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  1. Dog Eared

     "Spinglish": A Smorgasbord of Evasive, Duplicitous Delights
    Tue Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Have you ever struggled to explain a nuclear meltdown caused by an incredibly stupid mistake? You would have been grateful for alternative terms, such as "a core rearrangement caused by an ill-advised learning opportunity." You can find these terms and more in Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceitful Language.

  2. Behind the Dictionary

     Call it "Balmy" or "Sweltering," Summer (and Summer Words) are Here
    Fri Jun 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Sunday is the longest day of the year and the official start to summer. To get ready, we're taking a look at the words and terms enshrined in our language that capture our collective experience of the summer season — trotted out once again like the shorts and sandals we've been waiting all winter to wear again.

  3. Word Count

     A Dipper's Scrapbook
    Wed Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Like most writers, I'm an omnivorous reader. Friends ask me, "What are you reading now?" and I have a hard time answering because when I stop to think, I realize I'm reading a dozen books at once, dipping into this one, skimming through that one.

  4. Word Count

     Finding Fossilized Words in Phrases Frozen in Time
    Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Did that headline peak your interest? Or did it pique it? I'm waiting with baited breath for your answer. Or would that be bated? All of us have a tendency to replace a fossilized word, whose nuances have been lost, with a more standard definition of that word or a different word entirely. Through this process, phrases, like words, can change meaning over time.

  5. Teachers at Work

     Learning English from Your Linguistic Landscape
    Fri Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Beadazzled is the name of a shop in a small town in the UK. A church in a city in Australia encourages passersby to "Prevent Truth Decay – Brush up on you Bible." These signs create something linguists Rodrigue Landry and Richard Y. Bourhis defined as "the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region or urban agglomeration" and they are all useful tools in the teaching of English to non-native speakers.

  6. Word Count

     Do Your Writing Habits Reveal Grit?
    Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Some people see me as successful. I don't think I'm the least bit talented at anything apart from organizing. (My idiot-savant ability at taking chaos and transforming it into order is useful but in the talent department it kind of sucks. It's like being spectacularly good at checkers or vacuuming the living-room.) But I have one other useful attribute. Grit.

  7. Behind the Dictionary

     NBA Lingo: Staying Aggressive While Avoiding Hero Ball
    Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    It's NBA Finals time—a time I love. I've been watching the NBA since I was a wee lad, back in the mythical time of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and the Minotaur. (I think the Minotaur played for Portland, but let me fact-check that.)

  8. Evasive Maneuvers

     Don't Bring Hen Fruit to a Duck Party: Old Diner Euphemisms
    Thu Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    I love everything about used bookstores—except their negative effect on my wallet. I recently found another wallet-drainer—and a gem of a word book—in Chicago's wonderful Myopic Books: Hash House Lingo: The Slang of Soda Jerks, Short-Order Cooks, Bartenders, Waitresses, Carhops and Other Denizens of Yesterday's Roadside.

  9. Word Routes

     Kibitzing Over "Kibitz"
    Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    On the latest episode of the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I take a look at a classic Yiddishism: kibitz, which can mean "make unwanted comments (as a spectator at a card game)," or something more general like "chitchat." While it's a word with a rich history, its origins are ultimately mysterious.

  10. Language Lounge

     Wedding Bells are Knitting Together That Old Gang of Mine
    Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    A popular song from early in the 20th century, covered many times since then, was Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine. The song came to my mind last month, when I returned to the East Coast to attend an annual party that I had missed two years running. All the old familiar faces were there, but with a twist: three of the party's couples, previously "partnered," are now married.
39 40 41 42 43 Displaying 401-410 of 3488 Results