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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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Category Archives: Word Usage
Happy Summer Solstice, NoHem!
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
Nutty Nomenclature
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 etymology, filbert, hazelnut, name origins, nuts, walnut
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Word Jumbles #10
POLLOLIP SLITNEC THIPRUM CORTAPI ULECTIC Solutions posted tomorrow on Answers
Gates
The word gate is a good old English word, the form being geat in Old English (plural geatu) and whose meaning was ‘an opening or entrance’. A watergate (from the 15th century) is a channel for water; the first element … Continue reading
Word Lust
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on a database of language usage that is now available to researchers. It is derived from the digital library of the world’s books that Google has been assembling in recent years. Thus far, two billion … Continue reading
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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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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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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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
Possible World Words
Someone mentioned hearing an interview on the radio in which a native Spanish speaker (who was speaking English in the interview) used the word conspiration when referring to conspiracy. Interesting. There is no word in any English dictionary for the … Continue reading
Posted in Word Formation, Word Usage
Tagged language change, matrix, morphology, word formation rules
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Word Travels 