English loves its o-ending words with a curious fervor, considering how seldom they occur naturally in our mother tongue. For centuries, we've made up for that lack by importing or coining words that end in o.  Continue reading...

Numbers also have a function beyond the mathematical: They can serve as words. And sometimes, a number can even be a name.  Continue reading...

At the end of each year, while linguists and lexicographers cast votes for words of the year, I'm compiling a different list: the brand names that distilled the mood of the previous twelve months. To narrow the field, I add another criterion: the brand names must be linguistically notable.  Continue reading...

Here we are in Branding Land, circa 2017, where disparaging modifiers are paired with positive words and attached to messages intended to persuade and sell.  Continue reading...

A craving for linguistic rationality – not to mention a fondness for wordplay – explains how acronyms begat backronyms.  Continue reading...

Fictional eponyms are a new frontier for brand naming, and the territory is quickly becoming well populated. A partial list includes Amazon's Alexa, the health insurance company Oscar, the "intelligent oven" June, and the mattress brand Eve. The first-name brand isn't your boss – it's your buddy.  Continue reading...

In many areas of business and personal life, failure is being redefined as either a challenge that can be overcome with the right coaching or attitude – or, at the extreme, as a source of pride. What's behind this upbeat sense of what it means to fail?  Continue reading...