idiominsider.com How we source & date Folk etymologies corrected Established 2026

Index

Guides

A beginner’s guide to etymology sources: what OED, Etymonline, Green’s and the rest are good for

The key skill in word origins is knowing where to check. Here is what each major reference does best — and where…

Words and idioms that reversed meaning: a reference list with dates

Some words now mean nearly the opposite of what they once did. Here is a dated reference list, with notes on the…

How meanings drift: broadening, narrowing, amelioration and pejoration

Words change what they mean along four well-worn paths. Knowing them turns baffling old phrases into something you can almost predict.

Biblical phrases in everyday English: which are genuine, which only sound holy

Much of the scripture in daily speech was coined by Tyndale, not the King James men — and several famous 'Bible verses'…

Nautical Phrases That Aren’t: The Work of CANOE

CANOE — the Committee to Ascribe a Nautical Origin to Everything — is a joke about a real reflex. This guide sorts…

Reading the OED’s Dating Conventions: A Reference Guide

The OED encodes its dates in a compact code of small letters and symbols. This reference explains a., c., the query, OE/eOE/lOE…

Why Folk Etymologies Spread

Tidy, vivid origin stories out-travel the truth because they are easy to retell. Here is the psychology and mechanics that keep false…

How Phrase Origins Are Established

Real etymology rests on dated citations, corpora and antedating, not on good stories. Here is the evidential method that separates fact from…