Some words related to MOON: - month - measure - meter - menstrual (menses = months in Latin) - meal (more below)

another fun fact is that the verb "magyaráz", derived from "magyar" means "to explain" so we're basically the land of mansplainers

a note though to the english world: we make far less of the family name "magyar" as the english do because it's quite a common name (35th overall according to wikipedia) in general, "nation" surnames are incredibly common, 3 of the top 10 names are "tóth", "horvát" and "németh"

If I'm not mistaken, isn't the name Péter Magyar like Péter Hungarian? MAGYAR (endonym) is the name HUNGARIANS (exonym) use for themselves and their language. MAGYAR, with Uralic roots, concerns MAN/PERSON. Via Latin, HUNGARY has ancient Turkic roots (concerning TRIBE) and influenced by HUN.

Our moon. Our muse. Our measurer—if we gaze at the etymology of the word MOON. mashedradish.com/2026/04/12/m...

Why eat noonmeat when you can have NUMMIT?!

Why eat lunch when you can have NOONMEAT?

Splashdown. 1961. "The alighting of a spacecraft on the sea." (OED) Poetry.

English, you can be an absolute lil stinker sometimes. METER, as in a PARKING METER, is _not_ from the same source as the METER of a poem or measuring stick. It's from METE, as in TO METE OUT PUNISHMENT, via the Old English METAN (measure).

Right, here it is, by @sesquiotic.bsky.social : stronglang.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/o...

When the moon in the sky Shoves basalt in your eye That’s a mare

And that’s MAR-ee-a, not mar-EE-a

🎵 Where the moon's dark and plain Like a rock slick with rain That's a mare

So… when the moon has a spot Wide and flat like a lot That’s a mare?

Pssht. I can't handle it! Right before going out of signal, the astronauts, probing the mysteries of the cosmos, urge us to contemplate the mysteries of love.

A MARE, pronounced like MAR-ey, is a large, level, basaltic plain on the surface of the moon. It appears dark to the naked eyes. This MARE comes from the Latin for SEA—because these plains were once thought to be seas, a notion going back to antiquity. The plural, true to the Latin, is MARIA.

Love that, as we behold the dark side of the moon for the first time and at the furthest distance we have ever gone from Earth, the astronauts are also havin' some lunch.

Why is Easter is called "Easter"? Etymologically, it's right there in the name. mashedradish.com/2026/04/05/e...

Yes, exactly this. It has the added, existential benefiting of blowing your mind that, as you go about your mundane affairs, 1) WE ARE IN SPACE and 2) you are able to freakin' watch it.

TAKE-OFF, recorded 1904. BLAST-OFF, recorded 1951. LIFT-OFF, recorded 1956. FUCKING INSPIRING, witnessed just moments ago.

ARTEMIS, after the Greek goddess of hunting, later associated with the moon. Origin of the name is obscure, though first found in Mycenaean Greek. Many theories proffered, including Greek for “bear” and Persian for “great, holy.”

Put the damn world on hold for a second and admire these perfect little etymologies: mashedradish.com/2026/03/28/d...

Germanic *ainaz absolutely lets it rip.

Though what's really mind-blowing, in my opinion, is that "any" is also cognate to "unique". The Old English "ænig" comes from the earlier Proto-Germanic *ainagaz, from the Proto-Indo-European *oynokós, from *h₁óynos 'one' + *-kos, an adjective-forming suffix.

The word "unique" comes from French, from the Latin "unicus", which also comes from the Proto-Indo-European *oynokós. They're both just "one-y" in different languages!

I just thought you should know: The word ANY is literally ONE-Y. It's from the Old English ÆNIG, equivalent to ONE + -Y.

FTA: @mashedradish.bsky.social writes about the death of Cleopatra—bitten by an asp or just a bit of ass? stronglang.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/a...

I went to high school with this guy. Same class. I turned out to be a teacher. He turned out to be a grifter. His little weekend jaunt alone is worth 22% of my annual salary, earned while trying to help low-income, underserved middle schoolers read, write, and grow. VOTE ACTON.

We need a governor focused on lowering costs for Ohioans, not on jetting off to Puerto Rico with campaign funds to hang out with TikTok stars. Ohioans are struggling — and Vivek couldn't care less. meidasnews.com/news/vivek-r...

This is the good stuff: The Persian word for "king" evolved into the English word "check"—through the ancient game of chess. Hell yeah, etymology. mashedradish.com/2026/03/15/c...

Slang field notes from the middle school where I teach: Genuine use of RAGE-BAIT as a transitive verb for "to provoke, annoy (someone)." - "He rage-baits people" - "He was rage-baiting people all last week" As two 7th graders said of a peer. (Accurately, I must say.)

Thanks, English. STRAIT and STRAIGHT are *not* etymologically related. STRAIT is from French for "tight, narrow," ultimately from a form of Latin STRINGERE (to bind, draw tight). Think STRICT, CONSTRICT. STRAIGHT is from a form of Old English STRECCAN (stretch). It's literally "stretched."

See, etymology isn’t just good for unsolicited trivia. It’s like a good friend—therapist, even—urging us to touch grass. To hug a tree! To hold a book!

One for World Book Day: I’ve always loved the materiality of the etymology of BOOK. The traditional origin for BOOK derives the word from the same Germanic base as BEECH. For the connection, scholars look to writing tablets made from the tree, which historically once dominated European forests.

Most great English sentences draw on both Germanic and Romance/Latin layers of the language. If you start pulling at the Latin threads, the whole thing comes apart. Here's the full story of what the purists were fighting about, and why it echoes today: www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/em-dash-ai...

The name IRAN is rooted in a "linguistic concept," German scholar of Iranian languages Rüdiger Schmitt explained. Peoples from ancient Iran and northern India identified themselves by common language. And English, inter Indo-European alia, is a relative. mashedradish.com/2026/03/01/i...

Do you recognize 𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭 or 𐎠𐎼𐎡𐎹? They are ancestors to the name IRAN. I think it's incredible that we know this, and, amidst our present turmoil, I find instruction—maybe even some small consolation—in the reaches of history.

The name IRAN, rooted in an ancient self-designation, has survived the rise and fall of empires past and present. mashedradish.com/2026/03/01/i...

NIN. Mind-blowing live show. On top of insane energy and cinematic production, choice cover of Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans” and encore (“Hurt,” obvs) decaying into Badalamenti’s “Twin Peaks Theme.”

The toponym treatment continues on the blog, this time digging into the place name histories of MILAN, CORTINA, LOMBARDY, ALPS, and DOLOMITES. mashedradish.com/2026/02/15/m...

Infamous? Vivek Ramaswamy. Same class. Also same class: the less assault-y co-founder of GitHub.

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

This is just unspeakable.

One thing that is surreal is having to use a product of the company that laid my dictionary peeps and me all off.

One of my 8th graders today sped into class at 7:30am to find her best friend & rave about Bad Bunny’s halftime. She’s Latina, 1st language is Spanish, kept saying how “touching” it was, how happy she was for Bad Bunny. Was moved by his litany of Latin American countries & left this at dismissal:

Winter Olympics word of the week: Stoat. (ht @mashedradish.bsky.social) fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

I will say, Matthew McConaughey, that “gridiron” is really just a variant of “griddle.”

The English word for HAWK used to be ... HAFOC. Hafoc. Hafoc! That medial consonant certainly flew the nest.

There's other big sports stuff happening today. Like, you know, the Seahakws rematching the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Which prompted me to refresh my 2015 post after the two teams last faced off. Play back the tape on the etymology of HAWK vs. PATRIOT: mashedradish.com/2026/02/08/h...

English used to pronounce the name of MILAN with the stress on the first syllable. This is preserved in the spelling of MILLINER.