words like “swell” – Better Living Through Literature

Word Tweets

April 6, 2022 Karen

Language Twitter is the best part of that hellsite so here are some tweets from which I’ve gained knowledge and joy lately:

AFFECT and EFFECT both come from the Latin verb ‘facere’, meaning to do—but AFFECT took the prefix ‘ad–’ (meaning to or towards) while EFFECT took ‘ex–’ (meaning out of or from). So to AFFECT something is essentially to do something to it, while an EFFECT is what results from it.

— Haggard Hawks 🦅 (@HaggardHawks) April 1, 2022

Seems like helicopter is a combo of heli and copter. Like it’s a copter that helis.

But it’s actually helico-pter. A pter that helicos. pic.twitter.com/2aVs1K3Lm5

— Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) March 30, 2022

The Greek word for running, ‘dromos’, is the origin of HIPPODROME (literally a place for running horses), PALINDROME (a word that literally ‘runs’ back), and DROMEDARY camels (which are literally ‘running’ camels). pic.twitter.com/gVjqZ6v9M2

— Haggard Hawks 🦅 (@HaggardHawks) April 2, 2022

Learning!

June 20, 2019June 20, 2019 Karen

I’m on Twitter a little more these days because I cleaned up my feed with this tool and now I get much, much less angry politics and more delightful content like this:

As a word for a young pig, the word PIGLET only dates back to the mid 1800s. Before then, a young pig might be called a HOGLING (14thC), a PORKET (1550s), a HOG-BABE (1600s), or a GRUNTLING (1680s). pic.twitter.com/MjlaY8c8lN

— Haggard Hawks ???????? (@HaggardHawks) June 19, 2019

(That account is full of great word facts, such as why a type of paper is called “foolscap“, something I have wondered over a lifetime of reading British novels.)

Happy Words

July 6, 2017July 6, 2017 Karen

Tysmake is pretty much the reason I make cookies. Also, I think America needs to adopt the practice of solarfi.

Oh, German

July 10, 2013 Karen

Sometimes I want to learn German, if only because there are words like this:

smultronställe: (n.) lit. “place of wild strawberries”; a special place discovered, treasured, returned to for solace and relaxation; a personal idyll free from stress or sadness.

(Via my old fav, even cleveland.)