John Kelly

@mashedradish.bsky.social

822 Followers 777 Following

Middle-school English teacher. Former dictionary editor and spokesperson. I write about etymology at mashedradish.com.

Detail of a person inflating an animal bladder in Bruegel's 1560 painting, "Children's Games."
A screenshot of the first four citations for the word "football" in the Oxford English Dictionary.
As some of you may have noticed, we have recently experienced an ongoing issue involving the improper disposal of dog waste from a balcony within the community. It appears that bagged pet waste is being thrown from an upper-floor balcony, often landing on and splattering across the sidewalk and bridge leading into the 3rd Street tunnel below.
A screenshot of the Zoom app showing a window crowded with offers and new features.
A screenshot of an online training program showing a picture of a young girl holding a cellphone. At the bottom is a banner over which appears the following text: "The Emerging Use of AI To Groom Targets."
A hand-made sign reading "Vaping is Wack" in colorful, block letters.
A screen capture of the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for "nummit."
A screen capture of the entry for "noonmeat" in the Oxford English Dictionary.com
A screen capture from the Oxford English Dictionary of the entry for "splashdown."
Written in red dry-erase marker on a white board: “The only thing more powerful than hate love,” attributed to Bad Bunny.
Cézanne's 'Still Life with a Curtain,' which depicts a jar next to bowls of oranges on a table covered loosely with a white cloth, all foregrounded before a green-brown curtain with a floral print.
A frame of George Constanza showing Jerry Seinfeld his private, accessible bathroom at work. Above the toilet is a framed print of Cézanne's 'Still Life with a Curtain,' which depicts a jar next to bowls of oranges on a table covered loosely with a white cloth, all foregrounded before a green-brown curtain with a floral print.
“W Mr. Kelly Chat” written in red dry-erase marker on a whiteboard.
The Oxford English Dictionary's unrevised entry for the adjective 'cold,' whose first definition reads: "The proper adjective expressing a well-known quality of the air or of other substances exciting one of the primary physical sensations, due to the abstraction of heat from the surface of the body: of a temperature sensibly lower than that of the living human body. Admitting degrees of intensity (colder, coldest)."
A scene from Jurassic Park showing brachiosauruses and hadrosauridae at a tree-lined lake as viewed from the distance.
Basilica and temple in downtown Cincinnati as people march against ICE.
The cast of The Twilight Zone appears in Season 5 Episode 25 "The Masks". Photo: CBS via Getty Images. From: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-masks-best-the-twilight-zone-episode-to-watch-on-halloween
A picture of the entry for ‘warm-ups’ on p. 859 of Volume V of the Dictionary of American Regional English.
Gerardus Mercator's 1538 map of the world, which applied the name "America" to North America as well as South America. One of two existing copies, this one is held by the New York Public Library.
A picture of the tomb of Louis Braille in the crypt of the Panthéon in Paris.
A picture of an annotated text of Emily Dickinson's poem no. 1651 ("A word made Flesh is seldom"): A Word made Flesh is seldom And tremblingly partook Nor then perhaps reported But have I not mistook Each one of us has tasted With ecstasies of stealth The very food debated To our specific strength – A Word that breathes distinctly Has not the power to die Cohesive as the Spirit It may expire if He – “Made Flesh and dwelt among us” Could condescension be Like this consent of Language This loved Philology.
A picture of a full yew tree bathed in warm sunlight. From: https://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/blogs/trees/everything-you-need-to-know-about-yew-trees?srsltid=AfmBOoriUbojPf7HqZbhl3bqikqMdYynraVn0cc3MsYoFLyqWncRX61A
A black-and-white rendering of the Seal of the City of New York, showing an array of symbols encircled by the Latin text for "Seal of the City of New York." From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_New_York_City#/media/File:Seal_of_New_York_City_(B&W).svg
A black-and-white hand-drawn sketch of a cartoon character standing next to a giant Advent calendar with flaps open to reveal the heads of similar cartoon characters.
Fred Moten at a podium in the Elliston Poetry Room at the University of Cincinnati.
A screenshot of Merriam-Webster's Time Traveler, showing words that so far first appeared in print in a given year. This screenshot shows 2005 and features the following terms: Blue Alert, butt-dial, crate-dig, didymo, glamping, LARC, locavore, microblogging, mumblecore, pre-exposure prophylaxis, rage quit, ransomware, rock snot, sexting, truther, truthiness, unvaxxed, upvote, vaccine hesitant, vodcast.
A title card to the 1945 film "I Know Where I'm Going!" It reads: Wendy Hiller / Roger Livesey in "i know where i'm going!" Note that the letter I in the title are lowercased.
A picture of the red linen front cover of Merriam-Webster's Twelfth Edition of its Collegiate Dictionary.
Screenshot of part of the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for 'affordability,' which it defines as "the quality of being affordable; inexpensiveness." The screenshot shoes the first two citations. The first from 1910 is from the "Indianapolis Star" and reads: "The affordability of the overland car." The second, from Hillsboro, OH's "Press-Gazette" in 1939, reads: "The affordability of the prices."
A screenshot of an unread email from ChatGPT with the subject line "Write faster with ChatGPT" and thumbnail text of "Paste a draft, get edits you can use now"
A photograph of the painting "Le Poker' by Félix Vallotton as displayed in the Musée D'Orsay in Paris, France.
A bookshelf in the Abbey Bookshop in Paris showing John Scalzi's "The Consuming Fire."
A screen capture of Act 5, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Richard III, lines 8–11. Richard III (Duke of Gloucester): Up with my tent there! here will I lie tonight; But where to-morrow? Well, all's one for that. Who hath descried the number of the foe? Duke of Norfolk: Six or seven thousand is their utmost power. "
Screen capture from Google Chrome URL bar, reading "Press tab then enter to ask AI Mode."
A picture of a hand-written thank-you note. It reads: Mr. Kelly, Thank you for taking the time to speak to my Morality Class. Your talk has stuck with me and was very impactful. The way you talked about masculinity was, in my opinion, spot on. In a world of junk influencers and toxic males, you were a breath of fresh air. To love, to forgive, to be vulnerable, these themes were present throughout your talk and I appreciate that. Those qualities are what it means to be a man. Thanks again, [signature intentionally cropped out]
A screen capture of the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for 'stoolball.' The definition reads: A team game resembling cricket, using a stool or (now usually) a board as a wicket, originally played chiefly by women and girls. The entry adds the note: The game originated in south-east England and was originally played at Easter, with a tansy-cake traditionally awarded to the winning side .
A screen capture of the Oxford English Dictionary's etymology for the verb 'bale,' which reads: Summary A borrowing from French. Etymon: French baler. < Old French baler (since 16th cent. baller) to dance (= Provençal balar, Italian ballare, Spanish bailar, Portuguese bailar) < late Latin (Isidore) ballāre to dance. Some think the Latin formed < Greek βαλλίζειν to dance, some < balla ball n.1, on the alleged ground that, in the Middle Ages, tennis was accompanied with dancing and song.
A screen capture of the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of 'ballroom' and its first two citations. Definition reads: A large room for formal dancing; a room in which balls are or may be held. First citation is from 1719 from E.F. Haywood's 'Love In Excess'and reads: She return'd to the Ball Room, and was so out of Humour all the Night that she cou'd hardly be Commonly Civil to any Body. SEcond citation is from a letter from November 30. 1736 in 'Fog's Weekly Journal' and reads: The Conspirators..were first to blow up the Ball-Room
A picture of the spines of the Blu-Ray edition of Dekalog, Tree of Life, Stalkee, and Taste of Cherry.
A screen capture of a Jesuit parish church bulletin. Under the heading "Supporting Refugees and Migrants," it read: "Just over two years ago, our parish opened its doors to the Povstian family from Ukraine when they were seeking refuge from the ongoing war in their homeland. Although that war continues, current immigration policies prohibited the Povstians from renewing their humanitarian parole and work authorization in the United States, so they have moved to Ireland to start anew. We will continue to support the Povstians from afar, and we ask that you please keep them and all refugee and migrant families in your prayers."
"There is much trouble at the white house, as we cal it, I mean the President's." The OED's second citation, as of 10/21/2025, of "white house" referring to the US president's residency. From March 18, 1812 letter by Abijah Bigelow captured in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society.
Herbie Hancock playing with his incredible band on a concert stage moodily lit in red and blue. Left to right: Herbie Hancock (keytar); Lionel Loueke (electric guitar); James Genus (electric bass); Terence Blanchard (trumpet). Out of view is drummer Jaylen Petinaud.
Screenshot of the usage note at 'peek' in the MacOS dictionary app. The text reads: "The word meaning ‘look quickly or furtively’ and ‘a quick or furtive look’ is peek, not peak: ‘the sun peeks out only intermittently’; ‘a sneak peek at what's in store’. In some contexts, this error is very common: for example, almost a third of citations for the expression a sneak peek in the Oxford English Corpus are for the incorrect spelling (‘a sneak peak’)."
Screenshot of top-10 trending lookups on Etymonline.com showing "Logos" and "ghost" in the 6th and 7th positions.
A screenshot of the etymology of "Primates" from the Oxford English Dictionary.
The 1859 patent for Nathan Ames's "Revolving Stairs," through three views of a drawing of the precursor to the escalator.
A picture of Charles-Émile Jacque’s 1880 oil painting, “The Shepherd and His Flock,” with a shaggy sheepdog at the bottom right
A screen capture of the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for "heavy metal," twice citing Black Sabbath, which vocalist Ozzy Osbourne was a key part of forming.
Screen shot of the etymology of "balcony" from the Oxford English Dictionary. The key highlight of the image is: "Till c1825 the pronunciation was regularly bælˈkəʊnɪ; but ˈbælkənɪ (once in Swift), ‘which,’ said Samuel Rogers, ‘makes me sick,’ is now established."
A picture of the poem "Poet's work" by Lorine Niedecker.
Screenshot from the US government’s National Human Genome Research Institute showing a page titled “Scientific Racism” updated on February 13, 2025. There is an image of a pale green- and purple-colored globe rendered as a cell with DNA helices going through it at an angle.
Screenshot of the OED's entry for "trade war," showing the term first used for "war about trade" as early as 1718" and in its current sense of "efforts between countries to damage each other's trade" in 1811.
Screenshot of blog post from Mashed Radish on the origin of the word "tariff," showcasing a paragraph providing a contextual news update since original publication.
Screenshot of landing page of new slang vertical on Merriam-Webster, showing thumbnail images of slang terms "skibidi," "situationship," mog," polycule," and "WYLL."
A screen capture of the navigation bar of the OED, with the new "AI Search Assistant" positioned in white text on a dark blue background to the right of the main search bar with three white sparkles, which sparkles are widely used as icons to represent "AI."
Picture of Mary Beard's "Emperor of Rome" open to the page containing the quoted line (last sentence of last full paragraph, p. 407) on a black marble surface.
A photograph of W.S. Merwin's volume "The Shadow of Sirius," opened to the poem "Inheritance." Two rocks weigh down the book, resting on a black marble surface.
A photograph of W.S. Merwin's volume of poetry "The Shadow of Sirius," opened to the poem "Traces." Two rocks weigh down the book, resting on a black marble surface.
Screenshot of the entry for "Lynchian" in the Oxford English Dictionary.