The ubiquitous, and relatively recent, commercial sense of nation veers away from the word's earlier meanings. And it intersects in interesting ways with a related word that's also in the spotlight right now: nationalism.  Continue reading...

influencer – the word, not the status – is one of the most influential buzzwords of our era.  Continue reading...

What will you remember about 2018? Among everything else, I'll remember some brand names that made headlines or just piqued my professional curiosity. Here are my top ten.  Continue reading...

In the American West, wildfires have become both more frequent and more destructive. With this ominous shift has come a new vocabulary for describing fire and its outcome – and new attention to some of the oldest words in our language.  Continue reading...

Out of professional curiosity, I asked first-time author and former Google exec Jessica Powell about how she created the character, company, and place names in her novel The Big Disruption.  Continue reading...

Whatever you read into it, the "All the king's ___" snowclone is now solidly embedded in the popular consciousness and in headline-writers' bag of tricks.  Continue reading...

Want to become fluent in the new lingo of blockchain? Here's a brief alphabetical glossary of some of the terms you may encounter.  Continue reading...