Some days, the stars align. Rarely do the Word of the Day and This Day in History fit together so perfectly. But today, you get The Donner Party and “bivouac” all in one fell swoop. And as if that weren’t enough, you also get hard-core linguist-geek bonus-content, here. Who could ask for anything more? Not me, that’s for sure.
I’m not going to quote from any of the links above. You can click and read for yourself. But I will say this much about the linguistics article, which is excellent: It helps explain why “bivouac” ultimately has Germanic roots, rather than just the French ones Noah Webster noted. Whodathunkit? Not me, that’s for sure.
