This gives Michael Jackson's "BAD" a whole knew meaning

Check out the etymology of the word bad (via Volokh Conspiracy who got it from Language Log) :

Prof. Zupitza, with great probability, sees in bad-de (2 syll.) the ME. repr. of OE. bæddel ‘homo utriusque generis, hermaphrodita’ ... and the derivative bædling ‘effeminate fellow, womanish man ...’ applied contemptuously; assuming a later adjectival use, as in yrming, wrecca, and loss of final l as in mycel, muche, lytel, lyte, wencel, wench(e. This perfectly suits the ME. form and sense, and accounts satisfactorily for the want of early written examples. And it is free from the many historical and phonetic difficulties of the derivation proposed by Sarrazin [which ends up relating it to an OE. word meaning ‘forced, oppressed’] .... No other suggestion yet offered is of any importance; the Celtic words sometimes compared are out of the question.

Oh snap!


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Julette Millien's picture

Vedy interesting...

Not sure of half of what I read there but a couple words did jump out. Wowza!!
...wonder if he did this research.

Thanks for sharing!


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Words to live by

I have this to say about the radicals: I love you. But you don’t have to look to hard to find examples, among us, of some of the same things being rightly criticized in the Brittney Gilbert blogswarm referenced above. An example:

It’s a fine thing to slam someone for writing something you find offensive. It’s another thing to slam someone for not writing something the way you would have, or for writing about a subject other than the one you think they ought to have picked.

It’s a fine thing to criticize someone moderating comments on their blog in a way you don’t agree with, but it’s another to slam someone for not moderating comments on their blog 24/7.

It’s a fine thing to decide that your blog has a specific mission. It’s another to decide that your blog’s mission is the only mission any blog should have.

In short, it’s one thing for you to be disappointed in or angered by bloggers with whom you share some political viewpoints.

It’s another to assume they owe you anything other than basic human respect because you’ve done them the favor of reading their work.


— Chris Clarke, publisher of the blog Fault Line in his brilliant post, Resignation: An Open Letter To The