Original Public Meaning

Our era is defined by technological development: artificial intelligence, speedy data connections, the very Internet itself. In this episode, we consider a word at the heart of modern technology: cyber. It's a word with a strange-sounding Greek ancestor (κυβερνήτης), whose widely used derivatives are hiding in plain sight in modern English. "Cyber" is also a welcome opportunity to revisit Patricia...

There are lots of ideas that seem like they shouldn't be true: that one infinity might be larger than another or that mass could somehow be equated with energy. We consider a related concept in today's episode: paradox. Today, a paradox is generally understood as a statement that is self-contradicting or even nonsensical but that nevertheless contains some element of truth. It's a word that comes...

We hear a lot about virtue in all kinds of contexts: civic virtue, cardinal virtues, and so on. In today's episode, we look at the roots of "virtue" in the Roman word virtus . It's a word that, at least etymologically speaking, has ties to something like "manliness," but even among our earliest Roman authors, virtus clearly means something different from macho strength. Finally, we look at the ess...

Onomatopoeia is a phenomenon where words mimic the sounds they denote: fizz, click, meow. It's the idea underlying the word "disgruntle," which has something to do with the noises made by pigs. In this episode, we consider how the grunting of pigs ended up describing dissatisfied and upset people. Finally, we look at a passage from P.G. Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters that plays with "disgrun...

The English terminology surrounding "pity" comes from Latin—from pietas —but as students of classical Latin know, this word is best translated as "dutifulness" or "loyalty." The development of an ancient word for dutifulness into our contemporary idea of mercy or compassion is a strange story, weaving through Old French and early English and even the Pietà , Michelangelo's masterful sculpture in S...

Every day, we look for amusement: from our phones, from our friends, from our books. The history of this word surprised me: English lexicographers reject any link with the Muses of the ancient world. Here, we discuss the proposed link between amusement and an Old French word for "face": mus . After our last discussion of "stereotype" in Walter Lippmann, it seems only fair to turn to John Dewey and...

We normally think of stereotypes today as a kind of lazy thinking: they're vicious assumptions about, say, demographic groups or even whole regions of the world. The word comes into English as the combination of two Greek stems that were used around 1800 to describe a new method of printing. This early history of the term "stereotype" in printing practices anticipates its later use by Walter Lippm...

In the board game Clue , we finish the game by making an accusation about who killed Mr. Boddy, where, and with what. This context of a murder mystery is a good entry point for thinking about the English verb "accuse," which has its roots in the legal system of the ancient Romans. It's a verb that appears in the poem "District and Circle" by the acclaimed Irish poet Seamus Heaney, where a commuter...

Originally in its Latin ancestor, the word "complicate" described the folding or turning of physical objects, like letters and knees. But as the word developed in English, complication could denote "folds" outside these physical examples: a psychological conflict or a moral ambivalence, for instance. In today's episode, we consider one of the more famous appearances of this word in modern literatu...

Recently my students have started to use the word "extra" as an adjective meaning something like "over the top" or "ostentatious." Today we look at "extravagant," a word that approximates this new slang but one that also has its own fascinating etymology related to "wandering" and "straying." To help us understand the idea of extravagance, we take a look at Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'"—it's an...

Questions of "distribution" have always been central to ethical and legal matters. The etymology of "distribute" itself comes with its own knotty questions and deceptive cousins—for instance, the loose and probably false connection between this word and "tribe." To close things out, we consider the opening paragraph of René Descartes's Discourse on the Method and its insistence that "good sense is...

We're back after a brief hiatus with the word "exhaust," a word that has broad application in English—sometimes a verb, sometimes a noun. It's an opportunity to review the idea of a "perfect passive participle," a fundamental grammatical concept observed in Latin words like exhaustus , from which our English word "exhaust" arises. Finally, we consider the character Neddy Merrill from John Cheever'...

The word "dissolve" likely brings up an image of a chemist's solutions or a sugar cube breaking apart in water. But this word has applications in a wide range of areas: a dissolute person, the dissolving of Parliament, even the final dissolving of the body and soul. As a more recent example, we consider the phrase "dissolving margins," a recurring theme in the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante,...

In English, the notion of "conscience" is often confused with "consciousness," words that share the same etymological roots in Latin. Generally, we might define "conscience" as that "little voice" in our head that tells us what's right and what's wrong. In today's episode, we consider how that notion of a private, internal conscience developed from a word that originally meant a "joint understandi...

We normally think of ambition today as a kind of personal virtue, alongside traits like "grit" and "tenacity." But in the Roman world, ambitio —from which our English word "ambition" directly descends—was often viewed with suspicion. In today's episode, we look at the violent and tumultuous world of politics in the late Roman Republic through the work of Sallust, the Roman historian who chronicles...

The arts give us so many terms with interesting histories: arpeggio, pirouette, collage. Today, we turn to the technical terminology of architecture and consider the word "cornice," a word that comes to English from Italian but that has murky roots in Latin. Its obscure origins give us an opportunity to consider the changing nature of the modern cityscape—as beautifully described in Colson Whitehe...

The word "symphony" has a straightforward origin: it comes directly from ancient Greek roots for "together" and "sound." But it offers an opportunity to explore the history of linguistic rules around word formation and the notion of "barbarism" in English. Finally, we read a poem from the celebrated American writer Billy Collins, "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House." Suggest a word...

A wobbly suspension bridge, a tightrope walker, a rocky precipice—there are many images that might unsettle those with a fear of heights (or acrophobia ). Today we consider the last of these examples, "precipice." It comes to us from the Latin praeceps or "headfirst," a word that brings to mind the fast, rushing downfall one might experience from such heights. As a literary reflection, we look to...

The English noun "maxim" sounds like it should have something to do with a "greatest" or "biggest" or "maximal" thing. Instead, it means a general, even foundational rule. In today's episode, we look at the curious origins of "maxim" in Latin's superlative adjective maximus , which means "largest." As a more modern reflection, we revisit the criticism of the Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandfo...

Sometimes, English takes words directly from Latin: mea culpa, alma mater, et cetera . That's the case with today's word: dictator . Even if "dictator" has a rather simple etymology, it has a complex and fascinating political history, which includes infamous Romans like Sulla and Julius Caesar. To conclude, we look at Hannah Arendt's classic work The Origins of Totalitarianism , in which she provo...

Today's world is full of "consultants" and "advisers" in the domains of business, politics, and even education. But the verb "consult" is an old one, coming directly into English from the Latin consulere . Its etymology, even in the ancient world, is pretty muddled, and this confusion persists today in the often-mistaken words "council" and "counsel." We also consider an essay by the American auth...

When we think of "anarchy," we might imagine rioters in the streets. But the etymology of this word extends well beyond the world of politics. Today we explore the curious roots of "anarchy," which builds on a Greek term that means both "origin" and "authority." Finally, we read a brief passage from Igor Stravinsky's The Poetics of Music on the challenges and temptations of artistic originality. S...

When we feel "indifference" about two options before us, we refuse to make a distinction between them. It's a word that's often confused with "ambivalence"—but when we grasp the roots of these words, the distinction between them becomes clearer. To help us appreciate the linguistic and even moral contrast between "indifference" and "ambivalence," we turn to the psychologist and philosopher William...

Every day we forget things. Thankfully, we don't need to remember every face from our commute, every song on the radio. Today's word "oblivion" draws from this universal experience of forgetting, and its Latin ancestor oblivisci gives us several modern English terms, both common (like "oblivious") and obscure (like "oubliette"). In our consideration of forgetfulness and the practice of leaving thi...

We're back after a brief hiatus with the word "scrutinize," whose roots draw from the universal experience of dealing with garbage. Well before our modern era of landfills and recycling, the Romans separated their trash—or scruta— from their treasure. From this Latin word scruta , we have inherited the notion of "scrutinizing": looking for something of value amid refuse. To close out, we ponder a...