4 Comments

I love word etymology. I used to keep a notebook in which I’d write down the definitions of the new words I encountered in my reading, and sometimes the origin or derivation. That was before the Internet. I stopped doing that. Maybe I should pick up that habit again. Thanks for sharing this.

Expand full comment

Do you still have the notebook somewhere? Might be fascinating looking into the words you used to wonder about.

I still do this word study occasionally on my blog on WordPress, to much fanfare. There's a tribe out there who enjoys these words studies. 😊

Expand full comment

I may have that notebook. Actually, there were several. I studied historical linguistics in college. Still have some of the textbooks, but my notes are probably gone by now. I did a big purge.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Jan 27
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Ha ha! Yes you're right about the misspelling part, I've had that happen to me. But the study of these old words, especially when brilliant people use it in contemporary language, is too fascinating for me to ignore. Hence, I write about crestfallen. :)

Expand full comment