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.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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