Words, emotions, and the story of great

Words, emotions, and the story of <em>great</em>

Last week (July 10, 2024), I promised to deal with the word great and will do so, but two comments on that post reinforced my old wish to deal with the topic indicated in the title of today’s essay. Those who have read the entire series may remember my light-hearted remarks on English leetle and its Gothic cognate (a word with an equally puzzling long vowel) and another facetious remark on the history of a in Latin magnus (one expects short i in its root).