Paul Anthony Jones

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Paul Anthony Jones is a writer and musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. He is the author of word origins guide Haggard Hawks and Paltry Poltroons, and runs its tie-in Twitter account @HaggardHawks.

How A Misjudged Act Of Piracy (And A Pig’s Snout) Give The Currency Of Tonga Its Name

Many of the world’s currencies take their names from fairly predictable origins—like weights and measures or precious metals, for example—but the currency of Tonga, the pa‘anga, has a rather unusual history.... READ ON

40 Peculiar P-Words To Pep Up Your Vocabulary

If you're pauciloquent, then this list is worth reading. If you have pinaciphobia? You may want to be careful...... READ ON

The Meanings Behind 20 Chemical Element Names

Lithium takes its name from the Greek word for “stone.”... READ ON

40 Wonderful W-Words To Widen Your Vocabulary

Whether you're writative or just trying to be a linguistic wheel-horse, these words are for you.... READ ON

29 Games Nobody Plays Anymore

You’ve played blind man’s bluff and hide-and-go-seek. You have Marco Poloed, hot potatoed, and I-Spied. But you’ve probably never had to pull a peg out of the ground with your teeth because your knife wasn’t as sharp as the others, or tried to knock a metal plate into a basin with the dregs of your drink.... READ ON

40 Grandiloquent G-Words To Grow Your Vocabulary

These words will leave you looking like a grinagog who's found his guttering-peg.... READ ON

40 Useful Y-Words To Add To Your Vocabulary

Become a yarn-chopper, even if people accuse you of being prone to yaw-yaw.... READ ON

7 Real-Life Inspirations For Dickens’s A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol was published 174 years ago this month.... READ ON

28 Misleading Misnomers Explained

Let's clear a few things up.... READ ON

40 Unusual U-Words To Upgrade Your Vocabulary

Learn these, lest you become a syntactic ultracrepidarian.... READ ON

The Origins of 12 Christmas Words

From worthless trinkets to misnamed chickens, here are the histories and etymologies of 12 Christmassy words.... READ ON

What Exactly Are Your P’s And Q’s? (And Why Do You Have To Mind Them?)

Does it have to do with pea coats?... READ ON

40 Killer K-Words To Add To Your Vocabulary

Use these at your next kaffeeklatsch at the kiddlewink.... READ ON

40 Vibrant V-Words To Revamp Your Vocabulary

A list to please even the most vinerous among us.... READ ON

The Real-Life Criminal Who Inspired Charles Dickens

In the case of Ikey Solomon, the real life tale trumps fiction.... READ ON

35 Joyous J-Words To Jazz Up Your Vocabulary

J remains a fairly rare letter in English—you can expect to find it in just 0.16 percent of the words in a dictionary... READ ON

60 of History’s Strangest Royal Epithets

For every William the Conqueror there’s a Vlad the Impaler. And for every Richard the Lionheart there’s an Albert the Peculiar. Sixty of the most bizarre—and in some cases the most unflattering—epithets from history are listed here.... READ ON

16 Cryptids That Might (Or Might Not) Exist

Practically every country and corner of the globe has its own legendary monster or mystery creature that supposedly dwells there, from giant bats in Java to enormous water hounds in Ireland.... READ ON

5 Writers Who Really Hated Shakespeare

In their own words.... READ ON

40 Zesty Z-Words To Add To Your Vocabulary

Don't be a zob.... READ ON

6 Ways Europe’s Best Doctors Tried to Cure Beethoven’s Deafness

None of the treatments worked, but the composer kept trying.... READ ON

The Time That William Shakespeare Gave Evidence In Court

Mandarin, German, and Dutch? 8 U.S. Presidents Who Spoke More Than One Language

7. During his presidency, Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou would hold their private conversations in Mandarin to prevent their staff from listening in.... READ ON

5 Countries That Existed For Less Than a Year

'A' for effort?... READ ON

The Tiny English Village (Population: 41) That’s Twinned With Paris

Here's how one small town forged a huge partnership.... READ ON

Tom Skelton: The Serial Killer Court Jester

The original Tom Fool wasn't all fun and games.... READ ON

30 Words and Phrases from Victorian Theatrical Slang

Nicknames for noisy babies? Just because these terms have dropped out of use doesn't mean they're any less applicable today.... READ ON

20 Pieces of Advice From Old Tudor Proverbs

Even the Tudors knew not to shoot the messenger (even if they phrased it a little differently).... READ ON

The World’s Top 20 Languages—And The Words English Has Borrowed From Them

The most-spoken languages and their influences on English.... READ ON

The Origins of 9 Royal Nicknames

10 Famous People Who Fought In Duels and Lived to Tell the Tale

While a fight to the death may sound romantic, it's not often what happened.... READ ON

47 More Words That Sound Rude (But Actually Aren’t)

These words sound a lot more suspect than their fairly mundane meanings might suggest.... READ ON

How Shakespeare Changed America’s Wildlife

20 Brilliant Anglo-Saxon Words

Old English had a rich array of inventive and intriguing words, many of which have either long since dropped out of use or were replaced.... READ ON

The Parrot That Kept A Language Alive

In 1800, one explorer discovered a parrot who was speaking a dead language.... READ ON

Charles Dickens, a.k.a. “The Unparalleled Necromancer”

In the summer of 1849, a magician billed as "The Unparalleled Necromancer" gave an unforgettable performance—made even more memorable by the fact that he was actually Charles Dickens.... READ ON

10 Little-Used Shakespearisms

Not all Shakespeare’s snappiest phrases and expressions caught on.... READ ON

15 Surprising Words That Are Probably Onomatopoeic

25 Words That Don’t Mean What They Used To

It’s to be expected that the words we use will change and develop over time. In some instances, these developments can lead to words gaining new meanings entirely different from their original implications.... READ ON

40 Quirky Q-Words To Add To Your Vocabulary

William Shakespeare’s Father: Official Ale-Taster of Stratford-upon-Avon

When Arthur Conan Doyle Judged A Bodybuilding Contest

How A Practical Joke Brought 19th Century London To A Standstill

Louis de Wohl, the Astrologer Who Was Hired By MI5

Why is it "Zed" in Britain, and "Zee" in America?

So zed is British and zee is American, yes? Well, that might be the case today, but once upon a time things were quite different.... READ ON

How Thomas Jefferson Invented A New Way Of Saying “Goodbye”

18 Everyday Expressions Borrowed From the Bible

42 Old English Insults

Next time someone winds you up or you need to win an argument in fine style, why not try dropping one of these old-fashioned insults into your conversation? ... READ ON

12 Distant Places In The Solar System (And What They’re Named After)

A Month by Month Guide To The Anglo-Saxon Calendar

From the month of cakes to the month of blood sacrifices... READ ON

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