With Diwali and Bonfire Night falling back-to-back this week, we can expect plenty of glitter and sparkle lighting up our skies. To celebrate, we’ve chosen fireworks as our Word for Wednesday theme for November. A firework is a device with an explosive that burns with coloured flames. The word dates to the 1570s from the Old English ‘fyr’ and ‘work’. Our first fireworks-themed word of the month is sparkler. A sparkler is a handheld firework that burns slowly and produce sparks. The word sparkler has been used in reference to this type of firework since 1905, and more generally in reference to anything that sparkles since 1713. The word sparkle day...
In February, we are continuing with the Word for Wednesday theme of colours. The word colour entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘color’, from the Old Latin ‘colos’ meaning ‘a covering’, from the PIE root ‘kel-’ meaning ‘to conceal’. The word has been used in reference to skin colour since the early-thirteenth century and in reference to pigments and dye since the fourteenth century. The spelling colour became the common English spelling from the fourteenth century, but a classical correction made color an alternative from the fifteenth...
Do you ever look up and find yourself feeling dizzied by the enormity of the sky? Or marvel at the rich palette of sunrise or sunset? When you think about it we spend a lot of time never looking up! There was an age where the sky was the only real source of light, our means of timekeeping and navigating and the focus of an immense amount of knowledge. The clouds were even home to the Gods of ancient Greek myth. Now we can go for days without even acknowledging the sky's existence. What does the word ‘sky’ mean and what are its origins? Immediately, it appears strange due to its lack of vowels, which is uncommon in most Latinate languages – interestingly, the longest commonly used En...
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