Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Devolution of English


I was searching for the origin of the phrase "Hit the nail on the head" the other day, because I like words and knowing the origin of things makes me feel superior, and also gives me things to talk about when I am forced to interact with other humans on rare occasions. In this particular etymology, there was a sample of the first recorded use of the phrase and I came to the realization that our language seems to be coming full circle:



 -Old English-
  (source)                     

-New English-
(source)   



my friends are funny, and helpful.



Not all that different...




2 comments:

  1. Ha ha-I love old english. Sometimes I torture my wife by trying to speak it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gaw...my kids! They say things like yolo, swag-tastic, ratched (i think they mean to say retched) and I mean like at the end of the day. omg...barf. I always stop them and tell them I can not understand you and Tell me the right way and I can help you.

    ReplyDelete

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