The verb to eke, as in to eke out a living or eke out a win, derives from Old English eaca, meaning “addition” or “supplement.” The expression an eke name, or literally “an additional name” was later altered by...
Everybody has a nickname, and there’s usually a story to go with it. Martha and Grant reveal their own nicknames and the stories behind them. Speaking of nicknames, the word nickname has an interesting etymology. It’s an example of a...
minigarch n.—Gloss: n. a powerful person who is rich but not extravagantly so. Note: From mini ‘small’ plus -garch from a misdivision of oligarch, which comes from the Greek oligoi ‘few’ and arkhein ‘to rule...