The Kong in the name of the 1933 movie King Kong, probably alludes to the Congo in Africa, the home of gorillas. Previous movies used a form of that name as well; Kongorilla, for example. In the 1950s, the English name of the Japanese movie monster Godzilla was adapted from its Japanese name, Gojira (ゴジラ), a combination of gorira (ゴリラ), meaning “gorilla,” and kujira (鯨), meaning “whale.” The combining form -zilla, which now appears in terms such as bridezilla and groomzilla, is sometimes called a cran morpheme, meaning that the -zilla element contains some of the original idea of a large monster or savage beast, but is not really etymologically related. This is part of a complete episode.
A Winter Dictionary (Bookshop|Amazon) by Paul Anthony Jones includes some words to lift your spirits. The verb whicken involves the lengthening of days in springtime, a variant of quicken, meaning “come to life.” Another word, breard, is...
Rosalind from Montgomery, Alabama, says her mother used to scold her for acting like a starnadle fool. The more common version of this term is starnated fool, a term that appears particular to Black English, and appears in the work of such writers...
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