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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
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
2 Comments
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 Jumbles #6
MEBRIT ANTLORIA GOTUNE OLDMAN TANGAME Solutions posted on Answers tomorrow.
Awesome
The word awesome is extending its usage to function as a noun, not just an adjective, although the nominal usage isn’t showing up in dictionaries. Yet. Here are two recent real-life examples of awesome I have witnessed where awesome is … Continue reading
Ontology for Words of the Day
If you go to the Word Archive page, there is a new graphic showing the archived Words of the Day organized into a hierarchy of basic semantic categories, an ontology. I’ll continue to add words of the day to this … Continue reading
Word Travels 