How colors got their names, and a strange way to write. The terms blue and orange arrived in English via French, so why didn’t we also adapt the French for black and white? • Not every example of writing goes in one direction across the page...
If you have an aversion to human company and a love of solitude, you have apanthropy, from Greek words that mean “away from humans.” This is part of a complete episode.
The medical term tragomaschalia means “smelly armpit sweat,” and derives from Greek words that mean “goat armpit.” This is part of a complete episode.
A man who’s not so handy with computers described himself not as a technophobe, but as a technophyte — a misapprehension of the components of the term neophyte, a word stemming from Greek words meaning “newly planted.” This is part...
Steganography is the practice of concealing messages within text, digitized data, or other objects. The word derives from Greek words that mean “covered writing.” This is part of a complete episode.
The medical term sialogogic, which means “producing saliva,” comes from Greek words meaning “to bring forth saliva.” This is part of a complete episode.