Does English have a future? Find out the history of the language’s tense system, and how it was influenced by Latin, philosophy, and an Anglo-Saxon king, as we explore some of the many aspects of our conception of the Future and the debate between free will, determinism, and relativity!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8EHxQshEI[/embedyt]
The etymology of Ghost and other spooky words leads to ghost stories, Shakespeare, curmudgeonly linguists, dictionary mistakes, and grammar rules that won’t die.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td5FtoKWWTI[/embedyt]
A new series of videos about the etymology of the word “Average” and the history of insurance, probability math, and astronomy.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PLlDwZNRMgsJIyxPeTHncKNVhBZZa38gLV[/embedyt]
From ancient Greece to the origins of the university, we trace the history of education through the etymology of educational vocabulary.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0YVsr8QhU[/embedyt]
The etymology of ‘grass widow’ takes us from the game of golf to the Sepoy Mutiny, the British Raj, the Partition of India, and Lord Mountbatten.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX1bFAs7MdM[/embedyt]
Minions, a call to arms!
Rainman the Urbane Man (a Minion of Doom since 1981, free lance doom-bringer for years before that), asked today for the origins of the phrase “Blanky McBlankerson.”
A bit of cursory research took me to this late-2006 posting regarding the term, but it seems to take for granted that English-speakers will know the phrase. Yet earlier that year, another post doesn’t quite get the phrase right, and if there’s an earlier version, I couldn’t find it.
All this suggests to me that Blanky McBlankerson grew out of the broad category of Something McSomethingSon in 2006, and was popularized shortly thereafter.
So, Minions, can anyone out there confirm an earlier use of Blanky McBlankerson from before 2006? Can anyone point to somewhere it was popularized, like a TV show or song from around that time? If so, tweet/comment/email to us!
The history and etymology of the potato–and the battery–and the potato battery!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdPQ8zFUipw[/embedyt]
