Venge
Here’s a nice woody sort of word. Has a real old fashioned round sort of feel to it. We all understand revenge, vengeance and the need to avenge a wrong, but what does ‘venge’ itself mean?
All I’ve found is that it is some sort of ‘transitive verb’ which means to punish!
Obviously the word ‘avenge’ is closest to the meaning, but I’d have said the word is a compound derived from commission (or intended commission) of the ‘venge act. In other words the sentence would have originally been spoken in similar form as “I go to (commit) a venge.”.
Eeny, meeny, miney, mo.
Somewhere I recall reading that these words represent a counting system, a relict of an extinct language probably used by a farming community ‘oop North’ in pre-Norman England. Unfortunately as with many similar language or dialect groups there is no written evidence to support the theory.
If anyone has alternate theories I’d be pleased to hear them! 
One interesting ‘off the wall’ theory can be found at Phrase Finder - but I have ‘reservations’ about it’s accuracy (to say the least).
*(yes ‘relict’ with a ‘t’ *is* correct… it refers to something that has been ‘left behind’ as the last survivor of an otherwise extinct group - and an otherwise extinct language fits the bill admirably in my humble opinion!)
Wrench
All words beginning with a ‘wr’ make me stop and think. I seem to recall somewhere that they are all ‘nordic’ in origin but I think that needs me to research a little before I could be definitive.
As far as ‘wrench’ is concerned it seems to share it’s origins with wring, and even worry but in middle English it carried the meaning ‘deceit’ or ‘lie’. Strange how meanings mutate!
Motley
I love the English language, which is a good thing since it’s the only language I speak or understand!
One of its endearing features is the number of odd little words that pop up occasionally in normal speech. Often they are part of colloquialisms to which we pay little attention reeling them off as a whole, almost is if the entire phrase was one word.
One such which I was reminded of this morning was motley.
The more I look at it and say it, the stranger it feels and sounds… motley.
In use it means more or less an assortment or ‘mixed collection’, with the emphasis on disorder or having a haphazard quality. According to Wikipedia it refers directly to the costume of the ‘court jester’ or Harlequin. However this is slightly at odds with Eric Partidge who suggests the origin might be ‘quartered’, which might also fit.
From that it would seem the name of the costume was coined from the word rather than the other way round and that would in turn lead to it’s somewhat less limited meaning but far more reduced usage in modern English.
Yup another new blog.
Just one more amongst the billions out there and only one of three I already run… or is it five… I can never remember.
I don’t expect to write in this one every day the way I do with my ‘personal’ blog even tho in many ways this one is even *more* personal since it will be carrying posts about things that really fascinate me… i.e. words!
I’ve been considering setting up a blog specifically for this purpose for ages, in fact each time I discover a word that catches my attention. What finally prompted me to start this one off was thinking about the word ‘motley’. Don’t ask me why that word more than others should have pushed me over the edge cos I can’t tell you. Maybe because I had just set up a site for someone else and was in the right head space so to speak. No idea.
Regardless of *why* I did it… I did do it… so it’s done! As usual with blogs there’s a bit of configuration to do but it’ll be fairly minimal really. I found a great theme, the widgets I want are all in place already, so all I have to do is write, and that’s what I’m about to do.
Don’t expect words to flow like water. I’ll be updating this whenever a word catches me, but for starters I’ll copy in the post that started it all off… the one about ‘motley’ remember?
Oh do keep up! 
Hope you enjoy reading the posts, I know *I* do.
Hello world!
Oh I just had to leave this post… it’s so… traditional