Secular means ‘unaffiliated with religion,’ but originally, it was a word used to describe the measurement of long spans of time. Roughly equivalent to a century, the Roman saeculum was celebrated with pagan rituals (ironic), theater, and games.

In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, God is called by many names, and these diverse titles don't necessarily translate clearly into English. The name ‘God’ itself actually derives from Germanic paganism.

In the Bible, the word Hell is a common English translation of three Greek and Hebrew words, but the meanings of those words hardly resemble Hell as we know it today.

The letter J was a late addition to the English alphabet. It’s actually an offshoot of the letter I.

Greek gods. Golden Age heroes. Conscience. Guardian angels. Evil spirits. All of these things and more were once associated with the word daimon, the Ancient Greek predecessor of the Modern English ‘demon.’

On average, the word ‘church’ appears in English bibles 115 times. However, kuriakon, the word from which ‘church’ derives, only appears in the original Greek text twice, and its usage has nothing to do with a place of worship.

In earlier centuries, the English language distinguished between its singular and plural second person pronouns. ‘Thou’ was the singular, and ‘ye’ was the plural. Today, these have been replaced by a single pronoun, ‘you.’

An introduction to an extended series on Biblical etymology. We focus on the challenges of translating ancient texts, particularly holy texts, into modern languages.

When compared to the words for other numbers between ten and twenty, eleven and twelve stick out like a sore thumb. If they followed the construction of the rest of the teen numbers, they'd be called one-teen and two-teen, but of course, this isn't the case. Why?

The words algebra and algorithm can be traced back to the life of one man, an Arabic mathematician named Al-Kworizmi.

Chemistry as we know it is a hard science, yet the word derives from the pre-scientific practice of ‘alchemy.’

Unlike most Arabic loanwords, the word serendipity was not borrowed from Arabic itself, but invented by an eighteenth century Englishman.

Learn about some of the linguistic and cultural features of Arabic that make it stand apart from other languages discussed on the podcast thus far.

Saturday is the ‘day of Saturn,’ and Sunday is of course the ‘day of the sun.’

Thursday and Friday are named after Thor, a Germanic god, and Frigg (or Freya), a Germanic goddess.

Wednesday is named after Woden, the AngloSaxon version of the Norse god Odin. But if Wednesday literally means ‘Woden’s day,’ why do we spell Wednesday with an E instead of an O?

Monday derives from the name of Mani, the Germanic moon god, and Tuesday derives from the name of Tiw, the chief deity in the original Germanic pantheon.

The names of the English days of the week are ultimately rooted in ancient Roman and Germanic mythologies.

The Latin verb, secare, meaning ‘to cut,’ has produced English derivatives such as ‘section,’ ‘sector,’ and ‘insect,’ among others. One root word, many derivatives.

The word scene has always had close ties to the theater, but it did not always refer to ‘subdivisions within in a play.’ The meaning of the original Greek skene was ‘tent or booth.’