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

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

Today we'll talk about the interesting origin of the word freedom and about weird sentences

with double subjects.

But first, thanks to Elaine who listened to the episode a few weeks ago about healthy

verses healthfully.

And let me know that in the UK people would also use healthfully.

For example, to say they ate healthily.

I don't think I've ever heard that word before, but I did a Google book search and it does

look like healthily as much more common in British English than in American English.

So there you go.

And thanks again.

Given that it's almost the 4th of July, it's not surprising that the words free or freedom

are coming up quite a bit.

To most in the United States, independent states celebrates the nation's freedom.

And being free refers to having the right to choose for yourself how to live or act.

But for much of the ancient path that free traveled on its way into English, it meant something

strikingly different.

The fundamental sense of the term as used today is to not be under the control of another,

in other words, to be free.

Looking at early biblical and philosophical translations as cited in the Oxford English

dictionary, we find this meaning dates all the way back to the Old English period, the

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