Etymoleon - Word History, the etymology podcast.
Word History is a podcast for people who enjoy words and history.
Each episode takes a small set of words linked to a theme. You'll hear what they mean, where they come from and which familiar words share the same linguistic roots, along with stories from the past related to their use.
Listen for words that sharpen expression, and brief histories that show how ideas and practices, as well as language, took shape. Across an archive of more than a hundred episodes, you'll find explanations of word, name and phrase origins.
The majority of etymologies featured return to Old English, Ancient Greek, Latin and Old French, providing a look into languages of the past that underpin English.
New episodes on Sundays.
Play the daily word game Derivety: https://derivety.com
Get in touch: https://etymoleon.com
Etymoleon - Word History, the etymology podcast.
117. Murder
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
To burke is to kill by strangulation, a word taken from the name of a 19th century murderer. In Anglo-Saxon England, a killing could be settled with payment through the wergild, a sum paid by the offender to the victim's family. In France, a petty criminal would go on to become one of the first figures to resemble a modern detective.
Alongside these histories, this episode explores the origins of words such as assassin, scelerate, culprit, trucidate and lucre.
Transition sound by https://audionautix.com
-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvrsydm#zhxbcmn
https://biomedical-sciences.ed.ac.uk/anatomy/anatomical-museum/collection/people/burke
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/eugene-francois-vidocq-and-the-birth-of-the-detective/
https://blog.oup.com/2015/08/word-etymology-culprit/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2006/04/11/local_heroes_doctor_william_palmer_feature.shtml