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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 9h

“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

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 1d

I thought lantern was Germanic — but it comes from Greek lampter ‘torch’ via Latin and French. As October nights draw in, it recalls scenes before electricity, lanterns carried into the dark. Read more: bit.ly/GEEwords

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 1d

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 cattle, the glow in novel

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 4d

The rose hip has two roots. ‘Rose’ came from Latin and Greek, ‘hip’ is Old English. A borrowed flower + a native fruit, tied together in autumn hedgerows. More at bit.ly/GEEwords

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 4d

Rose hips glow red in autumn hedges, gathered for teas, charms, and wartime syrup. The word itself holds two stories: ‘rose’ travelled west from Greek and Latin, while ‘hip’ is a Germanic survival from Old English hēope. Other languages echo the same pattern, with hedge-pods and briar-berries alongs

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 6d

Old English ‘mist’ has barely changed in a thousand years. It shares a root with ‘mistletoe’—once ‘misteltān’, the ‘dung twig’. From meigh- ‘to sprinkle’.
bit.ly/GEEwords
greatexpectationseducation.uk/musings-word...

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 7d

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
– Harper Lee

A quiet corner, a burst of yellow, and a reminder of how vital stories are.

#HarperLee #BookQuote #ReadersOfX #ToKillAMockingbird #GreatExpectationsEducation #QuoteOfTheDay

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 8d

October still means ‘eight’. A name from Rome, reshaped by Anglo-Saxon moons and Norse winters. From ‘Winterfylleth’ to ‘Gormánuðr’, October carries stories of calendars and seasons. bit.ly/GEEwords
#October #Etymology #WordOrigins #LanguageHistory

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 11d

Crab apples grow along field margins, woodland paths, and old hedgerows. The name doesn’t come from claws, but likely from old Germanic words meaning ‘crooked’ or ‘gnarled’.
👉 bit.ly/GEEwords
#crabapple #etymology #hedgerow #wildapple #greatexpectationseducation

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 13d

The hawthorn berries are starting to colour in the hedgerows behind our allotment. But the name ‘hawthorn’ is rooted much further back—right to Old English hagaþorn, meaning ‘hedge-thorn’.

It’s one of the oldest plant names still in use in English. In Middle English, the fruit itself became known a

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 13d

‘Hawthorn’ is one of the oldest English tree names. Originally a ‘hedge-thorn’, it later gave its name to the fruit: a haw. Across Europe, names like meidoorn, biancospino and aubépine echo its thorns and blossom.
More here: bit.ly/GEEwords
#hawthorn #etymology #hedgerow #oldenglish #trees #autumnwo

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 14d

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.”
– George R.R. Martin

A yellow chair, a sea view, and a good book — what more could you need?

#GeorgeRRMartin #BookQuote #ReadersOfX #ReadMoreBooks #GreatExpectationsEducation #QuoteOfTheDay

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 15d

‘Acorn’ didn’t always mean oak nut. It once meant any wild field fruit — reshaped by folk etymology, and narrowed over time.

Across Europe: ‘gland’, ‘ghianda’, ‘bellota’, ‘baloot’, ‘eikel’. Even squirrels got in on the story.
#etymology #acorn #linguistics #OldEnglish
bit.ly/GEEwords

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 18d

On a menu in Legoland Billund, I found mushrooms listed as ‘beech hats’. Across Europe, fungi are bristles, plums, toads’ chairs and more. bit.ly/GEEwords #etymology #foodwords

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 20d

I spotted Stillings Gaard on a street in Denmark, and it reminded me how far this word travels. Danish gård, English ‘yard’, and English ‘garden’ all come from an ancient root for ‘enclosure’. Even Kindergarten is part of the family. bit.ly/GEEwords

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 21d

‘A room without books is like a body without a soul.’
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

Even the brightest space feels empty without a shelf or two.

#Cicero #BookQuote #BooksMatter #ReadersOfX #GreatExpectationsEducation #QuoteOfTheDay #BookishThoughts

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 22d

‘Damson’ sounds hedgerow-born — but it once meant ‘plum of Damascus’.
A clipped fruit with a long memory.
#Etymology #Damson #WordHistory #SeptemberWords
Translations + full story: bit.ly/GEEwords

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 24d

Love it!

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 25d

A sunflower over a hedge in Otterlo this summer made me think of the word hedgerow. From Old English hecg + ræw, its story runs through Bronze Age fields, Saxon charters, and the Enclosure Acts. More here: bit.ly/GEEwords #etymology #hedgerow #landscape

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 27d

French has marron d’Inde, German Rosskastanie, Danish hestekastanje. Only English has ‘conker’, born in 1840s slang from ‘conquer’. bit.ly/GEEwords #etymology #autumn #conker

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 28d

A book is the best kind of company — whatever the day brings.
‘Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.’
– Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

#LemonySnicket #Horseradish #BookLovers #ReadersOfInstagram #LiteraryQuotes #BeachReads #GreatExpectationsEducation #QuoteOfTheDay #ReadEverywhere

Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · 29d

Spring blossom now, but conker season is coming. ‘Horse chestnut’ is a direct translation of Turkish ‘at kestanesi’, ‘the horse’s chestnut’, from when the nuts were fed to horses. bit.ly/GEEwords
#etymology #trees #wordhistory #conkers

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · Sep 12

‘Harvest’ was once the English word for autumn. From Old English ‘hærfest’ and PIE ‘kerp-’ ‘to pluck’, it lives on in German ‘Herbst’, Dutch ‘herfst’, Italian ‘raccolto’, Spanish ‘cosecha’, and Welsh ‘cynhaeaf’.
More: bit.ly/GEEwords
#etymology #harvest #seasons

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · Sep 10

My garden’s full of brambles thanks to a bit of accidental rewilding. The word itself goes back to Old English ‘bremel’, a thornbush. German keeps it in ‘Brombeere’, French has ‘ronce’, Spanish ‘zarza’. More here: bit.ly/GEEwords #etymology #bramble #blackberry

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Joanna MW @jbalaena.bsky.social · Sep 9

“Stories cannot demolish frontiers, but they can punch holes in our mental walls…” – Elif Shafrak

#StoryPower #ElifShafrak #GlobalVoices #MentalWalls #EmpathyThroughStories #GreatExpectationsEducation #QuoteOfTheDay #SeaView #NatureAndWisdom #TedTalkQuotes