The Surprisingly Old Roots of Jet Lag

Hello,

I’m compiling this one in advance because I’ll be recovering from jet lag when it goes out to blog subscribers (after to a trip to visit my youngest, studying overseas this semester). I expected it to be a modern word but as so often happens, its roots are considerably older.

First of all, did you know it was originally a syndrome? In the early days of flight, jet lag (also correct as jetlag) was called time zone syndrome. But jet lag won the battle for being the term used for that unsettling body experience of having moved the wrong way around our globe. The term dates to 1966, long before I ever took a flight and when, in my imagination at least, flight was considerably more stylish and relaxed than it is today.

Jet dates to the late 1600s in English when it related to a jet of water and came from the French verb jeter (to throw) – one I remember from its use in ballet class. This led to jet propulsion (originally relating to water) and the jet engine for flight in the 1940s. The jet age was named from 1952.

The lag part of the phrase has a fascinating back story. In the 1800s and early 1900s it acquired various mechanical definitions where lag was a retardation of movement, a delay in driving reflexes, and in radio technology, but the word itself came from an earlier verb.

To lag, a verb in English since the early 1500s, means to move slowly and not keep up with the others. It could be even earlier though as there was the idea in the 1300s of a lag-man, the last man. The origins of the verb may lie in Scandinavia as Norwegian has lagga (go slowly) but it’s uncertain. I loved discovering that a lag-tooth, the last one to arrive in our jaws, is a 1610s term for a wisdom tooth. Wisdom takes time, I guess.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. The next issue is due on the 16th of October 2026. Alternatively, check out my books about word histories.

The Rainy and Windy History of the word Monsoon

Hello,

I’m working away on preparing “Words the Weather Gave Us” for release (the pre-order for the kindle edition is live here) so I thought I’d share a rainy word this week with you all. It’s a windy one too, so hold onto your umbrellas, parasols, and bumbershoots.

Monsoon – extract from “Words the Weather Gave Us”

Copyright Grace Tierney and permission refused for LLM or AI training.

This word belongs in both the wind and rain chapters but it is best known as a rain event. The monsoon is a trade wind from the Indian Ocean and its name reached English in the 1580s from the Dutch word monssoen, The Dutch borrowed it from Portuguese monçao, who had it from Arabic mawsim (time of year or appropriate season for a voyage or pilgrimage) which came from wasama (marked).

The Arabic word was picked up by Portuguese sailors in the Indian Ocean. They used it for anything that comes around annually, such as festivals. Its meaning was extended to include the season when the monsoon blows from the southwest (typically April until October) and hence was favourable for their trading voyages to the East Indies.

In India the summer monsoon is much stronger than the winter wind and is referred to as The monsoon. It also brings heavy rain and that use, since the 1700s, is the most common outside India, to describe a rainy season.

People from monsoon regions sometimes pine for the rains of their home countries. Muhammed Sajjad moved from India to the UAE in 2015 and is now known as the UAE Weatherman because he uses satellite imagery and weather data to predict rainfall in the desert and bring rain-chasers out to enjoy it.

{end of extract}

I’m hoping only soft rain falls on you this week.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. Alternatively, check out my books about word histories.

p.p.s. this post contains affiliate links which make a small payment to the blog if you choose to purchase through them. #CommissionsEarned. Alternatively, you can use my digital tip jar to say thanks for the words.

The Evil Roots of Malevolent

Hello,

This week’s word is malevolent, not that I’m feeling particularly so this morning, just the average amount for a Monday morning (I agree with Garfield).

“Grumpy Tiki” – a wood carving by my DH whose cantankerous face adorns our garden

Malevolent is defined as wishing ill to others, being malicious, or ill will. It’s not the most pleasant of human traits and yet it’s one marked in many languages. Apparently Japanese has an expression which translates as “the misfortunes of others are sweet like honey” (ouch!), French has joie maligne, and the Germans gave us Schadenfreude. It appears that everybody likes to witness the downfall of others, at least sometimes.

Malevolent is the English version of this and we have the Romans to thank for it. It arrived in English around 1500 from malivolent in Old French and before that malevolentem in Latin where it meant ill-disposed, spiteful, and envious. The word was formed in Latin from male (badly) and volentem (from the verb to wish). Basically if you directed bad wishes, as opposed to good wishes, towards somebody you were being malevolent. The word hasn’t changed in the centuries since, and sadly humans still harbour this emotion, especially on Mondays, at least according to Garfield.

If you’d like to do something positive rather than malevolent today I’ll just remind you that “Words the Weather Gave Us”, my latest etymology book is coming on the 9th of November 2026 (all going to plan) but you can pre-order the Kindle ebook edition at this link here. As usual if you’re looking for a signed copy, get in touch with me via this page. Of course if you’re looking for an Advance Review Copy comment below and I’ll be in touch. If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add it to your “Want To Read” list. Thanks!

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. Alternatively, check out my books about word histories.

p.p.s. this post contains affiliate links which make a small payment to the blog if you choose to purchase through them. #CommissionsEarned. Alternatively, you can use my digital tip jar to say thanks for the words.

Weather Book Cover and the History of Being Drenched

Hello,

I’m pleased to announce that “Words the Weather Gave Us”, the fourth book in my Words series, is now available for pre-order (the ebook edition) and hence the cover is out too. Hope you like it? We went with a bright sunny look, but of course the book covers all types of weather.

Words the Weather Gave Us

It explores delightful words like petrichor, degombling, apricity, bumbershoot, dreich, and impluvious alongside words borrowed by English from all around the world. More than 330 words and phrases are featured – drawn from clouds, weather folklore and phrases, storms, winds, the history of forecasting, rain, sunny days, tales of the many times weather changed the course of history, and even extraterrestrial weather. I can’t wait to share it with you.

All three editions will be available from the 9th of November 2026 (all going to plan) but you can pre-order the Kindle ebook edition at this link here. As usual if you’re looking for a signed copy, get in touch with me via this page. Of course if you’re looking for an Advance Review Copy just comment below and I’ll be in touch.

The best way to explain the book is to share a few extracts so this week’s word is a weather one – drench.

Extract from “Words the Weather Gave Us” by Grace Tierney (copyright 2026)

Drench

This one I use often. If caught in a rain-shower unprepared and soaked through, I will announce “I’m drenched”. However an early user of English would then assume I had stopped by the pub on my walk.

Drench was drencan in Old English and it meant to ply with drink, to make drunk, to submerge, or to drown. The last meanings on that list work with the idea of rain clouds but the word’s roots lie in the verb drincan (to drink).

Drench has cousins in Old Norse, Swedish, Dutch, and German so all the northern Europeans were knocking back the ale and mead at that time. A friend might drench you the night before your wedding, for example.

It was the 1500s before drenching gained the idea of making somebody wet by throwing liquid over them but even in the word’s earlier days there was the idea of a drenc-flód which was a storm or a deluge.

The concept of drenching being forcing somebody to drink does linger however, in the idea of drenching farm animals with medicine.

{end of extract}

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. Alternatively, check out my books about word histories.

p.p.s. this post contains affiliate links which make a small payment to the blog if you choose to purchase through them. #CommissionsEarned. Alternatively, you can use my digital tip jar to say thanks for the words.

The Greek Word History of Ultracrepidarian

Hello,

Regular readers of the Wordfoolery blog (and books) will know I love a good Greek etymology and that Greek gods and goddesses have a habit of sneaking into the back stories of various words. This week’s word, ultracrepidarian, a handily cryptic insult, which has Greek links but this time it’s not a deity who lies behind the story.

Do you know somebody who likes to waffle on about a subject that they know nothing about? Most of us do. Well the next time they’re bothering you, try muttering ultracrepidarian. Don’t explain, just feel smug and remember this story. If they bustle off to look it up they may not even find it, unless they have a large dictionary as it’s not commonly used these days, but if they’re a true ultracrepidarian they’re more likely to assume you’re admiring them, or that they already know the meaning.

Ultracrepidarian entered English in 1819, more on that in a moment. Let’s explore its Greek roots first, with thanks to “Natural History” by Pliny the Elder who tells us about the first use. There was once a skilled artist called Apelles. He displayed his finished painting in public and lingered nearby to overhear the reactions. Like most creatives he was hoping for encouragement for his skill, but like most eavesdroppers he heard nothing good about himself.

A shoe-maker viewed the painting and criticised it on technical grounds, pointing out that the shoe (crepida) had the wrong number of straps. This was a fair comment and Apelles had the humility to correct the mistake overnight and then re-display the artwork.

The next day, however, the cobbler walked past again, and emboldened by having taught the mystery artist a lesson, decided to expand on his critique. He observed that the painting of the leg wasn’t good enough either. At this point Apelles stepped out of the crowd and said “Ne sutor ultra crepidam” which translates as “Let the shoemaker not go beyond the sandal”. This advice to stick to his own area of expertise is one which is still needed at times, even today.

The expression became proverbial and via Latin was adopted into English as a noun, ultracrepidarian, in 1819 by the English essayist William Hazlitt. I studied some of his essays in school and I wish my teacher had told me this story back then. Hazlitt used it in an open letter to William Gifford, the editor of “The Quarterly Review” to criticise what he perceived to be over-reach.

The next time you are forced to listen to somebody talking confidently about a topic they really don’t know, hit them with ultracrepidarian. It might not stop them, but it should confuse them.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. There’s a new issue out this Friday (18th of September 2026). Alternatively – try my books – all the ways to get them are listed here.

The Noisy Word History of Cliché

Hello,

Last month I began writing “Words Stories Gave Us”, my book about the etymology of words from the worlds of stories, printing, newspapers, theatre, folktales, and books. I love this stage of a book when it’s all about searching out the stories, whittling out the boring ones, forming chapters. It will be a couple of years (aiming for 2028) before this one is on the shelves, but in the meantime I’ll share a word or two here as I work on them. Here’s the short story of the word cliché.

Typesetter’s Case

{Extract from “Words Stories Gave Us” by Grace Tierney, copyright 2026}

Cliché (this can also be spelled cliche)

The last thing any writer wants to hear is that their work contains clichés. We want to (as the joke goes) avoid them like the plague. The problem is that some expressions or ideas are popular because they are meaningful, widely understood, and hence tempting to use, but they lack originality and impact.

It’s the idea of common use that gives us the word itself. That, and the world of printing presses. Although it didn’t become a popular English word until the 1920s, it joined English in the 1800s from cliché in French. French printers used this term for a block of print which was used so often that you might as well keep it prepared and ready to go.

It’s believed that the word comes directly from the sound that print-block made as it clicked into place, because the French verb clicher means to click.

{End of Extract}

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. Alternatively, check out my books about word histories.

The Convoluted Word History of the Avocado

Hello,

Which word can link alligators, lawyers, 1970s bathroom suites, and male anatomy? Answer – the avocado.

The avocado is a popular ingredient in my salads. It’s an edible fruit from trees found in the American tropics and the word itself joined English in the late 1700s but the history of the word took a few strange turns along the way.

Let’s begin in Mexico with the Nahuatl language. It was the language most commonly used in the Aztec Empire and it has provided English with a few words (via Spanish) – chilli, tomato, and cocoa for example.

In Nahuatl, the avocado fruit was called a āhuacatl (testicle) thanks to a similarity of shape. Although you might want to cross it with a kiwi to be more accurate. When the Spanish arrived they loved the fruit but couldn’t pronounce the local name. To them it became aguacate and then avocado. The word avocado was already in Spanish however, it meant lawyer (thanks to advocate in Latin).

When the fruit, and the word, arrived in England it had changed again, to an avigato pear. The addition of pear makes sense again due to the shape and also to indicate that it was a fruit with a stone inside.

Its story didn’t end there. Somehow the word was mangled to be an alligator pear (perhaps because of the gnarled skin?) and that term is still used in California apparently (can any American readers confirm this for me?). Thankfully with time avocado was the term English settled with and the pear part is optional. by the 1940s avocado’s distinctive green flesh was being used as a colour name and from there it was a short hop to somebody thinking it would be fabulous in bathroom interior design.

As for the bathroom suites, if you know somebody who was around in the 1970s, ask them about avocado bathroom fittings. They truly were a sight to behold, perhaps from a distance, with sunglasses, or a blindfold.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. Alternatively, check out my books about word histories.

Escalator – A Tale of a Brand Name Becoming Generic

Hello,

This week’s word is escalator and it’s with thanks to “The Story of English in 100 Words” by David Crystal. You’re probably already aware of the issues around product names edging their way into the dictionary and how that can lead to court-cases as companies strive to retain their uniqueness.

The example I always think of here in Ireland is hoover. We use it as a verb, but of course it was originally a product name for the Hoover company. Technically we’re vacuuming the carpet, but because Hoover dominated the market here for so long nearly everybody says hoovering.

Other examples Crystal lists are aspirin, butterscotch, heroin, thermos, yo-yo, zipper, lego, kleenex, portakabin, and rollerblade. For some of those products I’m struggling to think of a non-brand name for them. Seriously – what else would you call a yo-yo? Butterscotch dates to 1817 apparently. As for heroin it was created by C. R. Alder Wright in 1874 from morphine and marketed by Bayer in 1898 under that name because it made users feel heroic. We know how that turned out.

I had no idea that escalator was a brand name originally. Various moving staircases were designed in the 1800s but the Otis Elevator Company purchased the rights to the name escalator. It was formed by inserted scala (Latin for ladder) into the word elevator and its first use was around 1900. As for elevator, that’s an older word, joining English in the 1600s for particular muscles that raise parts of the body thanks to elevare – the Latin verb for raising up and the source of elevate too. By the late 1700s an elevator was a mechanical lift for grain and from there it was a short hop to lifts in buildings for human use.

Escalator took off and acquired figurative usage swiftly. Escalator clauses entered contracts about planned price increases. Ambitious politicians were said to be on a political escalator. By the 1920s you could escalate something and escalation followed soon after. Otis tried to retain their original meaning but a court case in the 1950s ruled escalator had become generic and they lost control of the word.

I wondered about the source of Otis too. It’s from the founder of the company back in 1853, the American inventor Elisha Otis, who invented the elevator safety brake – the important gadget that makes lifts safe.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder.

The Obscure Word History of Eclipse

Hello,

In the wake of last week’s partial solar eclipse here in Ireland I’m taking a look at the history of the word itself. Thankfully for this particular “look” I don’t need to source a pair of eclipse glasses, as a I reckon they’re sold out everywhere. We were unable to find a pair ourselves and had to resort to using a colander (surprisingly effective). The dappled shade under our apple tree created a wonderful pattern too, pictured below.

Partial solar eclipse, August 2026, seen through dappled shade

First, what is an eclipse? It’s the obscuring of the light of the sun, moon, or other heavenly body by the intervention of another. The one we experienced last week was when the moon passed in front of the sun. Although the moon is far smaller (400 times I believe) than the sun, it can obscure the sun from our earth-bound perspective because it is so much closer to our position in the universe. The eclipse was partial here, because of Ireland’s location on the planet. Whereas my friend Noelle, went to Spain and was able to see the totality of the eclipse there.

Now, what about the word eclipse? Where does it come from?

Eclipse was borrowed directly into English around the year 1300 from Old French. Old French had taken it from eclipsis in Latin, and before that it was ekleipsis in Greek. The meaning in Greek was slightly different, however. It was an eclipse but also an abandonment, a literal forsaking. It came from ekleipen which meant eclipse but also meant to fail to appear or to forsake a place. It was formed from ek (out) and leipein (to leave). That same verb leipein is behind the ellipsis (…) in punctuation because the omitted words it indicates leave the sentence, but that’s a word for another day.

Those roots tell me that when an eclipse happened in Greece, the people felt that the light of the sun, so bright there most of the time, had gone away and left them, abandoned them.

It’s easier in more modern times to understand that the sunlight will come back, but imagine an age when this was less well understood, the birds go quiet, the cold builds, and total darkness covers your world. Yes, you would feel abandoned.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder.

The Crafty Word History of Bodger

Hello,

Regular readers of Wordfoolery will know that I never met a craft I didn’t like (except for felting…definitely not for me) so when I came across the word bodger recently I couldn’t resist trying to find its history.

The reference was in Amy Licence’s “Woodsmoke and Sage” an excellent reference book about how Tudors experienced the world through the five senses, which I was reading to gather ideas for a Tudor-era fiction I’m revising. She was discussing the vibrant second-hand clothes trade in Tudor London at Birchin Lane, St Bartholomew’s, and Houndsditch. She mentioned the snobbery about such purchases adding that “tailors who specialised in reworking second-hand clothing were known as bodgers and the women who made a living selling such items on were derided.”

Some of my fabric stash – much of it recycled

Nowadays upcycling and recycling clothes has a slightly better reputation (although my in-laws still look a little shocked when faced with the thrifted, re-created items chosen by my daughter and myself). It’s wonderful to realise this has been a practice since the 1600s, but more importantly, what a great word!

The Oxdord English Dictionary believed bodge was a variant of the verb to botch. Botch comes from the late 1300s verb bocchen (to repair) and in the 1500s to repair badly. By the 1600s you could call something a botch, meaning it was ill-made.

They add that to bodge was to repair clumsily and that a bodger in the 1550s was one who mended old garments.

Less formal sources directed me to a different craft – green wood furniture making. This is where the craftsman uses fresh unseasoned word to create pieces, often chairs, and the results are stunning in my opinion. Some chair makers have taken the term bodger to mean chair maker, possibly because that craft involves a certain amount of working with quirks of the wood and adapting designs on the fly, which takes great skill, I might add. No implication of bad work from me on this one.

Apparently bodger is also a surname in the UK where it is common to have family surnames given for the work their ancestor did – Butcher, Baker, Smith, and Fletcher are all surnames, for example. Well apparently there were 300 people called Bodger in 1999. I can’t help wondering if any of them enjoy mending and adapting clothes?

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder. There’s a new issue out this Friday (14th of August 2026). Alternatively – try my books – all the ways to get them are listed here.