Comments on: I can’t believe Hot for Words is real.

By: Erika Price

Erika Price — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:11:57 +0000

Erich: definitely not. She may be blonde and Russian, but her facial structure is quite different, I think. She also doesn’t have giant D cups spilling out of her top (or any video editing), so I’m going to say no, that’s not her.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:24:32 +0000

Erika: Is the woman ranting (satirically) against freckled people getting married the etymology woman? I’m not good about faces, and I’ve flipped back and forth, wondering. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2yTmSS3iW0

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:54:37 +0000

I grew up with our household unabridged OED. As a child, I found it very frustrating; I had to look up half the words in the definition of each word I looked up. Recursive, seemingly endless.

But it gave me a sense of etymology as an important part of any word. When I went to look up words in the comparatively dumbed-down dictionaries available in school, I missed the word origins and plethora of synonyms and obscure definitions.

I now have an OED, plus an several books of word origins. They often contain competing and incompatible etymologies for a word. When in doubt, I trust Oxford.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:55:19 +0000

I hadn’t before seen Marina, but I’ve long been a fan of etymologies — a story in every word!

As entertaining as they are, I was frustrated by the pace of the videos. I did enjoy the videos, but to really dig into etymologies, I would recommend a good dictionary. Warning: Dictionaries are not all the same. Some of them really take time to lay out the etymologies, whereas others don’t.

Online Etymology Dictionary is a website that looks promising. Wikipedia also has a good introductory article. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a

Studying word roots is often (but not always) a good way to better understand the modern use of a word. Knowing the stories behind words will making them come alive. If you haven’t taking the time to study etymologies, you have the pleasure of many “Aha!” moments, as well as a greater command of language.