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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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Author Archives: achouston
NaNoWriMo – Okay!
This is National Novel Writing Month, a free-for-all invitation for all and any writers (that includes you, people!) to write a complete novel in the thirty days of November. It must be 50,000 words in length (at least) to qualify as … Continue reading
Stories: Up, Down and Sideways
When seeking advice on the craft of writing a story, whether screenplay, novel or other form, most experts will tell you that you must write the back story of your characters. These back stories are pages of descriptive narrative, detailing … Continue reading
Posted in ebooks, self-publishing, storytelling, writing
Tagged ebook, multimedia, storytelling
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S Spotting
Somewhere you’ve probably read or heard the colloquial version of expect, as when cowpokes say ‘I ‘spect it’s goin’ to rain’. I’ve been hearing and reading (tweets on Twitter) other examples of this phonological reduction: I ate so much chocolate … Continue reading
Posted in language change, language variation, pronunciation
Tagged language change, phonological reduction, pronunciation
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What’s in a Name’s Ending?
Have you ever wondered why we say Californian and Bostonian, but then say New Yorker, Londoner and Midwesterner? A friend recently used the term Kendallites to refer to habitues of Kendall Square, Cambridge MA. I understood perfectly what he meant … Continue reading
The Social Network: Some Thoughts
I finally saw the new film, The Social Network, last night. It’s not a film predominately about language, but there are a few points to make about language in regard to the movie. First, I was deeply impressed, as were … Continue reading
Posted in Internet, language and social media, language change
Tagged film review, language change, the social network
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New Language Discovered in Himalayan Foothills
The Wall Street Journal reported today on the findings of a 2008 linguistic expedition to Arunachal Pradesh, the most northeastern state of India. In a mountainous region already populated with a plethora of other spoken tongues, researches claim to have linguistic … Continue reading
Posted in language typology, speech communities
Tagged language death, language discovery, language families
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Word Jumbles #9
BLARSMEB SHOOTLEST YESVUR LUCERALL AFECIDE Correction: Fifth jumble should be: IFECIDE Solutions posted tomorrow on Answers page.
Posted in Word Usage
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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
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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
Word Travels 