iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 29/09/2026

Got my first four-digit book royalty payment (beyond advances) 🥲 Just a reminder that even when you've sold 80K+ copies, authors do it for the love of the story and definitely not for the money 😆 Thanks to everyone who bought a book!

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 28/09/2026

I have three dogs, a cat, and a turtle because law, convention, and safety prevent me from living my true dreams

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 27/09/2026

Online personality evaluations are always like "I would rather go to a library than to a party" and there's never an option for "I would rather go to a party AT the library"

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 26/09/2026

Eleven years ago today, I married this guy!

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 25/09/2026

Weirdest thing I’ve seen at the Big E today

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 24/09/2026

We're doing an episode of Words Unravelled on the origins of global city names! We're seeking ones outside of the US and UK that most people have heard of. What would you suggest? (We've done two eps on this, the first on US/UK cities, the second on some of the largest global cities.)

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 24/09/2026

The OED says "pooch" was a dog name before it was a general word for a dog. (Dates back to 1908 in English.) Might be from German Putzi, "a general term of endearment and a popular name for pets," or Dutch potsig/poetsig meaning "funny, cute."

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10k com K 🚂 @sratoz.com.br · 24/09/2026

Na minha própria reply a esta postagem de 23/09, estou colocando o linque para o video onde @jesszafarris.com realmente aproveitou meu exemplo e contou desta expressão idiomática!!! Ela ainda foi atrás e pesquisou a piada, que não cheguei a contar.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 24/09/2026

Watch and play along as my team, MC Grammar (feat. Valerie Fridland and Gabe Henry) goes head to head with the competition (who are also lovely people and my wonderful word nerdy friends)!

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Jacquie @shroommuse.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is where "not all of the moomins are in the valley" came from... If you want to know more about pissing cows and frogs' arses, I can only recommend giving Jess & Rob a watch.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 23/09/2026

It's here! @robwords.com and I discuss idioms and saying from around the world in our latest episode of Words Unravelled: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBIX...

a social card for an episode of the words unravelled podcast that reads funny idioms around the world and has images of a shrimp sandwich, blue almonds, and a hedgehog above two smiling people.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 23/09/2026

I'm joining Mignon Fogarty on the @grammargirl.bsky.social podcast livestream to celebrate her 20th year of podcasting, and I'd love for you to join the party! It's free, live, interactive, and includes book giveaways. Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. EST Deets: www.quickanddirtytips.com/ggliveevent/

quickanddirtytips.com

Twenty Years of Grammar Girl, and You Are Invited! - Quick and Dirty Tips

Grammar Girl Live Game Show! Grammar Girl is celebrating 20 years of the podcast with a free live word-game show, hosted by Mignon! The live-streamed, interactive party will include you, your favorite...

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 22/09/2026

Looking at home decor this season and mildly entertained by the post apocalyptic color palettes Would you like your cozy throw pillows in fascist ash, depresso espresso, or a nice Werner Herzog beige?

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 22/09/2026

The wee ones have lost their spots!

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Lu @rendernev.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Welcome, Autumnal Equinox. The King of Autumn greets thee.🍂

My painting of a pumpkin rider on a black horse surrounded by autumn leaves and mushrooms.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 22/09/2026

I may have already recommended Robert Jackson Bennett’s books, but I just finished the third of his Shadow of the Leviathan series, and I will reiterate that they are phenomenal books. Dark and Lovecraftian and gory and cerebral but also sweet and heartfelt and wonderfully worldbuilt.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 22/09/2026

So where are we all standing on Fat Bear Week? I've seen a bunch of people calling it for 910, and I wouldn't be disappointed (oh yeah, she chonky). Bucky's transformation is dramatic as hell, and Walker clearly has the most caked up hiney. But I still think everyone's sleeping on Backpack.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 21/09/2026

Just finished Widow’s Bay and I want MORE

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 20/09/2026

What are you working on instead of whatever else you’re supposed to be working on?

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 20/09/2026

I keep sitting down to write the nonfiction book I’m already contracted to write, but the novel idea I’ve been noodling on comes out instead.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 18/09/2026

The thing I'm most excited about for the release of my next book (Into the Words: An Etymologist's Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and Nature) is the clever illustrations that my sister, Melissa Farris, created for the book. Each one captures multiple facets of the species' etymology stories.

A cougar on a book with a map, a conquistador's helmet, and piece of a mesoamerican monument

A skeleton holding daffodils and asphodel

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Klaatu @klaatu82.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I just learned a fun thing! Quick also means alive. So, when speaking of the quick of the nail, you are talking about the alive bit… & when you’re talking about “the quick and the dead,” you aren’t saying a dead person is not as fast a an alive person (as true as that might be). @jesszafarris.com

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 17/09/2026

J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 75, July 7, 1944, to his son Christopher: “There is the tragedy and despair of all machinery laid bare. Unlike art which is content to create a new secondary world in the mind, it attempts to actualize desire, and so to create power in this World; …

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 09/09/2026

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 16/09/2026

BIG congrats to @robwords.com on 1 mil YouTube subscribers!

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Brian Cummings @briancummings.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

TIL: We call it “Football” because it’s play ON foot, not because it’s played WITH the feet. Contrast with people of leisure of the time, who had and liked to show off their horses in playing their sports (polo, steeplechase, jumping, dressage). “Football” is common, and low-class in its origin.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 16/09/2026

Words Unravelled hit 100 episodes! 🥳🎉 @robwords.com and I are celebrating with 100 of our favorite rapid-fire word facts from the past 50 episodes. Catch the latest episode here (or wherever you get your podcasts!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PM_...

Two people on a dictionary-style background with the words 100 word facts and words unravelled.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 15/09/2026

hey past Jess: fuck you (Today I recorded this passage for the audiobook of Useless Etymology)

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 12/09/2026

Get you a brew dog (or two) for Oktoberfest

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 10/09/2026

Last night I got up to use the bathroom, and when I came back my husband was waiting in the dark to scare me He succeeded, and I’d be annoyed at him except that I’m more piqued that the THREE dogs in the room did absolutely fuck all when I screamed

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 10/09/2026

Everyone's going on about remaking movies with the Muppets. I want more Muppet classic novel adaptations. Give me Kermit as the Count of Monte Cristo Piggy as Emma The Three Muppeteers Alice in Muppetland Bunsenstein and an undead Sweetums Kermlock and Fozzson with Rowlf, Hound of the Baskervilles

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 10/09/2026

I was just looking at NFL logos, and I noticed that every (this isn't the right word but) "directional" logo—that is, every logo that features an animal or gives you the sense that the logo is going or looking somewhere is headed to the right, except for the Eagles, whose logo is headed to the left.

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Harm van der Dong @pakikomi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

P.s. Hidden idiom... The Dutch word "balen" (to be fed up) is a hidden idiom. It stems from the 17th century? sarcastic phrase "tabak hebben van" (to have tobacco of something). People exaggerated this to "balen tabak" (bales of tobacco), which eventually shortened to the modern verb "balen".

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katewoodartist.bsky.social @katewoodartist.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I've always thought "Piman no yo na atama" in Japanese is a funny one. It means head like a pepper, mostly empty with just a few seeds rattling around in it. Pepper head!

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10k com K 🚂 @sratoz.com.br · 07/09/2026

oooh, I know literally hundreds from Portuguese! - subir no telhado (to climb onto the roof). We say someone has climbed onto the roof when their imminent death is forecast, e.g. was admitted to the ICU. We more frequently say it about projects that are perceived to be discontinued soon

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David Frier @dgfrier.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A wonderfully useful one in Portuguese is 'para inglês ver' (literally 'for an Englishman's eyes'). You do something 'para inglês ver' when you act for appearances only, often without even doing anything at all. It goes back to when the British navy took it upon itself to apprehend foreign... 1/2

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Bob Neinast @ahcuah.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"Llevarse el gato al agua". Put the cat into the water, that is, do a difficult task. Spanish.

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Henri @henriwords.com · 07/09/2026

French has some great idioms but my absolute favourite is “entre chien et loup” for twilight/dusk It translates as “between dog and wolf” and is intended to evoke that time of falling darkness when it harder to identify what’s approaching you…

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 07/09/2026

We’re doing an episode of Words Unravelled on idioms from around the world, and I’d love some recommendations! What’s a non-English idiom you know, and what does it mean? Cc: @robwords.com

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Lyndall @lyndallc.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Today I learned that the phrase "I'm done my work" which I thought was perfectly normal and grammatical is A UNIQUE CANADIAN* LINGUISTIC FEATURE??? *and Philadelphia for some reason

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 06/09/2026

I’m Jess Zafarris, author, podcaster, creator, content director, ghostwriter. I live in CT with a cannabis retail ops guy, 3 dogs, a cat, and a turtle. Every time I think the word “lonely,” I hear it in Tracy Chapman’s voice in “Give Me One Reason,” as in “no I don’t want to leave you lonelayee”

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 03/09/2026

The clude in "exclude" is from the Latin claudere "to close, shut," which is the root of "close" as well. So to exclude is to "close out." Some of its relatives are obvious (include, seclude, conclude), but it's also related to claustrophobia (and claustrophilia), cloister, recluse, and clause.

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 01/09/2026

On my way to Australia, I took Cathay Airlines with one layover in Hong Kong. The flights were amazing. I can't recommend that airline enough. Comfy seats, and I usually have stomach upset on/after international flights, and I experienced none. On the way there, I had a whole row to myself. BUT…

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 31/08/2026

mfw I get to talk about words!

A person in a jumpsuit on a stage in front of a crowd of people

A smiling person on a stage in front of the words "talk about words" that are displayed on a screen behind her

A person speaking on a stage about the word antidisestablishmentarianism

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.com · 30/08/2026

While we’re on the subject of Dolly, here’s my ranking of the top coasters at Dollywood: Lightning Rod Thunderhead (wooden wins) Tennessee Tornado (nostalgia beats pain) Big Bear Mountain Wild Eagle Blazing Fury (I said what I said!) Mystery Mine FireChaser Express

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