The sweet little rhymes and refrains that fills out childhoods are actually full of ghoulish and gruesome revelations. Here are some creepy examples… The rhythmic patterns of nursery rhymes provided an ideal framework for infants and children to develop language. Mary, Mary, quite contrary,How does your garden grow?With silver bells, and cockle shells,And pretty maidsContinue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Nightmarish Nursery Rhymes”
Tag Archives: etymology
Ancient Words: Cute words in Polish and how to say them
PB and I were thinking about what we would name our pets. Once we get a place where we can have a backyard so that animals can run around, we will be getting a rescue dog and cat or perhaps a whole menagerie. What we discovered was an astonishing number of cute words in Polish,Continue reading “Ancient Words: Cute words in Polish and how to say them”
Ancient word of the day: Adder
Snakes, serpents, vipers, adders – they all convey ancient power of life over death, of emerging in ones full power to take back what belongs to them, of transformation and return. A potent ancestral spirit and augur from the Land of the Dead. Adder The Adder Vipera berus is the only venomous snake in Britain.Continue reading “Ancient word of the day: Adder”
Ancient Word of the Day: Weltschmerz
Weltschmerz: n: (literally) World Pain (from German). The feeling of sadness at the suffering that surrounds you in the world. The pain of being an empath and sensitive to all despair and distress in the world. An ill-defined weariness at the burdens carried universally by all of humankind. “Sickness brought me this Thought, in thatContinue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Weltschmerz”
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #45
Haere mai and welcome to another edition of the internet-famous 10 Interesting Things edition 45. This week we roll out the red carpet for some mystical delights and delightful folks for your viewing and listening pleasure. Phillip Peris – “Lightning & Thunder” Didjeridu Dreamtime Hypnotic, earthy and mystical music that’s great for focus and concentration…Continue reading “10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #45”
Ancient Word of the Day: Crudelis
Crudelis: Latin To delight in blood and gore. Over time this word came to mean being vicious and cruel The word Crudelis comes from an even older word in Proto-Indo-European, simply Kru which means blood, gore and viscera. Kru words show up in the English language a lot in association with bloody and awful deaths.Continue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Crudelis”
A history of the world’s languages as a gnarly willow tree
The world’s mother tongues have blended and intermingled since humans first stood upright and emerged out of the primeval forests. Here’s a really awesome family tree beautifully illustrated by Minna Sundberg. Minna is an immensely talented illustrator who has been creating a wonderful tales set in northern Europe for her online web comic Stand Still,Continue reading “A history of the world’s languages as a gnarly willow tree”
Ancient Word of the Day: Khemeia
Khemeia: The extraction of juices for medicine, from Ancient Greek Related to the word Khumos meaning plant juice. This word khemeia travelled from Greece to the Medieval Arabic world where it came to mean al-khemeia or alchemy. The goal of alchemists was to bring a mystical fifth element known as the ‘quintessence’ from the divineContinue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Khemeia”
Ancient Word of the Day: Emacitus
Emacitus: The desire to buy things from Latin. The English version of this word ‘Emacity’ fell out of use at the beginning of the 20th Century. This was replaced by less beautiful terms to describe the same thing, such as shopaholic, consumerism and retail therapy. Emacitus derives from the even older Proto-Indo-European word Em YouContinue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Emacitus”
Ancient Word of the Day: Dam
Dam: To Tame or domesticate from Proto-Indo-European Other words that originate from Dam are: Domesticate: Hunter gatherer tribes needed to be able to trust dogs to watch out for bears, wolves and other carnivores. They had to be safe to keep around children and become domesticated. Tame: The first wolves were domesticated and made tameContinue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Dam”
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