It's a leap! It's a limit! It's all tied up! It's ready to go! The many meanings—and origins—of a familiar word.  Continue reading...

Whether you're living in uncertain times or unscripted times — we have a euphemism to distract you from all the uncertainties life has to offer.  Continue reading...

Forvo is a new website where you can find a huge array of words pronounced in their original languages. Native speakers can upload their own pronunciations — it's "crowdsourcing" at its best.

If you've been keeping up with the news about the Obama transition, you might have noticed an awful lot of "czar" talk. From "health czar" to "climate czar" to "urban affairs czar" to "technology czar" to "copyright czar," it seems like there's a czarship for every policy area in the new administration. And even though the proposal for a "car czar" stalled on Capitol Hill, expect that pirate-friendly rhyme to make headlines again in 2009.  Continue reading...

When I'm feeling stuck on a naming project, I like to remind myself of brand names' myriad and diverse genealogies. Companies have been named for their founders (L.L. Bean), products for their founders' daughters (Mercedes-Benz). Trademarks have been created from street names and star names, numbers and neologisms, contemporary slang and archaic vocabulary.  Continue reading...

The world has lost Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter, a master of language and silence. Bloggers remember.

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