Category Archives: Word Usage

Word Purge

Posted on August 22, 2011 by

There is an online post at the British newspaper Guardian reporting on words to be excluded from new editions of dictionaries. The post invites readers to list their own choices for words they’d like removed from the English language. My … Continue reading →

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VAMP 18: Delayed Pastries

Posted on August 16, 2011 by

The morning air is bracing as Sam dashes across the street where Lila’s Bakery is. She walks past the shop and down the block and turns into the branch office of a local bank. Good thing I brought the checkbook … Continue reading →

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We’re All Verbs Now

Posted on August 15, 2011 by

Maybe, maybe not. Are there any English speakers today who don’t accept text as a verb? It was an easy move to permit text as a verb, follownig the paradigm of other communication channel noun-verb pairs in English — the … Continue reading →

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Linguistic Asymmetries

Posted on August 3, 2011 by

Have you ever noticed that, while some words which take a prefix seem to form nice pairings with opposite meaning polarity (tie/untie, compliance/noncompliance, tasteful/distasteful), other pairs don’t work this way? For example, there is nonplussed, but not plussed, insipid, but … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology, language change, Semantics, Word Formation, Word Usage | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Happy Summer Solstice, NoHem!

Posted on June 21, 2011 by

Today is the summer solstice for the northern hemisphere — a consequence of the geometry of the sphere-with-a-tilted-axis that we call home in our solar system.  Today the sun will reach its highest point in the sky at (solar) noon, … Continue reading →

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Nutty Nomenclature

Posted on March 7, 2011 by

Have you ever wondered why walnuts have surfaces with ridges and grooves whereas almost all other nuts are smooth? Pecans have rows of ridges, but hazel nuts, cashews, brazil nuts, almonds, macademia nuts and pistachios are all smooth, even though … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology, history of language, names, Word Usage | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Word Jumbles #10

Posted on January 10, 2011 by

POLLOLIP SLITNEC THIPRUM CORTAPI ULECTIC Solutions posted tomorrow on Answers

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