Comic Transcripts

Plantation Hat: Is “pepper” something that adds pep? Or does “pep” describe the result of adding pepper?
Which came first, I wonder?

Monocled Linguist: Actually, they’re false cognates! Pepper is named for Sir Davis Pepper, who was the first to import the spice from India to Britain in the seventeenth century.
It was a trade name: Pepper Brand Shockening Powder, later genericized simply to pepper.

Monocled Linguist: Whereas “pep” comes from the Middle Greek “pepos”, meaning verve or spirit. Hence pep rally.
Sometimes coincidences like that happen!

Top Hat Bystander: Why are you such a liar?
Monocled Linguist: Come on! I have a linguistics degree.
This is all I have!

{{header: shed light on WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: “How often does somebody actually WONDER ABOUT ETYMOLOGY in my PRESENCE?? You GOTTA give me this!!”}}

#829; In which Pepper is explained transcribed by in

Plantation Hat: Is “pepper” something that adds pep? Or does “pep” describe the result of adding pepper?
Which came first, I wonder?

Monocled Linguist: Actually, they’re false cognates! Pepper is named for Sir Davis Pepper, who was the first to import the spice from India to Britain in the seventeenth century.
It was a trade name: Pepper Brand Shockening Powder, later genericized simply to pepper.

Monocled Linguist: Whereas “pep” comes from the Middle Greek “pepos”, meaning verve or spirit. Hence pep rally.
Sometimes coincidences like that happen!

Top Hat Bystander: Why are you such a liar?
Monocled Linguist: Come on! I have a linguistics degree.
This is all I have!

{{header: shed light on WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: “How often does somebody actually WONDER ABOUT ETYMOLOGY in my PRESENCE?? You GOTTA give me this!!”}}

#829; In which Pepper is explained transcribed by in

Plantation Hat: Is "pepper" something that adds pep? Or does "pep" describe the result of adding pepper?
Which came first, I wonder?

Monocled Linguist: Actually, they're false cognates! Pepper is named for Sir Davis Pepper, who was the first to import the spice from India to Britain in the seventeenth century.
It was a trade name: Pepper Brand Shockening Powder, later genericized simply to pepper.

Monocled Linguist: Whereas "pep" comes from the Middle Greek "pepos", meaning verve or spirit. Hence pep rally.
Sometimes coincidences like that happen!

Top Hat Bystander: Why are you such a liar?
Monocled Linguist: Come on! I have a linguistics degree.
This is all I have!

{{header: shed light on WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: "How often does somebody actually WONDER ABOUT ETYMOLOGY in my PRESENCE?? You GOTTA give me this!!"}}

''How often does somebody actually WONDER ABOUT ETYMOLOGY in my PRESENCE?? You GOTTA give me this!!''

#829; In which Pepper is explained

  — April 20th, 2012

[ Tags: , , ]       Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/829/

More surprising etymologies here!

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Bolted! Fulfillment Update

May 25, 2026 by David Malki !
Photo courtesy of backer Nicola!

The vast majority of Bolted! game shipments are already shipped, but I understand if you don’t have yours yet, who cares. Here’s a progress report:

Total orders | 1052
Surveys completed | 992
Fully shipped | 946

Incomplete surveys

Obviously, if I don’t have your shipping address, I can’t ship your game! Let me know if you are missing a survey link. As new responses come in, they are rapidly added to the shipping queue.

Orders containing certain add-ons

Some of the add-ons proved more popular than expected — which is lovely! But it meant I had to reprint some stickers, make all the individual comic prints, request a shipment of books from offsite storage, etc, etc. So, any orders which contain an out-of-stock item are still waiting to ship.

All that missing stuff, though, is en route to me at this very second! So those orders will be going out pretty dang soon!

Custom items

I’ve already been in touch directly with the backers who ordered custom collages! Those will be created (and sent to you) after all the other shipments are complete. I’m excited for those, they’ll be fun! My pleasant dessert after the hearty meal of all the other orders.

Anything wrong?

I’m very grateful to the few folks who’ve contacted me to report some kind of issue with their shipment! Thankfully, problems are rare, but when they do occur, I would like to solve them. Please don’t hesitate to send me an email (replying to your shipping confirmation works great) if there’s anything about your order I can correct.

Reviews & photos

On BoardGameGeek are highly appreciated!

Unless you hate the game! You are entitled to that opinion, but please send that review directly to me instead of telling anyone else, so I can eat it and bury it in the yard and watch it grow into a twisted, gnarled tree. Or whatever!


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