<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Isegoria &#187; Linguistics</title>
	<atom:link href="https://www.isegoria.net/category/linguistics/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>https://www.isegoria.net</link>
	<description>From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:01:01 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Bad Etymology</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2026/02/bad-etymology/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2026/02/bad-etymology/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:48:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=53949</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fr. John Naugle shared his favorite etymological fact on X, the origin of bad: Middle English: perhaps from Old English bæddel ‘hermaphrodite, womanish man’. Or, as Cowboy Online put it: The Saxons called stuff they didn’t like “gay” until the word for “gay” became synonymous with “bad”.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2026/02/bad-etymology/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Urchin makes sense now</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2026/02/urchin-makes-sense-now/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2026/02/urchin-makes-sense-now/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:40:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=53908</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The term sea urchin suggests the existence of a non-sea urchin, but the only use of just plain urchin that most of us have ever heard is in reference to, say, the Artful Dodger — but that was a cute repurposing of an older term: 1 old-fashioned: a mischievous and often poor and raggedly clothed [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2026/02/urchin-makes-sense-now/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Stymie</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/08/stymie/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/08/stymie/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 10 Aug 2025 20:43:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=53336</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you look up the word stymie, Google will tell you that it means prevent or hinder the progress of — no surprise there — and it will show you a small graph of its use over time: So, it’s a relatively new word that peaked in popularity in the early 1950s before growing again. [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/08/stymie/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Okay</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/05/okay/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/05/okay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2025 13:48:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=53046</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was watching American Primeval (on Netflix), when the boy said “okay,” and I thought, that sounds anachronistic. Then I thought, wait, “okay” was a fad from the 1800s that stuck; let’s look into this. The show is set in 1857, around the Utah Territory. The boy has traveled west from Philadelphia. The origin of [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/05/okay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Whether that’s good or bad, progressive or reactionary isn’t the point; it just is necessary</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/02/whether-thats-good-or-bad-progressive-or-reactionary-isnt-the-point-it-just-is-necessary/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/02/whether-thats-good-or-bad-progressive-or-reactionary-isnt-the-point-it-just-is-necessary/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:29:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=52647</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Freddie DeBoer notes that liberals cannot admit that past examples of successful immigration have involved migrants conforming to their new culture: Last fall there was something of a local controversy in my town regarding drive-thru workers with limited English skills. Apparently, a number of my neighbors had taken to Facebook and NextDoor to complain that [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2025/02/whether-thats-good-or-bad-progressive-or-reactionary-isnt-the-point-it-just-is-necessary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The savants had missed nothing</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2024/08/the-savants-had-missed-nothing/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2024/08/the-savants-had-missed-nothing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 18 Aug 2024 14:29:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=51379</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The first volume of Vivant Denon’s vast and magisterial Description de l’Égypte was published in 1809, Andrew Roberts explains (in Napoleon: A Life), its title page proclaiming that it was ‘published by the order of His Majesty Emperor Napoleon the Great’: For the rest of Napoleon’s life, and indeed after it, further volumes of this [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2024/08/the-savants-had-missed-nothing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>We can read the scrolls</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2024/02/we-can-read-the-scrolls/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2024/02/we-can-read-the-scrolls/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2024 19:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=51384</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On March 15th, 2023, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Brent Seales launched the Vesuvius Challenge, and now they are announcing the Grand Prize winners: Two thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption buried an ancient library of papyrus scrolls now known as the Herculaneum Papyri. In the 18th century the scrolls were discovered. More than 800 [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2024/02/we-can-read-the-scrolls/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The pot is correct when it calls the kettle black</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/12/the-pot-is-correct-when-it-calls-the-kettle-black/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/12/the-pot-is-correct-when-it-calls-the-kettle-black/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Dec 2023 23:03:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=50733</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Matt Bateman recently quipped that “the pot is correct when it calls the kettle black,” and someone replied that it’s not: The saying originates from a time when kettles were polished metal, and pots were cast iron. The pot, seeing its own reflection in the shiny tin kettle, calls the kettle black. Naturally, I had [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/12/the-pot-is-correct-when-it-calls-the-kettle-black/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Many English words connected with weaving come from India</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/03/many-english-words-connected-with-weaving-come-from-india/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/03/many-english-words-connected-with-weaving-come-from-india/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Mar 2023 12:31:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=49748</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After a number of bruising encounters with the Dutch, William Dalrymple’s explains (in The Anarchy), the East India Company left the lucrative Spice Islands and their aromatic spice trade to focus on less competitive but potentially more promising sectors of the trade of Asia: fine cotton textiles, indigo and chintzes. The source of all three [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/03/many-english-words-connected-with-weaving-come-from-india/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>He was apparently misled by &#8220;inter-&#8221;</title>
		<link>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/03/he-was-apparently-misled-by-inter/</link>
		<comments>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/03/he-was-apparently-misled-by-inter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:57:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Isegoria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Linguistics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.isegoria.net/?p=49742</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The word internecine means “of, relating to, or involving conflict within a group” — now: Internecine comes from the Latin internecinus (&#8220;fought to the death&#8221; or &#8220;destructive&#8221;), which traces to the verb &#8220;necare&#8221; (&#8220;to kill&#8221;) and the prefix inter-. (&#8220;Inter-&#8221; usually means &#8220;between&#8221; or &#8220;mutual&#8221; in Latin, but it can also indicate the completion of [&#8230;]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>https://www.isegoria.net/2023/03/he-was-apparently-misled-by-inter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
