Word of the day: heyday
I have sometimes wondered about the word heyday, Might it have something to do with haying, with jolly rustics turning work into play in the fields?
Dictionaries laugh in my face.
Gray vs. grey
In my mind, grey is darker. It just is.
Wordle, oh my
One and done.
William Labov (1927–2024)
A giant of linguistics.
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Words of the year, now with polarization.
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Words of the year Now with demure and kakistocracy .
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Words of the year Now with brain rot .
New York words
Sliding pond.
An interview with Wyna Liu
From The Atlantic, an interview with Wyna Liu, editor of the New York Times puzzle Connections “The Most Controversial Game on the Internet.”
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Words of the year, now with enshittification.
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Words of the year, now with manifest.
S-O
I was today years old when I reailzed — not learned, just realized — that the name Esso comes from Standard Oil.
Words of the year
From the Collins Dictionary, brat : inspired by Charli XCX and “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”
Truncated? No
On NBC Nightly News tonight, Lester Holt spoke of Kamala Harris’s “truncated campaign.” No. “Truncated” is about the end, not the beginning. If you start late and run the course, your effort has not been truncated.
New directions in nomenclature
In some American classrooms, pipe cleaners are now known as chenille stems. For, I suppose, obvious reasons.
Sesquipedalian Sluggo (with liverwurst)
Sluggo, Bryan Garner, and big words.
SINATRA, not a word
I think a Strands constructor was having fun.
Word of the day: trig
As found in Sarah Orne Jewett’s Deephaven (1877).
Psst, David Brooks
I noticed ebullient twice in Brooks’s comments during PBS’s coverage of the DNC last night, each time pronounced /EB-yə-lənt/. As Garner’s Modern English Usage notes, that’s a common mispronunciation. Has David Brooks latched onto this word for use in talking and writing about Kamala Harris? If so, I hope he gets it right.
Calendaring and efforting
Eff that!
An elliptical FLOTUS?
It’s speech or writing that might be elliptical, not a person. I think the word the Times needed here is “enigmatic.”
Earworms
From the Jardiance jingle to “Minnie the Moocher.”
Stack up with?
Stack up with, or against?
Reaping the worldwind?
“The events in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are part of their worldwind tour of several key battleground states over the next few days.”
Understated or overstated
It cannot be overstated that “it cannot be understated” will most likely be understood as infelicitous phrasing.
Asylum and asylums
Is Donald Trump confusing insane asylums with political asylum?
Positive anymore on the screen
“Well, anymore you’re always busy.”
Game changer
I think it’s time to constrain the use of this term.
Gibbous
What’s it mean?
Word of the day: tire
Why, our household wondered, are those things on cars and trucks and bicycles called tires?