With her superb mix of erudition and wit, Dr. Hana Videen’s first book “The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English” captured both the minds and hearts of those who read it. Now, in her second book, The Deorhord; An Old English Bestiary,” she delves more deeply into the fascinating and sometimes mysterious hoard of Old English words used to describe the animals known to the medieval English world.
As most any naturalist with a healthy interest in words does, I’ve long enjoyed the past-time of venereal – or collective – nouns. From the traditional, widely known, and more-or-less official – an exhalation of larks, a school of fish, a pack of wolves – to the playful and decidedly unofficial – an aroma of […]
You’ve likely heard different animals referenced in regard to economic phenomena (bull market, bear market, black swan, etc.), but have you ever wondered how and why the jargon of business and finance has come to associate certain animals with different occurrences, trends, and entities?