Why ‘Useless Etymology’ gives you super powers, with Jess Zafarris

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

1121. This week, we talk with Jess Zafarris about her book “Useless Etymology.” We look at three ways she says etymology gives you superpowers. We also look at the origins of simple words and learn why “girl” didn't always mean a female child, the unexpected historical figures behind “fedora” and “sideburns,” and why the word “outrage” has nothing to do with “rage.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Grammar Girl here. I'm Mignon Fogarty, and today I'm here with Jess Saffaris.
0:09.9	You may know her as the co-host of Words Unravelled, the podcast, or author of the book Words from Hell,
0:15.9	which we actually talked about when it came out a couple years ago. But today, we're talking about her new book,
0:21.5	Useless Etymology. Jess, welcome to the Grammar Girl podcast. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to
0:27.2	be here again. So grateful that you're having me back and that I didn't scare you too much with
0:31.8	the words from hell content. Oh, no, no, not at all. That was great for Halloween. Great Halloween
0:36.7	movie. Absolutely.
0:38.9	Before we start, I have to challenge you to give me three uses for etymology because I reject the idea that it's useless.
0:46.7	Yes, and in fact, that is not what I think. I do run a blog called useless etymology and my entire career is largely based on etymology. So clearly,
0:55.9	I do not think it is useless. Rather, that's a dig at folks who tend to think it is. They're like,
1:00.6	why would I ever need to know this? But truly, etymology gives you superpowers, as I write in the
1:05.9	book, it grants you the ability to infer definitions, like come across a complicated word you don't know,
1:11.7	break it down into its parts to reveal its meanings. I think a good example that comes to the top
1:17.3	of my head is archaeo-fero equestrianology. Super long word, but you break it down into archio,
1:23.6	which means old, pharaoh, which means iron, equestrian, horse-related, and ology is the study of
1:30.2	something. So the study of old iron horses gives us the study of old trains. So an Archaeo-Ferro
1:36.4	equestrianologist is someone who studies old trains. Oh my gosh, that's great. Right. Or I've also
1:42.3	heard it as Archaeo-Ferro equinologist, depending on your preferences there.
1:47.9	Another usage is that it's a doorway into any discipline. So if I want to learn about astronomy or
1:53.6	astrology or molecular biology, then suddenly the vocabulary and the origins of that vocabulary
1:59.6	is my doorway into that discipline. I can
2:02.1	learn about it at a surface level and I can dig deeper from there. Another one is you can build
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mignon Fogarty, Inc., and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mignon Fogarty, Inc. and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.