Certain words emerge from peculiar circumstances, leaving an indelible mark on language and society. The term “boycott” is one such example, as it carries a fascinating origin story that intertwines...
If you’ve been following the news, you will have heard references to the use of the term Amalek which was cited by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in January 2024. But...
A monastery, where the earliest surviving Scots Gaelic text was once noted within the margins of a significant Scottish manuscript called the Book of Deer , disappeared from the pages of history...
The English language is full of colloquial expressions derived from our storied past. Up there with racial slurs such as “redskin,” “squaw” or “casino Indian,” “Indian giver” or “Indian giving” is...
Historically Luddites have gotten a bad wrap since the use of the word exploded as a belittling term for clumsy “Neanderthal technophobes” in the 1960s. Unfortunately for the Luddites, the way its...
Cussing has been around since the time we could stub our toes. Though we’re all familiar with the swear words of the modern age, what about swear words from before our time? Believe it or not, there...
Did you know that many words we use today such as “husband,” “happy,” and “egg” are of Old Norse origin? No? Well, this isn’t surprising, as in the minds of many people the Vikings were nothing but a...
In secluded fields, on the walls of churches, and beneath construction sites, stones have been found with intricate markings that rise from the lower left up to the center and then down to the lower...
In an article on the Fuente Magna Bowl , April Holloway highlighted the evidence of Sumerian writing in South America. The Fuente Magna Bowl and Pokotia monument indicate that Sumerians may have...
A British historian believes he has found the earliest recorded use of the F-word, a swearword of Anglo-Saxon origin, where its meaning has a sexual connotation. The word was found in court records...
How human language began has been a question pestering researchers for centuries. One of the biggest issues with this topic is that empirical evidence is still lacking despite our great advances in...