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