Kirill Yasko · EN

Discoveries

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  2015-12-02·EN

  bloody flowers

  The other day, remembering how to spell flower (flower in English), I realized for the first time that this word has a root flow, i.e. «flow». Then the literal translation of the word flower will be «current» or «expiring». Apparently it is implied that the flower expires with nectar. Wanting to check if my hypothesis about the etymology of the…
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  2014-11-06·EN

  Homeland Chernobrivtsy

  When I first came to India and Nepal back in 2009, I was I am touched by how many «our» Chernobrivtsy (Ukrainian name for marigolds) they have. They not only decorated home flower beds, but were also actively used in religious rituals. Garlands of bright orange flowers organically looked both at the Hindu saints of the sadhu and near the…
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  2014-09-17·EN

  Cherry is a plum, acacia is a bean.

  Analyzing photos from the spring Turkish hike, I decided to read about the carob tree on Wikipedia under which we spent a couple of nights there. It looks very similar to an acacia, only the pods and leaves are larger and oilier. And so it turned out — carob and acacia belong to the same family of legumes. What do…
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  2014-01-16·EN

  Tongue or fingers?

  Sorry for the details, but while picking my teeth after a heavy dinner, I made an unexpected observation — tactile sensitivity and accuracy of touch at the tip of the tongue are higher than those of the fingers. Feeling my teeth with my tongue, I «see» them large, as if through a magnifying glass — much larger than with a…
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  2013-12-11·EN

  Thursday is Thor’s day

  Watching my second-grader son unsuccessfully try to learn English Thursday (i.e. Thursday) I became interested in the origin of this clumsy word (do you like the sound of th?). It immediately became clear that Thursday is the day of Thor the Thunderer, and this alone was enough for me to remember this word forever. Before, I confess, I often confused…