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It fascinated me that Europeans could at once be so alike – that they could be so universally bookish and cerebral, and drive small cars, and live in little houses in ancient towns, and love soccer, and be relatively unmaterialistic and
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“To a British crossword enthusiast, the clue “An important city in Czechoslovakia” instantly suggests Oslo. Why? Look at Czech(OSLO)vakia again. “A seed you put in the garage” is caraway, while “HIJKLMNO” is water because it is H-to-O or H2O”
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
“Even Christ reputedly made a pun when He said: “Thou art Peter: upon this rock I shall build my Church.” It doesn’t make a lot of sense from the wordplay point of view until you realize that in ancient Greek the word for Peter and for rock was the same.”
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
“In 1649 the laws were tightened even further—to the extent that swearing at a parent became punishable by death.”
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
“Before the shift house was pronounced “hoose” (it still is in Scotland), mode was pronounced “mood,” and home rhymed with “gloom,” which is why Domesday Book is pronounced and sometimes called Doomsday. (The word has nothing to do with the modern word doom, incidentally. It is related to the domes- in domestic.)”
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
“Consider the oft-quoted statement “the exception proves the rule.” Most people take this to mean that the exception confirms the rule, though when you ask them to explain the logic in that statement, they usually cannot. After all, how can an exception prove a rule? It can’t. The answer is that an earlier meaning of prove was to test (a meaning preserved in proving ground) and with that meaning the statement suddenly becomes sensible—the exception tests the rule.”
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
― The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way
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Marko’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Marko’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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