Here’s another one of those funky words with opposite meanings depending on the context and a great word for fans of fantasy literature. Cleave can mean to adhere to something or to split something, as in skulls. Consider these examples:…

What does a snakeskin have in common with a swamp? (Aside from some snakes living in swamps.) The answer is slough, one of those odd words whose pronunciation determines its meaning and whose path to modern English is the convergence…

What comes to mind when you hear the word macabre? You probably think of death or something gruesome or something by Edgar Allan Poe. Strangely enough, the source for that word is Hellenistic cultural imperialism. This will take some explaining. The…

If you hear the word Jack-o’-lantern, you likely picture a hollowed-out pumpkin with carved eyes and mouth lit by a candle inside the pumpkin. Some are scary and some are funny. However, the association between carved pumpkins, now an iconic…

What do you picture when you hear the word tawdry? You probably think of something cheap or gaudy: maybe some loud shirt that people wore to discos in the ’70s; maybe a woman’s bright yellow silk necktie with purple and…

Walnut, acorn, almond, chestnut, hazelnut. Those are all nutty-sounding names for nuts. But filbert? Where did that one come from? Filbert is an alternative name for a hazelnut. The present spelling came into usage in the late fourteenth century. It…

Ever come across the word callow? It’s a relatively common English surname: the actor Simon Callow and the painter William Callow. It also appears as a place name in England and Ireland: Callow, Derbyshire; Callow, Herefordshire; Callow, Shropshire; Callow Hill,…

What comes to mind when you hear the word harrowing? Unless you’re involved in farming, you likely think of a harrowing experience, something distressing, painful, or terrifying. If you’re a farmer, images of dragging a harrow over a field probably…

If you’re familiar with sailing, snooker (billiards), or window blinds, you’ve probably heard the term headrail. On a sailing vessel, it’s the railing extending from behind the bow to behind the figurehead. In billiards, it denotes the end of the…