Original Public Meaning

Charles McNamara
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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. hace 4 días

    Episode 41: accuse

    In the board game Clue, we finish the game by making an accusation about who killed Mr. Boddy, where, and with what. This context of a murder mystery is a good entry point for thinking about the English verb "accuse," which has its roots in the legal system of the ancient Romans. It's a verb that appears in the poem "District and Circle" by the acclaimed Irish poet Seamus Heaney, where a commuter and busking musician exchange glances in the London Underground. 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

  2. 22 jul

    Episode 40: complicate

    Originally in its Latin ancestor, the word "complicate" described the folding or turning of physical objects, like letters and knees. But as the word developed in English, complication could denote "folds" outside these physical examples: a psychological conflict or a moral ambivalence, for instance. In today's episode, we consider one of the more famous appearances of this word in modern literature: the opening line of Emily Wilson's celebrated translation of Homer's Odyssey. It's a word that draws out the difficulty of portraying the conflicted, complicated Homeric hero on the silver screen, as we see this summer in Christopher Nolan's new film adaptation of Homer's epic. 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

  3. 9 jul

    Episode 39: extravagant

    Recently my students have started to use the word "extra" as an adjective meaning something like "over the top" or "ostentatious." Today we look at "extravagant," a word that approximates this new slang but one that also has its own fascinating etymology related to "wandering" and "straying." To help us understand the idea of extravagance, we take a look at Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'"—it's an essay that instead of giving a clear definition of campiness sketches the aesthetic of kitsch and excess. 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

  4. 3 jul

    Episode 38: distribute

    Questions of "distribution" have always been central to ethical and legal matters. The etymology of "distribute" itself comes with its own knotty questions and deceptive cousins—for instance, the loose and probably false connection between this word and "tribe." To close things out, we consider the opening paragraph of René Descartes's Discourse on the Method and its insistence that "good sense is the best distributed thing in the world." 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

  5. 24 jun

    Episode 37: exhaust

    We're back after a brief hiatus with the word "exhaust," a word that has broad application in English—sometimes a verb, sometimes a noun. It's an opportunity to review the idea of a "perfect passive participle," a fundamental grammatical concept observed in Latin words like exhaustus, from which our English word "exhaust" arises. Finally, we consider the character Neddy Merrill from John Cheever's story "The Swimmer." Exhausted at the end of the story, Neddy is just as exhausted as the stirred martinis that he has drunk over a summer afternoon. 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

  6. 8 jun

    Episode 36: dissolve

    The word "dissolve" likely brings up an image of a chemist's solutions or a sugar cube breaking apart in water. But this word has applications in a wide range of areas: a dissolute person, the dissolving of Parliament, even the final dissolving of the body and soul. As a more recent example, we consider the phrase "dissolving margins," a recurring theme in the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante, where a chaotic moment in life can disrupt our sense of order and definition. 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

  7. 2 jun

    Episode 35: conscience

    In English, the notion of "conscience" is often confused with "consciousness," words that share the same etymological roots in Latin. Generally, we might define "conscience" as that "little voice" in our head that tells us what's right and what's wrong. In today's episode, we consider how that notion of a private, internal conscience developed from a word that originally meant a "joint understanding" with others. We also look at the recent encyclical published by Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, which raises important questions about the nature of conscience—and of consciousness—in an era of technological change. 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. 25 may

    Episode 34: ambition

    We normally think of ambition today as a kind of personal virtue, alongside traits like "grit" and "tenacity." But in the Roman world, ambitio—from which our English word "ambition" directly descends—was often viewed with suspicion. In today's episode, we look at the violent and tumultuous world of politics in the late Roman Republic through the work of Sallust, the Roman historian who chronicles the seditious—and ambitious—deeds of the politician Catiline in his Bellum Catilinae (or Catilinarian Conspiracy). 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

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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.

Información

  • Creador
    Charles McNamara
  • Años de actividad
    2026
  • Episodios
    41
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © Original Public Meaning is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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