http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/?utm_source=rss Exploring the pathways of our lexicon Copyright 2010, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/?utm_source=rss Search for a word in the Visual Thesaurus word http://www.visualthesaurus.com Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2210?utm_source=rss It's been a whirlwind week since the official announcement that I would be taking over the "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine, the old stomping grounds of the late lamented Language Maven, William Safire. I'm grateful for all of the warm messages of congratulation I've received, and I also remain cognizant that in taking over Safire's column, I have extremely big shoes to fill. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2210 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2199?utm_source=rss If you watched the Oscars on Sunday, like many other viewers you were probably left scratching your head when, after "Music by Prudence" won for Best Documentary Short, there was a struggle for the microphone between two of the film's creators. Elinor Burkett snatched the microphone from Roger Ross Williams, in what was almost immediately dubbed a "Kanye moment." Or you could say Burkett "pulled a Kanye," or that Williams simply got "Kanye'd." Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2199 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2195?utm_source=rss One of the frontrunners for Best Picture in Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony is Kathryn Bigelow's tense depiction of a U.S. bomb squad unit in Iraq, The Hurt Locker. The movie's official website says of the title, "In Iraq, it is soldier vernacular to speak of explosions as sending you to 'the hurt locker.'" In fact, like so much American military slang, hurt locker (along with related hurt expressions) dates back to the Vietnam War. Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2195 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2191?utm_source=rss During President Obama's health care summit last week, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor suffered a bit of a misspeak, saying: "We have a very difficult bridge to gap here." Whoops! It's the gap that needs bridging, of course, not vice versa. Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2191 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2187?utm_source=rss An oft-heard word of the Winter Olympics is podium, the raised platform where medalists stand. As I wrote about recently for The New York Times Magazine, during the Olympics podium even gets used as a verb, as in "The Canadian alpine skiers failed to podium." The verbing of podium bothers a lot of people, but the noun presents problems too. Away from the Olympics, podium often gets conflated with another word, lectern. Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2187 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2182?utm_source=rss The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament has come to an end, and with it the end of Tyler Hinman's amazing five-year reign as champ. Meet the new alpha dog of the crossword world: the one and only Dan Feyer. Puzzlemaster Brendan Emmett Quigley joins us again with his wrap-up of the action from Brooklyn. Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2182 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2180?utm_source=rss Live from Brooklyn, puzzlemaster Brendan Emmett Quigley is providing exclusive commentary from the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (http://www.crosswordtournament.com/). Brendan's got the scoop on all the action at the end of the first day of competition. Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2180 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2179?utm_source=rss It's time once again for the cream of the crosswording crop to converge on the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn, New York. Last year the nail-biting final round (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1748/) saw Tyler Hinman emerge victorious for the fifth consecutive year (his thrilling first win was captured in the documentary Wordplay). Will Tyler manage to pull off #6, or is it time for a new winner — like, say, last year's breakout star Dan Feyer? Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2179 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2166?utm_source=rss Over the last few days, America's Eastern seaboard has seen record levels of snow... accompanied by record levels of snow wordplay. There has been a blizzard of "portmanteau words (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=portmanteau%20word)" involving snow, with snowmageddon and snowpocalypse leading the way. On Twitter, the hashtag of choice has been snOMG (http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23snOMG), compactly joining snow with the online interjection OMG. We haven't seen this much seasonal word-blending since 2008's "summer of the staycation." Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2166 Word Routes http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2159?utm_source=rss After writing about "crash blossoms" in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, I've gotten plenty of responses from readers sending in their own favorite examples of unintentionally ambiguous headlines. I've also been hearing more about an anecdote I mentioned, relating to a legendary telegram long attributed to Cary Grant. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2159