Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving...
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Although there are many proposed etymologies for the word copacetic, the truth is no one knows the origin of this word meaning “fine” or “extremely satisfactory.” This is part of a...
Drupe means a fleshy fruit built around a hard pit, such as a peach or cherry. A drupelet is one of the tiny seeded units that cluster into fruits like raspberries and blackberries. Those bead-like drupelets reminded professional namers of a...