John Kelly 🕳️🐇

I get to the bottom of words on the top of our minds. Etymology at the intersection of news, life, and everyday language.

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

America is an adverb. It can also be a preposition. https://t.co/TNbqv5qc4I

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

Etymologically, the word "onion" is the word "union," which is also a ... "pearl"? In my latest post, I chop up the origins of "onion": https://t.co/Rg5uDRA1Ru

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

"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"
https://t.co/6kaRDPbLGW

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

It's decorative gourd etymology season ... radish mashers: https://t.co/ZI8fgouaYa

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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: https://t.co/1A2emkEYop #etymology

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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"? https://t.co/uLny6lzp4X #etymology #Moodeng

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

Current marketing strategies. Perfectly summed up, lol. (Vendor being set up for Cincinnati's Oktoberfest).

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

Fed announces big interest rate cut. Ever wonder why it's called "interest"? Oh, I got you covered—etymologically. https://t.co/lNFzx25fDM

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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: https://t.co/lNFzx25fDM

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

@dandy680317 🤯

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

What starts with geoengineering jargon ends with Ancient Greek musical instruments. My latest:
https://t.co/ac1vOuMXw5

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

James Earl Jones. His very name evokes "voice." A remembrance in #etymology. https://t.co/f7F4ak7TSy

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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: https://t.co/Lom3HNwJgN

#etymology

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

The origin of the word #Paralympics reveals important lexical—and historical—insights into this sensational sporting event. My latest: https://t.co/R8MEIHLcUD

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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. https://t.co/BBX1zakgdT

[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. https://t.co/BBX1zakgdT

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

@baoyuan YESSS. Cincinnati, of course, can lay claim to some notorious mentions in The Apartment as well as an apocryphal Mark Twain quote.

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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.

[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.

[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"

[John Kelly 🕳️🐇 @mashedradish]

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.