Because a prude is prudent when it comes to sexual matters, you might take it for granted that “prude” and “prudent” have the same origins. But making that assumption “wouldn’t be prudent,” as the ...

“Every word was coined by a resourceful individual or borrowed as a result of language contact in a certain place at a certain time,” writes Anatoly Liberman in his new book, “Word Origins and How We ...

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The study of word origins (that is, etymology) is every bit the serious academic discipline you might expect it to be — except when it's not. As it turns out, people have a propensity to make false ...