Original Public Meaning

Where do our modern English words come from? And what do their long histories tell us about our own ideas and the wider world? On Original Public Meaning, we unearth the ancient foundations of our language and consider how its vast, rich literature—fiction, essays, science, and more—can help us savor our words today.

Original Public Meaning is a education podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 41 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 81. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Original Public Meaning, a education show with 41 episodes published.

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  Episode #41

  Episode 41: accuse

  Aug 7, 20267 min

  In the board game Clue , we finish the game by making an accusation about who killed Mr. Boddy, where, and with what. This context of a murder mystery is a good entry point for thinking about the English verb "accuse," which has its roots in the legal system of the ancient Romans. It's a verb that appears in the poem "District and Circle" by the acclaimed Irish poet Seamus Heaney, where a commuter and busking musician exchange glances in the London Underground. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music : Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska ( Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

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  Episode #38

  Episode 38: distribute

  Jul 2, 20268 min

  Questions of "distribution" have always been central to ethical and legal matters. The etymology of "distribute" itself comes with its own knotty questions and deceptive cousins—for instance, the loose and probably false connection between this word and "tribe." To close things out, we consider the opening paragraph of René Descartes's Discourse on the Method and its insistence that "good sense is the best distributed thing in the world." Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music : Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska ( Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

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  Episode #37

  Episode 37: exhaust

  Jun 24, 20268 min

  We're back after a brief hiatus with the word "exhaust," a word that has broad application in English—sometimes a verb, sometimes a noun. It's an opportunity to review the idea of a "perfect passive participle," a fundamental grammatical concept observed in Latin words like exhaustus , from which our English word "exhaust" arises. Finally, we consider the character Neddy Merrill from John Cheever's story "The Swimmer." Exhausted at the end of the story, Neddy is just as exhausted as the stirred martinis that he has drunk over a summer afternoon. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music : Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska ( Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

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  Episode #36

  Episode 36: dissolve

  Jun 8, 20268 min

  The word "dissolve" likely brings up an image of a chemist's solutions or a sugar cube breaking apart in water. But this word has applications in a wide range of areas: a dissolute person, the dissolving of Parliament, even the final dissolving of the body and soul. As a more recent example, we consider the phrase "dissolving margins," a recurring theme in the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante, where a chaotic moment in life can disrupt our sense of order and definition. Suggest a word for a future episode or support this podcast at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wordswordswords Music : Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska ( Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0) --- https://originalpublicmeaning.com

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  Episode #35

  Episode 35: conscience

  Jun 2, 20269 minS0

  <p>In English, the notion of "conscience" is often confused with "consciousness," words that share the same etymological roots in Latin. Generally, we might define "conscience" as that "little voice" in our head that tells us what's right and what's wrong. In today's episode, we consider how that notion of a private, internal conscience developed from a word that originally meant a "joint understanding" with others. We also look at the recent encyclical published by Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, which raises important questions about the nature of conscience—and of consciousness—in an era of technological change.</p><p></p><p...

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