What’s the origin of the world ‘radio’? And why have foreign words like ‘guerrilla’ and ‘cuisine’ become so firmly entrenched in the English language?

A new video website project led by the School of Modern Languages and Cultures examines these words and more, reflecting the huge range of international research taking place in the department.

The videos have already covered words in Spanish, French, German and Serbo-Croat. Academics in the School choose a word, then feature in a short video explaining the meaning behind it. The project is steadily gaining followers on YouTube — with words such as ‘achtung’, ‘Nazi’ and ‘tsar’ proving the most popular so far.

The project follows on from the University’s other successful collaborations with video journalist Brady Haran, who has also developed the Periodic Table of Videos, featuring a video for every element; Sixty Symbols, which examines important symbols in physics and astronomy; and Bibledex, working with theologians to create a video for each of the 66 books of the Bible.

“English tends to be a magpie language which happily steals vocabulary from elsewhere, welcomes new arrivals but often redefines them over time,” said Prof Judith Still, Chair of French and Critical Theory and Head of School. “It can be fascinating to see that process of adaptation to British culture, but also to see the history of the words in their native context — for example, the special relationship of ‘aficionado’ to a passion for bull-fighting. Colleagues are given the opportunity to find their own words — relating to areas of their research which they want to communicate to a more varied audience than readers of academic journals.

“Research staff have been asked to think of a word used in English which originated in a foreign culture and closely relates to their current research, and then to talk about it. All the words will eventually form a huge crossword,” said Catherine Davies, Professor of Hispanic and Latin American Studies. “Within the School people are doing research on a wide range of topics relating to locations across the world — this project gives the public insight into our research specialisations.”

“The one thing we all have in common is our interest in words and language, whether in relation to literature, media, politics, society and thought. This led to the Words of the World concept.”

To view the videos, visit www.wordsoftheworld.co.uk or www.youtube.com/wordsoftheworld