The word exotic comes from the Greek exotikos, literally from the outside. So if we had visited Ancient Greece, they may have described us as exotic, because they used it to mean foreign.
Exotic plants and birds come from another land, but exotic also means attractively strange, or maybe that should be strangely attractive. (Im [more…]
Easter will be here on 23rd March this year. In the Christian church, its a time of celebration, the end of the Lenten fasting period. To many people Easter is a time when people dressed as rabbits wander about the local shopping centre scaring children. It also means eating lots of chocolate eggs and [more…]
One of the most recognisable shapes is the heart, featured in this months magazine cover not just because of our Red Cross connection but also because of the St Valentines Day date.
In ancient times the heart, rather than the brain, was considered to be the seat of thought, including memory and imagination.
There was much [more…]
Reader Graham Ennis recently wrote to query our use of humble pie and asks if it should be umble pie.
Anyone who admits to making a mistake has to eat humble pie and interestingly, the humble pie expression is itself the result of a mistake.
Numbles were originally the entrails of a deer. While the lord [more…]
Every year I say Im going to get on top of Christmas chores before they get on top of me, by dispensing with most of them. This year, I plan to go back to a simpler Christmas. Ive said this before, but this time, its going to happen. Cards and presents will be kept [more…]
Writing about the regatta in Crossed Wires made me wonder where the word came from.
In 1652 it was the name of a cut-throat boat race held in Venice on the Grand Canal. Their word for compete was regattare and as the gondoliers competed for mastery, you can see why the boat race became known [more…]
Weather has always been with us, so is almost synonymous with time. The word weather comes from the Old English weder, from the Old Norse vethr. The Latin tempestas meant weather and also meant time, and words for time also came to mean weather in Irish and Polish. In fact, words for weather were [more…]
In honour of Tony Blairs replacement as PM in Britain, Mr Gordon Brown, Ive had a look at the name Brown, the fifth most common name in Britain and the fourth most common in Australia.
Its not surprising that it mostly refers to the colour originally a person with brown hair or brown eyes. [more…]
