Language is so personal and internal. It exists in your head. You can close your eyes and plug your ears and not engage with the outside world at all, and yet you still have language going on. So I think one of the things that attracts people to [etymology] is, it’s discussing something that they feel they have a part in.

Mark Sundaram is a medievalist and linguist who specializes in the history of the English language. He’s the co-host of the podcast The Endless Knot and the main force behind the Alliterative YouTube channel. Mark has a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto and teaches at Laurentian University.

Aven McMasteris a Classicist who studies Latin poetry and Roman social history. She is the co-host of the podcast The Endless Knot Podcast and does production work on the Alliterative channel videos. Aven has a PhD in Classics from the University of Toronto and taught at Thorneloe University at Laurentian.

They join Chris and Suzanne to talk all about etymologies, dictionaries, and etymological dictionaries. What pleasures are found in reading the dictionary? Why are some people so compelled by etymologies? How do etymologies and puns inform classical poetry?

SHOW NOTES.

The Endless Knot on Twitter.

John Ayto: Dictionary of Word Origins.

The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.

Paul Anthony Jones (Haggard Hawks on Twitter): Why Is This A Question?

On Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.

Ernest Weekley: The Romance of Words.

Alliterative’s video on nation.

The etymology of feisty.

Ernest Klein: A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language.

Anatoly Liberman: Word Origins and How We Know Them.

The Oxford Etymologist.

Calvert Watkins: The American Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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