common good. It's not about just one candidate; it's about voting whether or not to keep a fascist party in charge.

Theoretically there are situations where I would vote third party in a general, but I can't think of an actual case that applies today. As odious as Newsom is, he's preferable to any Republican, which is to say the fascists. Instead, work to defeat Newsom in the primary.

And I disagree with your premise. It's not voting against your conscience. It's, given two bad choices, voting for the person who most closely aligns with your conscience.

A general election is not an opinion poll. It, in a system with first-past-the post single-member districts, is a binary choice for who is going to govern. You choose the one who is closest to your beliefs. African-Americans have, for decades, been voting for the least racist white person.

Which doesn't mean that you shouldn't harrass the milquetoast Dems until they support trans-rights

I think it's important to distinguish between primary and general elections. In the primary, vote your conscience. In the general, vote against the Republican. Even the most milquetoast, centrist Dem is better than the most left-leaning Republican.

sur- — Wordorigins.org 13 February 2026 The other day I was wondering about the word  surname . What is the  sur- ? prefix. The etymology, while perhaps not immediately obvious, is quite straightforward; the &nbs...

sur-

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After reading this, I asked ChatGPT if I had a cat. It waffled, but responded that three of the dogs and one of cats that have been part of my household at one time or another might have been cats. At least it didn't invent any pets that I didn't have.

Vital Cat Update It’s time to talk about my cat. To which you might be saying, “Chuck, I didn’t know you had a cat!” and I’d respond with, “I didn’t know I had a cat either…

If you really want to learn about AI hype, please read about my many excellent cats

rap/rap sheet — Wordorigins.org 11 February 2026 Rap has four broad senses, all stemming from the first: a blow or strike; a criminal charge; an utterance or conversation; and a musical genre. The sense of  rap  meani...

rap / rap sheet

#etymology #wordorigins #language

Your Daily Stella: I came from an afternoon of teaching and was assaulted by a crazed black-furred beast

This makes me wish I were back in Toronto

tell it to the marines — Wordorigins.org 9 February 2026 The origin of the phrase tell that to the marines is exactly what you might think it to be, an expression originally used by sailors that implies their shipmates in the marines are ...

tell that to the marines

#etymology #wordorigins #language

Your Daily Stella: one of the dog-daddies brought a drone to the park today and Stella was not pleased (she really didn't like it, so we went for a walk instead)

Personally, I cannot abide spaces in file names, a holdover from my MS DOS and Unix days.

I just drafted an email on file naming conventions to the students in my professional writing classes. (I did not prescribe, only advised on how to do it well.)

A black dog watching a TV with a dog on the screen

Your Daily Stella: watching a documentary on dogs