The Word Atlas

Rob Watts is the creator of RobWords, the world’s most-followed channel for the dissemination of intriguing if vaguely pointless facts about the English language. Since launching the channel in 2020, he has gained over 1 million followers across the internet – a third of them in the United States – and reached over 10 million people with his insights into the world’s lingua franca. He is also the host of the chart-topping etymology podcast Words Unravelled, which has 100,000 listeners per week. Born and raised in Derby, England and currently based in Berlin, Germany, Rob was previously a reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live and now works as an English-language newsreader for the German state broadcaster, DW. He speaks English, French and German, and his favourite word is a toss-up between purfle (a pretty decoration around the hem of a garment or an inlaid pattern that one might find around the edge of a violin) and stinkibus (a deliberately adulterated drink).