Marina Orlova is a philologist (or an etymologist) who turned into an Internet celebrity when she started the HotForWords channel on YouTube and www.HotForWords.com website. Orlova's videos and site keeps track of the origins of English words. Classic videos such as her video on "antidisestablishmentarianism" have gained notoriety. Words cover every day spoken words to exotic and hard to pronounce words such as floccinaucinihilipilification. She covers idioms such as "let the cat out of the bag," "dressed to the nines" and "three sheets to the wind" among many others. She has even explained the origin of "fight or flight" or what "to google" means. Marina will often end her videos with, "Another mystery solved from your trusty HotForWords."
Orlova was born in Russia in 1980 where she studied philology, which is the study of linguistics and origins of words.http://www.hotforwords.com/bio/ She taught English and word literature to high-school students. She came to the United States in 2004 to work on her Ph.D. and improve her English skills. Three years ago she started to create Youtube videos to share her language knowledge.http://www.hotforwords.com/bio/ In each video she takes word requests from Youtube viewers and discusses the meanings and origins.http://www.hotforwords.com/bio/ Her total video views on Youtube have reached over 3 million.http://www.hotforwords.com/bio/
Marina Orlova Books
2009: Hot for Words: Answers to All Your Burning Questions About Words and Their Meanings http://www.hotforwords.com/bio/
Interview with Marina Orlova
An interview with Marina Orlova on The O'Reilly Factor on the origin of the word "bikini". Orlova states that in 1942 the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the islands of Bikini as a test. A french designer saw the T.V. broadcast and decided to make a small bathing suit he called L'atome. He chose the name hoping to have the same "Wow" effect as an atomic bomb. She also explains the origin of the word "vacation". It is a word that comes from the same Latin origin as "vacate" meaning "empty". The words "beach" and "picnic" are also explained.
References
Fast Facts
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Full name
Marina Orlova
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Born
10 December, 1980
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Birth place
USSR
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Genre
Youtube, linguistics
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Awards
World’s #1 Sexiest Geek, 5th hottest woman on the net by G4 TV, Best Online Campaign of 2009, “Sexiest philologist in the world” by New Yorker Magazine.
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Alma mater
State University of Nizhni Novgorod Region in Russian Federation
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Profession
Author, former English teacher in Moscow, Youtube celebrity
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Youtube video views
300 million +
