Scholarly investigations into the origins of the word “Cat” are not yet complete. A new set of possibilities are presented by Dr Ivana Bašić (a Senior Research Associate at the Serbian Institute of Ethnography, SASA) who points out that there may be previously overlooked connections with the Serbian words for cat / litter : “This paper […]
Tag: word
The Meaning of Shoes—Specifically, of the Word “Shoes”
Shoes can be meaningful, sure. The word “shoes” is full of meaning, as are words for particular varieties of shoe. This study tries to make that clear: “A Look at the World Through a Word ‘Shoes’: A Componential Analysis of Meaning,” Miftahush Shalihah, Journal of Language and Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 2015, pp. 81-90. […]
PR headline of the week: “A Nose by Any Other Name…”
The week’s Press Release Headline of the Week was issued by Cornell University: “A nose by any other name would sound the same, Study Finds.” This photo shows the nose, and surrounding areas, of Professor Morten Christiansen, who did the research that led to the press release:
Why do so many people so often say “so”?
So … in this era when so many people use the word “so” to begin so many of their sentences, one scholar has written three studies analysing what happens when people begin their sentences with the word. Galina Bolden’s first “so” study, in 2006, explains that sometimes people use the word as a way of […]
OM, OM on the brain
Two Indian scientists wielded sophisticated mathematics to dissect and analyse the traditional meditation chanting sound “OM”. The OM team published a series of monographs in academic journals. These plumb certain acoustic subtleties of Om, which these researchers say is “the divine sound”. For a little about that, see our small report, in 2010, on the repetitive physics of OM. Now, […]
Ignivomous, Ignivomous
This month’s Word of the Day is: Ignivomous Webster’s 1913 Dictionary: Ignivomous Ig`niv´o`mous Vomiting fire. Click here for a Vesuvian example from 1823.