premises (meaning a specific area of real estate, as in "the premises is the headquarters of a tech company") I would use a plural verb here. "The premises are the headquarters..." "These [not 'this'] premises are the headquarters..." However, both "this headquart...

So, a 'curve' word is one that isn't what it seems to be. Contumely "arrogant rudeness" is one of my favorites, a noun that seems to be an adverb. Congeries seems to be a plural noun but it isn't; it is singular though it may be used unchanged in the plural. 'Congeries' is similar in form...

Word History: Lachrymatory comes to us from Middle French or Medieval Latin lacrymal from Medieval Latin lacrimalis, the adjective from Latin lacrima "tear". Etymonline refers to "the Medieval Latin practice of writing -ch- for -c- before Latin r- ", and states that "the -y...

street https://www.etymonline.com/word/Street A rare example of a word derived from Latin through Old English. From Latin (via) strata , "paved road". Ultimately from PIE root stere- , "to spread", from which many English words are derived. Street is related to stretch and, more...

Slava wrote:Does "see how it flies in Peoria" work?

Yes, that seems to be a similar idea.

A rather different kind of character is Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.

Etymonline states that the earliest use of "head" as a verb meant "behead". So it seems that the "be-" prefix does not change the meaning; the privative sense belongs to "head" itself.

A recent visit to the London suburb of Clapham reminded me of this quaint British phrase. Originally a legal expression originating in the 19th century, it means 'an ordinary, reasonable person'. It is now mostly used humorously as a mock archaism. It is probably the only context in which 'omnibus' ...

It apparently comes from the Greek plio- meaning 'more' or 'greater'. (Compare 'Pliocene' in geology.)

http://dictionary.com/browse/plyometrics

http://dictionary.com/browse/plio-

Halo From Greek/Latin halos , signifying roundness: originally "threshing floor with a circular path", then "disk of the sun or moon", then "ring of light around the sun or moon", and finally (in English) "ring of light around the head". There does not seem t...

Quincunx is also used in astrology to mean an aspect of 150 degrees (five-twelfths of a circle) between two planets.

LukeJavan8 wrote:I enjoy how we add that 'k' to a number of these words.

Yes - magic/magicking, mimic/mimicking, panic/panicking, bivouac/bivouacking etc. But usually arc/arcing (arcking is a less common alternative).

Here are some examples of false cognates in English (words that have some degree of similarity in both form and meaning, but are etymologically unrelated):

isle/island
prodigal/prodigious
Passover/Paschal (discussed here).

Can anyone think of other examples?

The etymology of the name 'Pakistan' is explained here.

It literally means 'Land of the Pure' in Urdu and Persian, but it can also be thought of as an acronym of the constituent regions.

The origin of the phrase 'all of a sudden' is mentioned here . It dates back to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew . 'Sudden' could formerly be used as a noun, hence the archaic alternative on a sudden . 'Of' in 'all of a sudden' seems similar to the temporal 'of' seen in the phrases of late and ...

'Common or garden' is a mainly British idiom meaning 'ordinary'. It need not have anything to do with gardens (e.g. "a common or garden computer"). It is always used before a noun, and may be hyphenated (common-or-garden). Its general use dates back to the 1880s. I am interested to know ho...