In this episode, Ryan is exploring – at the behest of listener Liz – whether there’s a connection between “align“, “malign“, and “benign“.

Lexitecture is a podcast about etymology (the linguistics study of the origin and history of words). In each normal, increasingly infrequent episode, a Canadian (Ryan) and a Scot (Amy) each present their current favourite word and talk about its origins, current use, and try to puzzle out how it may have gone from A to B. If you love thinking and talking about words, word origins, or just random bits of head-scratching language trivia, this may be the show for you!

If you’re listening to this as soon as it comes out, do head over to check out all the wondrous stuff on offer at this years LingComm conference! Amy and Ryan will be on a panel for a session called Podcasting 101, scheduled for February 6 at 4pm EST (check out that second link to figure out what time it’ll be wherever you are in the world!) so hopefully we may see/hear some of you there!

Please subscribe to us on Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts!   Find us on Facebook, or on Twitter, or on Reddit, or join our Word Nerd HQ Facebook group!   Also, if you enjoy what we do, please give us a great rating on iTunes – it’s a huge help in letting other people know we’re worth listening to.   Finally, to support the podcasting work we do, please consider becoming a Patreon sponsor at www.patreon.com/lexitecture   Thanks!