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Otherwords

The Ancient Origins of Body Words

Episode 1 | 8m 36s

Body parts would probably have been one of the first things that ancient peoples gave names to, so not only do we find hundreds of cognates and permutations, but also widespread use in idioms, slang and other figures of speech. Since our bodies have been with us literally from the beginning, we can learn a lot about language by investigating their etymologies.

Aired: 01/29/25
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Watch • 7:03
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Watch • 6:21
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Watch • 8:11
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