Common Words That Were Inspired by Mythological Gods and Goddesses

Dr. Erica Brozovsky, from the PBS series Otherwords, explained that some of the most common words in languages worldwide were directly inspired by the mythological names of gods and goddesses.

Gods are all around us... in the words we use everyday!

Examples include space exploration (Apollo), days of the week (Thursday = Thor's day), months (June = Juno, goddess of marriage and childbirth), natural phenomena (volcano = Vulcan, god of fire), human biology (iris = Iris, goddess of rainbows), and history (the Titanic).

Brozovsky also traces the word hurricane to a storm deity of the Taino people of the Caribbean and notes that zombie may have roots in Nzambi, a creator god of some Bantu peoples in Central and Western Africa.

The Mythological Origins of Common English Words

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The post Common Words That Were Inspired by Mythological Gods and Goddesses was originally published on Laughing Squid.