One of the guilty pleasures that I find myself indulging is watching Marina Orlova, the popular Russian-American etymologist and HotForWords YouTube sensation, as she explains the origin of words and phrases. Check out the Google for an introduction to my favorite language teacher: “Not your typical philologist. Etymology, philology, word origins, origin of, hot teacher.”

Marina, who was once told that she could not be a model because at 5-5 she was too short, is now raising the language IQ of thousands of devoted students. A year ago she had 200,000 YouTube subscribers (as a blonde). This year, even as a brunette, Marina continues to shine and win more fans.