Word-Origin Wednesday

The slang term "booze" goes back many years as a noun and many more years as a verb. And what's a boozeroo?

The proper noun "Lent" evolved from a series of longer words ultimately related to spring.

On Valentine's day, you might send a valentine to your valentine. All of those uses share the same origin.

"Complicit" is Dictionary.com's 2017 Word of the Year. It's less than a century old, but the original "complicity" is much older.

Which came first, "OK" or "okay"? And what does Martin Van Buren have to do with it?

The American Dialect Society named "fake news" its 2017 Word of the Year. The term has been around for a while, but the past few years, it seems to be everywhere.

"Unkempt," which means "sloppy or disheveled," goes back centuries. It's not the same as "unkept."

Carbonara dishes typically contain bacon and a cream sauce, but the origin of the word probably involves coal. Let's explore the various theories.

"Cleave" can mean "to split" or "to stick to." How did that happen? We explore "cleave" and other contronyms in this week's Word-Origin Wednesday.

We sing it every year on New Year's Eve, but what does "Auld Lang Syne" mean and where did it come from?