Sylvan Forests

23 October 202523 October 2025 By Simon

When is a forest not a forest?

In modern English, the word forest [ˈfɒɹɪst / ˈfɔɹəst] means:

A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods.
Any dense collection or amount – e.g. a forest of criticism

Historically it referred to ‘defined area of land set aside in England as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use’, and didn’t necessarily contain trees.

It comes from Middle English forest (forest, wood, a preserve for hunting exclusive to royalty), from Old French forest (royal hunting ground, forest), from Early Medieval Latin forestis (a large area reserved for the use of the King or nobility, often a forest and often for hunting or fishing, forest), from Proto-West-Germanic *furhisti (forest), from *furhiþi (forest, woodland) and *hursti (thicket, wood, grove, nest) [source].

*furhiþi (forest) comes from *furhu (fir, pine), from Proto-Germanic *furhō (fir, pine, forest [of fir or pine trees]), from Proto-Indo-European *pérkus (oak), from *perkʷ- (oak) [source].

Words from the same roots include pērkons (thunder) in Latvian, perkūnas (sound of thunder, god of thunder) in Lithuanian, perth (bush, hedge) in Welsh, quercia (oak) in Italian, forêt (forest) in French, vorst (copse, grove, woodland) in Dutch, fjör (vitality, energy, fun, life) in Icelandic, and cork, fir and farm in English [source].

*hursti (thicket, wood, grove, nest) comes from Proto-Germanic *hurstiz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷr̥s-ti-s, from *kʷres- [source].

Words from the same roots include hirst (a barren, unproductive piece of ground, usually a hillock, knoll or ridge) in Scots, horst (an elevated land overgrown with shrub) in Dutch, Horst (the nest of a bird of prey, eyrie, bush, thicket, small forest) in German, and hurst (wood, grove – found mainly in place names such as Sissinghurst) in English [source].

The Irish word crann (tree, mast), the Welsh word pren (timber, wood, tree), and related words in other Celtic languages also come from the same roots, via Proto-Celtic *kʷresnom (tree, wood) [source].

In Middle English, the word wode was used to refer to a living tree, a group of trees, a grove, a copse, a wood, a forest, wood, etc. As a verb, it meant to hunt, to take to the woods, or to hide oneself in the woods, and a wodeward was a forester or forest warden.

Wode comes from Old English wudu / ᚹᚢᛞᚢ (wood, forest, woods, tree), from Proto-Germanic *widuz (wood, tree, forest), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰ-u-s [source].

Words from the same roots include wood in English, viður (trees or brambles, forest, wood, timber) in Icelandic, viita (a thicket of young deciduous trees) in Finnish, gwedhen (tree) in Cornish, gwezenn (tree) in Breton, and fiodh (wood, timber) in Scottish Gaelic [source].

Another forest-related word in English is sylvan, which means pertaining to the forest or woodlands, residing in a forest or wood, wooded, or covered in forest.

Related words include silviculture (forestry – the care and development of forests in order to obtain a product or provide a benefit), silvology (the scientific study of forests), and names such as Syliva, Transylvania (“across the forest”), Spotsylvania and Pennsylvania (“woodland of William Penn”).

It comes from Medieval Latin sylvanus, from Latin silvanus, from silva (forest), from Proto-Indo-European *s(w)el- (beam, board, frame, threshold) [source]. Words from the same roots include selva (forest, wood, mass, multitude) in Italian, selva (jungle, woods, forest) in Portuguese, and silva (bramble, blackberry bush) in Galician [source].

String Phones

16 October 202516 October 2025 By Simon

In many languages, words for telephone are some variation of telephone, but in some, such as Swahili, the word for phone is completely different – simu. Let’s find out where it comes from and what other words are related to it.

The Swahili word simu means telephone, telephone message, telegraph or telegram. Some related words include:

simu ya mkono(ni) / simu za rununu = mobile phone
simu maizi = smartphone
kibanda cha simu = telephone booth / box
kitabu cha simu = telephone book
piga simu = to make a call, to phone

It comes from Omani Arabic سيم (sīm – telegram), from Persian سیم (sim – wire, string, cord; silver, wealth, money [poetic]), from Middle Persian (ʾ)sym /⁠ (a)sēm (silver), from Old Persian 𐎿𐎡𐎹𐎶𐎶 (siyamam⁠ – silver), from Ancient Greek ἄσημον (ásēmon – silverware), from ἄσημος (ásēmos – unmarked, unintelligible, indistinct, silver) from ἄσημος, from σῆμα (sêma – mark, sign, token), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰyéh₂mn̥, from *dʰeyh₂- (to perceive, to see) [source].

Words from the same PIE roots include semaphore, semantic in English, semáforo (traffic light, semaphore) in Spanish, σημασία (simasía – meaning, sense, significance) in Greek, sim (string, wire, lead) in Azerbaijani, אסימון (asimón – token) in Hebrew, and сым (sym – wire) in Kazakh [source].

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device he called the telephone, which he described as an “apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically”. This was the first use of the word telephone to refer to the telephone we know today. Before then, it had been used to refer to other similar devices [source].

The English word telephone was borrowed from French téléphone (telephone), which comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle – afar) and φωνή (phōnḗ – voice, sound) [source].

Other languages that do not use some version of the word telephone include:

Armenian: հեռախոս (heṙaxos) – from եռա- (heṙa – far) and խոսել (xosel – to speak)
Breton: pellgomz – from pell (far) and komz (to speak, talk)
Chinese: 电话 [電話] (diànhuà) – from 电 [電] (diàn – lightning, electric power, energy, electricity) and 话 [話] (huà – speech, talk, words) – borrowed from Japanese 電話 (denwa – telephone, phone call)
Finnish: puhelin – from puhella (to chatter)
Icelandic: sími – from síma (cord, rope)

Incidentally, the similarity between the Icelandic word sími and the Swahili word simu is entirely coincidental, and they are not related.

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/telephone#Translations

Gluten Glue

8 October 20258 October 2025 By Simon

Did you know that the words glue and gluten are related to each other, and to the word clay?

Glue [ɡluː] is:

A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.
Anything that binds two things or people together.
A viscid secretion on the surface of certain plants.

It comes from Middle English glew [ɡliu̯] (glue, birdlime, tar, resin), from Old French glu (glue, birdlime), from Late Latin glūs, from Latin glūten (glue), from Proto-Italic *gloiten, from Proto-Indo-European *glóh₁ytn̥, from *gleyH- (to smear, to stick, glue, putty) [source].

Gluten [ˈɡluːtən / ˈɡluːtn̩] is:

The major protein in cereal grains, especially wheat; responsible for the elasticity in dough and the structure in baked bread.

It comes from Middle French gluten, from Latin glūten (glue), etc. [source].

Clay [kleɪ] is:

A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.

It comes from Middle English cley, from Old English clǣġ (clay), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij (clay), from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (clay), from Proto-Indo-European *gloy-(y)ó-s, from *gleyH- (to smear, to stick, glue, putty) [source].

So they all come from the same PIE root. Other words from that root include glynu (to stick, adhere, settle) in Welsh, klína (to smear) in Icelandic, glina (clay, loam) in Polish, liiv (sand) in Estonian, klei (clay) in Dutch [source].

Shearing Scissors

3 October 20253 October 2025 By Simon

Why does the word scissors have a silent c in it, and is it related to the word shears? Let’s find out.

Scissors [ˈsɪzəz / ˈsɪzɚz] are:

A tool used for cutting thin material, consisting of two crossing blades attached at a pivot point in such a way that the blades slide across each other when the handles are closed. [other meanings are available]

It comes from Middle English sisours (scissors, shears, [candle] snuffer), from Old French cusoirs (a cutting tool), from Late Latin cīsōria, from cīsōrium (a cutting tool), from Latin -cīsus or caesus (cut, hewn, felled, stuck, beaten), from *caedō (to cut, hew, fell, strike, beat), from Proto-Italic *kaidō (to cut, hew, fell), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (to cut, hew) [source].

The c was added to scissors during the 16th century due to the influence of the Medieval Latin word scissor (tailor, carver) and the Latin word scindō (to cut, tear, read, separate), which both come from Proto-Indo-European *skeyd- (to divide, split) [source].

Words from the same PIE root include cement, to excise, incision, precise and chisel in English, qeth (to cut) in Albanian, césped (lawn, grass, turf) in Spanish, précis (specific, explicit, sharp) in French [source].

In Old English, the word for scissors or shears was sċēar [ʃæ͜ɑːr], which comes from Proto-West Germanic *skāri, from Proto-Germanic *skēriz (cutting, cuttable), from *skeraną (to shear), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (to cut off, sever, separate, divide) [source].

Words from the same roots include shear(s), shred, share, scourge, sharp, scrotum, cortex and carnage in English, scheren (to shear) in German, skörd (harvest) in Swedish, ysgar (separation, split, divorce) in Welsh, cena (dinner) in Italian and Spanish, and harr (to weed, prune) in Albanian [source].

So, scissors and shears are not related.

Another word with a silent / unnecessary c is schist [ʃɪst], which refers to any of a variety of coarse-grained crystalline metamorphic rocks with a foliated structure that allows easy division into slabs or slates.

It comes from French schiste [ʃist] (shale, schist), from Latin lapis schistos (“stone that is easy to split”), from Ancient Greek σχῐστός [skʰis.tós] (skhĭstós, cloven, divided, divisible), from σχῐ́ζω [skʰíz.dɔː] (skhĭ́zō, to split, cleave, divide), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skeyd- (to divide, split) [source].

Words from the same PIE root include schism (a split or separation within a group or organization, typically caused by discord) and schizophrenia in English, scindere (to split up, divide, cleave) in Italian, and scheef (crooked, weird) in Dutch [source].

Select Choices

25 September 2025 By Simon

The Swahili lessons I did today were about politics, and one of the words I learnt was uchaguzi, which means election or selection. I was able to guess it’s meaning from the context, and because the -chagu appears in words related to choosing.

Uchaguzi comes from chagua (to choose, pick, pick out, select). Related words include:

chaguo = choice, selection, the selected
kuchagua = to choose, elect, deform, distort
kuchaguliwa = to be chosen
mchaguzi = fastidious person, choosy person

Sources: https://swahili-dictionary.com/swahili-english/chagua_chagua
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chagua#Swahili

Another word that I’ve noticed appearing in various forms is (ku)sikia, which means to hear, obey, pay attention, feel or sense. Related words include:

sikio = ear
(ku)sikiliza = to listen (to), to hear (a court case)
sikika = listening
msikilizaji = a listener
usikivu = hearing

Sources: https://swahili-dictionary.com/swahili-english/sikia_sikia
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sikia#Swahili

I’ve been learning Swahili for a few months now, and am beginning to be able to guess the meanings of some words based on other words I know, or to at least recognise that they might be related. I feel like I’m making good progress, but there is a lot more to learn.

Yielding Payment

5 September 20255 September 2025 By Simon

What links the word yield with payments, tax and gold? Let’s find out.

Meanings of yield include:

To give as a result or outcome; to produce or render.
To give up; to surrender or capitulate.
A product.
The quantity of something produced.

And it used to mean payment, money or tribute.

The verb comes from Middle English yẹ̄lden (to relinquish, give up, surrender, to pay, to fullfil an obligation), from Old English ġieldan (to pay, to reward, to worship), from Proto-West Germanic *geldan (to pay for), from Proto-Germanic *geldaną (to pay, to have/give value), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (to pay, to repay).

The noun comes from the same PIE root, via Middle English yẹ̄ld (tax, agricultural yield, reward, recompense), Old English ġield (payment, tax, tribute, cost), Proto-West Germanic *geld (payment), and Proto-Germanic *geldą (reward, gift, money) [source].

Words from the same roots include guild in English, geld (money) and gelden (to apply, count, be considered) in Dutch, Geld (money) and gelten (to be valid, count, be worth) in German, gjald (fee, payment) and gjalda (to pay) in Icelandic, gæld (debt, debts) and gælde (to hold good, be valid) in Danish, gille (feast, guild) in Swedish, and geall (pledge, pawn, token, bet, asset, prize) in Irish [source].

The English word gelt means money, tribute, tax, or chocolate coins usually eaten on Hanukkah (a.k.a. Hanukkah gelt). It originated in thieves’ cant and Polari in the UK, and was later adopted by Jews and used in general slang. It comes from the same roots as yield, etc, via Middle High German gelt (money) and Yiddish געלט (gelt – money) [source].

The English word geld, which historically meant a payment, particularly a medieval form of land tax, also comes from the same roots [source]. It is found in Danegeld, a tax raised originally to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders in the 10th and 11th centuries and later continued as a land tax [source].

Facting Facts

29 August 2025 By Simon

This morning I spotted an interesting case of fact being used as a verb in a comment on a TikTok post, and thought I’d blog about it.

I can’t find the post in question again, but the comment went something like “Your facts are not facting”. Which probably means that the facts are not true, or the commenter doesn’t believe them.

I found another example of the verbification of fact in this post on Instagram, which includes the comment When the facts are not facting.

Here’s another example of facting used as a verb: “He was facting the news article for the evening broadcast.”

Facting can also be used as a noun meaning “The act of stating or presenting factual information”. For example, “She impressed everyone with her facting skills during the presentation.”

As an adjective, facting means “Pertaining to the existence of verifiable information or circumstances”. For example, “It is important to base decisions on facting evidence rather than assumptions.” [source].

According to Fast Slang:

“Facting is a term that has recently emerged in the online world, and it refers to the act of spreading false information or fake news with the intention of misleading people. The practice of facting is often used by individuals or groups who have an agenda to push or a narrative to promote, and they do so by creating and sharing content that appears to be factual but is actually completely fabricated.”

The word fact is usually used as a noun meaning something actual as opposed to invented; something which is real; or an objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of experts, and so on.

It comes from Old French fact, from Latin factum (fact, deed, act, work, explot, etc), from factus (done, made), from faciō (to do, make, produce), from Proto-Italic *fakjō (to make) from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁k-yé-ti (make), from *dʰeh₁- (to do, put, place) [source].

Words from the same PIE roots include affair, affect, artificial, credible, deed, defect, divide, face, factor, faction, feast, perfect, verb, verify and many more in English [source].

The act of using a non-verb, particularly a noun, as a verb, is called verbing, verbalizing / verbalising, verbifying or verbification, and is quite common in English. Do other languages do this as much? [source].

Incidentally, a minor fact or item of trivia is a factlet [source], and a factette is a small snippet of true information, or a minor fact [source].

Factoid is generally used to refer to a minor fact, like factlet and factette, but can also mean “an inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media.”

It was coined by American writer Norman Mailer and appeared in his 1973 book, Marilyn: A Biography, in which he defines factoids as “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority” [source].

This post has been thoroughly facted and fact checked, and is entirely factual, factful and factic, to the best of my knowledge. It contains no misfacts, nonfacts, pseudofacts or unfacts, and that’s a fact, as a matter of fact.

Knobbly Monsters

21 August 202521 August 2025 By Simon

When does a alligator become a knobbly monster? Let’s find out.

Some journalists tend to use alternative ways to refer to the subjects of their articles when mentioning them for the second (or third) time, rather than using the same word twice.

Apparently in an article about alligators, journalist Paul Hudson, referred to them as reptiles then the knobbly monsters. Such alternative descriptions became known as knobbly monsters as a result. They are also known as gratuitous synonyms, pov or popular orange vegetable (a.k.a. the carrot), and American writer and journalist Charles W. Morton (1899–1967) referred to this practice as the ‘the elongated yellow fruit school of writing’.

In 1926, H. W. Fowler (1858-1933), an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on English usage, wrote in his book A Dictionary of Modern English Usage:

“Elegant variation. It is the second-rate writers, those intent rather on expressing themselves prettily than on conveying their meaning clearly, & still more those whose notions of style are based on a few misleading rules of thumb that are chiefly open to the allurements of elegant variation” [source]

At that time, elegant was a disparaging adjective for pretentious or precious refinement.

Other examples of knobbly monsters / elegant variation include:

The watery playground (paddling pool)
The whirring powertool (chainsaw)
Large balls of the freezing ice (hail)
The pepperpot-shaped trundling nasties (Daleks)
The tentacled monster (Giant squid)
The chunky chin-blankets (beards)
The red-jacketed festive gift-bringer (Santa)
The fatty breakfast treat (sausage)
Elongated yellow fruit (banana)
The numbered spheroids (billiard balls)
Hen-fruit safari (Easter egg hunt)
Succulent bivalves (oysters)
Rubber-tired mastodon of the highway (truck)
Succulent bivales (oysters)
The toothsome cocoa-based delight (chocolate)

Here’s an actual example of a knobbly monster in the wild [source]:

An article about an actual knobbly monster

Elegant variations for everyday terms were commonly-used in Old English and Old Norse poetry, and were known as kennings. Examples include báru fákr (wave’s horse) for ship, hron rade (whale’s road) for sea and grennir gunn-más (feeder of raven) for warrior [source]

Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/fun_stuff/2004/09/07/monsters.shtml
https://mistakeswritersmake.com/knobbly-monsters/
https://pjhoury.com/knobbly-monsters/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Morton_(editor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegant_variation

Inflammability

14 August 202514 August 2025 By Simon

Something that is not divisible is indivisible and something that is not accurate is inaccurate, yet something that is inflammable can be burnt. Why is that? Let’s find out.

The word inflammable [ɪnˈflæməbəl] means:

Capable of burning
Easily set on fire
Easily excited; set off by the slightest excuse; easily enraged or inflamed.

It can also mean the opposite: Incapable of burning; not easily set on fire. It comes from Middle French inflammable, from Medieval Latin īnflammābilis, from Latin īnflammāre (to set on fire), from in- (in, on) & flamma (flame) [source].

A related word, (to) inflame means to set on fire, to kindle, to cause to burn, flame or glow, to put in a state of inflammation, or to produce morbid heat, congestion, or swelling, and something that is inflammable can be inflamed [source].

Other related words include inflammation in English , infiammare (to set fire to, to inflame, stir up or flush sth) in Italian, inflamar (to inflame, catch fire) in Portuguese, and inflamar (to inflame, ignite) in Spanish [source].

The word flammable is a back-formation from inflammable and means capable of burning, easily set of fire, or extremely contentious. The prefix in-/im- is often used like un- and non- to negate the meaning of words, such as unaware and non-abrasive. It doesn’t have this meaning in inflammable, but to avoid confusion, the word flammable was coined [source].

Other words that can be used to indicate that something is not easily set on fire include non-flammable, noninflammable, unflammable, uninflammable, incombustible, non-combustible, not flammable and fireproof [source].

In French and Spanish, something that can be burnt is inflammable, while something that cannot be burnt is ininflammable, and there’s a similar word in Italian: ininfiammabile – a nice pile up of prefixes! [source]

More on inflammable v flammable:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/flammable-or-inflammable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustibility_and_flammability

A Cargo of Cars

7 August 20257 August 2025 By Simon

Is the word cargo related to the word car? Let’s find out.

Cargo [ˈkɑːɡəʊ / ˈkɑɹɡoʊ] refers to freight carried by a ship, aircraft or motor vehicle. It comes from Spanish cargo (charge, burden, position, post), from cargar (to load, carry, charge), from Late Latin carricāre, from carricō (to load), from carrus (wagon, a two-wheeled baggage cart, load, two-wheeled Celtic war chariot), from Gaulish *karros (wagon), from Proto-Celtic *karros (wagon), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (vehicle), from *ḱers- (to run) [source].

A car [kɑː / kɑɹ] is a wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal transportation; or any vehicle designed to run on rails [other meanings are available].

It comes from Middle English carre (cart, wagon), from Anglo-Norman carre (cart), from Latin carra, from carrus (wagon(load), cart(load), load), etc. – so the same roots as cargo [source].

Other words from the same Proto-Celtic roots include car (vehicle, car, sled, dray) in Welsh, karr (car, vehicle) in Breton, carro (wagon, cart, van, lorry, truck) in Italian, char (chariot, carriage, tank, car) in French, carro (cart, car) in Portuguese, kar (cart, car, truck) in Dutch, kärra (cart, wagon) in Swedish, qerre (cart, carriage) in Albanian, and career, carriage, carry, charge, chariot and posssibly carousel in English [source].

Other words from the same Proto-Indo-European roots include courier, course, carry, charge, current, curriculum, cursive, cursor, horse, hurry and possibly rush (to hurry) in English; corriere (messenger, courier) in Italian, and courir (to run, hurry, rush) in French [source].

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Category: Words and phrases