Posts

Five confusing IT terms?

Image

Where does the word Oz come from?

Image
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." According to legend, the writer L Frank Baum was stuck for a name for his magical land. Looking up from his desk for inspiration, he saw a filing cabinet with two drawers.  One was labelled A-L and the other O-Z.  Baum wrote down OZ, meaning to replace this later. Christmas-related posts

What is the origin of the word alphabet?

Image

Origin of the word Jubilee?

Image
The  Levites  sound the trumpet of Jubilee (1873 illustration) J ubilee is an interesting example of a word that evolved to cover two distinct but connected meanings. 

What is Passover? Where does the word come from?

Image
The Seder is the special meal that celebrates Passover

How are French words pronounced in English?

Image
Patisserie is a typical example of a French 'loanword' There are several thousand French words French  in the English language. Their pronunciation can be tricky because in many cases there are no formal rules about the correct way to do this  By convention, pronunciation of French words  generally defers to the source. Ballet, for example, has a silent ‘t’, rather than a sounded one as in the Spanish equivalentl. Charles de Gaulle keeps his silent’s’ while Prince Charles becomes 'Charle' in spoken French. Anomalies There are many anomalies . Logic might suggest that a chaise lounge would be pronounced the same way as the lounge it is in.  Some common nouns have been completely anglicized like the hard ‘s’ in Paris . Unfortunately, for English language learners there is no absolute rule as to when this occurs.  The key is comprehension. The English pronunciation of the words Croissant and pan au chocolat approximate to the original French but neither requires an extra