

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.


10 Common Words With Spooky Etymologies

16 Cryptids That Might (Or Might Not) Exist

50 Words That Sound Dirty But Actually Aren’t
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.
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.
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.
What Exactly Are Your P’s and Q’s?
Does it have to do with pea coats? Or maybe Latin scribes?
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.
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.
10 Little-Used Shakespearisms
Not all of Shakespeare’s snappiest phrases and expressions caught on.
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).
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.
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.
18 Words to Welcome Spring
Unless we have some winnol-weather or lamb-blasts on the way, it seems spring is finally coming.