Dead Air

"Hello again word lovers!"

In this show we are going to look at words that have merged from Persian. This is a relative mystery to our host Charly, who knows no Farsi (the modern equivalent language) but it seems like an interesting branch to explore, especially as it is the root of many modern Arab words.

Now it will come as no surprise that many words considered Arabic come from Persian but the real shock is the number of words considered quintessentially Indian that made the journey east from Persia.

There are definitely a couple of surprises in store here, even the Russians are stripped of a word that is considered one of their own. There is also some fun to be had with the original meaning of musk!

An action-packed 5 minutes of etymological discovery. At least one o f these pieces of information is going to get you points in a pub quiz at some point in your life

Full article on our website:

Have you noticed cakes in shop windows that look like, ahem, well, boobs?

Have you wanted to know what this was all about but too terrified to ask?

Well, never fear, we have all the answers here. Discover the story of Santa Agueda, celebrated on February 5th. It's a grim tale of torture and rejection, earthquakes and murder, oh, and cakes shaped like, well, boobs....

PLEASE BE ADVISED: This episode involves discussion of some terms that may cause offence.

"Hello again word lovers!" In this episode we dip our toes in the complicated waters of political correctness. When society understand words or phrases to have an unpleasant etymology but study reveals no such connection things can get very uncomfortable.

Charly explores some specific examples of this grey area of language: Chave and Pikey come under the microscope alongside hysterical/hysteria. Tranny and illegal are also explored before we take a look at some very controversial expressions. Nitty-gritty and Squaw have both come under fire as words that should be removed from the lexicon due to offensive or pejorative foundations. Charly sees if he can find evidence to support these claims. "N*ggardly" (asterisk employed to avoid the wrath of the algorithm) Charly explores the etymology of this word that has become archaic because it sounds so similar to "the N word" but shares no etymological root whatsoever. It actually comes via Old English from Old Norse.

Please note Charly states in his programme that the mayor of Washington, Anthony Williams, resigned in 1999 after using the above term. As clarified in our article, it was in fact David Howard, the then Head of the Office of the Public Advocate who stumbled into difficulty.

This episode can be listened to as a complement to episodes 26: Reappropriation and 23: Insults, which can be found in the programme archive.

Full article on our website: https://www.bulldogz.org/post/interesting-etymologies-40-political-correctness

"Hello again word lovers!" We have looked at words that have come to English from very far flung roots and some of the languages they have travelled through no longer exist. If we exclude Latin, Greek and Hebrew from our considerations, how many words exist in English that have come from dead languages and another question to consider, how does a language die?

Find the full article for this episode on our website: https://www.bulldogz.org/post/interesting-etymologies-39-dead-languages

San Valero, Rosconero y ventolero! All you need to know about this celebration of Saint Valero, the Patron Saint of Zaragoza, is right here.

"Hello again word lovers!" In this episode we are looking for words in English that have come from a non PIE root. A packed epsiode with a plentiful supply of words.

On this episode there is some additional information to be provided:

Bamboo is credited as being a word from Telugu in this epsideo when it is more likely from Kannada or Malay.

Taboo is listed as emerging from Hawaiian when it comes directly ito English via James Cook after his visit to Tonga.

The etymology of Curry, Ginger, Cash and Ukulele are covered in more detail in the related article on our website:

https://www.bulldogz.org/post/interesting-etymologies-38-non-pie

And if you want to know why wiki wiki can be seen on the front of a bus you will need to head to our website and discover the strange background to the word wiki entering international use in the same article.

"Hello again word lovers!" Today we are going into the realms of myth, particulalry that of mythical beasts.

From the Phoenix to the undead. Monsters and ghosts to angels and manticores.

Check out the full article of our website:

https://www.bulldogz.org//post/interesting-etymologies-37-mythical-beasts

"Hello again word lovers!" and in this instalment we are going to look at words formed from initial letters, known as acronyms. These are not to be confused with initialisms, which do not form new words. - F.B.I, C.I.A for example. AIDS is an acronym, H.I.V is an initialism

Check out the full article of our website:

https://www.bulldogz.org//post/interesting-etymologies-36-acronyms

Need to know : The Three Kings

Bearing gifts we travel afar....The Spanish tradition of "Reyes" that extends the magic of the Christmas season that little bit longer and brings city centres to a standstill.

All you need to know right here! Full related article on our website: https://www.bulldogz.org//post/2019/01/01/need-to-know-the-three-kings

"Hello again Word Lovers!" - In this week we are taking a slight diversion as we look at words developed within English but influenced by other languages and grammar. This created a type of English within English, spread mainly by black Americans, and named by a black American, Robert Williams in 1973, "Ebonics". Ebone to represent Black and "onics" as reference to Phonics. This has become understood as the way black populations use language in comparison to white speakers. It is also called African American Vernacular English (AAVE), formerly Black English Vernacular (BEV), dialect of American English spoken by a large proportion of African Americans.

The name was intended to provide a label for the linguistic consequences of the slave trade without negative connotations that other labels could evoke.

It remained a a little-known term that was not adopted by linguists or featured in the Oxford English Dictionary. This changed in 1996 when controversy emerged over the Oakland School Board decision to recognise it is a primary language for Afro American students and therefore acquire further funds to facilitate the teaching of standard English.

Find the full article to accompany the programme on our website:

https://www.bulldogz.org/post/interesting-etymologies-35-ebonics