Inky Fool

Start with something simple. We've got the verb give, which we all know, and the thing that you give is a gift. They're quite obviously related. This is Not Interesting.
Then you've got people who use the word gift as a verb, as in "I gifted it to him." That's a bit odd because it's verb to noun to verb again. But it's still pretty obvious....

Today is the first of May, or that's what Shakespeare thought, as did all proper Englishmen. May, for him, ran from May 11th to June 10th.
The reason for this is reasonably simple.
Ancient folk noticed that there were 365 days in a year. This allowed for calendars etc. Life was simple....

It is of immense importance to absolutely everyone that The Illustrated Etymologicon is now published, out, in the shops, for sale, and begging to be bought.
It's the same text as the original Etymologicon, but now filled, on each and every page, with delicious illustrations....

 I've done another little video essay with the splendid people at Little White Lies. It's about the rhetorical trope of epistrophe.
And, just to end every blogpost with the same words, The Illustrated Etymologicon is coming out in November.