Reels tagged #words
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Etymology
'Salary' comes from salt
Roman soldiers received an allowance connected to salt, called salarium from the Latin sal. Salt was so valuable it helped preserve armies and empires alike.
Homophones
'Their', 'there' and 'they're' sound identical
Homophones are words that sound the same but differ in spelling and meaning. English has thousands of them because it borrowed spellings from many languages.
Contronyms
'Cleave' means both to split and to cling
A contronym is its own opposite. Cleave descends from two different Old English verbs that collided into one modern spelling.