Throughout the episodes of Animalogy, I’ll be talking about the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language, the related Indo-European languages, Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), the Norman invasion, Latin, Greek, and different types of sound changes that have occurred in English. In order to provide some context for what might be unfamiliar bits of history or linguistics, I'm offering this brief overview of this remarkable language called English.

Coccyx is a small triangle-shaped bone at the base of the spinal column in humans and other apes, such as gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Representing a vestigial tail and most commonly called the tailbone, coccyx was the name given to this part of our anatomy by ancient Greek physician Galen because of its resemblance to an animal, making the word an "animalogy." Can you guess the etymology? All is revealed in this episode of Animalogy, a podcast about language and the...

This inaugural episode of Animalogy, a podcast about the animal-related words and expressions we use every day, takes us back to the politics of ancient Rome to reveal the birds behind the words inaugural, inauguration, auspicious, auspices, and more. Subscribe, share, and support today at ANIMALOGYPODCAST.COM!

Drawing upon etymology, history, linguistics, literature, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, Animalogy unpacks the idioms, euphemisms, metaphors, semantics, doublespeak, and other elements of our everyday language to reveal the meanings and implications of our animal-related words and expressions. *Receive the podcast transcripts and read the episode notes at ANIMALOGYPODCAST.COM.