Tag Archives: word meaning

The Hidden Past of Words: English final -y

Posted on June 27, 2012 by

Consider the following list of everyday English words:  memory, happy, baby, crazy, victory, city, silly, puppy, army For starters, they all end in -y and they can be grouped further as nouns (memory, baby, victory, city, puppy, army) or adjectives … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology, history of language, language change, Meaning Change, Word Usage | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What’s up with up

Posted on July 19, 2010 by

The word ‘up’ in English has many uses and functions: it occurs as an adverb  (we need to liven up our presentation),  a preposition  (the mouse crawled up the drainpipe), an adjective (the mood was definitely up at the meeting), … Continue reading →

Posted in language change, Word Formation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments