A delightful new book offers a taste of life in early medieval England through everyday vocabulary of that time and place. It’s called The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English, by Hana Videen (Bookshop|Amazon). The book includes helpful vocabulary lists and pronunciations, as well as information about Old English kennings, or poetic compounds of words, such as the ones that translate as “sky-candle” to indicate the sun, “whale-road” indicating the sea, and “sea-guest” to mean “sailor.” For an Old English word of the day, follow Old English Wordhord on Twitter. Incidentally, even if you don’t understand Old English, it can be mesmerizing to listen to. Check out this reading of “Widsith,” and this one of “The Wanderer,” and this one the opening lines of the epic poem Beowulf. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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