Potrzebie
A Mad word in Zippy.
Killing “craft”
Brett Kavanaugh said this morning that he was not involved in “crafting” a program of enhanced interrogation techniques or its legal justifications. How urbane.
Oliver Sacks and words
In The New York Times, Bill Hayes writes about Oliver Sacks’s love of words.
The guys problem
Joe Pinsker writes about the problem with — and without — the word “guys.”
Word of the day: involve
I began to wonder what’s wrong with “involve” and whether a recommendation to avoid it could be found elsewhere.
MSNBC, sheesh
“To tell everything that he knows fulsomely and honestly.”
Words from Nineteen Eighty-Four
From A.Word.A.Day: oldspeak.
Words from Nineteen Eighty-Four
From A.Word.A.Day: unperson.
Words from Nineteen Eighty-Four
From A.Word.A.Day: Big Brother.
Words from Nineteen Eighty-Four
From A.Word.A.Day: doublethink.
Words from Nineteen Eighty-Four
From A.Word.A.Day: newspeak.
From the BBC: Word of Mouth
An excellent podcast: Word of Mouth (BBC Radio 4).
MSNBC, sheesh
“Stone is of tantamount interest to Mueller.”
Farm-to-table
Wordplay.
Thanks to the dictionaries
Dictionary work: a crucial factor in a federal court’s decision this week to allow an emoluments-clause lawsuit against Donald Trump to proceed.
Soy what?
The Washington Post reports that the Food and Drug Administration will forbid the use of the word milk in the names of plant-based products.
“DEMENTED WORDS”
I look forward to the day when we are no longer a country that will stand for Donald Trump’s demented words of violence and death. Also his demented words of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and vilification of all who oppose him.
Soil as a verb
A Henry panel. “Soil” is a verb you don’t hear much these days.
Meddling
A column in The Washington Post says, “Stop calling it ‘meddling.’” I’m there. Or was there and am there. I wrote about this word in February 2018.
Sliding pond
A sliding pond (or sliding pon) is what most English-speaking United States residents would call a slide or, less commonly, a sliding board or sliding plank.
Words from politics
This week from Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day , words from politics: malfeasance, nepotism, emolument, collusion, impeach. Yep. They all fit.
Two words
Which word more accurately characterizes people leaving Central America and seeking asylum in the United States, “migrant,” or “refugee”?
NJ OED
The Oxford English Dictionary is looking for words from New Jersey.
W2’s mommy
What does Webster’s Second do with the word?
Cake revision
“Summa --- Laude.”
Word of the day: aegis
The modern meanings of aegis always throw me for a moment, because when I see the word I think of Athena, whose aegis scares the bejeezus out of people.
Anti-Establishment
Striking back at the processed milkshake establishment.
Euphemisms of the NYT
It’d be nice if the Times could get its stuff together and figure out how to handle naughty words.
Needed: a word other than “meddle”
“Russian meddling” is too trivial a description of what’s gone on.
Bastard file
I just used such a file to make a door accommodate a new knob. But why is it called a bastard file?