Lexiconned

From meat that used to mean all food to sarcasm that once meant “to tear flesh,” this episode of Lexiconned explores twelve everyday words that have gone through total transformations. TJ guides you through their original meanings, when and how they changed, and what that tells us about culture, time, and language itself.

#Lexiconned #WordOrigins #LostInTranslation #EtymologyNerd #PodcastEpisode #WordHistory #LanguageLovers #AvocadoFacts #WordsMatter

Sources:

• Merriam-Webster’s “Words That Used to Mean Something Different”
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
• “Word Origins… and How We Know Them” by Anatoly Liberman

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What do ancient Roman spirits and IQ scores have in common? In this episode of Lexiconned, TJ explores the tangled history of the word “genius”—from its roots in Latin religion to its modern-day misuse. Discover how the word changed, and what we lost along the way.

Sources:

• Oxford English Dictionary
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Latin literature and religious texts
• “The Birth of the Modern Genius” by Darrin M. McMahon
• Smithsonian Magazine
• History Today: The Genius Myth

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What do YouTube comments, medieval monks, and modern politics have in common? They’re all tangled in the wild history of vulgar. In this episode, TJ traces the word’s transformation from “of the people” to “offensive,” and asks whether vulgarity might just be the people’s poetry.

Sources:

• Oxford English Dictionary
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Latin texts and linguistics journals
• Writings of John McWhorter, George Orwell
• The Vulgar Tongue: Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Potential Titles:

• “Vulgar Display of Power”
• “The Vulgar Establishment”
• “From Vulgus to Vile”
• “Common People, Common Tongue”

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Episode Description: Is hell a biblical punishment or a medieval invention? In this episode of Lexiconned, TJ takes you on a blazing journey through the etymology, theology, and mythology behind one of the most powerful words in English. From Viking goddesses to Dante’s inferno, discover the strange and surprising origins of “hell.”

Sources:

• Oxford English Dictionary
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• The Bible (King James Version)
• Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
• John Milton, Paradise Lost
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• The Smithsonian Magazine

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Episode Description: Did Marco Polo really bring pasta to Italy? Or is that just a saucy myth? In this episode of Lexiconned, TJ boils over the false origins and savory truth behind spaghetti—from its linguistic roots to its role in shaping Italian identity. Pull up a chair, grab a fork, and dig in.

Sources:

• Oxford English Dictionary
• The Oxford Companion to Food
• Alan Davidson, The Penguin Companion to Food
• Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini De Vita
• Smithsonian Magazine
• Food Timeline.org
• Talmudic references and medieval Arab cookbooks

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Episode Description

From “Dutch courage” to “paint the town red,” this episode uncorks the myths and truths behind your favorite drinking expressions. Join TJ Martin as he pours one out for linguistic history, one phrase at a time.

Full Source List

1. Oxford English Dictionary – Definitions and first recorded uses
2. Etymonline (Douglas Harper) – Etymology for “booze,” “hangover,” “one for the road,” etc.
3. Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Contemporary definitions and usage
4. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
5. Phrasefinder.org – Myths and origins for idioms
6. Smithsonian Magazine – “The Real Origin of ‘Cup of Joe’”
7. The Word Detective – Linguistic debunking of “wet your whistle” and “Dutch courage”
8. British Library – Documentation on nautical slang and 19th-century expressions
9. Shakespeare’s Plays – The Taming of the Shrew (reference to whistle)
10. Word Histories Blog – Phrase histories and misattributions
11. The Language of Food – Dan Jurafsky – “Jamoke,” “cup of Joe,” and culinary etymology
12. Oxford Reference: Classical Dictionary – Origins of “hair of the dog” in ancient medicine
13. National Archives (UK) – Records on the Marquis of Waterford and the 1837 Melton Mowbray incident
14. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations – Historical uses in speech and literature

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Discover how Shakespeare's words went from stage to everyday speech in this bard-tastic episode of Lexiconned. We break down famous phrases the playwright coined—or catapulted into cultural fame—from “wild goose chase” to “green-eyed monster.”

Sources:

• Crystal, David. The Stories of English. Penguin Books.
• Partridge, Eric. Shakespeare’s Bawdy. Routledge.
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Shakespeare’s Complete Works, Folger Digital Texts

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This week - we go back to our roots, unraveling a single word that we all think we know. What do Venetian sailors, biblical floods, and viral memes have in common? They all helped shape the word quarantine. In this episode of Lexiconned, TJ explores how a 14th-century medical mandate turned into a global keyword—and what its forty-day origins reveal about culture, language, and human nature.

Sources:

• Oxford English Dictionary
• The Black Death and the Transformation of the West by David Herlihy
• “Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892” by Howard Markel
• CDC historical archives
• WHO publications on quarantine practice and etymology
• Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney

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The Language of Liberty
Celebrate Independence Day with a deep dive into the Revolutionary War’s most explosive contributions to our language. From “lock, stock, and barrel” to “not worth a Continental,” TJ explores how battle-tested idioms still echo through American speech today.

Lock, Stock, and Barrel | Keep Your Powder Dry | Flash in the Pan | Turncoat | 

Half-Cocked | Toe the Line | Run the Gauntlet | Yankee Doodle | Give No Quarter

Redcoat |Not Worth a Continental

Sources

• Oxford English Dictionary
• Library of Congress: Revolutionary War archives
• “Don’t Know Much About History” by Kenneth C. Davis
• “Made in America” by Bill Bryson
• Smithsonian Magazine
• Etymonline.com

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 From factory floors to fluorescent-lit offices, Lexiconned dives into the idioms that built the working world. In this episode, we unpack the language of labor—from punching in and climbing the corporate ladder to thinking outside the box and cutting corners. Whether you’re a blue-collar grinder or a white-collar warrior, these phrases reveal the culture, history, and humor of the modern workplace.. From punching in and getting the boot to playing it by the book, we’re exploring the work-related phrases that keep English employed.

 #language, #idioms, #etymology, #expressions, #workculture, #slang, #businessjargon, #officelife, #podcast, #Lexiconned 

[Sources]

• Oxford English Dictionary
• Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• “The Etymologicon” by Mark Forsyth
• PhraseFinder.org
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• Business Week (1966 usage of “climb the corporate ladder”)
• New York Times archive (1921 usage of “get under your skin”)
• John Frith, A Mirror or Glass to Know Thyself (1532 usage of “nose to the grindstone”)
• U.S. Air Force Command Manuals (1950s references to “in the loop”)
• Upton Sinclair, early 20th-century writing on “white-collar” labor
• American Speech journal (1942, early usage of “put your foot in your mouth”)
• U.S. patent records (1888 Bundy Clock, for “punch in/punch out”)
• "Nose on the Grindstone", Tyler Childers (2017) - Song Reference

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