Because a prude is prudent when it comes to sexual matters, you might take it for granted that “prude” and “prudent” have the same origins. But making that assumption “wouldn’t be prudent,” as the ...

When you live inside the English language, you begin to see associations that are invisible to others, the way that the little kid in the movie “The Sixth Sense” sees dead people. Making connections ...

Every word we use carries with it layers of history and culture that shape its meaning and usage today. Often, the words flowing effortlessly from our mouths have origins that are both fascinating and ...

The news: We may live in an increasingly globalized world, but we often forget that the intermingling of cultures and languages far precedes the advent of laptops and smartphones. Just take a look at ...

CHENNAI: Even Tamil teachers in the state might be taken aback if we told them that the origins of the English word ‘free’ could be traced to Tamil. While etymology links it to the Sanskrit root ‘pri’ ...