Some rumors are too hazy to be believed. For years, claims have connected the root of the word "alcohol" to an Arabic term that purportedly means "body-eating spirit." Many of these claims miss the ...

Some rumors are too hazy to be believed. For years, claims have connected the root of the word "alcohol" to an Arabic term that purportedly means "body-eating spirit." Many of these claims miss the ...

I’ve never been very interested in etymology. I know that makes me a bad little language columnist. But the truth is, word histories all start to sound the same after a while. Such-and-such word came ...

While the term has been used as an ableist slur in numerous situations, and is considered derogatory in the United Kingdom among other places, it does not have the same connotations in African ...