... an acronym for“Ship High In Transit,” and so on.That’s not to say that the stories behind words aren’t interest-ing. Most words have fascinating histories; it’s just that they are notas cut-and-dried. ... identify three words that are related to this word inthe following sentence? “The bride removed the voile veil toreveal her lovely face.” The words are voile, veil, and reveal, all ofwhich are descendants ... cut-and-dried. Words have biographies—we call them etymolo-gies—that are engaging. Take “gossip,” for example. It originallycame from Old English godsibb (sibb:related), meaning godparent.From...