Paul Anthony Jones

Joined: Jun 20, 2014

Paul Anthony Jones is a writer and musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. He is the author of word origins guide Haggard Hawks and Paltry Poltroons, and runs its tie-in Twitter account @HaggardHawks.

Cold weather words were way more colorful in days gone by.

19 Old Cold Weather Words to Get You Through Winter

Even words that don’t seem scary might have spooky origins.

10 Common Words With Spooky Etymologies

16 Cryptids That Might (Or Might Not) Exist

‘Fuksheet’ is another word for a sail on the foremast of a ship.

50 Words That Sound Dirty But Actually Aren’t

Sometimes, the regular words you use to describe how you’re feeling just won’t do.

15 Obscure Words for Everyday Feelings and Emotions

There are plenty of obscure English words you can turn to when the current dictionary just isn't cutting it.

How many of these colors did you know about?

39 Colors You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

A vast vocabulary of words have been invented, borrowed, and accumulated over the centuries to describe almost every color and shade imaginable.

Scuba is just one of the words that's actually an acronym.

25 Words That Are Actually Acronyms

Here are the stories and meanings behind 25 words, names, and titles that you might not have realized actually stand for something.

Ever wonder what you're supposed to be minding when your mind your p's and q's?

What Exactly Are Your P’s and Q’s?

Does it have to do with pea coats? Or maybe Latin scribes?

Never forget the last names of Henry VIII's wives or the order of the planets with these mnemonic sentences.

13 Mnemonic Sentences To Boost Your General Knowledge

“A Big Secret Conceals Her Past” will help you remember the names (and order) of Henry VIII's wives.

25 Words That Don’t Mean What You Think They Do

You can flout these rules, but you can't flaunt them.

Flip through the dictionary and you'll find all sorts of words hiding their bodily origins.

10 Body Parts Hiding in the Dictionary

Some of our favorite words come from body parts. Scratch your 'caput' over the origins of these anatomically derived terms.

Add "like an boar in a frank" to the list of Shakespearisms you should be using more.

10 Little-Used Shakespearisms

Not all of Shakespeare’s snappiest phrases and expressions caught on.

Orange you glad we're going to tell you what word rhymes with orange?

24 Notoriously Unrhymable Words (That Actually Have Rhymes)

Stop the presses—there is a rhyme for orange, and for purple. You just have to get creative (and maybe a little scientific).

A word for sudden pain was made by reversing the word 'hooray.'

10 Backwards Words That Ended Up In The Dictionary

From allerednic to yob, these ananyms and semi-ananyms have backed their way into the dictionary.

Call a bout of spontaneous, uproarious, unrestrained laughter 'cachinnation.'

The Proper Names of 17 Bodily Functions

The next time you interrupt an important meeting with a ructus or a borborygmus, you’ll at least have the perfect word for it.

Now that spring is upon us, incorporate these seasonal words into your vocabulary

18 Words to Welcome Spring

Unless we have some winnol-weather or lamb-blasts on the way, it seems spring is finally coming.