Word of the Day #2 – Serendipity

by Éléonore Toubin

As the article about “Pulchritude” was well received, the Word of the Day series is continued. Today’s Word of the Day isn’t as obsolete as “pulchritude”, quite the contrary; it appeared rather recently in the English language. This word was chosen because of its exotic etymology, as it takes its roots in faraway Sri Lanka. Let’s talk about “serendipity”. The word serendipity is quite recent: it was first created in 1754, however it was not commonly used until the early…

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What if naming people followed the same rules as naming brands ?

by Éléonore Toubin

The other day, I was browsing the internet and I chanced upon this picture. It made me wonder what it would be like if just like email addresses or brand names, our names had to be unique. What if a doctor or a town hall employee were to tell you: “I’m sorry Sir, the name Nicole is already taken. Nicole_435 and Nicole2323 are still available though. Do you want one of those or do you want to choose another name?”…

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From Duplo T to Brazuca, what’s in a football name ?

by Éléonore Toubin

As the FIFA World Cup is now in its second week you may have noticed the football at the start of matches when the referee picks it up off its plinth.  It may not have occurred to you but the ball has a name! In the old days, the name of the official ball was often global and transnational with little reference to local colour and culture. Nowadays, the ball name claims its origin and has turned into a powerful…

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Are all the good ones in Croatia already taken?

by Maja Benčić

No, I’m not talking about Croatian men. I’m talking about names.   Here in Croatia, we have the same problem as everyone else in the world – it looks like all the good Croatian words have already been used as names, mostly because people still like to use descriptive names and play safe. Also, our law allows us to register names only in Croatian or “dead” languages: Latin and ancient Greek.   As people today no longer use Latin or…

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