http://www.visualthesaurus.com?ad=rss The Visual Thesaurus Online Edition is a magazine available to Visual Thesaurus Subscribers about language, writing, and the creative process. The Visual Thesaurus is an online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you explore using an interactive map. Copyright 2013, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com?ad=rss Word of the Day http://www.visualthesaurus.com?word=naughty&utm_source=rss There's clearly a naught (from an Old English word for nothing) in naughty, but what is it doing there? The earliest meaning of the word was 'possessing nothing.' Today's meaning, 'wicked,' developed in late Middle English and was much stronger in force than the contemporary meaning. We use naughty today mostly for mild wickedness, such as is observed in children and in the minor failings of adults. Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wd/2589 Contest http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/contest/the-visual-thesaurus-crossword-puzzle-may-edition-2013?utm_source=rss The Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held next week, and to celebrate the occasion we have a spelling-themed crossword. Figure it out and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt! Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/contest/the-visual-thesaurus-crossword-puzzle-may-edition-2013 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/leaning-back-to-look-at-lean-in?utm_source=rss "Lean in," thanks to the title of a new book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, has become "the idiom of the moment," Motoko Rich writes in the New York Times, adding "the phrase seems to have taken on a life of its own." But where did all of this "leaning in" come from? Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/leaning-back-to-look-at-lean-in Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/participial-con-fusion-when-possession-is-the-law?utm_source=rss WARNING: Grammar lesson ahead. If you ever knew what a "participle" was, you may have forgotten. Same with the word "gerund." And if you ever heard the term "fused participle," you probably zoned out completely. Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/participial-con-fusion-when-possession-is-the-law Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/beat-upedness?utm_source=rss In February, the author Gary Schmidt was interviewed by Michele Norris on NPR about his novel entitled OK for Now. Schmidt said this about the book's protagonist: "He brings all of his beat-upedness with him." "Beat-upedness"? Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/beat-upedness Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/such-examples-as-these?utm_source=rss Recently on the Copyediting-L discussion board, member Levi Bookin presented this conundrum: one of his authors avoids the phrase such as to such an extreme that he seems allergic to it. Possibly, Bookin wrote, this is because he dislikes commas so much. Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/such-examples-as-these Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/an-army-of-strong-slogans?utm_source=rss In my latest column for the Boston Globe, I take a look at the rapid rise of the slogan "Boston Strong" in the month since the Marathon bombing. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but it's only the latest in a long line of "strong" slogans. Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/an-army-of-strong-slogans Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/unpalatable-a-plateful-of-similar-words?utm_source=rss The artists were being praised for their technique in which, the article said, they "use only pallet knives, not brushes." The conference attendees were told that "it's not too early to start whetting your palette for" the food expected to be served. And the article talked about a shipment of "wooden palates infested with the Asian long-horned beetle." Possibly wrong, wrong, and ouch. Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/unpalatable-a-plateful-of-similar-words Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/yes-i-could-care-less-a-mixed-bag?utm_source=rss There are two books here. I love one of them, but I don't care for the other. Somehow, they're both Yes, I Could Care Less: How to Be a Language Snob Without Being a Jerk by Washington Post copy editor Bill Walsh. Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/yes-i-could-care-less-a-mixed-bag Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/balzacs-lost-illusions-a-novel-in-contrasts?utm_source=rss No other novel is more worldly than Honoré de Balzac's Lost Illusions, delighting us with courtesans and countesses, misers and millionaires. Yet no other novel is more word-y, more focused on the art and business of writing. Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/balzacs-lost-illusions-a-novel-in-contrasts Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/silicon-valleys-favorite-word-delight?utm_source=rss Los Angeles Times tech reporter Chris O'Brien has discovered that the favorite word among techie types is "delight": "A squishy, subjective, hard-to-pin-down term. So daringly unquantifiable, so proudly immeasurable. And now, suddenly, all the rage in data-driven Silicon Valley." Read O'Brien's delightful piece here (http://www.latimes.com/news/columnone/la-fi-silicon-valley-delight-20130510-dto,0,1536200.htmlstory). Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/silicon-valleys-favorite-word-delight Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/how-to-overcome-your-writing-shame?utm_source=rss When I was 10 years old, one summer morning I remember standing at my kitchen door, talking to a neighborhood pal of mine. Suddenly, wasps started swarming around us. Terrified (I'd been stung on the lip on the first day of grade 1 — an extraordinarily painful experience), I slammed the door and ran to get my mother. It never even occurred to me to try to rescue my friend. Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/how-to-overcome-your-writing-shame Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/getting-gatsby-the-language-behind-the-novel?utm_source=rss With Baz Luhrmann's movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby arriving in theaters, this week has been full of Gatsby talk. Online commentators have been writing about words coined or popularized by Fitzgerald, the slang of the 1920s "flapper" era, and even the name Gatsby itself. Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/getting-gatsby-the-language-behind-the-novel Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/writing-tics-the-optics-of-metrics?utm_source=rss The mayor's op-ed piece urged action on a regional 911 system, which, among other things, would "provide consistent and transparent performance metrics countywide." Alas, the program has not been put into effect, "as a result of the political optics." Jargon and more jargon. Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/writing-tics-the-optics-of-metrics Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/whats-in-a-nym?utm_source=rss There are all sorts of words in English based on the -onym word part, which derives from a Greek word that means name. Everyone knows about homonyms and synonyms, but what about retronyms, demonyms, and aptonyms? Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/whats-in-a-nym Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/flash-gleam-glint-sparkle-mcphee-woolf-and-words-2013?utm_source=rss In an essay on writing in last week's The New Yorker, John McPhee describes drawing boxes around "perfectly O.K." words in a search for the "mot juste." Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf tells us words are a messy tangle that will always elude our best efforts to tie them down. Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/flash-gleam-glint-sparkle-mcphee-woolf-and-words-2013 Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/orwell-and-singular-they?utm_source=rss We'd like to welcome Jonathon Owen, a copy editor and book designer with a master's degree in linguistics, as our newest regular contributor! Here Jonathon explains how he discovered that an oft-quoted example of George Orwell using singular "they" turned out not to be by Orwell after all. Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/orwell-and-singular-they Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/how-baloney-got-phony?utm_source=rss An Inside Higher Ed article recently quoted Duke University physics professor Steffen Bass as describing the foolish stance of some of his colleagues as "bologna." Prof. Bass surely said baloney, a spelling that represents an Americanized pronunciation of bologna sausage, and it also came to mean "nonsense" in the 1920s. Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/how-baloney-got-phony Evasive Maneuvers http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/evasive/gentleman-turkeys-and-other-high-class-gobbledygook?utm_source=rss Do gentlemen exist anymore? The word feels old-fashioned and paleolithic in the era of dudes, bros, and creeps. However, the word gentleman has a long, vibrant history as a euphemism. That history is worth celebrating. In the spirit of a recent column on angels, here's a look at the critters and crimes gentleman has coddled and concealed. Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/evasive/gentleman-turkeys-and-other-high-class-gobbledygook Language Lounge http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/ll/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-meronymy?utm_source=rss Figures of speech in which a part stands for the whole contribute to making linguistic expression so rich, flexible, complex, and interesting. For human speakers, it's a lifelong learning opportunity and a palette from which to paint word pictures and create new expressions. For computers trying to understand language, it can be an intractable problem. Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/ll/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-meronymy Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/blame-excuses-where-to-point-the-finger?utm_source=rss "Deer Creek blames fire on science experiment," read one headline. "Arsonist blames fire on living conditions," said another. Some people would take umbrage with both of those sentences, asserting that the finger of blame was pointing in the wrong direction. Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/blame-excuses-where-to-point-the-finger Teachers at Work http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/always-never-something-eliminating-five-overused-words?utm_source=rss Having logged many years teaching English and theatre at New York City high schools, Shannon Reed now teaches freshman English Composition at the University of Pittsburgh. Here Shannon shows how teachers can work with students to improve their writing by focusing on five overused words. Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/always-never-something-eliminating-five-overused-words Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/trespassers-will-be-trespassed?utm_source=rss Poking around a mall with his sons, the linguist Neal Whitman came across a sign that said, "Violators will be trespassed." It turns out that the verb trespass has picked up a new meaning in the last twenty years or so, one which hasn't yet made it into any of the dictionaries. Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/trespassers-will-be-trespassed Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/love-is-all-around-data-mining-song-titles?utm_source=rss The language technology company Idibon recently launched a blog, and one interesting contribution comes from Tyler Schnoebelen, who has data-mined the titles of nearly 40,000 songs that have appeared on Billboard's pop charts from 1890 to 2012. It turns out that when it comes to song titles, "love" is most definitely in the air. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/love-is-all-around-data-mining-song-titles Word Count http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/season-openers-baseball-terms-and-myths?utm_source=rss It's April, which means that the major league baseball season is once again under way. Time to celebrate America's favorite pastime with a look at the origins of words from the baseball diamond. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/season-openers-baseball-terms-and-myths Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/words-from-a-surreal-week-in-boston?utm_source=rss What the city of Boston experienced last week was described again and again as surreal. It was the only word that seemed capable of encompassing the week's unfolding events, from Monday's deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line to Friday's lockdown of the city as SWAT teams zeroed in on the remaining suspect of the bombing. Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/words-from-a-surreal-week-in-boston