Category Archive

Etymology

Impermanent

Posted on 2026-01-04 by Melissa

I recently learned that in the Irish language, they don’t say “I am sad” but rather “Tá brón orm” which translates as “Sadness is on me”, implying that the feeling rests on you not within you as your entire being.

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Ptenderloin

Posted on 2025-09-28 by Melissa

As I was checking out at the supermarket the other day, I noticed that the pork tenderloin I’d selected rang in as: “ptenderloin”. Is that a silent “p” I wondered, as in the word pterodactyl?

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Made From Scratch

Posted on 2025-09-14 by Melissa

The sign advertised pastries made “from scratch” and I wondered for the first time about the origin of this phrase. Surely it must sound odd to an ESL student, not unlike saying made “from itch”? Did it have something to do with the scraping of a bowl by hand?

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