Category Archives: Etymology

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wisp

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Nathan

The term “Will o’ the Wisp” refers to a sort of light that appears over swamps and marshes, caused by photon emissions from gases. Or at least that’s the scientific explanation. There’s a lot of folklore devoted to these weird … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Crossing, Animals, Authors, British, Christianity, Dragon Quest, Etymology, Fairy Tales, Final Fantasy, German, J.R.R. Tolkien, Japanese, Lewis Carroll, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Plays, Poetry, Religion, Science, Scottish, South American, Video Games, William Shakespeare | Tagged a midsummer night's dream, ariel, boitata, bram stoker, dracula, dragon quest iv, fairies, frodo baggins, ghosts, gollum, hobbits, ignis fatuus, irrwisch, jack o' lantern, john milton, karl haupt, lord of the rings, lost souls, paradise lost, puck, rogue wispers, samwise gamgee, snarks, st. elmo's fire, st. erasmus of formia, the hunting of the snark, the tempest, tonberries, umibozu, will o' the wisp, wisp, wisps, yokai | Leave a comment

Such Shellfish Women

Posted on June 29, 2019 by Nathan

I’m not really not that knowledgeable about Pokémon, but I have played Pokémon Yellow and picked up a few other things here and there. These are mostly about the original Pokémon, though, and there have been so many others since … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Chinese, Etymology, Japanese, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Pokémon, Video Games | Tagged baku, carp, dragon gate, dragons, drowzee, fish, froslass, futakuchi-onna, gyarados, hermit crabs, kappa, lombre, magikarp, mawile, namazu, sazae-oni, shellder, slowbro, slowking, slowpoke, snails, top snail, turban snail, whiscash, yuki-onna | 1 Comment

A Foray Into Animated Enchantresses

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Nathan

A few days ago, Tavie brought up how both Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons have witches named Witch Hazel, both voiced by June Foray, and said I should write a post about that. From the brief research I did, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Cartoons, Comics, Disney Afternoon, Etymology, Halloween, Holidays, Humor, Magic, Names, Television, William Shakespeare | Tagged bea benaderet, bewitched bunny, broom-stick bunny, bugs bunny, carl barks, casper the friendly ghost, chuck jones, donald duck, ducktales, huey dewey and louie, june foray, little lulu, looney tunes, macbeth, madam mim, magica de spell, scrooge mcduck, the sword in the stone, trick or treat, witch hazel, witches | Leave a comment

Worm Your Way

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Nathan

Looking into mythology and fiction involving giant worms is a little tricky because it seems like a lot of early societies thought worms and snakes were variations on the same thing. I guess they didn’t want to investigate all that … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Cartoons, Etymology, Final Fantasy, Futurama, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Monsters, Mythology, Science, Television, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged a link to the past, al gore, alien, annelids, arrakis, asclepius, beetlejuice, beowulf, carl linnaeus, dragons, dune, earthworms, final fantasy v, final fantasy vi, final fantasy X, frank herbert, glurmo, gobi desert, gogo, graboids, indus river, indus worm, john schoenherr, lambton worm, link, moldorms, mongolian death worm, moon worms, neitherworld, olgoi-khorkhoi, orcs, philip j. fry, professor hubert farnsworth, sandworms, saturn, skolex, slurm, slurm queen, sockburn worm, the battle of the five armies, the hobbit, tim burton, tremors, turanga leela, were-worms, worms, wormulon, wyrms, xenomorphs, zone eater | 2 Comments

Yale, Yale, the Gang’s All Here

Posted on September 23, 2017 by Nathan

Today’s mythical creature is the Yale, which was included in a list of uncommon mythical creatures on Quora, a site I’m always getting e-mails from despite not remembering ever signing up for, but I don’t unsubscribe because there’s interesting stuff … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Etymology, Greek Mythology, Language, Monsters, Mythology | Tagged basilisk, bible, camelopard, centicore, ethiopia, giraffe, heraldry, jael, john of lancaster, judges, lady margaret beaufort, little nemo, natural history, pliny the elder, whiffenpoofs, yale, yale university | 1 Comment

Warrior Women at Work

Posted on June 24, 2017 by Nathan

The Dark Prophecy, by Rick Riordan – The follow-up to The Hidden Oracle continues the adventures of Apollo in a mortal body, with only occasional access to his godly powers when he least expects them. The previous volume established the … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Comics, Etymology, Greek Mythology, Humor, Language, Mythology, Poetry, Rick Riordan, Roman, Trials of Apollo | Tagged apollo, artemis, blemmyae, calypso, dc comics, griffins, hemithea, hercules, lucius aurelius commodus, the dark prophecy, trophonius, wonder woman, wonder woman a celebration of 75 years | Leave a comment

Real Food

Posted on May 20, 2017 by Nathan

I recently received a comment on my post on the Roman goddess Anna Perenna asking whether I knew of any connection between her and the Hindu Annapurna. I have to say I don’t know of any, but the names are … Continue reading →

Posted in Dice, Etymology, Food, Games, Hinduism, Mythology, Names, Philosophy, Religion, Roman | Tagged anna perenna, annapurna, materialism, parvati, shiva, vishnu | Leave a comment

Category Archives: Etymology

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wisp

Such Shellfish Women

A Foray Into Animated Enchantresses

Worm Your Way

Yale, Yale, the Gang’s All Here

Warrior Women at Work

Real Food

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