Original Public Meaning

Charles McNamara
  • 5.0 (2)
  • LANGUAGE LEARNING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Where do our modern English words come from? And what do their long histories tell us about our own ideas and the wider world? On Original Public Meaning, we unearth the ancient foundations of our language and consider how its vast, rich literature—fiction, essays, science, and more—can help us savor our words today.

  1. 14H AGO

    Episode 16: providence

    We all plan for the future we want, even knowing that the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry. When we try to look ahead and make the best choices, we exercise a kind of "providence," at least according to the etymological roots of this word. In today's episode, we consider the notion of providence and its close relation to "prudence." We also look to John Milton's Paradise Lost, whose final lines draw out some rich moral paradoxes about human freedom. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    9 min

  2. 4D AGO

    Episode 15: larva

    We might think of grubs hidden under a rock when we hear the word "larva" today. The word comes from Latin, but at least originally, it doesn't mean "insect"—rather, it means "ghost." Today we consider the strange development of biological terms while also revisiting a famous ghost story in a comedic and somewhat bizarre novel from the Roman world, Petronius's Satyricon. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    8 min

  3. FEB 18

    Episode 14: panoply

    The word "panoply" today might denote a magnificent or pompous display, but its roots lie in the armor of ancient Greek soldiers. In today's episode, we consider some military terminology from the ancient world, tracing its early influence on the Greek New Testament. After consulting an episode from the Histories of Herodotus, too, we touch on one of the longstanding concerns of ancient political thought: that tyranny might arise not from a corrupt monarchy, but instead through a gullible public. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    9 min

  4. FEB 14

    Episode 13: romance

    Latin and Greek have their own words for love and attraction—amor and eros, for instance—but these words don't serve as the root of our word "romance." Instead, "romance" comes from the very name of the Latin-speaking people, the Romans. How does the name for a population come to mean something about affection? We consider Jane Austen's Persuasion to help us track the meaning of "romance" from its ancient origins to our modern era. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    8 min

  5. FEB 10

    Episode 12: nostalgia

    The most famous nostos—or "homeward journey"—in Greco-Roman literature is the arduous trip Odysseus makes after the Trojan War, as told in Homer's Odyssey. The longing for such a return forms the root of our word "nostalgia," first used in the seventeenth century. Today we look at how this original notion of nostalgia as "homesickness" morphed into our modern use of the word as a longing for the past. We also consider the idea of one's own consciousness as a kind of psychological home, captured in Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    9 min

  6. FEB 6

    Episode 11: neglect

    The common Latin verb legere has an astonishing range of meaning: to pick up, to read, to overhear, to track someone's footsteps. When negated, this verb develops into the modern English "neglect" as well as related words like "negligent" and "negligence." In today's episode, we also consider the stylistic principle of "diligent negligence" (or perhaps "careful nonchalance") from the Roman statesman Cicero and its afterlife in Raymond Chandler, the master of hard-boiled crime fiction. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    8 min

  7. FEB 3

    Episode 10: insular

    The word "island" itself has Germanic, rather than Greco-Roman, roots. But the Latin word insula—which also means "island"—generates several English words, including "insulate" and "insular." After considering some of these English derivatives, we turn to Herman Melville's Moby Dick, a novel that uses the image of an insular landmass to illustrate the very mystery of human existence. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    8 min

  8. JAN 30

    Episode 9: incandescent

    Words for modern technology—computer, electricity, and so on—often draw from ancient vocabulary to describe novel objects and phenomena. Such is the case for "incandescent," which first appeared in the eighteenth century in a report about combustible fuels. As we see in the contemporary novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, this word's application ultimately extends well beyond the filament of a light bulb and into moral matters. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

    8 min
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About

Where do our modern English words come from? And what do their long histories tell us about our own ideas and the wider world? On Original Public Meaning, we unearth the ancient foundations of our language and consider how its vast, rich literature—fiction, essays, science, and more—can help us savor our words today.

Information

  • Creator
    Charles McNamara
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Original Public Meaning is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Show Website
    Original Public Meaning