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Word-Origin Wednesday is the weekly podcast that walks you through a word origin in five minutes or less.... more
FAQs about Word-Origin Wednesday:How many episodes does Word-Origin Wednesday have?The podcast currently has 88 episodes available.
April 03, 2019Stay-at-Home Parent (Word-Origin Wednesday)"Stay" and "home" and "parent" are old words, going back centuries. Words to describe someone who tends to the home and children are also very old. English speakers began using the term "stay-at-home parent" very recently....more5minPlay
March 27, 2019Leverage (Word-Origin Wednesday)"Leverage" has been in the English language since the 18th century, but its position in everyday corporate speak is fairly recent....more4minPlay
March 20, 2019Tea (Word-Origin Wednesday)Tea has been around for thousands of years, but English speakers didn't need a word for it until they started trading it in the 1590s....more4minPlay
March 13, 2019Butt Cheek (Word-Origin Wednesday)"Butt" and "cheek" have been around for centuries. It took a while for English speakers to put them together....more5minPlay
March 06, 2019Ambulance (Word-Origin Wednesday)"Ambulance" has been an English word since the 18th century, before motor vehicles, and is related to the word "amble."...more4minPlay
February 27, 2019Selfie (Word-Origin Wednesday)"Selfie" is a fairly new word, but its root word and suffix are centuries old. Some people don't like "selfie," but resistance is futile....more4minPlay
March 28, 2018Hiatus (Word-Origin Wednesday)By tracing "hiatus," meaning a break, back to its ancient Proto-Indo European roots, we find it has some modern cousins with similar meanings but very different sounds....more3minPlay
March 21, 2018Penultimate (Word-Origin Wednesday)"Penultimate" and its cousin, "ultimate," both come from Latin. As the meaning of "ultimate" shifts, poor "penultimate" is being left behind....more4minPlay
March 14, 2018Carnival (Word-Origin Wednesday)The current popular meaning of "carnival" goes back to the 1920s, but the original meaning, which involves meat, goes back centuries....more4minPlay
March 07, 2018Buck (Word-Origin Wednesday)We've been using the word "buck" as slang for money since the 1850s. There are two theories to explain why....more4minPlay
FAQs about Word-Origin Wednesday:How many episodes does Word-Origin Wednesday have?The podcast currently has 88 episodes available.