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wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney
@wordfoolery.bsky.social
560 followers 330 following 930 posts
Word history - books, blog, LMFMRadio Comedyfic - Channillo Love to read, craft, garden in Ireland My Books - wordfoolery.wordpress.com/my-books/ Weekly Word Blog - http://www.wordfoolery.wordpress.com/ Newsletter - subscribepage.io/wordfoolerywhispers
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wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · Nov 20
“Words Christmas Gave Us” festive history
“Words the Vikings Gave Us” Norse nouns
“Words the Sea Gave Us” nautical words
"Modern Words with Old Roots" avatar to zarf
“How To Get Your Name In The Dictionary” eponyms
#etymology paperback #Kindle
wordfoolery.wordpress.com/my-books/
All of the Wordfoolery books - Christmas, Viking, Sea, Eponyms - on Grace's shelf
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wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 1d
Happy Friday, all. This week I'm #bloomscrolling with my Michaelmas daisies. Random buy recently and couldn't decide where to plant them so took my MIL's example and put them in a pot at the kitchen step where I enjoy them daily. So cheerful. #purple #gardening
Purple michaelmas daisies blooming October Ireland, close up on one bloom but a bush of them in the background
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 2d
Happy #WorldDictionaryDay! Thanks to OED MerriamWebster Dictionarycom MacqDictionary urbandictionary phrasefinder etymonline.com and the others on my shelves who help my #etymology research every day. Dictionaries are the best 📚❤️
a cat laying on top of a stack of books with the words get a dictionary written below it
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 4d
Wordfoolery Whispers is out on Fri 17th Oct. Read about How to Start a Story, a Mammoth Craft Project, Blog Highlights, Good Books and histories for quockerwodger, gargalesthesia, obloquy, aliferous, exulansis, and bampot. Subscribe at subscribepage.io/wordfoolerywhispers & confirm email. #etymology
Wordfoolery Whispers is out This Friday, plus Wordfoolery jester doll in red green and yellow motley complete with bells
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 4d
I mentally put on my Haggling Hat. I imagined it as a black trilby with gangster vibes.

#1linewed "The Librarian's Secret Diary"
a person throwing a hat in the air
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 4d
This week in Castle Bailey Library - Nina, inspired by her father's trip to the Grand Bazaar, dons her Haggling Hat during her annual performance review with Boss Lady. Subscribe and read at www.channillo.com/series/the-l... #librarylife #irishfiction #serialfiction
The Librarian's Secret Diary
<p>Nina is the new librarian on the block. She’s learning the shelves with her buzzword-spouting boss and the senior librarian who hates reading and can’t wait to retire. She records the crazy reader ...
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 4d
I have an ancient Fisher Price one from my own childhood which both I and my kids adored (I played Muppets hospital with it which will reveal my vintage!). Excellent idea to use to prepare kids and build empathy.
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 4d
"We don't pay writers"
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 4d
Ah yes, I have one of those daughters too. Sigh. I suggest finding some bad photos of her as a baby and inflicting them on her (in a loving way, of course).
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 6d
Brilliant, good luck and enjoy the Big Hat!
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wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 6d
This week on Wordfoolery - bampot - a word Scots gave us, with a neat link to Halloween too. wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/t... #etymology #Scotland
The Fermented Word History of Bampot
Hello, This week’s word, bampot, is thanks to the Coliins “Scots Dictionary” which I’m enjoying reading at the moment. I wouldn’t say that I speak Scots but a surprisi…
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 6d
I'm reading, and enjoying, "The Familiar" by Leigh Bardugo (author of Six of Crows) - following a young girl with magical ability who is avoiding the Spanish Inquisition with help from a mysterious immortal man.
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 6d
This week's dusty #etymology gem from the Wordfoolery Archives is prairie. Enjoy! wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/f...
a little girl in a blue dress is running in a field with the name melissa sue anderson on the screen
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 8d
Happy #BookshopDay to all my reading friends, the hardworking bookshop staff in all the shops, and to my youngest who will be selling books today.
a cartoon of a boy reading a book surrounded by books .
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 8d
Thanks, Sarah
wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 8d
Took a wander in my garden. Spots of colour despite the falling leaves. Verbena bonariensis patch looking well. #bloomscrolling
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wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 9d
Happy #leiferiksonday! On this day in 1825, the arrival of early Norwegian immigrants aboard The Restauration in New York Harbor, just a "few" years after Vikings arrived in Vinland amzn.to/3kuDbUr
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 9d
“light-hearted look at Viking influence on the English language…a good jumping-off point for discovering more about both the Vikings and about English.” Popular History Books review
#Kindle #FunFacts #etymology #Viking paperback
wordfoolery.wordpress.com/my-books/ #booksky
Words the Vikings Gave Us by Grace TIerney - green and white cover with long ship motif, flanked by Scandinavian mini flags and Viking replica beads
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 11d
"Did you see the wallpaper in the kitchen?” I shuddered at the memory.

“I think my eyeballs had been burned out by the bedroom carpet at that point. I’m still getting flashbacks."

#1linewed "The Librarian's Secret Diary
a woman in an orange fur coat is saying oh ! my eyes ! my eyes !!!
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 11d
This week in Castle Bailey Nina and her Inter Library Loan Guy are hunting for a place to live together. Unfortunately they encounter the Worst Wallpaper in the Universe. Subscribe to read at www.channillo.com/series/the-l...
The Librarian's Secret Diary
<p>Nina is the new librarian on the block. She’s learning the shelves with her buzzword-spouting boss and the senior librarian who hates reading and can’t wait to retire. She records the crazy reader ...
www.channillo.com
wordfoolery.bsky.social
Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 13d
This week on Wordfoolery - the sweet and sleepy history of doting and telling somebody they are a dote - wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/t... #etymology
The Sweet Sleepy History of Dote
Hello, Dote is one of those words where you really need the context to understand the meaning. For example, if an Irish person tells you that you’re a dote, please take the compliment. In Hib…
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 13d
This week's word from the Wordfoolery Archives is gloaming. I wrote about roaming in the gloaming back in March 2015. wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/r... #etymology
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 15d
5)Tux, a cute little penguin, is the Linux mascot because Torvalds was once bitten by a penguin at a zoo in Australia.

amzn.to/3kuDbUr (ebook/paperback)
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 15d
4) Linux could have been named Freax, that was the working title for the project he’d chosen. He rejected Linux as too egotistical a title but one of the volunteers helping him renamed it and it stuck.
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 15d
3) He made it available for public use on the internet in 1991. He asked other programmers to suggest improvements to him via email. Only 2% of the current version of linux was written by Torvalds who was a student at university when he wrote the original version.
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Grace Tierney @wordfoolery.bsky.social · 15d
2) This computer operating system, similar to unix but suitable for use on personal computers was originally created by and named for Linus Torvalds (born 1969), a Finnish computer programmer.
a picture of a penguin with the words tux my beloved
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