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Feb 18, 2023 · I coined the term “ cisgender ” in 1994. Nearly three decades later, the word has had ramifications I never dreamed of. It began innocently enough. I was in graduate school and writing a paper on the health of trans adolescents.
Nov 6, 2015 · Who Are The Hebrews? The word Hebrew first appears in Genesis 14:13 where “Abram” was called “the Hebrew”. “Abram’s” name was later changed by God to “Abraham” who became the father of the 12 Tribes of Israel, (Genesis 17:5). The word “ Hebrew ” in your Strong’s Concordance means, An Eberite (that is, Hebrew) or ...
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- Sabotage
When we hear the word muscles, we all think of strength, exercise or gym. We all have them, though some of us have more and others have less. So how did this word came to be? The term muscle comes from the Latin word “musculus” which means “little mouse.” Romans perceived flexed muscles as little mice moving under the skin, so they felt it’s approp...
Whiskey has been on the bar shelves for a long time, but where did the word come from? According to linguists, the word “whiskey” comes from an Old English word, “uskebeaghe” (1581). It is a combination of the Gaelic word “uisce” which means water and the Gaelic word “beatha” (bethu), which means life. Together these words are translated as “the wa...
Today villains are the bad guys, whether we see them in movies or real life. According to the contemporary interpretations of the world, villains are capable of crimes and other evil things. In the past, they were also considered as capable of doing good honest, hard work. In XIV century France, “villain’ was a word used for all of the people that ...
Trivia is everywhere today. It overwhelms the Internet, and it creeps from every corner. Some trivia can be fun, but not too much. Trivia is not a new thing; people have been exchanging trivia since the beginning of time. Well, here’s some trivia about the word “trivia”. It comes from the Latin word “trivium”. “Tri” is the Latin word for “triple” a...
Probably the most important word in this list. All of us are waiting for the day we receive one. The word has been used since ancient times, and its value has changed a lot since then. Salt used to be an extremely valuable ingredient for its rich properties. Salt improves the flavor of our food, and it helps preservation. Besides its culinary usage...
The word “plastic” came long before the material we use today for almost anything. Since the 1600s “plastic” has been a word used for anything that can be molded into different shapes. The term is even older; the Roman word “plasticus” and the ancient Greek word “plastikos” also signified something that can be molded into shape. Greeks usually used...
Wait till you hear this one! Today, seminars are often boring meetings in which people participate and try to learn something together. The Latin word “seminarium” had a different meaning: “breeding ground” or “plant nursery,” or “seed plot.” The word derives from “seminarius” which means “of seed”, but ultimately the meaning of “seminar” comes dow...
There is a lot of poop (linguistically and literary speaking) all around us. Poop is a word that is often used but had a few different meanings throughout history. In nautical terms, in the 1700s, “poop” was the stern deck of a ship. Another usage of the word comes from the 1500s when it was used as a verb meaning a short blast of sound produced fr...
When Hernando Cortes went and conquered the Aztec Empire, he discovered the vanilla plant and named it “vainilla” which literary means “little sheath” or “little pod”, deriving from the Latin word “vagina,” which means “sheath”. The name referred the shape of the plant, which needs to be split open for the beans to come out. It’s funny how the mean...
According to one theory, the term comes from 19-th century France, and derives from “sabots”, cheap wooden shoes that were worn by poor citizens. Those shoes were clumsy and loud when worn on the streets. The French had a term to describe a person walking in them: “saboter” to make noise while walking in sabots. The word changed into “sabotage “and...
- Ass. How did a word meaning “donkey” come to mean “butt”? It didn’t: Each ass has its own etymology. Ass the donkey is an Old English term derived from asinus, the Latin word for the animal.
- Bitch. Bitch hails from the animal kingdom, too. The earliest sense of the word—Old English’s biccean, a borrowing from Germanic languages—refers to a female dog.
- Cunt. Today, however, cunt (also likely from Germanic) often takes the cake when it comes to offensive appellations given to women. But it didn’t become an insult until the 1600s; for centuries before that, it mainly just referred to female genitals.
- Damn. Damn, which comes from French and Latin verbs, wasn’t always an expletive. To damn someone circa 1300 often just meant to sentence them for a crime.
Mar 2, 2009 · The word “whore” today means, a woman who is promiscuous, but at one point in time it actually meant “love.” Not only did the meaning change, but the pronunciation and spelling changed as well.
May 8, 2018 · A look into the history of this teenage rite of passage. The term "prom" comes from the word "promenade." Prom is a classic rite of passage for American teenagers. In recent years, prom culture has inspired news stories about epic “ promposals ,” repurposed prom dresses, inspiring prom queens and more. But where did this tradition come from ...
Mar 2, 2018 · The meaning of the holiday’s name is a little unclear: Where in the world did the word Easter come from? The short answer is that nobody really knows.
