Doodles
A two-page spread of doodles from Russell M. Arundel’s Everybody’s Pixillated (1937).
Words in movies
From Mr. Deeds Goes to Town: “doodle,” “doodling,” “doodler,” “pixilated.”
Word of the day: staycation
The Oxford English Dictionary word of the day.
Word of the day: tea-fire
A word I encountered in an L.L. Bean cookbook.
Idiom of the day: go to pot
Elaine and I wondered about the pot in go to pot . We had three guesses between us: a chamber pot, a cooking pot, and a pot for a plant.
Word of the day: hogwash
As found in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849).
Three words from Charlotte Brontë
Ing, holm, beck.
A word from Charlotte Brontë
It’s Barmecide, from Jane Eyre.
Racism, the word, revised
Kennedy Mitchum, a recent college graduate, has prompted Merriam-Webster to begin revising its definition of racism.
Wordsmith as a verb
What I think I’m seeing: a noun that gives rise to a gerund that gives rise to a verb.
Word of the day: hunker
A trip through the OED.
Nancy, champeen
The ghosts of my grandparents are speaking through Nancy.
Small pleasures
House Manager Adam Schiff (D, California-18) today spoke the word copasetic on the Senate floor. And he referenced some famous phrasing from Casablanca : “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,” casting Burisma as Rick’s Café Américain.
Word of the day: gormless
From Wuthering Heights.
Word of the day: tranche
I thought the word would be trending at Merriam-Webster. No soap.
“Us”
Donald Trump*, in advance of signing his “deal” with China, acknowledging audience members Sheldon and Miriam Adelson: “They’re tremendous supporters of us and the Republican Party.” Us = me, not the country. It’s the presidential plural again.
Word of the day: lackadaisical
To care and not to care: it seems that lackadaisical points in both directions.
“We”
The presidential plural.
A short paws
Chicken paws are, indeed, not feet.
All dais long
They keep saying ˈdī-əs.
What?
Representative Matt Gaetz (R, Florida-1) just referred to the Rorkshire — or was it Yorkshire? — inkblot test.
-ic
Rep. Doug Collins (R, Georgia-9) must really be losing it. He just referred to the Democratic (not “Democrat”) Party.
M-W’s Word of the Day
For an English major of a certain age, sodden , like sempiternal , immediately suggests T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding.”
Recently updated
“They,” another word of the year.
Recently updated
“Voice,” another word of the year.
Recently updated
Words of the year, now with “cancel culture .”
Recently updated
Words of the year, now with “existential .”
The prodigal failson
Last year the word “failsonry” had me stumped. The word I really needed to look up: “failson.”
Recently updated
Another word of the year: “upcycling.”
Warfighter on The Late Show
On The Late Show last night, Stephen Colbert commented on the appearance of the word warfighters in a presidential tweet.