I'm a young Fugherty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, rules, history and cool stuff.

And today I have a special treat because I'm an interview with Ralph Kies, the author

of a fascinating new book that I've been enjoying called the Hidden History of Coined

Words.

It has wonderful stories about hundreds, maybe a thousand words, and where they came from,

and it's just a delight.

So Ralph, thank you for being here with me today.

Delighted to be with you, Minion.

Yeah, so I was so excited when I received the book in the mail and started leafing through

it, and I just knew immediately it was something I was going to love because there are sort

of, you know, multi-page stories about the origins of words, but also, you know, quick

hits all throughout too.

The first one you have to tell me about is the origin of scientist because I used to be

a scientist and I was incredibly surprised when I read that entry in your book.

Isn't that fascinating?

Yes.

In 1833, a group in England, the Royal Association for the Advancement of Science, met and

wondered what word could they come up with that would cover all of them, you know, physicists,

chemists, geologists, et cetera, and they've batted around words like, nature, food, is

a German word.

But it means nature, nature, poker, and they thought, that might subject, people might

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