Word of the day: hamper
What is a bell-hamper?
“Locally Grown”
“All produce, wherever it’s grown, is grown locally. The real question is where it’s sold.”
Word of the day: palaver
“When I see that word, I think of James Joyce’s story ‘The Dead,’ in which it’s spoken by Lily, the caretaker’s daughter.”
Scott Pelley, man
“. . . how man is attempting to restore bird populations threatened by climate change.”
Figures of speech
“I’m not unwilling to discuss litotes. But I refuse to even mention paralipsis.”
As such, as such
A phrase often best avoided.
A value-added post
A commenter’s stunning account of one student’s Rogeting and the work needed to track it down.
Rogeting
That students could hope to succeed by means of such substitutions suggests that something is broken — in their understanding of how language works, and in their ability to imagine a reader’s response to their writing.
False needs in the mailbox
“False needs” is our household’s name for the catalogues that come to our mailbox, day after week after month after year.
-wise, usagewise
Bryan Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day today addresses the suffix “-wise.”
Word of the day: magnifico
“Magnifico” is another word that I associate with a particular work of literature: the Wallace Stevens poem “Metaphors of a You-Know-What.”
Archive and ark
They must have a common origin. Right? No, not right.
Naked City TL
“I don’t know what the letters stand for, but it means that I’ve got a compliment for you if you can dig up something nice to say about me.”
Naked City agriculture
“I got a wife, two kids, a nice business — produce, organically grown, no sprays.”
Musician v. singer again
Anita O’Day, singer? Or musician? Or both?
Literally
Literally is a Chrome browser extension that replaces literally with figuratively.
Musicians and vocalists
“Musician” can be a tricky word.
Imaginary word of the day
“Their relationship is strictly plutonic.”
The dictionary as commercials
Why Merriam-Webster recycled madeleine as its Word of the Day.
DFW, “Your Liberal-Arts $ at Work”
“Pedantry is always tiresome, but it’s especially tiresome when the pedant doesn’t know what he is talking about.”
M-W recycling
Madeleine, once again the Word of the Day.
Word of the day: illeism
“Let me tell you what Bob Dole thinks.”
Word of the day: opusculum
For readers of modern poetry, opusculum will recall Wallace Stevens’s poem “Study of Two Pears.”
Prompting disaster?
On NPR’s Morning Edition this morning, a voice reading headlines noted the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The voice said that the spill “prompted an economic and environmental disaster.” Disaster, yes. Prompt? No.
Word of the day: novelty
“You don’t see novelty shops so much anymore.”
In flight from excellence
“The thing people should stop shooting for, because making things just kind of okay would be really good start. Enough with the excellence and perfection, all right?”
Word of the day: gallivant
A word my mom likes.
Domestic comedy
Is there a word for soupmaking?
Word of the day: nivosity
A new way to hate the weather!
Meat whats?
What is the plural of “meat loaf”?