English Language FAQ

Dictionaries  struggle to precisely define the nature of their core commodity.

Counting the total numer of words used in a language is complex as their are many variables.  Comparisons are particularly difficult between alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages.

Photo by  Franck V.  on  Unsplash  The word  Robot means to 'work slavishly'. It is a rare example of a Czech word ('robota') being incorporated into English.  From Start the Week 24/01/11 Robot  first came to public attention through Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. This   opens in a factory that makes machines that replicate human form. These machines are closer to what today would be termed androids .   As in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,  the ethical issues explored by Čapek relate to individual autonomy. A shared preoccupation is the danger inherent in 'playing God'.  Dictionary dispute Čapek credited his brother Josef with coming up with the word robot. He also wrote to the Oxford English Dictionary to correct their etymology.  Karel had originally used another neologism labori based on the Latin word for work,  labor, but was dissatisfied. His brother then pointed to the C

It may seem odd that Christians call their day  of greatest sorrow   Good   Friday . Photo by  Sincerely Media  on  Unsplash

The first citation of maunde  to describe the Thursday before Easter in middle English comes in the mid-15C. It described both The Last Supper and the ceremony of the washing of the feet of the poor or downtrodden. The immediate origin was the Old French word mandé. This in turn derived from the Latin mandatum  or "commandment". From a Christian perspective, the crucial reference was to the opening words of the Latin church service for this day, Mandatum novum do vobis "A new commandment I give unto you" (John xiii:34).  This new commandment was to love one another.   Its supreme test would be the Passion of  Good Friday . Free read on Medium : The language of Easter?  (4 mins)

The word Easter is not in the New Testament. Nor does it feature in most translations of the Bible into vernacular languages.  Isn't Easter  linked to Passover? There is no direct linguistic link in English between the  words  Easter  and   Passover  as there is in romance languages like French where  Pâques , in French, covers both  Easter  and Passover .  In Spanish,  Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the most common phrase used to describe the festival and Domingo de Resurrección   the day itself. Domingo de Pascua is more formal and used less frequently So where does the word  Easter come from?      Scholars agree that Easter  has pre-Christian roots. Beyond that there is little consensus. According to the great Anglo-Saxon scholar the  Venerable Bede , the Old English word eastre came from Eostre, "a goddess associated with spring."   April was called Eosturmonath  ("Easter-month") because in pagan times the month was dedicated to Eostre, an Anglo-