Word-Origin Wednesday

"Xmas" is a common, but sometimes frowned-upon, shortening of "Christmas." Let's look at the history of both words.

"Surcharge" came to English from French in the 15th century, long before retailers and credit card companies were sticking it to us.

Not enough people use the word "scuttlebutt," which means gossip. It comes from the nautical world.

Two different birds have been called "turkey," but the name stuck for only one of those birds.

"Thanks" and "giving" are pretty old words. When did people start combining them into "thanksgiving," and when did "Thanksgiving" get capitalized?

The origin of "octopus" helps us determine the preferred plural.

The bobby pin was invented shortly after World War I. Whom or what was it named after?

"Slipshod," which means "sloppy" or "thrown together," comes from early Modern English.

"Halloween" is a Scottish contraction from the 1700s.

"Transgender" and "cisgender" originated in the 20th century, but the individual parts—"trans," "cis" and "gender"—all come from centuries-old Latin.