America is an adverb. It can also be a preposition. mashedradish.com/2024/11/10/aga…
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John Kelly 🕳️🐇
13.7K posts
John Kelly 🕳️🐇
@mashedradish
I get to the bottom of words on the top of our minds. Etymology at the intersection of news, life, and everyday language.
Cincinnati, OH Joined Ocak 2013
841 Following2.5K Followers
Etymologically, the word "onion" is the word "union," which is also a ... "pearl"? In my latest post, I chop up the origins of "onion": mashedradish.com/2024/10/30/oni…
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"Spooky": a word with an elusive etymology but a decidely comic, and relatively younger and Dutch, first recorded use. Join me, won't you, in going to the etymological beyond of "spooky"
mashedradish.com/2024/10/25/spo…
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It's decorative gourd etymology season ... radish mashers: mashedradish.com/2024/10/18/gou…
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Longshoremen. The unionized dockworkers on strike across East and Gulf Coast ports have me wondering: What's so "long" about a "longshoreman"? Turns out, it unloaded a vowel along the way. Find out how and why in my latest post: mashedradish.com/2024/10/02/lon… #etymology
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The giant-sized sensation of Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippo in Thailand, has me asking: How did "pygmy" come to be a word for "small"? mashedradish.com/2024/09/26/pyg… #etymology #Moodeng
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Current marketing strategies. Perfectly summed up, lol. (Vendor being set up for Cincinnati's Oktoberfest).
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Fed announces big interest rate cut. Ever wonder why it's called "interest"? Oh, I got you covered—etymologically. mashedradish.com/2024/09/18/sho…
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Shogun. Tupperware. Secret Service. Interest rate. My latest rounds up some newsworthy words and names, and their origins take us from Japanese loanwords to Latin verbs 'counterfeiting' as English nouns. #Etymology as assorted as a Tupperware® set: mashedradish.com/2024/09/18/sho…
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@mashedradish And υδραυλικός in modern Greek means plumber. A person fixing pipes.
What starts with geoengineering jargon ends with Ancient Greek musical instruments. My latest:
mashedradish.com/2024/09/14/fra…
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James Earl Jones. His very name evokes "voice." A remembrance in #etymology. mashedradish.com/2024/09/10/voi…
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Instances of #polio today are appalling—and that word is a clue to the history and origin of why polio is called "polio." My latest: mashedradish.com/2024/09/06/pol…
#etymology
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The origin of the word #Paralympics reveals important lexical—and historical—insights into this sensational sporting event. My latest: mashedradish.com/2024/08/30/par…
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I also go deep on Coach Woodruff, who led the 1895 @pennathletics football team to an undefeated season. With help from the @NYTArchives.
John Kelly 🕳️🐇@mashedradish
My latest post takes "coach," much in the news as a popular address for VP candidate Tim Walz, back to its small (Hungarian) town roots. mashedradish.com/2024/08/23/coa…
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My latest post takes "coach," much in the news as a popular address for VP candidate Tim Walz, back to its small (Hungarian) town roots. mashedradish.com/2024/08/23/coa…
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@baoyuan YESSS. Cincinnati, of course, can lay claim to some notorious mentions in The Apartment as well as an apocryphal Mark Twain quote.
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We don't have a movie with bawler scenes like the one between Kevin Costner and Dwier Brown, where one asks the other: "Can I ask you something? Is, is this heaven?" "It's Iowa" youtu.be/lXjz-M_6eN8?fe…
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John Kelly 🕳️🐇@mashedradish
New level of proud in getting to represent my state of Ohio with some language insights on the hilarious—and culturally telling—Ohio meme. @itstheannmarie has the story for @WSJ.
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So, here in Cincinnati, Ohio, we poke fun of Kentucky as our equivalent to "only in Ohio." We also more generally use Florida, which I suspect isn't unique to Ohio. What do you do regionally?
John Kelly 🕳️🐇@mashedradish
New level of proud in getting to represent my state of Ohio with some language insights on the hilarious—and culturally telling—Ohio meme. @itstheannmarie has the story for @WSJ.
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New level of proud in getting to represent my state of Ohio with some language insights on the hilarious—and culturally telling—Ohio meme. @itstheannmarie has the story for @WSJ.
Ann-Marie Alcántara@itstheannmarie
O-H!! I-O!! did i do that right? my other story this week is about ohio is the meme that keeps on giving, evolving from "only in ohio" to "skibidi ohio rizz"
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In Aristophane's comedy The Frogs, a feckless runner rips a fart on a torch, extinguishing its flame. (You lose the lampadedromia if the flame goes out, it goes without saying.)
John Kelly 🕳️🐇@mashedradish
Called LAMPADEDROMIA (torch race). Rooted in LAMPAS (torch, light, flambeau), source of LAMP, and DROMOS (running, racecourse), seen in HIPPODROME or DROMEDARY.
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