Mysteries of vernacular: Keister, a person's buttocks. Though the modern meaning of keister refers somewhat indecorously to a person's behind, the word's history does not begin...
Mysteries of vernacular: X-ray, a form of electromagnetic radiation capable of penetrating solids. The word X-ray harkens back to the work of Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, mathematician, and...
Mysteries of vernacular: Zero, a number that indicates an absence of units. In order to understand the genesis of the word zero, we must begin with the very origins of counting. The earliest known...
Mysteries of vernacular: Sarcophagus, a stone coffin typically adorned with decorative carvings or inscriptions. The history of the word sarcophagus is so skin-crawlingly grotesque, it seems to come...
Mysteries of vernacular: Fizzle, to end weakly or to fail, to die out. The definition of fizzle likely links back to the Old English word fist, which meant stink. In the mid-fifteenth century, fist...
Mysteries of vernacular: Jade, a hard, typically green stone. Until relatively recently, gemstones were believed to have magical, medicinal properties, and nothing was more effective at treating a...
Mysteries of vernacular: Quarantine, a state, period, or place of strict isolation meant to prevent the spread of disease. In the 14th century, the Bubonic Plague, later called "The Black...
Mysteries of vernacular: Gorgeous, beautiful or very attractive. The source of the word gorgeous can be found in the Latin word, gurges, used by the Romans to describe a whirling, swirling whirlpool....
Mysteries of vernacular: Window, an opening constructed in a wall to emit light or air. When the Scandinavian settlers invaded England in the Middle Ages, they brought with them a whole slew of words...
Mysteries of vernacular: Dynamite, an explosive consisting of nitroglycerin, typically molded into sticks. Dynamite, which coincidentally is closely related to the word dynasty, has as much to do with...