“Every word was coined by a resourceful individual or borrowed as a result of language contact in a certain place at a certain time,” writes Anatoly Liberman in his new book, “Word Origins and How We ...

Knowing the origin of words is of vital importance for a good speller. Several internationally acclaimed spelling lists have their words divided into sections on the basis of the language of origin.

Although comets were sighted at least as early as 1000 B.C., Greek natural philosophers named them sometime around 500 B.C., using the Greek word kometes for "a head with long hair." Science historian ...

Archive photo shows a sculpture of the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite on display at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Photo: DPA German speakers probably know more Greek than they think. Here's a run ...