Wilton's Word and Phrase Origins

September 27, 2002 12:19 AM

Wilton's Word and Phrase Origins is a well researched etymology site that puts out a fine newsletter in .pdf form, has a pretty consistently interesting discussion group, and is sometimes referenced by MeFites.
posted by sklero (5 comments total)

But it's never had an FPP!

[sweats...]
posted by sklero at 12:20 AM on September 27, 2002

And yes, this post was inspired by herc's earlier post.
posted by sklero at 12:38 AM on September 27, 2002

Funny, I was just going to compose a post about Take Our Word For It, "the weekly word-origins webzine." I've been reading through the back issues since I found it a few days ago in the midst of a search for the origin of a nursery rhyme. Of particular note so far are the spotlights on "now" and "apples."

Wilton's looks great, thanks for the link. Now I have another set of pages to peruse.
posted by Nothing at 2:49 AM on September 27, 2002

This comment describes this discussion board accurately:

"Then I wrote the above comment and realized that I was only pretending to be knowledgable on the subject. Is that what this board is about? People pretending to be knowledgable about words who get away with it because they too have dictionaries?"

In sum, a huge source of misinformation, bad research, etymythologies, folk etymologies and fanciful theories, unfortunately camouflaging the scholarly work of high-quality which is sprinkled throughout.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:36 AM on September 27, 2002

Better places for such information:

Verbatim Mag
The Word Detective
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:39 AM on September 27, 2002