- ampersand: "and per se and" = "and (the symbol which) by itself (is) and"
- anathema: ana (up) + thithenai (to place) = originally meant to offer up to the gods, eventually came to mean a thing accursed or damned
- asterismos: aster (star) + ismos (Greek suffix making a noun into a verb) = "making with stars" a literary device using a word at the beginning of a sentence (har, lo, behold, etc) to draw attention to what follows
- astrobleme: astran (star) + blema (wound) = a crater left by the impact of a comet or meteorite
- curfew: couvre (cover) + feu (fire) = cover your fire, bells would ring at night to remind citizens to cover fires (presumably to avoid an uncontrolled fire)
- disaster: dis (bad) + astro (star, planet) = calamity of astronomical proportions
- etymology: etymos (true) + logos (word/reason) = true word or reason
- nostalgia: nostros (returning) + algos (pain) = the pain of looking back.
- oxymoron: oxus (sharp) + moros (blunt) = a thing that is contradictory of itself.
- pandemonium: pan (all) + demon = force of all demons
- preposterous: pre (before) + post (after) = before-behind, or contrary to nature
dec 10 2011 ∞
oct 7 2016 +