Profile : Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

Ben Zimmer

Subscriber since: December 2007

Location: New York, NY

About Me

I'm executive producer of Visual Thesaurus and editor of the online magazine. I'm slightly obsessive about dictionaries (surprise), music (everything from Big Bill Broonzy to Big Star), and baseball (go Mets).

I can also be found on:

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My Word Lists

Slithery, slimy words beginning with /sl/.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1571/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1570/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1569/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1568/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1567/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1566/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1565/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1564/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1563/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1562/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1561/

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordmasters/1560/

These old words in the Collins English Dictionary are on the chopping block for the new edition. Read more here:...

Words beginning with the /sk/ sound suggesting brisk movement. See: " Skedaddle, Scadoodle, Skidoo, Skadoosh! "

Words that have appeared frequently in the National Spelling Bee. Try the VT Spelling Bee! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/bee/

Recent Comments

Jennifer G.: The "pit bull / lipstick" joke has been around for quite a while in various forms. Here's an example from Sports Illustrated, Dec. 30,...

Jennifer G.: You can read about w00t (note the zeroes) on the Merriam-Webster page for their 2007 WOTY selection. Grant Barrett wrote a pretty...

If you'd like to read responses from Mathis and Eichel about this column, check out their blog posts here and here.

bfd: You might have missed the part above where I say, "Most thesauruses — like the Visual Thesaurus, for instance — have no place for interjections,...

Here's the relevant passage in the New York Times article Elissa linked to:
Jeff Tweedy, the leader of the band Wilco who grew up in downstate...

Hi folks, let's not use the comments section for political rants or other inappropriate remarks, which will be deleted. Let's keep the discussion to...

Dan B.: As Jesse Sheidlower explained the rules at the beginning, variant spellings were considered wrong spellings. Too bad for Ms. Wolitzer!

Grenville P.: The pronunciation of "draw" as "drawr" is a typical feature of "non-rhotic" (r-less) accents. It's called "intrusive r", and it crops up...

Wood F.: To be fair, the "measuring the drapes/curtains" variant is attested since at least 1970, and in fact it appears to be more common now than...

Gine B.: I think that usage would fall under the "exclamation or interjection" category that Kcecelia originally inquired about. If you follow the...

Polymath: The general rule is that a reflexive pronoun is used to refer back to a noun or pronoun within the same clause. In the example you gave,...

Thanks to the first anonymous commenter and Chris Waigl for the information about the corresponding expressions in German. There has been more...

Jana: Though unmentioned by Metcalf, the coincidental resemblance of the date to the emergency phone number is widely recognized as being a...

Rosina: You'll be happy to find both dysphemism and dystopia in the VT. The OED takes dysphemism back to 1884, and dystopia back to 1868, long before...

Gena: "Allow me to introduce myself" is an uncontroversial use of myself: it's reflexive, referring back to the pronoun me. Now, if you said "The...

For a critique of Cassidy's highly speculative approach to etymology, see Grant Barrett's post here.

Believe it or not, LOL is actually pronounced aloud by some young 'uns (as an acronym that sounds like "loll"). It's been spun off as a verb, too, as...

Roger, I wouldn't recommend conflating Wales and Scotland if there are any Welsh or Scottish people within earshot. You could be asking for trouble!...

Thanks, Anonymous! Error corrected. Looks like I'm a victim of Muphry's Law...

I'm pretty sure Hope understands what it means to ask something "ruthlessly" -- her question is about the long-lost "ruth" part. "Ruth" used to mean...

In this case I see it as a matter of authorial style and emphasis. If Daphne had written "One of my friends...", then the focus would be on the friend...

Raju, here's a useful summary of "double genitives" from The American Heritage Book of English Usage:
People sometimes object to the “double...

"High roller" originates in poker and other gambling games, referring to a high-stakes gambler. As far as we know, it doesn't actually have anything...

Once again, folks, Thurber was making a satirical comment. As for context, it appears in an essay called "Ladies' and Gentlemen's Guide to Modern...

Keep in mind that the Thurber quote is, as John McIntyre points out, a burlesque of Fowler. So Thurber is intentionally using "whom" in a place where...

"Moldy baloney" = "Boney Maroni"? Just a guess.

Here's the link to Merriam-Webster's mondegreen submission...

A very popular YouTube video, "Dancing," features a musical version of Tagore's poem "Stream of Life," sung in Bengali by Palbasha Siddique, a...

Ikars S.: Yes, the resemblance of the dachshund to the sausage is another reason why the TAD story seems to have "legs" (albeit short ones). Also,...

As a matter of fact, a word-list spelling bee is in the works. Stay tuned for further developments!

Geoff A.: You're probably thinking of "hot diggety" or the full form "hot diggety dog." That's a jocular extension of "hot dog" as an expression of...

Elizabeth: You can play for as long as you want! We didn't want to limit the fun by giving it an arbitrary stopping point.

Hi Jane: If you're having trouble hearing the pronunciations, I highly recommend using headphones. Also, when you're in the quiz there's a link at the...

Harold: If you liked _The Professor and the Madman_, be sure to check out Joshua Kendall's book picks on "genius, madness and lexicography":...

Thanks for the catch, Louis. I've corrected the article.

Aline: Good point about "Pluto" being the French term for Pluto. Similarly, Spanish uses "Plutón" and Italian has "Plutone." It would certainly be...

To the anonymous commenter, and others who have written in to complain about "who we interview this week" in the first sentence...

This actually...

Craig, I'm actually an American, despite the fact that my previous employer was based on the other side of the Pond. So "walker" is what I'm familiar...

My Favorites

Favorite Word:

omphaloskepsis

Navel-gazers, unite!

Other subscribers who love this word:

Leslie(Media, PA)

Least Favorite Word:

mulct

That's just not a pretty word.

Favorite Quote:

"Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used."

- David Lehman