When I first started looking into lantern, I expected it to be Germanic. But its story goes back to Greek lampter ‘torch’, then Latin lanterna and French lanterne before reaching English. October seems the right time for it — nights drawing in, the lantern taken out to feed cattl

“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book.” – Marcel Proust The best kind of nostalgia is bound in pages. 📚 #MarcelProust #BookQuote #ReadersOfX #LiteraryQuotes #ChildhoodReads #GreatExpectationsEducation

Old name, bitter fruit. This word card traces the roots of sloe — from Indo-European colour words to hedgerow gin and frost-bitten harvests. 🔗 bit.ly/GEEwords

The hearth once meant both fireplace and family. From Old English ‘heorð’ to Latin ‘focus’ and Greek ‘Hestia’. More at greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-… #etymology #hearth

At Vile, on Denmark’s Limfjord, the word for dusk is 'tusmørke', ‘between dark’. English has kept its own word for over a thousand years. Read more: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

“Book collecting is an obsession… not a hobby. Those who do it must do it.” – Jeanette Winterson This is my neatly shelved version. Sometimes the ‘to read’ pile reaches the ceiling and looks like it might topple in the night. Still worth it. #BookCollector #ReadersOfX #BookQuo

‘Ember’ comes from Old English ‘ǣmyrge’ and Old Norse ‘eimyrja’—a live coal. Its cousins across Europe still glow: ‘braise’, ‘brasa’, ‘glød’. The word has carried warmth for over a thousand years. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

Across Europe, the smallest rain has many names — drizzle, bruine, llovizna, Niesel. All speak of drops that hover before they fall. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

‘Frost’ is one of English’s oldest words — unchanged for a thousand winters. From Old English ‘forst’ to the same chill sound we use today. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

‘The world was hers for the reading.’ – Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn A bright bloom, spotted in a corner of Brittany — and a reminder of everything that opens up with a book. #BettySmith #LiteraryQuotes #ReadersOfX #BooksAndBlooms #GreatExpectationsEducation

‘Twilight’ joins ‘two’ and ‘light’ to name the half-light between day and night. From Old English twi-lyht, it shares roots with ‘twin’ and ‘lucid’. Read more: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

‘Halloween’ began as ‘All Hallows’ Even’, the night before All Saints’ Day. The word holds centuries of English and European memory: saints, souls, and the turning of the year. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

The word ‘November’ once meant ‘ninth month’. The Romans counted from March, while the Anglo-Saxons called it ‘Blōtmōnaþ’ — the sacrifice month. Read the full word history: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” – W. Somerset Maugham A quiet headland in Brittany… and the kind of refuge you can carry anywhere: a book. #SomersetMaugham #BookQuote #ReadersOfX #LiteraryRefuge #Gre

‘Bonfire’ once meant a fire of bones. Folk speech re-heard it through French ‘bon’ — a ‘good fire’. From ritual smoke to village blaze. Read the full story: greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

Pear began as Latin pirum and may go back to an ancient root meaning ‘to crush’. A soft fruit with a long linguistic history. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

“Every man who knows how to read… multiplies the ways in which he exists.” – Aldous Huxley Spotted on the north coast of Germany: a flash of pink, a beetle, and a reminder that books don’t just inform — they expand. #AldousHuxley #BookQuote #ReadersOfX #GreatExpectationsEducat

‘Poppy’ keeps its Latin root ‘papaver’ through centuries of language change. From Old English ‘popiġ’ to today’s word of remembrance. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

‘Parsnip’ began as the Latin ‘pastinaca’—a word for both parsnip and carrot, and for the fork used to dig them up. Across Europe, the name still traces those Roman roots. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…

By November the weather calls for jacket potatoes. The word has travelled as far as the crop itself — from Taíno ‘batata’ and Quechua ‘papa’ to Spanish ‘patata’. Across Europe, people called it an ‘earth apple’ or compared it to a truffle. greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-words-…