142: kindred and thunder Apr 29, 2015

Speaking words, and as a consequence spelling, changes words over time for ease of the speaker. This can be seen in the words 'kindred' and 'thunder', which did not always have the letter 'd' in the middle of those words. 'Thunder' comes from the Old English 'thunor', and 'kindred' comes from Middle English, combining 'kin' and '-red' ('-red' comes from Old English 'rǣden').
Previous
Previous

143: profuse Apr 30, 2015

Next
Next

141: kerfuffle Apr 28, 2015