Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

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The study of word origins and word meanings is called etymology. It's a funny word,

etymology. It comes from the medieval Latin word, etymologica, which itself comes from a Greek word,

which was derived from combining the Greek words etymons and etumon, which means true,

and logos, which means word and reason.

So you put them all together and you end up with a word that really means the true sense of a word.

Someone put the word together for the English language in the middle 16th century, or it might

have been used as early as 1398.

It's kind of fuzzy.

Anyway, etymology can tell you a lot about a thing.

Take the word, a phonograph, for example, which was the original name for a turntable.

Phonograph literally means a writer of sounds.

Phono, which means sound in Greek, and graphos, which means writing.

The first sound recordings were called phonograms.

This also helps explain words like telephone and telephony.

Rock music has its own branch of etymology, and I can give you lots of examples.

Why do we call a certain style of alternative rock punk? Where did that come from? Same with New Wave.

Interesting concept, but who decided on that? And here's a good one, grunge. Or how about the term alternative music? Where did that come from?

Well, these are great, great questions, and the answers may surprise you.

This is the ongoing history of new music podcast with Alan Cross.

Welcome again, I'm Alan Cross, and this program is a response to a lot of the emails that

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