Language

Lost scripts, codes and where words come from.

4 rabbit holes

• New
  Word originsSnafu, jeep and gremlins: words from the warMillions of soldiers, months of boredom and a lot of military bureaucracy: World War II was a factory for new words. Some, like “snafu”, began as jokes too rude to print in full. Others, like “jeep” and “gremlin”, are still in everyday use.3 stages · 26 min
• New
  Word originsWhere “OK” comes fromIt may be the most used word on Earth. It started as a joke in a Boston newspaper in 1839, an abbreviation for a deliberate misspelling, “oll korrect”. It should have died out like dozens of similar jokes. A presidential election saved it.2 stages · 10 min
• New
  DeciphermentCracking Linear BIn 1900 archaeologists on Crete dig up clay tablets in an unknown script. For half a century nobody can read them. Then an architect with no university degree in the classics, Michael Ventris, shows they are written in Greek, centuries older than Homer.2 stages · 10 min
• New
  UndecipheredThe Voynich manuscriptA small book from the early 15th century, full of drawings of unknown plants, naked women in pools and star charts, all written in a script nobody has ever read. Codebreakers, linguists and computers have tried for over a century.2 stages · 25 min