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Word of the Day
LEGERDEMAIN (Noun, English) Skilled, dexterous use of the hands when performing magical tricks. Has also taken on a pejorative meaning of deceit or trickery. Note: Cited originally in English during the 16th century. From the French phrase 'léger de main' (light of hand).
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Monthly Archives: September 2010
Sweet as Sugar
My sister Alexandra reports that her linguist friend once told her that, of the two dozen languages he knew, the word for sugar appears to have the same root in all of them. Here are the terms for sugar in … Continue reading
Posted in etymology, social context of language, word borrowing
2 Comments
Word Relics
Today’s word of the day is fortnight. When I first heard this word as a kid, I immediately concluded it had something to do with forts and battlements, some length of time during which soldiers of kings did something or … Continue reading
Posted in etymology, history of language, word meaning
Tagged etymology, language change
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Folk Numbers
Mathematics is the most rigorous branch of knowledge. But leave it to people — and language — to make even maths folksy. (Maths is the British informal term for mathematics. Isn’t it nice? It preserves the final ‘s’, unlike the … Continue reading
Go and Went
If you hear someone say ‘I goed’ and you are a fluent speaker of English, you probably assume it’s a child in the midst of learning their native tongue, albeit with a few over-generalizations of word-formation rules, or an adult … Continue reading
Posted in language change, Semantics
Tagged language change, linguistic merger, syncretism
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Word Jumbles #8
BOULED CRIOLENAP PITRUN RESTORO MYACTAIL Solutions posted tomorrow on Answers
Freewheeling Expression
Do printed dictionaries still matter? I doubt most people use them much nowadays to check spellings — spellcheckers are nearly ubiquitous in word-processing software of all types. There are also myriad sources for usage examples, including many online resources that … Continue reading
Posted in Word Formation, Word Usage, writing
Tagged language and technology, word formation
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Place Names
It has long been observed that the words for places tend to survive a long time; even when much of the lexicon of a language has otherwise changed or been replaced. Even when one group of people conquers another, the … Continue reading
Word Jumbles #7
CROISTEE FUTOBLUD HEFRICKE LOWERMEANT ACUTISOU Solutions will be posted tomorrow on Answers
I’m baaack (almost)
Well, I finally got the revised version of Blind Tasting uploaded to CreateSpace this morning. If the new proof looks good, the novel will be available at Amazon in print form in about a week. The revised version for the … Continue reading
Brief Hiatus
This past week I’ve been correcting the proof for the print version of my novel Blind Tasting. I hope to resume posts soon – apologies for the radio silence. Answers for Word Jumbles #6 now available in Answers.
Posted in Word Usage
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Word Travels 