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Word Routes
Mailbag Friday: "Texted"
Fri Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Today's Mailbag Friday question comes all the way from Dakar, Senegal. Jodi W. asks: "What's up with texted? As in, 'I texted her yesterday.' Is it a real word?"
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Blog Du Jour
National Poetry Month
Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2009
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Behind the Dictionary
April 15th: A Most Taxing Day for Dictionaries
Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009
While most of us view April 15th as the day the tax man cometh (and our income goeth), it marked a more auspicious occasion in 1755. That was the day Samuel Johnson published his massive two-volume, 42,773-word dictionary of the English language. Mim Harrison, founding editor of Levenger Press, takes a look back.
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Contest Corner
Four-Part Harmony: Winner!
Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Last month in Contest Corner, the goal was to find as many words as possible that are defined using all four parts of speech on the Visual Thesaurus (i.e., noun, adjective, verb, and adverb). Congratulations to Eric D. of Grand Rapids, MI, who came up with 26! Here's his list: back, better, clean, clear, direct, down, even, fast, free, full, home, last, long, low, out, quiet, right, round, short, slow, square, still, thin, true, well, wrong. Eric wins a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!
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Word Routes
Plundering the History of "Pirate"
Tue Apr 14 00:00:00 EDT 2009
The recent hijacking of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship off the coast of Somalia serves as a chilling reminder that seagoing pirates continue to threaten international waters, from the Gulf of Aden to the Straits of Malacca. For many of us, it's peculiar to see the word pirate making headlines, since it seems so out of place in the 21st century — at least outside of Disney theme parks.
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Teachers at Work
The Pronoun Problem
Mon Apr 13 00:00:00 EDT 2009
It's an age-old quandary: what to do about the lack of a gender-neutral singular third-person pronoun in English? Writing teacher Margaret Hundley Parker tackles this grammatical stumbling block, drawing on her experience in the college classroom — on both sides of the pedagogical divide.
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Backstory
A. S. King, Author of "The Dust of 100 Dogs"
Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2009
In the late 17th century, famed pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with the dust of 100 dogs, dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body — with her memories intact. Now she's a contemporary American teenager, and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica.
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Blog Excerpts
From LOL to Lulz
Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Ever wonder how Internet slang mutates, like "LOL" becoming "lulz" and "OMG" becoming "ZOMG"? Grant Barrett has the answers.
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Word Routes
Booooo!
Thu Apr 09 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Yesterday I had the privilege of appearing on the WNYC radio show Soundcheck to talk about the origins of booing. The news hook was a recent Metropolitan Opera production of La Sonnambula that got booed by the audience thanks to its avant-garde staging. Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout discussed the booing incident, and I was there to provide some historical and linguistic context.
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Word Count
Seven Ways to Write a Better Speech
Wed Apr 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009
I don't pretend to be a great public speaker; I think I had more nerve as a 14-year-old debater than I have now! But I was keenly motivated by the gleam of trophies in high school and I learned the tricks it takes to do reasonably well at speaking.
In later years, I also wrote speeches for industry leaders and CEOs. So when a friend emailed to request advice on how to write speeches, I decided to summarize the seven things I know.
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