Marina Vladimirovna Orlova (russian: Марина Владимировна Орлова, born 10 December 1980) is a Russian host of a popular

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel, ''HotForWords'' and a corresponding website. In 2012 she started an online series of videos for a personal finance website Bankrate.com where she explains the meaning of commonly used financial and economic terms.

Early life and education

Orlova was born in Arzamas (

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (russian: link=no, Нижегородская область, ''Nizhegorodskaya oblast''), is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localiti ...

)

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1980. She worked at a shop for a year before applying to an international recruitment program. She wanted to do something creative, or improve her English skills and to prepare for her Ph.D; she was then sent to a small town near

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and worked as a nanny for a working family with two children. A year later she moved to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, where she attempted to start a career in modelling. After going to two photoshoots, she was told that at , she was too short. She has two degrees in

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and taught English and world literature to high school students in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

before moving to the United States to pursue further education.

''Hot for Words'' website

In February 2007, The Hot for Words trademark was registered by Charles T. Como, a creator of internet sites for music bands, and the YouTube account Hotforwords was registered. The first video posted was "Intro to Philology ;-)" on 7 March 2007. Orlova said this was at a time when "everybody was uploading cleavage." The theme of Orlova's website and YouTube videos, which begin with the tagline "Intelligence is Sexy," is tracing the origins of English words. Some of her entries focus on everyday words such as "

irony Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

" and " OK," while others address lengthy and rarely used words such as " floccinaucinihilipilification" and "

antidisestablishmentarianism Antidisestablishmentarianism (, ) is a position that advocates that a state Church (the "established church") should continue to receive government patronage, rather than be disestablished. In 19th century Britain, it developed as a politic ...

." Some entries also address

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...

s, including "let the cat out of the bag," "dressed to the nines," and "three sheets to the wind," or new words like the verb "to google." Orlova appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of the wine, beer and spirits publication ''Mutineer Magazine'', applying her word explanations to common beverage words. Orlova was profiled on "The Medium," an Internet feature of ''

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''. The ''

Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates su ...

'' said "Marina exploits her blonde-bombshell looks to the maximum: She appears in her two-minute clips scantily clad, pouting and making doe eyes. This is surely the main factor in her success. However, while the number of scantily clad girls on the Internet is limitless, not all of them put so much intellectual effort into their success." In an interview, Orlova explained how she got viewers interested in words: "How else could I attract them to words?" "Everyone knows that sex sells." Orlova was reported as having become an advocate of

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in August 2009. After having gone silent on her channel for many years, she posted videos on YouTube in 2021 (since deleted) suggesting she suffers from mental health issues and was in and out of hospital because of the situation.

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orlova, Marina 1980 births Living people People from Arzamas Russian emigrants to the United States Russian YouTubers Russian female YouTubers American YouTubers American female YouTubers