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Podictionary Podcast
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podictionary is the audio word-a-day
for a couple of minutes Charles Hodgson
discusses the unexpected history
of words you thought you already knew
About Podcasting:
For those of you new to podcasting, Click Here to read our "Introduction to Podcasting" Article.
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Podcast Website:
http://www.podictionary.com
mosquito - podictionary 817
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Wed, Jul 23, 2008
In Latin musca meant fly so mosquito literally means "little fly."
 Download File - 1.9 MB
 Listen To This Podcast (Streaming Audio)
honey - podictionary 816
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Tue, Jul 22, 2008
Etymologists think that perhaps the word root behind honey might originally not have meant this sweet sticky substance, but a yellow honey-like color instead.
Download File - 1.6 MB
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itinerary - podictionary 815
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Mon, Jul 21, 2008
The sense of travel embodied in itinerary shows up also in itinerant. An itinerant salesman is a traveling salesman.
Download File - 2.1 MB
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trampoline - podictionary 814
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Fri, Jul 18, 2008
In Italian trampoli meant "stilts" and although none of the dictionaries go this far, it seems to me logical that the up-in-the-air function of a trampoline might well have adopted the "high walking" name from stilts.
Download File - 1.9 MB
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canvass - podictionary 812
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Wed, Jul 16, 2008
The sense of punishing someone as relates to canvas does not come from the use of canvas as the flooring in a boxing ring since the sense of punishment is 500 years old while the first citation we have for canvas in boxing is from 1910.
Download File - 1.8 MB
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nefarious - podictionary 811
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Tue, Jul 15, 2008
at one stroke Cawdrey labels half the human population as unskillful. That's not why he was nefarious though.
Download File - 2.2 MB
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amen - podictionary 810
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Mon, Jul 14, 2008
At every stage along its path to us its owners knew it was something special and so kept it safe; that literally includes keeping it safe from Viking attack.
Download File - 2.4 MB
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enthusiasm - podictionary 809
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Fri, Jul 11, 2008
Scottish philosopher David Hume said that enthusiasts were "gloomy" and "hare-brained" and only got along with people who were as "delirious and dismal" as they were.
Download File - 2.2 MB
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pundit - podictionary 807
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Wed, Jul 09, 2008
This word exposes for me how opaque our western understanding of other cultures is. You have to be a true pundit to avoid getting into trouble.
Download File - 2.2 MB
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equator - podictionary 806
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Tue, Jul 08, 2008
In fact our term equator is actually a contraction of a whole Latin phrase "circulus aequator diei et noctis" or in modern English "the circle that makes day and night equal."
Download File - 2.0 MB
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Zimbabwe - podictionary 805
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Mon, Jul 07, 2008
I am particularly pleased to bring you the etymology of the word Zimbabwe today. Paul Quarrington gave me a thrill when I met him at a writer’s conference.
He had been on one of the panels and since I’m a fan of his I approached the dais after his presentation to see if I could get [...]
Download File - 2.1 MB
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family - podictionary 804
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Fri, Jul 04, 2008
when the word family finally did make its appearance in English both the words kin and house still held more of what we think of as the meaning of family than did family.
Download File - 1.7 MB
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aftermath - podictionary 802
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Wed, Jul 02, 2008
when aftermath put in its first appearance in writing in 1523 it was a good thing. We have no idea why this word was positive or neutral in its literal sense, but negative as a metaphor.
Download File - 1.5 MB
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beauty - podictionary 801
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Tue, Jul 01, 2008
Just like power tools and heavy equipment beauty is a good thing but one that must be approached with caution.
Download File - 2.2 MB
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persnickety - podictionary 800
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Mon, Jun 30, 2008
this is episode 800 of podictionary
Download File - 1.9 MB
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extravagant - podictionary 799
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Fri, Jun 27, 2008
Shakespeare used the word extravagant in Love's Labour's Lost applying to emotions that went beyond reasonable; and in Hamlet applying to the ghost that was roving out of bounds by coming back from the dead.
Download File - 2.1 MB
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word - podictionary 797
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Wed, Jun 25, 2008
the parts of human experience that are most common to us all are the ones for which the history of a word describing that little bit of our common heritage goes back furthest
Download File - 2.3 MB
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yahoo - podictionary 796
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Tue, Jun 24, 2008
The Oxford English Dictionary tells me that as an exclamation of joy or excitement, yahoo only dates from 1976; whereas as a rude, noisy or violent person the word goes back to 1726. The first yahoos back almost 300 years were the invention of Jonathan Swift in his Gulliver's Travels.
Download File - 2.0 MB
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runcible - podictionary 795
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Mon, Jun 23, 2008
Here’s an example of a word that started out with no meaning but that was so widespread or so delicious that people started giving it a meaning.
Download File - 2.3 MB
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crew - podictionary 794
Author: charles@poddictionary.net
Fri, Jun 20, 2008
When you climb aboard an airplane the intercom often squawks a welcome on behalf of the captain and crew.
The crew is of course the team of people who try to keep you happy during your time in the aerial-sardine-can while at the same time keeping it aerial.
The term crew for this group of people comes [...]
Download File - 1.9 MB
Listen To This Podcast (Streaming Audio)
- Published:
2002
- LearnOutLoud.com Product ID:
P015799
Languages
Vocabulary Building
Education & Professional
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