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Alliterative/Endless Knot

Videos & podcast about etymology, language, literature, history, science, & connections in the world around us. alliterative.net/

Alliterative/Endless Knot boosted:
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-30

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is HABEAS CORPUS/PROHIBIT/MIDRIFF #wotd #HabeasCorpus #prohibit #midriff

Two random things about conservatives: they can’t define habeas corpus and they often want to prohibit bare midriffs, and strangely that’s etymologically appropriate. Habeas corpus, the legal principal that a detained person must be brought before a court to make sure their detention is lawful, is a Latin phrase that literally means “(you should) have the person”. Habeas, the 2nd person singular present subjunctive form of the verb habere “to have”, can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghabh- “to give or receive”, which is also the source of English give (but surprisingly not have). When combined with the prefix pro- “away, forth” Latin habere becomes prohibere “to hold back, restrain, hinder, prevent”, with the past participle prohibitus that came into English in the 15th c. as prohibit. Latin corpus meaning “body” comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *kwrep- “body, form, appearance” (which as a verbal root probably had the meaning “to appear”), and this root also came into the Germanic languages as the Proto-Germanic root *hrefiz- which became Old English hrif “belly”, a word which only survives today in the compound word midriff.
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-26

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is HABEAS CORPUS/PROHIBIT/MIDRIFF #wotd #HabeasCorpus #prohibit #midriff

Two random things about conservatives: they can’t define habeas corpus and they often want to prohibit bare midriffs, and strangely that’s etymologically appropriate. Habeas corpus, the legal principal that a detained person must be brought before a court to make sure their detention is lawful, is a Latin phrase that literally means “(you should) have the person”. Habeas, the 2nd person singular present subjunctive form of the verb habere “to have”, can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghabh- “to give or receive”, which is also the source of English give (but surprisingly not have). When combined with the prefix pro- “away, forth” Latin habere becomes prohibere “to hold back, restrain, hinder, prevent”, with the past participle prohibitus that came into English in the 15th c. as prohibit. Latin corpus meaning “body” comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *kwrep- “body, form, appearance” (which as a verbal root probably had the meaning “to appear”), and this root also came into the Germanic languages as the Proto-Germanic root *hrefiz- which became Old English hrif “belly”, a word which only survives today in the compound word midriff.
Alliterative/Endless Knot boosted:
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-23

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is GRIFT/GRUB/CRAWL #wotd #grift #grub #crawl

It’s grifting for a leader to accept an expensive gift from a foreign government, grubbing and crawling for your own benefit while compromising your own country, and etymologically that makes sense. The word grift, which started out as US underworld slang in the early 20th c., is probably a corruption of earlier graft in the sense of “corruption” (first attested in the 19th c.), which itself either comes from graft in the sense of “digging”, via the notion of “working” as in the British slang phrase graft one’s occupation, or graft in the horticultural sense of “inserting the shoot of one plant into the stock of another”, from the notion of an “insertion” and therefore “something extra, on the side”. The “digging” word graft is either an alteration of the word grave in the “digging” sense from the Old English verb grafan “to dig” and noun græf “ditch, cave, grave”, ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghrebh- “to dig, bury, scratch”, which also lies behind the word grub via the unattested Old English form grybban “to dig”.The alternative option graft in the horticultural sense, with the Middle English form graff, was borrowed from Old French graife “grafting knife, carving tool; stylus, pen”, from Latin graphium “stylus”, ultimately from Greek grapheion “stylus”, from the verb graphein “to write”, ultimately traceable back to the PIE root *gerhb- “to scratch, carve”, which is probably the root that lies behind the Germanic root *krab- which gave rise to Old Norse krafla “to crawl”, which was borrowed into English as crawl.
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-22

Happy #SherlockHolmesDay! One of our earliest videos was all about Holmes – and his connections to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! youtube.com/watch?v=tGJ1fdAdn5

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #SherlockHolmes #Holmes #Gawain

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-20

Happy #DinosaurDay! Time to dig back into our past videos, for the early history of fossil hunting and paleontology’s roots: youtube.com/watch?v=x9yNwRBlKt

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Dinosaur #Fossil #Paleontology

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-20

Happy #FlowerDay! Here are some lovely etymological blooms to help celebrate: youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Dpzgcm9j

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Flowers

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-19

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is GRIFT/GRUB/CRAWL #wotd #grift #grub #crawl

It’s grifting for a leader to accept an expensive gift from a foreign government, grubbing and crawling for your own benefit while compromising your own country, and etymologically that makes sense. The word grift, which started out as US underworld slang in the early 20th c., is probably a corruption of earlier graft in the sense of “corruption” (first attested in the 19th c.), which itself either comes from graft in the sense of “digging”, via the notion of “working” as in the British slang phrase graft one’s occupation, or graft in the horticultural sense of “inserting the shoot of one plant into the stock of another”, from the notion of an “insertion” and therefore “something extra, on the side”. The “digging” word graft is either an alteration of the word grave in the “digging” sense from the Old English verb grafan “to dig” and noun græf “ditch, cave, grave”, ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghrebh- “to dig, bury, scratch”, which also lies behind the word grub via the unattested Old English form grybban “to dig”.The alternative option graft in the horticultural sense, with the Middle English form graff, was borrowed from Old French graife “grafting knife, carving tool; stylus, pen”, from Latin graphium “stylus”, ultimately from Greek grapheion “stylus”, from the verb graphein “to write”, ultimately traceable back to the PIE root *gerhb- “to scratch, carve”, which is probably the root that lies behind the Germanic root *krab- which gave rise to Old Norse krafla “to crawl”, which was borrowed into English as crawl.
Alliterative/Endless Knot boosted:
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-16

Happy #LoveATreeDay! Have an arboreal etymology to celebrate! youtube.com/watch?v=Nl-WunKwjr

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Tree

Alliterative/Endless Knot boosted:
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-16

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is DANDY/PHILANTHROPY #wotd #dandy #philanthropy #dandyism #blackdandyism #MetGala #MetGala2025

The Met Gala with its 2025 theme of Black dandyism is not just a party for celebrities, but has an important philanthropic purpose raising money for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and etymologically that’s appropriate. The etymology of dandy is uncertain, but the word is first attested in a Scottish border ballad in the late 18th c., and is perhaps an abbreviation of the term jack-a-dandy, with Dandy being a common Scottish diminutive of the name Andrew. The name Andrew is common throughout Europe in various forms due to the apostle Andrew, and ultimately derives from the Greek form of the name Andreas, which comes from the Greek adjective andreios “manly, courageous”, from the noun aner “man”, and can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ner- “man”. From this root also comes the Greek word anthropos “human being”, which when combined with philos “beloved, dear” produced philanthropia “humanity, benevolence, kindliness”, which eventually passed into English giving us philanthropy.
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-16

Happy #LoveATreeDay! Have an arboreal etymology to celebrate! youtube.com/watch?v=Nl-WunKwjr

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Tree

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-13

It’s #TulipDay! Beyond being a beautiful sign of spring, tulips are notable for being connected to one of the first market bubbles, and we have a short video about that.

youtube.com/watch?v=TELUATe2au

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Tulip #Bubble #Economy

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-13

It’s #WorldCocktailDay! So what better time to pour yourself a drink and settle in to learn all about the history of the cocktail, and some of the fascinating connections of some iconic drinks, with our Cocktail playlist!

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlD

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Cocktail

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-12

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is DANDY/PHILANTHROPY #wotd #dandy #philanthropy #dandyism #blackdandyism #MetGala #MetGala2025

The Met Gala with its 2025 theme of Black dandyism is not just a party for celebrities, but has an important philanthropic purpose raising money for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and etymologically that’s appropriate. The etymology of dandy is uncertain, but the word is first attested in a Scottish border ballad in the late 18th c., and is perhaps an abbreviation of the term jack-a-dandy, with Dandy being a common Scottish diminutive of the name Andrew. The name Andrew is common throughout Europe in various forms due to the apostle Andrew, and ultimately derives from the Greek form of the name Andreas, which comes from the Greek adjective andreios “manly, courageous”, from the noun aner “man”, and can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ner- “man”. From this root also comes the Greek word anthropos “human being”, which when combined with philos “beloved, dear” produced philanthropia “humanity, benevolence, kindliness”, which eventually passed into English giving us philanthropy.
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-12

Happy #LimerickDay! In lieu of a (bad) limerick of our own, we’ll point you to our video about Verse, which talks about the basics of poetic form, including the limerick: youtube.com/watch?v=SxFzgH0y9J

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Limerick #Verse #Poetry

Alliterative/Endless Knot boosted:
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-09

Happy #NationalTeacherDay! Thank you to all the teachers whose work is so important. To mark the day, here’s our video on the etymologies and history of education: youtube.com/watch?v=fR0YVsr8Qh #NationalTeachersDay #TeacherAppreciationDay #TeacherAppreciationWeek

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Teachers #Education

Alliterative/Endless Knot boosted:
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-09

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is CONCLAVE/EXVLUSIVE/CLOSE/CONCLUDE #wotd #conclave #exclusive #close #conclude

With the death of a pope, the exclusive group of cardinals under 80 gather behind closed doors where they must stay until they conclude the process of electing a new pope, which is called the papal conclave. The word conclave, from Latin conclave “a room, chamber, suite, apartment”, originally “a room which may be locked”, comes from the phrase cum clave “with a key”, with the Latin word clavis “key” ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *klau- “hook, peg”. This root also produced the Latin verb claudere “to shut, close”. When combined with the prefix con- “with, together” this produced concludere “to shut up, enclose” giving us English conclude, and clausus the past participle of claudere gave us English close, as well as the prefixed form exclusive from Medieval Latin exclusivus formed from the past participle of excludere “to deny access or entry, shut out”.In the middle ages, when the voting was too close to call — and yes the adjective close comes from the verb close — they used to restrict the food and drink the cardinals got to simple fare like bread and water to speed up the decision-making, so I guess nothing cloyingly sweet or made with spices like cloves, two words that also come from this root from Latin clavus “nail”, the latter because cloves look like nails and the former through Old French from Late Latin inclavare “drive a nail into a horse's foot when shoeing” which over time shifted in meaning to “To clog, obstruct, or impede; to weigh down, encumber” and eventually “to overload with food, so as to cause loathing” as in Modern English cloying.
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-07

For #NationalTourismDay, may we direct you to our video about the Olympics, Amateurs, and – it turns out – tourism? youtube.com/watch?v=im0C18vcyF

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #amateur #olympics #tourism

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-06

Happy #NationalTeacherDay! Thank you to all the teachers whose work is so important. To mark the day, here’s our video on the etymologies and history of education: youtube.com/watch?v=fR0YVsr8Qh #NationalTeachersDay #TeacherAppreciationDay #TeacherAppreciationWeek

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Teachers #Education

Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-05

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is CONCLAVE/EXVLUSIVE/CLOSE/CONCLUDE #wotd #conclave #exclusive #close #conclude

With the death of a pope, the exclusive group of cardinals under 80 gather behind closed doors where they must stay until they conclude the process of electing a new pope, which is called the papal conclave. The word conclave, from Latin conclave “a room, chamber, suite, apartment”, originally “a room which may be locked”, comes from the phrase cum clave “with a key”, with the Latin word clavis “key” ultimately traceable back to the Proto-Indo-European root *klau- “hook, peg”. This root also produced the Latin verb claudere “to shut, close”. When combined with the prefix con- “with, together” this produced concludere “to shut up, enclose” giving us English conclude, and clausus the past participle of claudere gave us English close, as well as the prefixed form exclusive from Medieval Latin exclusivus formed from the past participle of excludere “to deny access or entry, shut out”.In the middle ages, when the voting was too close to call — and yes the adjective close comes from the verb close — they used to restrict the food and drink the cardinals got to simple fare like bread and water to speed up the decision-making, so I guess nothing cloyingly sweet or made with spices like cloves, two words that also come from this root from Latin clavus “nail”, the latter because cloves look like nails and the former through Old French from Late Latin inclavare “drive a nail into a horse's foot when shoeing” which over time shifted in meaning to “To clog, obstruct, or impede; to weigh down, encumber” and eventually “to overload with food, so as to cause loathing” as in Modern English cloying.
Alliterative/Endless KnotAllEndlessKnot@toot.community
2025-05-05

It’s #NationalCartoonistsDay! Here’s our video “Marvel” about the history of comics and cartoons, to celebrate! youtube.com/watch?v=R_V7GSoi31

#Etymology #Video #WordNerd #Linguistics #Language #Words #HistoricalLinguistics #LingComm #Marvel #Comics

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