Derivations of black and guard are great, but do we know why a black guard came to mean a blackguard?

What’s the rule on apostrophes with things like Presidents’ Day, Mother’s Day, etc.?

(Auto correct added these apostrophes above, but I suspect they don’t have them.)

I would like to point out a couple errors in your discussion of the word "Easter". First, Santa Claus has a very legitimate Christian origin (Saint Nicholas, in fact), although his more modern manifestation has been altered considerably over the years by Thomas Nast, Coca Cola, and other r...

Distinct from the homophone humeral, still an active word in Catholic liturgy and in medicine.

Suspect is also one of those English words which changes from a verb to a noun by the shift in accent. We can see this shift taking place in old movies. In the movie The Thin Man , Nick and Nora discuss whether someone is a sus pect . In the 1930's, the word was only just becoming a noun, and so the...

I can't help feeling that "grody" was influenced by "gross" which has the same meaning in slang, disgusting or revolting.

Is the PIE bher-/bhor- (to carry) related to the PIE per-/por- (to lead)?

On several other words at this site (see periphery), I've asked about any connection between ferre "to bear, carry" and ferrum, meaning iron.

No one seems to know enough to answer, but I remain curious.

Related to concuss and concussion no doubt?

Cache is older than a computer term. It's a hiding place. Colorado has a river and various streets, etc., named Cache de Poudre, which is hard for visitors to pronounce. It comes from "stow or hide your (gun) powder", based on some particular episode in the early 1800s involving French tra...

I presume Alleluia is simply an alternate of Hallelujah. Any idea of who uses which form more often and why?

I use liminal to refer to things on the border, or in transition. Liminal must be related to the same root word as limbic's. Maybe I'll try using limbic, but that might sound a bit more pretentious than even liminal, which I only use in rather "elevated" conversations.

Thanks for your kind reply. Fare and ferry— that’s a very interesting and I must say surprising jump, one that had not occurred to me at all. The name of Ferris I had heard. That story is interesting to me as well. I had previously presumed that Ferris wheels started as small diversions for children...

This word is related to Latin ferre "to carry", much like periphery (see that discussion, including an unanswered question about the PIE root behind ferry). As with my question on periphery, I still remain curious about ferre's relationship with Latin ferrum "iron". I wish I had ...

Glad to see that the discussion continues on this thread, following the idea of smith and iron and related names in multiple languages. I learned quite a bit.

But I wonder if anyone knows yet of a connection between “periphery" (<Lat. ferre, carry) and “ferrous" (<Lat ferrum, iron)?

How is this related to impediment?