Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast

In this episode, Ray and OED editor Fiona McPherson examine the tension between linguistic change and lexicographical authority. Rather than treating the dictionary as a static canon, they explore how expanding archives, quarterly updates, and human editorial judgment continuously reshape our understanding of a word's "first use." The conversation also unpacks the illusion of linguistic novelty, showing how seemingly modern terms often carry deeper histories built on classic patterns of English morphology. Also - did Henry Thoreau invent "brain rot"? (Spoiler: yes he did.)

Today, we live in a world where text is, by default, punctuated. But the ubiquity of punctuation is a surprisingly recent development. Florence Hazrat traces its evolution from early writing systems, where individual words weren't even separated by spaces, to the Renaissance, when most of the punctuation marks in our modern repertoire emerged. The conversation explores punctuation's roles in religion, education, printing, and literature, from ancient Alexandria and medieval manuscripts to Emily Dickinson and modern texting. To buy Florence's excellent book On the Mark, click here. To support Words for Granted and gain access to ad-free episodes, click here.

In this episode, Ray and Jay discuss the question first raised by the 2000s indie rock band, Vampire Weekend: Who gives a f*** about an Oxford comma ? Their conversation covers the history, usage, and widespread cultural obsession surrounding the most controversial of all commas . Jay debunks many myths surrounding the Oxford comma's alleged usefulness while acknowledging many of the reasons why "Oxfordnistas" advocate for it . Ultimately, the discussion highlights how stylistic choices in writing are largely driven by personal preference rather than strict grammatical rules. You can buy Jay's book here. You can support Words for Granted on Patreon.

We all know English spelling is inconsistent, but some people have actually tried to change it. In this episode, Gabe Henry, author of Enough is Enuf, explores the historical crusade to make English spelling more "rational." The conversation highlights the reform efforts of figures like Noah Webster and Ben Franklin, alongside eccentric movements like the 19th-century "Phunny Phellows" and the Mormon Deseret Alphabet. Ultimately, they dive into why these phonetic revolutions fail and how our spelling shapes our cultural identity. To buy Gabe's book, click here. To support this podcast, click here.

In this episode, Ray chats with author Laura Spinney about Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral language of hundreds of modern languages spoken by billions today ranging from Western Europe to India. They explore how linguists reconstruct this unwritten language through comparative methods, what its vocabulary reveals about ancient society, and why its story remains relatively unknown despite its global importance. The conversation highlights the interdisciplinary nature of Indo-European studies—drawing on linguistics, archaeology, and especially recent breakthroughs in ancient DNA—which strongly support a migration of steppe pastoralists around 5,000 years ago as a key driver of language spread. To buy Laura's excellent book Proto, click here.

In this episode, Ray talks with linguist Valerie Friedland about accents—what they are, where they come from, and why everyone has one. They explore how accents begin in early childhood, how regional speech patterns change over time, and why certain pronunciations carry such strong social meaning. From accent bias to the myth of "accentless" speech, the conversation reveals how deeply language shapes identity and perception. Use this link to buy Valerie's new book, Why We Talk Funny: https://www.valeriefridland.com/

In this episode, author Danny Bate walks through the alphabet's evolution from its origins in Egyptian hieroglyphs to the letters of the English alphabet familiar to us today. He explains why English spelling became so irregular, while also arguing that non-phonetic spelling can preserve meaning and help unify diverse English dialects. The conversation also highlights memorable letter histories, including an answer to the question: Why does Q need U? To learn more about Danny and order his new book, use this link: https://dannybate.com/

In this episode, Ray chats with Mignon Fogerty, aka the Grammar Girl. "Good grammar" may seem like the epitome of prescriptivism, but when it comes to her "Quick and Dirty Tips", Mignon leans on a more ideologically neutral approach. Might you even call "good grammar" ... a style choice?

What can we learn about the nature of translation by reading a warning message in hundreds of different languages? In this episode, Keith Kahn-Harris discusses his latest book, The Babel Message, in which the mundane, multilingual warning message found inside Kinder Surprise Eggs ignites profound observations about the nature of language and the written word. To buy The Babel Message, click here.

Rhetoric has a bad reputation. We tend to think of it as a linguistic tool used by polticians and marketing execs to maipulate the masses. While this stereotype is true, rhetoric is more than just snake oil––we use it in apologies, negotions, and love letters, all without even realizing it. In this episode, speech writer and author Guy Doza takes through a wide range of rhetorical techniques and the psychology behind their effectiveness. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For 10% off your first month, click here. Buy Guy Doza's new book, How to Apologize for Killing a Cat.

Instead of criticizing deviations from Standard English as "wrong," what if we celebrated them as expressive lingusitic innovations? In this conversation with Valerie, we take a look at some of the quirky features of English that our language teachers taught us to avoid, and in true Words for Granted fashion, we attempt to understand how and why they emerged. To buy Valerie's new book, "Like Literally, Dude," click here.

What goes into building a language learning curriculum? How do designers choose features within a language learing app? Are some approaches to language learning better than others, or is it up to the indiviudal? In this episode, I explore these questions and more with Rob Paterson, Content Production Manager at Memrise. To get 50% off an annual plan with Memrise, go to: https://memri.se/WFG50

Place names are not random––behind the name of every country is a story of how it came to be. From stories of invasion and rebellion to the fantastical and mundane, author Duncan Madden takes us on a journey across the world in his latest book, Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names. To order or pre-order the book, go to https://www.duncanmadden.com/.

In this interview with linguist Danny Bate, we go deep on all things gender––grammatical gender, that is. Why do some languages have gender while others don't? Where does gender come from? What is the function of gender? To get 50% off your first month of Lingoda courses, follow this link: https://try.lingoda.com/Words_Nov

Trivia refers to obscure or useless information, but this definition is a far cry from the word's etymology. Trivia, or tri-via, literally means "three roads," and in Ancient Roman times, it referred to three-way intersections. These heavily trafficked intersections were places where common people would chat, trade, gossip, and bicker, and it is in this context that the seeds of our modern sense of the word were first sown. You can sign up for the Lingoda Sprint Challenge here: https://try.lingoda.com/WordsforGranted_Sprint

In this episode, I speak with Tracey Weldon, linguist and board advisor on the Oxford Dictionary of African American English project. We discuss the origins of AAE, the role of code switching within its speech community, AAE's contributions to mainstream English, and more. For $25 off your Lingoda Sprint Challenge enrollment, use this link: https://try.lingoda.com/Ray_Sprint

What does "standing under" have to do with "understanding?" Nothing at all, which is why most of us probably overlook the obvious fact that "understand" is actually a compound word comprising "under" and "stand." In our exploration of this confusing etymology, we look at some archaic meanings of the preposition "under" in addition to words with similar semantic constructions in other languages. Today's episode is sponsored by Lingoda. To get 25% off your enrollment in the Lingoda Sprint Challenge, go to https://try.lingoda.com/Ray and use promo code WORDSFORGRANTED at check out.

In Old English, the word "world", or weorold, did not refer to a place. It was a compound word comprising wer, meaing "man", and ald, meaning "age". "World" literally meant "the age of man", and in many of its earliest usages, it's more closely related to a man's "lifetime" or "lifespan" than the earth he inhabits. We also look at some unlikely cognates of "world", all of which share etymologies related to "manliness".

Have you ever wondered how writing was invented - or, how many times it was invented? How many undeciphered scripts has the ancient world left us, and is there any hope in eventually deciphering them? In this interview with Silvia Ferrara, author of The Greatest Invention, we explore these questions and many more. To buy Silvia's book, click here. You can also support Words for Granted on Patreon!

The etymology of "grotesque" is hiding in plain sight: "grotto-esque". Originally, the word was used to describe a style of ancient art that was discovered in underground grottos––or at least what appeared to be underground grottos. In the Renaissance, this style was emulated and innovated upon, influencing the evolution of the sense of "grotesque" familiar to us today.

In Ancient Greece, an "idiot", or idiotes, was a "private person", which meant someone who did not hold a political office. In this episode, we explore how the word's modern pejorative connotation emerged. We also look into the word's 19th and early 20th century association with the IQ test.

Though people of extraordinary talents and intellect have always existed, the modern sense of "genius" didn't emerge until the relatively recent 18th century. In Ancient Rome, a "genius" was neither a person nor their brilliant works, but a mythological deity whose function within society evolved over the course of antiquity.

Most Malay loanwords in English describe the local flora, fauna, and food of Southeast Asia. "Amok", however, is different. Amok, which describes a violent killing spree, is ultimately a Malay word that entered European languages during the era of European colonial expansion. Did Europeans encounter something unique in Southeast Asia that prompted them to adapt this word?

"Hyperbola" and "ellipse" are geometrical curves, while "hyperbole" and "ellipsis" are rhetorical terms. At face value, it's not clear how the meanings of "hyperbola" and "ellipse" relate to those of "hyperbole" and "ellipsis", but the history of these pairs of cognates are indeed closely intertwined. To start learning a new language for free with native speakers from around the world, check out the HelloTalk app at: https://go.hellotalk.com/wordsforgranted

The meanings of "parabola" and "parable" have very little to do with one another, yet these words are etymological doublets of a single Greek work, parabole, which meant "a throwing aside". In this episode, we explore how this literal meaning connects to the literary and mathematical developments of this Greek word. This month's bonus episode explores the syntax of predicate adjectives. Become a member on Patreon.com for to every WFG bonus episode.

Before Google was the name of one of the world's biggest tech companies, "googol" was an obscure math term that meant "ten to the one hundredth power". Five decades before the founding of Google, the word "googol" emerged spontaneously out of a conversation between an American mathematician and his nephew. Click here to listen to this month's FREE bonus episode on Patreon.

The word "average" has anything but an average etymology. If the leading theory is correct, "average" ultimately derives from an Arabic word meaning "defect". In this episode, we explore how this Arabic word made its way into European languages through sea trade and how, given this unlikely origin, its mathematical sense emerged over time.

English may be spoken by a whopping 1.5 billion ESL speakers around the world, but that doesn't mean it's an "easy" language to learn. For native English speakers, it's easy to take for granted just how irregular the English language is. In this interview episode, I chat with Arika Okrent about her new book, Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme and Other Oddities of the English Language. Today's episode is brought to you by italki. Go to https://go.italki.com/anniversary-wordsforgranted to claim your $140 of italki credits.

In many English works printed before the late 19th century, a letter unfamiliar to us today, ſ, is often used in place of the letter S. However, that unfamiliar f-looking letter is actually just an archaic form of the letter S called "long s". In this episode, we explore the origins and decline of this odd orthographical relic. As a coda to our series on lost letters, we also explore the history of the ampersand (&), which up until the late 19th century was often listed as the 27th letter of the alphabet. Examples from the episode: 1. Us'd, Clos'd 2. Always puffs, offset, satisfaction; never puffſ, offſet, satiſfaction 3. 17th century: mask, disbelief; 18th century maſk, diſbelief 4. Confuſ-ed, diſ-appearance 5. Geneſ.

If you've ever encountered the ligatures æ and œ in old texts, you may have wondered: what are they called? Where do they come from? How exactly are they pronounced? Why don't we use them any more? The ligatures ash and ethel are rare in English writing today, but in previous centuries, they were common. (In Old English, the sound we today associate with "short A" was actually not represented by the letter A, but by æ!)

F*ck. Sh*t. C*ck. These are some of the most profane words in the English language, but what exactly makes them profane? Is there something about profanities that makes them different from ordinary vanilla words? In this interview, I speak with John McWhorter, preeminent linguist and author of Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever. Click here to order Nine Nasty Words. To hear more from John, listen to the Lexicon Valley podcast.

Before the letter W was invented, the rune wynn was borrowed into the Latin AngloSaxon alphabet as a way of representing the /w/ sound. The letter yogh evolved out of Insular G, an Irish variation of the traditional letter G. The phonetic value of yogh varied. It could represent the /y/ sound, the guttural /x/ sound as in the Scottish "loch," and others. Many Modern English words spelled with GH digraph (laugh, though, night, etc.) were once spelled with the letter yogh. Interested in taking part in our virtual Latin 101 course this summer taught by Harvard PhD candidate Rebecca Deitsch? Learn more here: https://www.wordsforgranted.com/latin-course

In Modern English, we use the TH digraph to represent the voiced and voiceless dental fricative sounds. However, English previously had two unique letters that did this same job: eth and thorn. In this episode, we look at the origin and decline of eth and thorn in English in addition to some places outside of the English alphabet where these ancient letters have survived. Also, check out these links: Ticket link to Intelligent Speech 2021: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/ The International Phonetic Alphabet interactive chart: https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/ Ticket link to Intelligent Speech 2021: https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/ The International Phonetic Alphabet interactive chart: https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/

You can't have the English language without the ABC's, right? Wrong. In this overview episode, we look at the history of the alphabet and the many changes it has undergone from its Phoenician origins to today. We also consider the significance of the runic alphabet known as futhorc, the first alphabet used to write English. Two of the lost English letters, thorn and wynn, were directly adapted from this older Germanic script. Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a Technology https://soundcloud.com/lingthusiasm/52-writing-is-a-technology Runic alphabet (futhorc): https://omniglot.com/writing/futhorc.htm

'Pasta' is first attested in English during the 1800's, which is later than one might expect. However, in prior centuries, a handful of its closely related cognates such as 'paste,' 'pastry,' 'pastel,' and others were borrowed into English. We consider how these words relate historically and etymologically to the beloved Italian food. We also examine the semantic relationship between the words pasta, macaroni, and noodle.

In today's episode, we look at the etymologies of our meal words––not to mention "meal" itself. (As it turns out, "meal" has a long history of usage as a measurement word.) The meanings of our meal words have shifted over time in concert with the standard time at which these meals are eaten. Spoiler: "Dinner" was the original "breakfast," and etymologically, the two words mean almost the same thing. To support the show, go to: https://www.patreon.com/wordsforgranted

In this interview episode, I speak with Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project. Among many other things, we discuss why preserving endangered writing systems is so important to the cultures that use them, how writings systems become endangered in the first place, and Tim's fundraiser to raise awareness about the Mongolian script through an original board game. You can learn more about Tim and his work at the links below. https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/endangeredatlas/ulus-a-game-to-save-a-culture/

In ancient Greek botanical literature, there is a reference to a spiny plant called a kaktos. This word would pass into Modern English as "cactus," though the kaktos itself was certainly not a cactus as we know it. More likely, it was an undomesticated "artichoke," a plant whose name ultimately comes from Arabic. In this episode, we take a look at the intertwined history of these two words and the plants they designate.

In this episode, we explore the etymology of the most culturally ubiquitous fruit, the apple. Etymologically, the ubiquity of the apple is fitting, since it originally used to refer to apples and all fruits in general. We also explore the Latin and Greek words for 'apple,' the derivatives of which are hiding in plain sight in a handful of modern English fruit and vegetable words.

In the episode, we explore the etymology of 'cheese,' a Latin-derived word that entered the Germanic languages through trade long before the emergence of English. We also consider why the Italian and French words for cheese, formaggio and fromage, are not its cognates and how the adjective 'cheesy' (meaning something lacking subtlety) evolved.

The word 'egg' plays a part in one of the most famous anecdotes in the written record about the evolution of the English language. In this episode, we consider the implications of that story and look into the etymology of 'egg' and some of its cognates. We also look into the 'egg' in the idiom 'to egg on.'

This episode features a conversation I had with Kevin Stroud of the History of English Podcast at this year's virtual Intelligent Speech conference. We discussed reasons why the history of the Proto Indo-Europeans––the linguistic ancestors of nearly half the world's population––remains obscure to the general public. If you think it has something to do with racist, pseudoscientific scholarship that led to the concept of the Aryan race during World War II, we think so too. For the video of our conversation, follow this link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/intelligentspeech/40

The idiom 'dead ringer' comes down to us from horse-racing slang, but a widely believed folk etymology links the idiom's origins to being buried alive. In this episode, we debunk the myths and get down to the written evidence behind the emergence of this phrase. I'll be speaking with Kevin Stroud from the History of English podcast about the Proto Indo-Europeans at this year's Intelligent Speech Conference. To purchase tickets, follow this link.

The idiom 'red herring' is used to describe a distraction from the matter at hand. Literally, a 'red herring' is a kipper––that is, a smoked and salted sliced fish––but why would such a fish become an expression for a distraction? In this episode, we debunk a popular myth surrounding the idiom's etymology by close reading a handful of selections from the written record and drawing on the most recent scholarship.

Of all places, why do we put the 'proof' in the 'pudding?' Like many idioms whose origins date back several centuries, the connection between the literal and figurative meanings of 'the proof is in the pudding' is no longer clear in Modern English. 'The proof is in the pudding' is actually a shortened corruption of the idiom 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating,' but that's still not the full story. In the 17th century when the idiom was first used, both 'proof' and 'pudding' had different meanings than they do today. Listen to Words for Granted on Lyceum, a new app that curates and builds community around great educational audio.

In today's episode, I talk with Simon Horobin, Oxford professor and author of "Bagels, Bumf and Buses: A Day in the Life of the English Language," a book that explores the etymology of common words we encounter every day. In addition to discussing Simon's latest book, we discuss a range of language topics including the standardization of grammar, the history of spelling, and more. You can purchase "Bagels, Bumf, and Buses" here. Click here 25% off your first order with Literati. Listen to Words for Granted on Lyceum, a curated podcast app featuring educational podcasts.

The etymology of 'break a leg' is disputed, but some theories hold up better than others. In today's episode, we look at a handful of plausible explanations for how 'break a leg' became theater slang for 'good luck' and also bust a few etymological myths surrounding the idiom. Today's episode is brought to you by Yabla. Click here for your risk-free 15-day trial.

As we all know, the idiomatic meaning of 'apple of the eye' has nothing to do with apples. As it turns out, the origins of the idiom also have nothing to do with apples. In this episode, we look at how the English translation of an old Hebrew expression found in the Old Testament unintentionally defined our modern sense of the idiom 'apple of the eye.'

"In a pickle" is one of the oddest sounding idioms in English. It means "in a predicament or bad situation," but it's not clear what pickles have to do with anything. In this episode, we look at the origins of both the phrase and the word "pickle" itself.

This episode begins a new series on the etymology of English idioms. In this general overview of idioms, we discuss why idioms are syntactically and semantically peculiar, how idioms emerge, how idioms fossilize archaic grammar, and more.