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  1. Word Count

     You Say To-MAH-to: Everyday Shibboleths
    Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Some years ago, there was a series of stories in a magazine about dates that did not go well. In one of the stories, a woman met her date at a Mexican restaurant. When they ordered dinner, her companion asked for tortillas, but he pronounced the word "dor-dee-yas." Although he did not know it, the hapless gentleman's pronunciation proved to be a shibboleth that meant there would be no second date, and got me thinking about other encounters we may have with shibboleths in our personal experience.

  2. Word Routes

     The Story of "Boondoggle": A Useful Word for Useless Work
    Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    For the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I explored the peculiar origins of the word boondoggle, which took a strange trip from the world of Boy Scouts to the world of politics 80 years ago.

  3. Candlepower

     Branding Weirds Language
    Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    "Verbing weirds language." Ad copywriters have made the weirding of language – and especially the verbing of nouns – a signal feature of the current brandscape. They're only the most visible of the language-weirders who are making the culture more expressive... or more vexing, depending on your point of view.

  4. Blog Excerpts

     The Troubled History of "Refugee"
    Wed Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    On Minnesota Public Radio, our executive editor Ben Zimmer explored the problematic history of the word refugee, now frequently heard in media accounts of the European migration crisis.

  5. Evasive Maneuvers

     Ethically Aggregating for Old Ned
    Tue Sep 08 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    In his latest batch of under-the-radar euphemisms, Mark Peters introduces such linguistic doozies as "ethical cheating," an oxymoronic term that came to light after the Ashley Madison hacking hubbub.

  6. Blog Excerpts

     Celebrating Labor (and Labour) Day
    Fri Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    On the first Monday in September, the United States observes Labor Day, while Canadians celebrate Labour Day. If you want to know why labour is the accepted spelling in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries like Canada, while Americans prefer labor (and color, favor, honor, humor, and neighbor), check out this classic Word Routes column by Ben Zimmer.

  7. Language Lounge

     Minds, Bodies, and Verbs
    Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Many verbs that entail some advanced cognitive capacity are commonly used in predicates for subjects that are not human. All speakers are comfortable with sentences like "Verizon revamps mobile plans and ends 2-year contracts & subsidies." Most speakers, however, reject sentences like "Microsoft is vividly imagining a purple square."

  8. Word Routes

     The Colorful Origin Stories of "Gringo"
    Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    For the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I delve into the many stories surrounding the origins of the word gringo, an epithet used by Latin Americans for foreign speakers, typically American Anglophones. Though a great deal of vivid folklore surrounds the word, its actual etymology is just as interesting.

  9. Word Count

     Getting Life into Writing
    Wed Aug 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015

    Life, Life, LIFE!

    Whether the words, spaces, and punctuation marks appear in The Iliad or Don Quixote, a fluffy sportswear catalogue or a dense computer manual, the goal of all writing is to get some tiny bit of the gargantuan energy we call life onto the page so that other humans can read it and say, "Yes, that writing describes the life I know."

  10. Word Count

     A Delicately Deodorized Word Bouquet
    Mon Aug 17 09:00:00 EDT 2015
    There's no nice way to put it: as we reach the peak of temperature and humidity levels in much of the northern hemisphere, we all too often find ourselves confronted by things — and yes, people — who smell. And even if we'd like to turn up our nose, for once let's take a giant whiff. Or at least an etymological one.
36 37 38 39 40 Displaying 371-380 of 3488 Results