Search from various English teachers...
Kateryna Velyka
Professional TeacherEnglish is full of strange words… and their history is even stranger.
✨ Salary comes from the Latin salarium — money once linked to buying salt, one of the most valuable goods in the ancient world.
✨ Muscle comes from Latin musculus, meaning “little mouse”… because moving muscles under the skin looked like mice running around.
✨ Window comes from Old Norse vindauga — literally “wind eye.”
✨ Nightmare originally had nothing to do with horses. Mare was an old word for an evil spirit believed to sit on people during sleep.
Learning vocabulary becomes easier when words tell a story.
Which word should we investigate next? 🔍
May 13, 2026 5:16 PM
Kateryna Velyka
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English, Other, Russian, Ukrainian
Learning Language
Other
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