The word journey

A sexy word everyone wants and so much more

Published on September 23, 2026

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Just like a bride is traditionally given something "borrowed" on her wedding day, our everyday speech is full of words borrowed from other languages. We use them to describe everything from that café you love to the strange feeling that you’ve experienced something before, and even those irritating mosquitoes. Get ready for some big surprises as we uncover 10 words that have slipped into our vocabulary from other languages.

Shampoo (Hindi)

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Here is a word that describes something we all use very often (or at least we hope so): "shampoo," which comes from the Hindi word chāmpo, which means "press" or "massage."

Originally, in 18th-century India, chāmpo referred to the practice of massaging the head and body, often with oils. British travelers encountered the practice in India and brought the word back to Britain in the 18th century. In English, its meaning gradually shifted from massage to the washing of the hair. Talk about a transformation.

Mosquito (Spanish)

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"Zzzzzzzzzzzz"- the sound that can turn a peaceful night into an exercise in frustration. The term to describe this annoying fellow, mosquito, entered the English language from Spanish in the 16th century, meaning "little fly."It comes from Spanish mosca, meaning "fly," with the diminutive ending -ito, meaning "little."

Put them together, and you get a surprisingly cute name for one of nature’s most irritating creatures, making it a very tiny word for such a big annoyance.

Café (French)

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Take another sip of your coffee before continuing your reading. The word café may look unmistakably French, but its linguistic journey is much longer. The French borrowed café to mean both coffee and the place where it is served. They got it from the Italian caffè, which was borrowed from Ottoman Turkish kahve. That word ultimately traces back to Arabic qahwa, a word associated with coffee and possibly with an older term for wine or another stimulating drink.

Eventually, café came to refer not only to the drink but also to the places where people gathered to enjoy it. Today, it can mean a coffee shop, a small restaurant, or simply a place to sit, sip, and watch the world go by. Without a doubt, this seems to be a very sexy word everyone wants to say, no matter the location or the moment in time.

Bungalow (Hindi)

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Do you like where you live? How would you describe it? If your idea of the perfect home includes one story, plenty of fresh air, and perhaps a welcoming porch, you already know the word: bungalow. The word comes from Hindi bangla, meaning "Bengalese," referring to a house built in the style of Bengal.

The term was used in Anglo-Indian English by the late 17th century to describe low, often thatched one-story houses with verandas. Eventually, both the word and the architectural style traveled far beyond India. All the way from Bengal straight to your backyard.

Déjà Vu (French)

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It’s a bizarre feeling; there’s no doubt about that, but chances are you’ve experienced it: that uncanny sensation that what is happening right now has somehow happened before. Déjà vu is a French loanword that literally translates to "already seen." It describes the feeling that a present situation is strangely familiar, even though you know you haven’t experienced it before.

The expression entered English around 1903, after becoming established in French discussions of the strange sensation. Today, it remains one of those wonderfully useful expressions for a feeling that is difficult to explain in just a few English words. Have you ever had that feeling at all?

Piano (Italian)

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If you like surprises, you’re in for a good one. This word has opposing meanings intertwined in its origin. The word piano comes from the Italian word pianoforte, which roughly means "soft-loud": piano means soft, while forte means loud.

The instrument was originally named gravicembalo col piano e forte by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who developed the instrument around 1700. Unlike earlier keyboard instruments, it allowed players to control the volume by varying how hard they struck the keys. The name eventually became simply piano. A name born from two opposing sounds: soft and loud.

Safari (Swahili)

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Swahili might sound like a very distant language, but you definitely know the Lion King song "Hakuna Matata," and yes, you guessed it, it comes from Swahili (and it means "no worries"). The word "safari" also comes from Swahili, and it means "journey" or "trip." It ultimately comes from the Arabic safar, meaning "journey" or "travel."

English eventually adopted safari as a word for an expedition, especially one involving travel through Africa, and today, we most often associate it with wildlife viewing. Not every safari involves a lion (unless you want it to).

Gusto (Italian)

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We all know Italians are famous for bringing a certain flair to food, music, art, and life. And one Italian word captures that spirit beautifully: gusto. Gusto is borrowed from Italian gusto, meaning "taste," and English uses it to describe enthusiastic enjoyment, energy, or relish. An example of how to use it could be: "She sang the song with great gusto."

The Italian word ultimately comes from Latin gustus, meaning "a tasting," making it a little word with a lot of enthusiasm.

Karaoke (Japanese)

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Karaoke nights definitely aren’t for the faint-hearted, but for those of you brave enough to sing your heart out in front of friends and strangers, let's look at how we came to say it. The word karaoke literally translates from Japanese as "empty orchestra."

Here is the surprising part: the Japanese word itself contains a shortened form of the English word "orchestra." Kara means "empty," while oke comes from ōkesutora, the Japanese adaptation of "orchestra." This makes karaoke a fascinating example of wasei-eigo, which are Japanese words or expressions created using English elements. English later borrowed the finished word right back. It seems like English went to Japan and came back again singing.

Tsunami (Japanese)

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The word tsunami comes from the Japanese words tsu (meaning harbor) and nami (meaning wave). In other words (since we are talking about words), it literally means "harbor wave." It reflects how these waves can have devastating effects when they reach coastal areas and harbors.

The term first appeared in English texts around September 1896 in National Geographic Magazine to describe a devastating wave striking Japan. Curiously, English speakers usually drop the initial "t" sound, pronouncing it sunami instead of the strict Japanese tsunami, because English does not naturally start words with a "ts" sound.

Translation and interpretation

Was the forbidden fruit really an apple? 10 Bible surprises

Published on September 23, 2026

Image: Mariordo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What if some of the Bible stories you grew up with aren't exactly what the Bible says? Was the forbidden fruit really an apple? Were there actually three Wise Men? Did "God helps those who help themselves" really come from the Bible? Over centuries, translations, traditions, and famous works of art have added details that became so familiar, we stopped questioning them. But go back to the texts, and some of these stories look surprisingly different. From Eve's "apple" to the date of Jesus' birth, here are 10 familiar parts of the Bible that may not be quite what we remember.

The forbidden fruit was an apple

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When you picture the Garden of Eden, what fruit comes to mind? Most people imagine an apple, but there's just one problem: the Bible never says it was an apple.

In the Book of Genesis, the fruit is simply called "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The original Hebrew text uses the word peri, which simply means "fruit." The apple connection came centuries later, largely through the Latin translation. The Latin word malum can mean both "apple" and "evil," making it an especially fitting symbol for the story. Over time, that association spread through Christian art and literature. Famous works such as Albrecht Dürer’s 1504 engraving Adam and Eve (also known as The Fall of Man) helped cement the image of Eve holding an apple. Today, it's one of the most famous scenes in history, even though the original biblical text doesn’t identify the fruit as an apple at all.

There were three wise men/kings

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The story of Jesus' birth is so famous that most of us picture the Three Wise Men, sometimes called the Three Kings, standing beside the manger. But the thing is, over the centuries, the story picked up a few details that aren't actually in the Bible.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the only Gospel that mentions these visitors, they are described simply as Magi from the East. The original Greek word, magoi, referred to learned scholars, astrologers, or priests from Persia or Babylon, not kings. But where did the number three come from? Matthew lists three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but never says how many visitors brought them. Over the centuries, people naturally assumed there must have been three Magi, one for each gift. Even their familiar names, Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar, were added later by Christian tradition. So, neither the number of visitors nor their names appears anywhere in the biblical text.

"God helps those who help themselves"

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Whether it's used to motivate a friend, encourage a family member, or push yourself to finally make a difficult decision, "God helps those who help themselves" is one of the most familiar religious sayings in America. But here's the surprise: those words never appear in the Bible.

The idea can be traced to ancient Greek sources, including Aesop’s Fables, where the saying appears in an earlier form: "The gods help them that help themselves." The exact modern wording was written by English politician Algernon Sidney in 1698, but it was Benjamin Franklin who helped make it part of American culture when he included it in his 1736 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

"Cleanliness is next to godliness"

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Many teenagers have heard "Cleanliness is next to godliness" when it was time to clean their rooms. But despite sounding like a Bible verse, the phrase never appears in Scripture.

The Bible, particularly Leviticus, does contain extensive laws requiring people to wash their bodies and clothes in certain circumstances, especially before religious rituals. But the famous saying itself came much later. In 1605, Francis Bacon wrote in The Advancement of Learning that "cleanness of body" was connected to reverence for God. Then, in 1786, it was Methodist leader John Wesley who used the wording we recognize today in a sermon: "Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness." Over time, the phrase became a familiar saying that many people simply assumed came from the Bible.

The date of Jesus' birth

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When it comes to famous dates, December 25 may be the most recognizable of all, universally associated with Christmas. But here's the surprising part: the Bible never gives any specific date for Jesus' birth.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke describe the Nativity but never provide a calendar date, so how did December 25 become Christmas? There are two leading theories. The first is that the Roman Church was celebrating Christmas on December 25 by 336 AD, during Constantine's reign, possibly choosing the date to coincide with existing Roman winter festivals and make it easier to convert the empire to Christianity. The second points to an early Christian tradition that calculated Jesus' birth date from the supposed date of his crucifixion, eventually arriving at December 25.

Jonah and the Whale

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The story of Jonah and the Whale is so famous that it has appeared literally or symbolically in innumerable works of art and literature, from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-1512) to Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. But there's a small problem with the title we've given it: the Bible doesn’t actually say it was a whale.

In the Old Testament, the original Hebrew text of Jonah 1:17 uses the words dag gadol, meaning "great fish" or "large fish"; it doesn't identify the creature as a whale, or even specify what kind of fish it was. Most modern English translations therefore stick with "great fish," but the familiar "whale" interpretation developed through older translations and later European tradition, eventually becoming so widespread that "Jonah and the Whale" became the name almost everyone recognizes.

The serpent in Eden was Satan

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Just as we've always pictured the forbidden fruit as an apple, many of us also assume the serpent in the Garden of Eden is the devil himself. But the original story is a little more complicated.

A plain reading of Genesis depicts the creature simply as a serpent or snake, using the Hebrew word nachash. It describes the serpent as clever and crafty, but it never calls it Satan or explicitly identifies it as the devil. So where did the connection come from? The answer comes from later parts of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. In Revelation 12:9 and 20:2, Satan is called "the ancient serpent" (ho ophis ho archaios in Greek), connecting him to the snake of Eden. Over time, Christian tradition applied that later connection back to Genesis, leading to the familiar belief that the serpent was Satan himself.

Delilah Cut Samson’s Hair

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Many of us remember Samson for his legendary strength and the long hair that was said to be the source of his power. His story with Delilah is one of the Bible's most famous tales of betrayal, but there's one detail some people may have gotten wrong: Delilah didn't actually cut his long hair.

In Judges 16:19, Delilah has Samson's hair shaved while he sleeps on her lap. The text says she called for a man to do the shaving; it never says she did it herself. Yet paintings, films, and other retellings have often shown Delilah wielding the scissors herself, cementing that image in popular culture. It can be considered a small detail, but it’s a great example of how easily familiar Bible stories can pick up elements that aren't actually in the original text.

The Bible is a single-voice book

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Many of us think of the Bible as a single book, written at one particular time by one author, or perhaps a handful of them. After all, that's how it looks when you pick one up in a hotel room, but its history is far more complicated.

The Bible is actually a collection of books written by over 40 authors over roughly 1,500 years, from about 1400 BC to AD 100. The exact number of books varies by religious tradition: Protestant Bibles contain 66 books, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions include additional books. Across these different traditions, the writings were produced by kings, prophets, fishermen, and scholars in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They also span a tremendous range of literary styles, including history, poetry, songs, laws, letters, and prophecy. So while we hold it as one book today, the Bible is actually a collection of many different writings produced across centuries.

Original manuscripts still exist

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Many people assume that at least a few original fragments of the Bible must still exist somewhere. It would be incredible if they did, but none of the original manuscripts, known as autographs, have survived.

The earliest biblical texts were written on fragile materials such as papyrus and animal skins, which could deteriorate through humidity, heat, handling, and simple age. Wars, fires, and other destruction also contributed to their disappearance. So how do we know what the originals said? Through a technique called textual criticism: expert scholars compare thousands of handwritten copies, ancient translations, and quotations from early Christian writers. When they find passages that match across different sources, or differences that reveal how a text changed over time, they can work backward to determine what the original most likely said, even though the original manuscripts themselves are gone.