We're happy to feature writer and editor James Harbeck for another installment of his Word Tasting Notes, this time on the word geoduck.
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This month, it's the return of the word-chain crossword puzzle! Follow the chain of synonyms and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt.
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Word Count
Writers Talk About Writing
Intoxicating: How to Derive "Drunk" Responsibly
January 25, 2012
We welcome back Merrill Perlman, who writes the "Language Corner" column for Columbia Journalism Review. Here she looks at the way that the "drink/drank/drunk" verb paradigm is changing, and advises you how to derive "drunk" (but please, don't drive drunk).
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In two plays currently on Broadway, "Seminar" and "Wit," the written word is front and center, as important as any of the characters on stage.
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Automatically create lists of vocabulary from any text
using the Visual Thesaurus VocabGrabber.
The Dictionary of American Regional English (a.k.a. DARE) is finally completed — and it only took fifty years to do it! In the Boston Globe, Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer looks back on this monument to American speech, and looks ahead to new ways of approaching dialectology. Read his column here.
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Ben Trawick-Smith is an actor with a deep interest in English dialects. On his Dialect Blog, he takes on a range of interesting linguistic issues. His latest post is perfect for the new year: it's all about the song that we butcher every New Year's Eve, "Auld Lang Syne." Get enlightened about the Scottish tune here.
"Babel No More": Facts and Fables of Linguistic Superheroes
January 13, 2012
- 10 Comments
"Occupy" Named 2011 Word of the Year
January 9, 2012
- 4 Comments
Now Presenting: The Nominees for the 2011 Word of the Year
Click here to browse all the articles in our archive by date.
January 6, 2012
- 11 Comments
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RECENT COMMENTS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS
The Power of General Statements
Roger Dee said,
"Thank you, Dr. Lydon, for your generous consideration of my thoughts as worthy of response.
There is a scope of consideration that extends so far..."
- Yesterday, 8:33 PM
Michael Lydon said,
"Sad to say, Roger Dee does have a point. Hate and evil do have a tragic strength. They persist through the ages, killing and torturing people without..."
- Yesterday, 6:28 PM
Word Tasting Notes: "Geoduck"
Eric B. said,
"I am now the go to guy at the office regarding all things geoduck.
Googling geoduck revealed another plausible etymology involving an Indian word for..."
- Thursday January 26th, 5:40 PM
Nancy Friedman said,
"A charming documentary about geoducks was shown on the festival circuit a few years ago: "3 Feet Under: Digging Deep for the Geoduck." Nice title, and..."
- Thursday January 26th, 3:18 PM
Kristine F. said,
"Wow ... What if I had not read this article, and had lived the rest of my life not knowing about "gooey ducks"?! What a chilling thought!
Geoducks..."
- Thursday January 26th, 12:07 PM
The Ündeniable Ümlaut
Juan José Hartlöhner said,
"Nancy,
You missed to mention that spanish too uses the Umlaut, “diéresis”.
So a stork is a cigüeña in spanish and the “u” is pronounced separately..."
- Wednesday January 25th, 5:51 AM
Type Casting
mac said,
""In Wit, Cynthia Nixon plays Vivian Bearing, a college professor and scholar of the works of John Donne, who is dying of cancer".
How would this be..."
- Tuesday January 24th, 7:29 PM
Better Off Banished?
Gabrielle T. said,
"I don't mnd 'sort of' as it sort of helps sometimes, but 'in terms of', oh PLEASE!!"
- Tuesday January 24th, 3:20 PM
Wendy H. said,
""Sort of" is my current pet peeve. It seems that there is an epidemic need to soften or back off from even straight out factual statements. I hear..."
- Tuesday January 24th, 1:23 PM
The Power of General Statements
keith M. said,
"Wonderfully put.
It recalled to mind the fabulous general statements that Lloyd Alexander wove into "The Prydain Chronicles" beginning with "The..."
- Tuesday January 24th, 1:20 PM
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How is word choice valued in poetry?
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This month, it's the return of the word-chain crossword puzzle! Follow the chain of synonyms and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt.
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We've just released a new version of the Visual Thesaurus that works for the iPad and the iPhone, at no extra cost to subscribers. And whether you're using the VT in your Web browser, on your iPhone, or on your iPad, you'll enjoy lightning-fast load times.
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