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Linguessence

These essays chase words that cannot be fully translated into any other language. They introduce the unique universe of meaning each language carries to other languages and cultures.

✦ Latest Essay

Mentor: The Odyssey's Quietest Character

The word mentor comes from a character in Homer's Odyssey who barely speaks, and from a Proto-Indo-European root that also gave us dementia.

Last night I watched Christopher Nolan's Odyssey. During the scene where Mentor dies, my mind went somewhere else entirely. The company I work for runs a Mentor programme. When someone new joins, they are assigned a mentor. That person walks them through onboarding and, in the first months…

July 26, 2026·8 min read
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