Colin Williams
@wordsandmagpies.bsky.social
Lover of books, language, words, Newcastle United and crisps. Author of Sl- is for Sleaze but Sn- is for Sneeze! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sl-Sleaze-but-Sn-Sneeze/dp/1985830892
wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/gin-and-a-... This week's Substack looks at gin and its redemption. #gin #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Gin and a bit of Orange
A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy.
wordsgetaround.substack.com
September 28, 2026 at 5:22 PM
wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/gin-and-a-... This week's Substack looks at gin and its redemption. #gin #etymology #appliedlinguistics
wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/white-whea... This week's substack looks at wheat, barley, Theresa May, Sting and shoe sizes! #etymology #wheat #barley #appliedlinguistics
White wheat and beery barley
If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now.
wordsgetaround.substack.com
September 8, 2026 at 5:30 PM
wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/white-whea... This week's substack looks at wheat, barley, Theresa May, Sting and shoe sizes! #etymology #wheat #barley #appliedlinguistics
wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/corinthian... This week's Substack looks at corinthians, currants and Argentinian footballers throwing their toys out of the pram #etymology #corinthians #currants
Corinthians
Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them.
wordsgetaround.substack.com
August 12, 2026 at 5:34 PM
wordsgetaround.substack.com/p/corinthian... This week's Substack looks at corinthians, currants and Argentinian footballers throwing their toys out of the pram #etymology #corinthians #currants
This week's Substack looks at east and west and thinks that the twain should get meeting a lot more often. open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... #east #west #etymology
East and West
The conflict is not between Christianity and Islam or between East and West - instead, it is between stupid people and other stupid people.
open.substack.com
August 1, 2026 at 10:11 AM
This week's Substack looks at east and west and thinks that the twain should get meeting a lot more often. open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... #east #west #etymology
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at Mentors and minds (and jumps on the Odyssey bandwagon). #etymology #appliedlinguistics #theodyssey
Mind your mentors!
I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.
open.substack.com
July 19, 2026 at 5:48 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at Mentors and minds (and jumps on the Odyssey bandwagon). #etymology #appliedlinguistics #theodyssey
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack investigates the shared etymology of Christ, grime and cream and looks at Jesus, Cyrus the Great, Dizzee Rascal and other anointed ones. #etymology #appliedlinguistics #grime #Christ
Grimy Christ
He who fights for a ne’er-do-well has nothing to show for it except a head covered in earth and grime.
open.substack.com
June 20, 2026 at 9:43 AM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack investigates the shared etymology of Christ, grime and cream and looks at Jesus, Cyrus the Great, Dizzee Rascal and other anointed ones. #etymology #appliedlinguistics #grime #Christ
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack will bite your hand off #bitter #bite #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Bitter biting baiters
Have you bitten off more than you can chew?
open.substack.com
May 29, 2026 at 9:33 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack will bite your hand off #bitter #bite #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at carrots - from purple to orange, from Bugs Bunny to William of Orange. #carrots #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Carrots
Un jour, une simple carotte, fraîchement observée, déclenchera une revolution.
open.substack.com
May 15, 2026 at 11:48 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at carrots - from purple to orange, from Bugs Bunny to William of Orange. #carrots #etymology #appliedlinguistics
This week's Substack looks at Hindi borrowings in English and sees the wide range of semantic fields we have pilfered Hindi words from. #etymology #appliedlinguistics
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Hindi borrowings
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great-grandmother of tradition.
open.substack.com
May 4, 2026 at 4:44 PM
This week's Substack looks at Hindi borrowings in English and sees the wide range of semantic fields we have pilfered Hindi words from. #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget...
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open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at speed, hope and despair and finds they are all connected. #etymology #appliedlinguistics #hope #despair #speed
Speed, hope and despair
To live without hope is to cease to live.
open.substack.com
March 27, 2026 at 6:07 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at speed, hope and despair and finds they are all connected. #etymology #appliedlinguistics #hope #despair #speed
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at cabals and how they are all in your mind. #cabals #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Cabals
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
open.substack.com
March 7, 2026 at 7:59 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at cabals and how they are all in your mind. #cabals #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack shows that robbers are after your wardrobe. #appliedlinguistics #etymology #robbery #robes
Robes and robbers
Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs.
open.substack.com
February 19, 2026 at 12:42 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack shows that robbers are after your wardrobe. #appliedlinguistics #etymology #robbery #robes
Yards and gardens
Well, I don’t use the toilet much to pee in.
open.substack.com
January 30, 2026 at 9:59 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack thinks your neighbours are boorish #etymology #appliedlingiustics #neighbours
Boorish neighbours
Ontology, eschatology, etymology and bowerbirds
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 4:18 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack thinks your neighbours are boorish #etymology #appliedlingiustics #neighbours
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at time and tide and why the Grim Reaper might be swinging his scythe in your direction! #time #tide #etymology
Time and tide
For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde,
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 6:53 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at time and tide and why the Grim Reaper might be swinging his scythe in your direction! #time #tide #etymology
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at the holly and the ivy - pagan talismans imported by Christianity #etymology #appliedlinguistics #holly #ivy
The holly and the ivy
Pagans with attitude
open.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at the holly and the ivy - pagan talismans imported by Christianity #etymology #appliedlinguistics #holly #ivy
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at orcs - there are plenty of them around. #orcs #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Orcs
You must dig swift and deep if you wish to hide from Orcs.
open.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 11:50 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at orcs - there are plenty of them around. #orcs #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack will feed on your flesh. #ravens #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Ravenous ravens
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:37 AM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack will feed on your flesh. #ravens #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack goes the whole hog! #hogs #appliedlinguistics #etymology
Hogs
No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs.
open.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:43 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack goes the whole hog! #hogs #appliedlinguistics #etymology
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at berries - from the whortle to the rowan to the Halle. #berries #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Berries
On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels.
open.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at berries - from the whortle to the rowan to the Halle. #berries #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at cagoules, cowls and fascists not getting their comeuppance. #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Cagoules and cowls
His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide.
open.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at cagoules, cowls and fascists not getting their comeuppance. #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at all manner of dullards. #coward #drunkard #dotard #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Drunkards, cowards and bastards
I’m a hero with coward’s legs.
open.substack.com
October 4, 2025 at 11:32 AM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at all manner of dullards. #coward #drunkard #dotard #etymology #appliedlinguistics
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at why a forlorn hope is really a lost cause #etymology #appliedlinguistics #forlornhope
A forlorn hope
This is the maiden all forlorn
open.substack.com
September 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at why a forlorn hope is really a lost cause #etymology #appliedlinguistics #forlornhope
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at Wales, the foreign and rampant xenophobia. #etymology #appliedlinguistics #Wales #walnuts
Wales, walnuts and xenophobes
Nid oes ar uffern ond eisiau ei threfnu
open.substack.com
September 5, 2025 at 9:35 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack looks at Wales, the foreign and rampant xenophobia. #etymology #appliedlinguistics #Wales #walnuts
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack finds Persia pretty peachy #Persia #etymology #appliedlinguistics
Persians and peaches
All the children of the great men in Persia are brought up at court, where they have an opportunity of learning great modesty, and where nothing immodest is ever heard or seen.
open.substack.com
August 26, 2025 at 10:19 PM
open.substack.com/pub/wordsget... This week's Substack finds Persia pretty peachy #Persia #etymology #appliedlinguistics