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etymology

Going Down with the Ship
Maritime law—commonly referred to as the law of the sea—had been dealing with trade between kingdoms for literal millennia, but the most notable effort…
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Andrew Smith
15
Quilts and Quills
My grandmother made a quilt for me, the only son of her oldest son, before she died.
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Andrew Smith
31
Plethora
I’ve always thought plethora was a cool word.
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Andrew Smith
16
Oxygen Mask
If you’ve been to the top of a mountain, you probably know the air is thinner up there. I recently described this experience like so:
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Andrew Smith
11
Cretins and Cretans
Cretans are people from the island of Crete.
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Andrew Smith
13
Hot Movements
The 19th century was an exciting century for physics and engineering.
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Andrew Smith
8
The Importance of Exportant
The word important is… well, important.
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Andrew Smith
11
Polyps
The ancient Greeks had a word to describe sea creatures with many legs.
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Andrew Smith
15
Verse, Verses, and Versus
You start with a Latin word, as is so often the case.
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Andrew Smith
26
They Still Speak Latin
As the Roman Empire spread, so did its culture and language.
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Andrew Smith
23
Bom Dia!
All throughout Central and South America, you’ll find the Spanish language dominating almost everywhere.
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Andrew Smith
15
Grift and Graft
Whenever I heard the word grift or grifter, my mind travels to an era with the likes of Charles Ponzi. It’s the era of cement sneakers and flappers…
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Andrew Smith
8
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