"Ghost" is a pretty old word. "Ghoul," as an English word, not so much.Av The Grammar Geek

The names of "October" and a few other months make a lot more sense if we look at Latin and the Roman calendar.Av The Grammar Geek

The everyday meaning of "sympathy" has shifted over the years, but it's always had some connection to its Latin and Greek roots.Av The Grammar Geek

Before it entered everyday English, "hysterical" was medical Latin.Av The Grammar Geek

Do you say "autumn" or "fall" to describe the season between summer and winter? Get the lowdown on the history of both words.Av The Grammar Geek

"Dead" and "duck" go way back, but the term "dead duck" is only a couple of centuries old.Av The Grammar Geek

The often miswritten and mispronounced "landlubber" goes back a few centuries.Av The Grammar Geek

"Nice" has had at least a dozen definitions over the last few centuries.Av The Grammar Geek

The Modern English "peruse" came from the Middle English "peruse" . . . or maybe it came from French.Av The Grammar Geek

With Labor Day approaching, let's look at "factory" and "manufacturing." They were both borrowed from Latin.Av The Grammar Geek

"Escalate" is fairly new word, and the current definition has been around since just the 1950s.Av The Grammar Geek

"Put up your dukes," which has been around since at least the 1800s, is one example of Cockney rhyming slang.Av The Grammar Geek

The transition from "ekename" to "nickname" is a fine demonstration of the transition from Middle English to Modern English.Av The Grammar Geek

"Posh," as it is used today, first appeared in print a little more than a century ago. But where did it come from?Av The Grammar Geek

It took several languages to bring "karaoke" to English in the 1970s.Av The Grammar Geek

"Honey" and "moon" are very old. "Honeymoon" is relatively new, meaning it's a mere 500 years old.Av The Grammar Geek

"Aioli" comes from French, as do the words for many prepared foods.Av The Grammar Geek

"Mascara" is linked to many words from many languages, many of which go back centuries before commercially available mascara hit store shelves.Av The Grammar Geek

The word "liar" goes way back. As it turns out, people have been lying for a long time.Av The Grammar Geek

"Salary" is related to something in your kitchen, and it's not celery.Av The Grammar Geek

Like a lot of food-related words, "omelet" comes from French. Its origin has nothing to do with eggs.Av The Grammar Geek

"Humble" came from French, which took it from Latin. It's always meant "lowly," although that's not how people use it today.Av The Grammar Geek

A lavaliere is a fancy pendant. It's also a type of microphone. To find the origin, we go back to 17th-century France.Av The Grammar Geek

"Memorial" comes from Latin and is related to a slew of other English words, including "remember" and "memorandum."Av The Grammar Geek

"Waxing," "waning," "crescent" and "gibbous" go back a long, long time.Av The Grammar Geek

"Whiskey" has been through some changes in its journey to English from (no surprise) Gaelic.Av The Grammar Geek

May 1 is May Day (two words) in the United States. Don't confuse it with "mayday" (one word), the distress call for pilots.Av The Grammar Geek

The often misused "verbiage" has been around for a few centuries, and its corrupt offspring, "verbage," is older than you might think.Av The Grammar Geek

"Easter" goes back to Old English and then goes back further. Celebrations of spring are older than Jesus.Av The Grammar Geek

"Rhythm" and "rhyme" are related words, both in meaning and etymology.Av The Grammar Geek

"Stay" and "home" and "parent" are old words, going back centuries. Words to describe someone who tends to the home and children are also very old. English speakers began using the term "stay-at-home parent" very recently.Av The Grammar Geek

"Leverage" has been in the English language since the 18th century, but its position in everyday corporate speak is fairly recent.Av The Grammar Geek

Tea has been around for thousands of years, but English speakers didn't need a word for it until they started trading it in the 1590s.Av The Grammar Geek

"Butt" and "cheek" have been around for centuries. It took a while for English speakers to put them together.Av The Grammar Geek

"Ambulance" has been an English word since the 18th century, before motor vehicles, and is related to the word "amble."Av The Grammar Geek

"Selfie" is a fairly new word, but its root word and suffix are centuries old. Some people don't like "selfie," but resistance is futile.Av The Grammar Geek

By tracing "hiatus," meaning a break, back to its ancient Proto-Indo European roots, we find it has some modern cousins with similar meanings but very different sounds.Av The Grammar Geek

"Penultimate" and its cousin, "ultimate," both come from Latin. As the meaning of "ultimate" shifts, poor "penultimate" is being left behind.Av The Grammar Geek

The current popular meaning of "carnival" goes back to the 1920s, but the original meaning, which involves meat, goes back centuries.Av The Grammar Geek

We've been using the word "buck" as slang for money since the 1850s. There are two theories to explain why.Av The Grammar Geek

The slang term "booze" goes back many years as a noun and many more years as a verb. And what's a boozeroo?Av The Grammar Geek

The proper noun "Lent" evolved from a series of longer words ultimately related to spring.Av The Grammar Geek

On Valentine's day, you might send a valentine to your valentine. All of those uses share the same origin.Av The Grammar Geek

"Complicit" is Dictionary.com's 2017 Word of the Year. It's less than a century old, but the original "complicity" is much older.Av The Grammar Geek

Which came first, "OK" or "okay"? And what does Martin Van Buren have to do with it?Av The Grammar Geek

The American Dialect Society named "fake news" its 2017 Word of the Year. The term has been around for a while, but the past few years, it seems to be everywhere.Av The Grammar Geek

"Unkempt," which means "sloppy or disheveled," goes back centuries. It's not the same as "unkept."Av The Grammar Geek