Author: M. Michael Brady

M. Michael Brady talks about construction words related to timber framing in house building, something that has been used for thousands of years.

M. Michael Brady writes about the origins and usage of the words bull, buffalo, and bluffing, going back to a monk’s Ormulum in the 12th century.

M. Michael Brady writes about the origin of the word thunder and how it was derived from Old Norse mythology in his Word about Words column.

M. Michael Brady reports that Norway’s Language Council chose as word of the year sportsvaske: using sports to cover human-rights violations.

M. Michael Brady talks about the origins of the words yule and jul (Christmas) and how they evolved throughout Nordic and European countries.

M. Michael Brady writes about the evolution from Old Norse of the word “gift,” which means both “married” and “poison” in Norwegian spoken today.

M. Michael Brady traces the history of the word “scream” from Shakespeare to Norway’s Edvard Munch, who named his famous painting “The Scream.”

M. Michael Brady discusses the evolution
of “søtvier” in Norwegian and “nightshade” in English, which end up with
identical botanical classifications.

M. Michael Brady explains how countries write their dates with differences known as endienness, named after characters in Gulliver’s Travels.