Swearing could give you a physical edge
Also this week: How the theory of the humors shaped English + New research uncovers the cerebellum’s crucial role in human language
Welcome to this week’s edition of Discovery Digest, a weekly roundup of the latest language-related news, research in linguistics, interesting reads from the week, and newest books and other media dealing with language and linguistics!
🆕 New from Linguistic Discovery
This week’s content from Linguistic Discovery.
The linguistic influence of the theory of the humors
Until the 17th century most approaches to medicine relied on the theory of the humors, which explained various medical issues as imbalances in the amount of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. As a result, humoric theory has had a pervasive (and rather sordid) influence on language as well:
I recently learned that sanguine, for example, came to mean ‘hopeful, optimistic’ instead of the original ‘blood-red’ (sanguine is cognate with Spanish sangre ‘blood’) because this attitude was thought to arise when there was too much blood in the body compared to the other humors.
Other humor-ous words that are based on some aspect of humoric theory include:
- humor: originally ‘bodily fluids’, which need to be in balance to be in good humor
- complexion: combination of humors
- crude: producing unnatural humors
- equate: make similar, balance or harmonize, in reference to humors
- evacuate: expel humors from the body
- evaporate: draw off humors as vapor
- flux: abnormal flow of humors
- gout: thought to be caused by drops of humors seeping into the joints
- impulsive: pushing against the humors
- melancholy: etymologically ‘black bile’
- repercussion: act of driving back humors
- repulsive: able to repel the humors
- temperament: proportion of bodily humors
📰 In the News
Language and linguistics in the news.
Tiana Haxton of RNZ
🗞️ Current Linguistics
Recently published research in linguistics.
16 years of brain scans reveal the cerebellum’s crucial role in human language
The cerebellum, often called the little brain, plays a much bigger role in language processing than once believed. Located at the base of the brain, the cerebellum has long been thought to be mainly responsible for motor response, balance, and basic coordination. A recent large-scale study analyzing brain scans from over 900 participants revealed a surprising new specialization within this region.
- 16 years of brain scans reveal the cerebellum's crucial role in human language (Medical Xpress)
- Casto et al. 2026. The cerebellar components of the human language network. Neuron. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2025.12.030.
Swearing could give you a physical edge
New research says that swearing can boost our physical performance, improving both strength and endurance. To determine this, the research team asked 192 participants to perform a chair push-up and hold (lifting their body weight from a seated position using only their arms). One group repeated a swear word while doing so, and the other repeated a neutral word. The results showed unequivocally that when people swore, they could support their body weight for longer. Dr. Richard Stephens, who led the research, believes this performance-enhancing effect stems from people feeling less held back when swearing.
- Stephens et al. 2025. “Don’t hold back”: swearing improves strength through state disinhibition. American Psychologist. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001650.
📃 This Week’s Reads
Interesting articles I’ve come across this week.
Colin Gorrie
Rupendra Brahambhatt
Nicole Rosen
Jennifer Gunner
📚 Books & Media
New (and old) books and media touching on language and linguistics.
Crystal’s Curiosity Cabinet
David Crystal, author of many popular language books, including How language works and The stories of English, has just released a new book, Crystal’s Curiosity Cabinet: A collection of English language curiosities (Amazon | Bookshop.org). Following in the tradition of the Victorian miscellany and cabinets of curiosities, the book is a set of observations on random, weird, and witty words and expressions that Crystal has collected over his many years working as a linguist.
👋🏼 Till next week!
Here’s a wonderful etymological flowchart for each of the primary colors in English, from Starkey Comics. Read the entire blog post with more details here.
