iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 24/09/2026

I'm off to the Isle of Man! I shall be popping over to learn more about the resurgent Manx language. If you happen to be on the island, I'll be chairing a chat about what Manx can say that English can't. Mon 28th Sept, 7pm. Erin Arts Centre: www.erinartscentre.com/ Lesh yeearreeyn share, Rob

A poster saying "Around Y Ghaelg in 60 minutes with writer and broadcaster Rob Watts.

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

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

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

Your chance to be the millionth. GO.

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

There are angels. Four of them.

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

Can 16 people please oblige so I can get back to concentrating on work? youtube.com/@robwords?si...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 11/08/2026

The reviews are in! Tickets for my Edinburgh Fringe show are still available here: www.edfringe.com/tickets/what... Thanks to everyone who has already been.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 03/08/2026

The next Words Unravelled is a silly one.

Rob holding a Sooty hand puppet. Sooty is a yellow bear with black ears from British children's television.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 19/07/2026

In Edinburgh for a couple of hours. Found ma poster!

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 08/07/2026

Trying to work out which 17th century accent can excuse rhyming "America" with "day".

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 26/06/2026

I think the meaning of "exciting" might have changed a bit since 1884.

A newspaper description of a man being horribly beaten in, quote "quite an exciting and painful experience"

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 09/06/2026

Preparing to pickle your pigeons? BONE them neatly.

18th century recipe with the title "To Pickle Pigeons". It begins "Bone them neatly, and season them with salt, pepper, cloves, and mace."

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 09/06/2026

Need a pretty sauce for your woodcock? Here.

A snippet from an 18th century recipe book with the title "A pretty sauch for woodcock, or any wildfowl"

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 04/06/2026

I spent part of yesterday trying to draw a sexy verb. Please make my efforts worthwhile by reading today's newsletter, featuring the glamorous origins of "grammar". open.substack.com/pub/robwords...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 02/06/2026

HEFTY NEWS! I’m taking my wordy nerdy show to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. I’ll be doing 10 nights at the Assembly George Square Studios from 6th to 16th August. I can barely ruddy believe it! I’d love to see you there. Tickets: assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/rob...

A banner saying "An Evening of Etymology with RobWords" 6th-16th August 2026, Edinburgh Fringe

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 28/05/2026

I want this beautiful shorthand diagram on a poster.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 10/05/2026

I wouldn't normally touch this kind of opportunity with a bargepole, but the personal touch has got me tempted.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 03/05/2026

It's worrying that I just allowed this man to feed me. The perils of filming at a Berlin market. From my new video about contronyms, here: youtu.be/wopcJoJIoJE?...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 24/04/2026

On Words Unravelled, @jesszafarris.com and I discussed the origins of "to beat around the bush". It relates to the practice of shaking a bush in order to scare animals out into the open (in order to shoot them), and I've just stumbled across this vivid reference of the process from 1672.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 15/04/2026

The first ever RobWords Live shows were an absolute blast. Thank you so much if you were among the hundreds of word nerds who made me feel so welcome in London.

Rob standing before a massive slide saying "English is silly"

A view of Rob on stage from the balcony, with various misspellings of necessarily on the wall behind him.

Rob on stage with an unusual new alphabet behind him.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 12/03/2026

As of today, RobWords is now on the streaming platform Nebula! Subscribers can access ad-free versions of my videos and other goodies, as well as those of hundreds of other creators. My fancy link gives a big old discount, too: go.nebula.tv/robwords

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 12/02/2026

English is crawling with goats. My latest newsletter: substack.com/@robwords/no...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 06/02/2026

Unfortunate frame from my next video.

Rob with the word "gormless" written across him.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 28/01/2026

I'm not above shaming someone for a 400-year-old typo. The editor of the English edition of Mercator's first "Atlas" really should have picked this one up.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 20/01/2026

Blimey! We've had to add another performance to RobWords Live. If you can be in London on April 11th, do come and join me for a couple of hours of etymology and word nerdery. Tickets here: www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-t...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 08/12/2025

I am tremendously excited about this. Join me for evening of word-nerdery at London's Bloomsbury Theatre. Tickets just went on sale here: www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-t...

Poster for RobWords Live, an evening of etymology on Saturday 11 April 2026 at London's Bloomsbury Theatre.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 04/12/2025

Some very literal German names for animals. From my latest newsletter: open.substack.com/pub/robwords...

NILPFERD – “Nile horse” – hippopotamus

NACKTSCHNECKE – “naked snail” – slug

FAULTIER – “lazy animal” – sloth

GÜRTELTIER – “belt animal” – armadillo

SIEBENSCHLÄFER – “seven sleeper” – edible dormouse*, which hibernates for seven months

TINTENFISCH – “ink fish” – squid/octopus/cuttlefish

ERDMÄNNCHEN – “little earth man” – meerkat

FLEDERMAUS – “flutter mouse” – bat

SCHILDKRÖTE – “shield toad” – tortoise/turtle

EICHHÖRNCHEN – “little oak horn” – squirrel

WASCHBÄR – “wash bear” – raccoon, because of the way it cleans itself with its human-like hands. We have raccoons in Berlin.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 18/11/2025

This handsome pair interrupted filming this afternoon. The theme of the video? The origin of the word 'dog'.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 09/11/2025

Great question. I dont think there is, thus I feel a pressing, urgent need to resurrect "micturient". Note also, "cacaturient" 💩

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 02/11/2025

Picked up something special on my way through London. Courtesy of @jayforeman.bsky.social & @markcooperjones.bsky.social

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 26/10/2025

It does seem to be have been a word for toad. Cool!

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 04/09/2025

Word Unravelled just hit 100k subscribers on YouTube! For such a geeky little channel, that is fabulous. Thank you if you subscribed. And thanks to @jesszafarris.bsky.social & @martynmnw.bsky.social for making it all so fun.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 02/08/2025

Join my Patreon where the fun never stops.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 24/07/2025

FLIPPIN' HECK!! Words Unravelled has been nominated for a BRITISH PODCAST AWARD! How's about that @jesszafarris.bsky.social ? Thank you so much if you have listened or watched. And extra thanks to our third word nerd, editor @martynmnw.bsky.social

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 22/07/2025

In French, to point out that a word is feminine you have to use the masculine form of the word feminine.

A screenshot of Google Translate showing the English sentence "The word is feminine" and its French translation "Le mot est féminin".

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 08/07/2025

I was looking up whether 🇬🇧 MUNCH and 🇫🇷 MANGER are related (answer: maybe) and now can't get this 1530 quote out of my head. "Are you not ashamed to munch your meat like a carter?"

Image shows a 1530 English-to-French dictionary entry for "I manche", an old spelling of "munch". Rob has highlighted part of the text: "Are you nat a shamed to manche your meate thus lyke a carter"

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 27/06/2025

Very cool to get a mention in today's @1440daily.bsky.social newsletter. If you haven't seen my video about the pseudo-magical way babies learn language, it's here: youtu.be/Frosv3oBa6Y?...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 25/06/2025

If it's one of these (from OED) you're alright.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 28/05/2025

The earlier "sculdudry" lends itself rather less well to becoming an agent noun. You need the "-er" in there.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 17/05/2025

Here's one of the more disturbing frames from my NEW VIDEO exploring the ugliest and prettiest words. Give it a watch: youtu.be/hh5yEKPNEtM?...

Rob stands in front of a bright pink violin plot graph. The subtitles say "I don't like the look of this graph, but I don't want to say why."

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 30/04/2025

Just discovered Minute Cryptic by @lrlr.bsky.social and now I'm going to have to do it every day. It's a daily cryptic crossword clue. Top nerding.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 28/04/2025

Today, I'm reading the book that gave us "shampoo". The word is a British attempt at the Hindi "Čāmpo!" which loosely means "Rub me!" The original "shampoo" was a massage with fragrant oils. In 1784, S. K. Mahomed moved to Brighton, UK, where he introduced Indian-style baths and wrote this book.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 14/04/2025

It's weird, right? We Brits skip the "to" if we mention what we're writing ("I wrote her a letter"). I don't think the "to" was added later. These examples show prepositions with "write" way back: "til" and "unto". I guess we just picked a side. @jesszafarris.bsky.social One for our AmE v BrE ep?

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 01/04/2025

NO, French. A word shouldn't look like that.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 26/03/2025

Just been laughing my head off at this alternative phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc.). You can play around with it here: web.cs.dal.ca/~jamie/Words...

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 24/03/2025

This is official Paris Marathon advice. The final item.

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Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.com · 21/03/2025

Today's word of the day is ZUMBOORUK. Meaning: a camel-mounted cannon. Etymology: from the Persian "zambūr" meaning "hornet". Seriously, this thing is real.

Illustration of a man firing a cannon mounted on the back of a camel

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