New Post: Truth in Etymology

I love this one.

(This time: Quick overview at the top, BTS at the bottom!)

I wrote a new post about one of my personal fixations: Etymology! 🥳

This is one of those things I love and geek out about… but I think it’s relevant and valuable for more than just my fellow word nerds! I hope this essay will show you why:

Behind the Scenes

This is another post that I’ve been excited to write for a while. It’s something that’s almost always on my mind, and I want to be able to send it to people… but because it’s important to me, the weight of getting it just right has felt heavier. So, that’s where this new ‘WIP’ structure I’m using is so helpful for me!

I spent today fleshing out the post: overall, the value of checking out the origins of words and some cool examples. There are some key ideas I’ve known about (etymology helps to anchor us) and some examples I wanted to use (intelligence, truth, curation). But even in the first draft, I was surprised to learn some things I didn’t know I knew: like, that I think the appeal of etymology specifically ties to meaning, verifiability, and connections. I didn’t have that framework until I started writing this out! And I think I stand by it.

I also didn’t fully realize how much truth and etymology and the concept of ‘roots’ are all tangled together. There’s a line in the conclusion—Truth is in the roots—that maybe should be the name of the whole thing? There’s so much there to unpack!

For the next version, I want to dig into that connection, and also elaborate on the ‘Connections’ component of each example: I mentioned how etymology helped me see the connections with related words and concepts, but a bit of deeper exploration would help to bring that idea to life.

As I was writing it, I kept thinking about a favorite essay of mine—You’re probably using the wrong dictionary, by James Somers. I need to go back and re-read it and see if there are things about the structure or approach that I could borrow.

And, lastly: My intro feels a bit slapped-together. What would be a better way to set this up and draw someone in… if seeing ‘etymology’ in the headline doesn’t immediately reel them in 😄

Again: I’m still figuring out the structure of this newsletter, so if you have any feedback or thoughts, let me know. Want more or less explanation? Have a question? Please hit reply or leave a comment.