Gnail
Gnail -- what I found when making a typo
Slugabed
Zzz...
A pastoral name
origin of the word "syphilis" in pastoral poetry
Power-sit
"My daughter created a word today..."
Skeptiphobia
A made-up word. "It came to me in a dream early this morning..."
Say what?
"The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant."
Yet another word from the Greek
I've been wondering for a while whether to post this bit -- I just wasn't sure what to do. Merriam-Webster's (February 1) Word of the Day: a...
Field of dreams?
Walk along the street, and you’ll see the signs, three in a row: Intercollegate Women’s Rugby Field. Intercollegate Women’s Rugby Field. ...
No job too small
I see more frequent and more exotic homonym errors than I used to. Maybe the most surprising so far is pros for prose . But sometimes even ...
“Intercollegiate,” at last
The signs along Fourth Street for the women's rugby field have reappeared with proper spelling. A small thing, sure, but getting the details...
Commas and colons, chickens and caulk
Looking at the first lines of the Odyssey in Greek, a student (I’ll call him “Joe”) asked a great question in class: Are there really comma...
Spelling in the news
Here’s an article from USA Today concerning a mural created for a public library in California. The artist, who was paid $40,000 for her ...
David Shulman, r.i.p.
There’s an obituary for David Shulman in today’s New York Times . Shulman tracked down the origins of countless modern words and expression...
Frenetic
From the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day service: The Word of the Day for November 26 is: frenetic \frih-NET-ik\ adjective: frenzied...
And, but, for, nor, or, so, yet
Starting a sentence with a conjunction is a literary device that can be overused. And it can be annoying. But there's nothing inherently evi...
Details
Here's a powerful example of how crucial a word or two can be in the work of translation, from a review by Judith Shulevitz of Robert Alter'...
Misspellings
But . Penes . Misspellings seen on the walls of the men's rooms in a university building. (Now it's back to grading.)
Misspelling
From USA Today : An error at the recently completed Illinois World War II Memorial is carved in stone. The Oak Ridge Cemetery memorial lists...
Capeesh?
Once I figured out how to spell this word (which came up in my 9:00 Myth and Culture class), it was pretty easy to find its origins on-line....
Odysseus and odium
From the word-a-day list offered by wordsmith.org : odium (O-dee-uhm) noun 1. Hatred accompanied by contempt. 2. A state of infamy...
Lost in translation
Another item from Peter Grad (whose articles for some reason are largely unavailable online): Linguist Christopher Moore scans the globe in ...
Focus groups and language
My dad sent me a clipping from the Bergen Record (a NJ newspaper) that shows focus groups in action. The writer, Peter Grad, is writing abo...
Trompe l'oeil
3703 students: From the wordsmith.org word-a-day service: trompe l'oeil (tromp lye) noun 1. A style of painting in which objects are render...
Yet another word from the Greek
From the wordsmith.org word-a-day service: misandry (MIS-an-dree) noun Hatred of men. [From mis-, from miso- (hate) + -andry (male).] The f...
Dude
In the news: A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word "dude," co...
Gregory Corso and words
Here's the poet Gregory Corso (1930-2001) on his love of words: See, I know words--beautiful words from the past that people don't know, and...
Yet another word from the Greek
From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day email: sophomoric \sahf-MOR-ik\ adjective *1 : conceited and overconfident of knowledge but p...
Mixed metaphors
From an article in the Orlando Sentinel on saxophonist Branford Marsalis' explorations of the classical repertoire: So, Marsalis embraced ...
Moxie
From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day service: The Word of the Day for May 6 is: moxie \MAHK-see\ noun 1 : energy, pep *2 : co...
Perhaps from the Greek
From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day email: cronyism \ KROH-nee-iz-um\ noun : partiality to cronies especially as evidenced in the app...