Your New Favorite Word
Episode 1.21
Jamis talks about his musings on the past tense of “must”, and how it led him to the past subjunctive, and an unexpected swapping of tenses in Middle English. Tessa frantically charges into the concept of “berserk” from Old Norse sagas, and explores the word cloud around it.
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(7.23M, 19m 46s)
(7.23M, 19m 46s)
Highlights
- 00:38 — Cooties
- 01:14 — Retronym
- 02:31 — Expressing the past tense of “must”
- 04:02 — Old English “motan”
- 04:13 — Mote/mought
- 04:48 — Past subjunctive mood
- 09:12 — Berserk/Berserker
- 14:15 — Amok
- 15:35 — Piblokto
- 17:39 — Frenzy
Show Notes
- List of English retronyms (Wikipedia)
- English subjunctive (Wikipedia)
- Podcast episode on Norse berserkers
- Piblokto (Wikipedia)