The word antidisestablishmentarianism first appeared in the 1890s, denoting “opposition to ending the Church of England’s status as the official state church”—the disestablishment of the church, in other words. This word didn’t take off in the U.S. until the 1950s, thanks to a 12-year-old’s appearance on a TV game show. Young Gloria Lockerman successfully spelled antidisestablismentarianism and other challenging words, including the sentence The belligerent astigmatic anthropologist annihilated innumerable chrysanthemums, to win $8000. Lockerman’s story is told in the new book Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds (Bookshop|Amazon) by Jess Zafarris, cohost of the Words Unravelled podcast. This is part of a complete episode.
When a British tabloid reporter writing about a crocodile attack needed a synonym for crocodile, he went with knobbly monster, now a joking term for similarly creative ways of avoiding repetition. Juliet and Matthew Maguire, described by The...
Sara in Camden, New Jersey, wants a word for those people who are more than acquaintances, but not quite friends. She calls them friendlies, but wonders if there’s a better term. Fracquaintance, maybe? The Danish band Mew has an album called...
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