What makes the spelling of psychedelic a mongrel spelling? According to this Wikipedia article, Richard Evans Schultes thought that psychedelic was a mongrel spelling of the word The other option was phanerothyme Apparently, they are both constructed from
Use of the word tongue to refer to a specific language One of the meanings of the word "tongue" is "language" The word is still in use in certain expressions ("mother tongue" being one of them), and I know that in the pas
Is Jack of all trades, master of none really just a part of a longer . . . Variants that are relative newcomers As for the suggested longer expression "Jack of all trades, master of none, but better than a master of one," the earliest matches I could find for it are two instances from 2007 From Drum magazine (2007) [combined snippets]: The full phrase is actually " Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one " Being multi-skilled
Rule for the pronunciation of the letter O as ʌ vs. ɒ I don't know of any useful rule for when O is pronounced as ʌ There aren't that many words where O in a stressed syllable is pronounced as ʌ , so I think it's most practical to just memorize the pronunciation of each word with this spelling pattern using some method like flashcards Masha Bell's "Improving English spelling" blog gives the following list of words: The main alternative
What is the phrase for a romantic relationship between two incompatible . . . I'd guess there's a sound biological evolutionary reason for this tendency It leads to better mixing of the human gene pool, and "any fule kno" that mongrel dogs are often far healthier than inbred pedigree dogs It was probably a risky business, but the genetic evidence is that homo sapiens definitely interbred with Neanderthals!