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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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Tag Archives: language change
The Hidden Past of Words: English final -y
Consider the following list of everyday English words: memory, happy, baby, crazy, victory, city, silly, puppy, army For starters, they all end in -y and they can be grouped further as nouns (memory, baby, victory, city, puppy, army) or adjectives … Continue reading
We’re All Verbs Now
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
Posted in language change, Word Formation, Word Usage
Tagged acronyms, English verbs, language change, word formation
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Linguistic Asymmetries
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 back-formation, language change, recombobulation area, semantic pairs
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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
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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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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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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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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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 