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The Curious Case of Curry Favor: From Medieval Horse Grooming to Modern Flattery
Episode 10
This episode unpacks the origin of the idiom ‘curry favor,’ tracing it back to a 14th‑century French satire about a horse named Fauvel and the mediev…
6 days ago
The Silent 'B' and Forgotten 'Whom': How English Spelling and Pronunciation Have Evolved
Episode 9
In this episode we trace the journey of English spelling from the silent "b" in ‘doubt’ to the vanished pronoun ‘whom’, and explore how modern textin…
6 days ago
Monastic Manuscripts: How Abbey Scriptoriums Saved Early English
Episode 5
In this episode we dive deep into the cloistered scriptoriums that kept early English alive—exploring how monks copied Latin, added Old‑English gloss…
6 days, 5 hours ago
The Printing Revolution: How William Caxton Birthed Standard English
Episode 8
Discover how William Caxton’s 1476 printing press froze orthography, promoted the Chancery Standard, and laid the groundwork for modern English spell…
6 days, 5 hours ago
Finna: From AAVE Phrase to Meme‑Ready Slang
Episode 7
We trace the journey of the particle "finna"—how it descended from Old English ‘fixing to’, morphed in African American speech, and finally exploded …
6 days, 5 hours ago
Tudor Schoolroom Revolution: How 16th‑Century Classes Launched Modern English
Episode 6
In this episode we trace how Tudor‑era schoolmasters, early printed grammar books, and Caxton’s press quietly slipped English into Latin‑centric clas…
6 days, 5 hours ago
Nouns Become Verbs: The Hidden Engine of English Evolution
Episode 4
From Old English roots to modern internet slang, this episode traces how nouns are turned into verbs—showing the linguistic shifts that made it possi…
6 days, 5 hours ago
From Bad Star to Disaster: The Etymological Journey of a Modern Calamity Word
Episode 3
This episode traces the Latin root dis‑aster through Old French and Middle English, watching it shed its celestial connotations to become today’s gen…
6 days, 5 hours ago
From Medieval Arbitration to Modern Sports Officiating: The Story of 'umpire'
Episode 2
The episode traces the word ‘umpire’ from its medieval French roots meaning “not a peer” through phonological rebracketing to become an English term …
6 days, 21 hours ago
Keel to Kimchi: Tracing the Path of English Words
Episode 1
From the first surviving English word recorded by Gildas to the borrowing of the term “telescope,” and the culinary lexicon that maps England’s globa…
1 week ago