Pandemic

It took a global lockdown to afford me the time to write this blog, so I figure it makes sense to digest some of the interesting etymologies of words arising more commonly in a time of a pandemic and enforced quarantines.

Taking the piss out of the gods

Let’s begin in ancient Greece. Around 6% of Modern English is of direct Greek descent, with its influence mostly concerning the portion of our vocabulary relating to academics, politics, science and religion. There are obvious candidates, like democracy (demos = people…

God

Speaking English is a uniquely human trait*, and so is belief in God (at least, as far as we know), which is fortunate for this terribly contrived effort to start talking about gods. The Greek word for god is theos, which graces us with the study of God in the form theology. A pantheon is the collection of all gods, an…

Let’s get lexical

The world’s most influential language tells a fascinating tale by virtue of its very words. You could spend a lifetime studying the twists and turns in the tale of English, and people…