Monday, June 26, 2006
Words
Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective writes about auto-antonyms. His English example is cleave, meaning both "separate" and "adhere." There are actually two different words spelled cleave in English, each with a different etymology. Posts at Balashon which might interest students of ancient Greek include those on the words bible and lishkah.
Anatoly Liberman, the Oxford Etymologist, has an interesting post on tautological compounds like henbane and ragamuffin and (easier to see) pathway. I just learned that Liberman is a resident not of Oxford, but of Minnesota. His article "Gone with the Wind: More Thoughts on Medieval Farting," Scandinavian Studies (1996), is on my list of things to read.
Finally, Laura Gibbs at Bestiaria Latina Blog writes entertainingly about English words derived from the Greek word for rainbow.
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Anatoly Liberman, the Oxford Etymologist, has an interesting post on tautological compounds like henbane and ragamuffin and (easier to see) pathway. I just learned that Liberman is a resident not of Oxford, but of Minnesota. His article "Gone with the Wind: More Thoughts on Medieval Farting," Scandinavian Studies (1996), is on my list of things to read.
Finally, Laura Gibbs at Bestiaria Latina Blog writes entertainingly about English words derived from the Greek word for rainbow.
