Rob Watts (RobWords)

@robwords.com

2913 Followers 68 Following

YouTube word nerd. Host of RobWords and Words Unravelled. LIVE AT THE EDINBURGH FRINGE: 6th-16th August 2026. Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/robwords-live

A newspaper description of a man being horribly beaten in, quote "quite an exciting and painful experience"
18th century recipe for "A powder to stop the Hickup in Man, Woman, or Child: Put as much Dill-seed, finely powdered as will lie on a shilling, into two spoonfuls of syrup of black cherries, and take it presently.
18th century recipe with the title "To Pickle Pigeons". It begins "Bone them neatly, and season them with salt, pepper, cloves, and mace."
A snippet from an 18th century recipe book with the title "A pretty sauch for woodcock, or any wildfowl"
A banner saying "An Evening of Etymology with RobWords" 6th-16th August 2026, Edinburgh Fringe
Rob on stage at the Bloomsbury Theatre
Rob with the word "gormless" written across him.
Poster for RobWords Live, an evening of etymology on Saturday 11 April 2026 at London's Bloomsbury Theatre.
NILPFERD – “Nile horse” – hippopotamus NACKTSCHNECKE – “naked snail” – slug FAULTIER – “lazy animal” – sloth GÜRTELTIER – “belt animal” – armadillo SIEBENSCHLÄFER – “seven sleeper” – edible dormouse*, which hibernates for seven months TINTENFISCH – “ink fish” – squid/octopus/cuttlefish ERDMÄNNCHEN – “little earth man” – meerkat FLEDERMAUS – “flutter mouse” – bat SCHILDKRÖTE – “shield toad” – tortoise/turtle EICHHÖRNCHEN – “little oak horn” – squirrel WASCHBÄR – “wash bear” – raccoon, because of the way it cleans itself with its human-like hands. We have raccoons in Berlin.
Rob and two beautiful dogs.
A screenshot of Google Translate showing the English sentence "The word is feminine" and its French translation "Le mot est féminin".
Image shows a 1530 English-to-French dictionary entry for "I manche", an old spelling of "munch". Rob has highlighted part of the text: "Are you nat a shamed to manche your meate thus lyke a carter"
Rob stands in front of a bright pink violin plot graph. The subtitles say "I don't like the look of this graph, but I don't want to say why."
Illustration of a man firing a cannon mounted on the back of a camel
A list called "Historical Bum Words" including fundament, hindwin, bung-hole, siege, vent, touch-hole and dung gate.