Bonjour

A fun word nerd find: the French word jour, meaning “day” (as in “bonjour”), comes from the Latin word diurnus, meaning “daily.” It’s the adjectival form of dies, the Latin word for “day.” Incidentally, in spite of the similarities, our English word day is “in no way related to Latin dies,” according to the OED. (It is very much related, however, to the German tag.)

Speaking of the OED, their March 2011 update added OMG, LOL, IMHO, BFF, TMI, and others to the dictionary. That’s noteworthy in itself (and being a descriptivist, I’m glad to see them there), but this bit surprised me:

As is often the case, OED‘s research has revealed some unexpected historical perspectives: our first quotation for OMG is from a personal letter from 1917; the letters LOL had a previous life, starting in 1960, denoting an elderly woman (or ‘little old lady’; see LOL n./1); and the entry for FYI [FYI phr., adj., and n.], for example, shows it originated in the language of memoranda in 1941.

1917! I had no idea.

Other new additions: to heart (as a verb, as in “I heart etymology”) and smack talk.