Conversation

Maybe voters in this poll peeked? We thought turnip was a great decoy answer, but most voters spotted it as the word with a clear etymology. It has origins in Old English (turn, for its shape, as in to turn on a lathe) and Latin (næp, from napus, which means... turnip). Some great discussion in the comments from @ancientsounds who pointed out that the term "proper words" is not used in linguistics, nor helpful — "Apart from in the term 'proper noun', the word 'proper' is deprecated in linguistics (in English publications) because it suggests some value-laden judgement about words, and we avoid judgmental descriptions of any aspect of any language," they explained. @maj and @tobiaspatton mulled the term "proper" — whether it came from the French or Middle English "propre." And @queenofnewyork and @luc both pointed out that they had read the poll the opposite way from how we'd intended, choosing the "proper" word rather than the "improper" one, whatever that means. All in all... not our finest poll! Next up, we're back on steadier and less academic ground with a simple survey of tea and coffee preferences.