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  1. Word Routes

     2015 Spelling Bee: Co-Champions Triumph Again, as Vanya and Gokul Prove Unbeatable
    Fri May 29 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Last year's Scripps National Spelling Bee saw the first tie since 1962, with co-champions hoisting the big trophy together. This year it was déjà vu all over again, as Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam battled to the finish, exhausting the championship word list and finishing as co-champs.

  2. Blog Excerpts

     The 2015 Spelling Bee Is On!
    Thu May 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    It's time once again for the nationally televised semifinals and finals of The Scripps National Spelling Bee! As in past years, our own Ben Zimmer will be live-tweeting the competition from the @VocabularyCom Twitter account and reporting on the results here in his Word Routes column.

  3. Behind the Dictionary

     "Dadbod": A Word That Let Itself Go... All Over the Internet
    Fri May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    It's a little early to know what the 2015 Word of the Year will be, but I'd say we have a contender: dadbod (or dad bod). After appearing in an essay by Mackenzie Pearson, this term went viral, then nuclear, then possibly intergalactic. Dadbod has become so commonly used that I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere near the Mars Rover, the term is validating the flabby physiques of retired Martian warlords.

  4. Word Count

     This Is Not the CRUD You're Looking For: Odd Programming Jargon
    Wed May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    I was reading a document at work once and ran across this statement: "Core contracts within the product are interface-based and are easily mockable." My programmer-to-English translation filter was momentarily confused, and for a brief but amusing moment I thought, "You mean, we can laugh at them?"

  5. Candlepower

     Read Our Lips: Mouthy Metonyms
    Mon May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Here are the names of three products currently sold in stores and online: Pout Polish, Pout-à-Porter, Pout-o-matic. Here are three business names from around the United States: Kool Smiles, Smileworks, Smile Wide. And here's a question: What do those names tell you about what's being sold and to whom?

  6. Word Count

     Let the Facts Speak for Themselves
    Thu May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    "Let the facts speak for themselves" — for writing non-fiction, that's as good a single rule as any I know. If Bobby did ride his bicycle to the store, the strongest, clearest, and plainest way to put that fact into words is: Bobby rode his bicycle to the store.

  7. Word Count

     Why I'm Meditating Again, And How It Helps My Writing
    Mon May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    You may wonder why, shortly after waking up every morning, I head upstairs to my office and lie down on the floor and cover myself with a blanket. You'd think, after seven hours of sleep, I wouldn't need to lie down again. But I'm not just lying down; I'm meditating.

  8. Word Routes

     Tracing the Tangled Thread of "Seersucker"
    Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    The weather is getting warmer, so you might start to see men arrayed in stylishly rumpled seersucker suits (especially in the American South). On the latest installment of Slate's podcast Lexicon Valley, I followed the thread of seersucker all the way back to its Persian roots, and then looked at how both the fabric and the word spread around the world. 

  9. Evasive Maneuvers

     Substantial Informal Activities Due to Malarkey
    Wed May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Lying is one of those embarrassing things that demands euphemisms. No one wants to say "I lied" or "I fibbed" or "I wrote fan fiction." So when called on the carpet for a lie, people reach into the lexical abyss for euphemisms.

  10. Language Lounge

     Sermons From the Oval Office
    Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015
    Presidents, more than any other individuals, symbolize the values and ethos of the United States. Their words, whether proclamation or prattle, have been better preserved than the words of many who surrounded them, so I thought it would be interesting to look at the ways in which presidents through the centuries have expressed their ideas about religion in speech and writing.
40 41 42 43 44 Displaying 411-420 of 3488 Results