Search the Site

Your Search:
46 47 48 49 50 Displaying 471-480 of 3488 Results

  1. Word Count

     Why You Should Ditch the Resolutions and Make Rituals Instead
    Mon Jan 05 00:00:00 EST 2015
    The lure of making resolutions for the new year is practically irresistible. Lose ten pounds. Go to the gym three times per week. Stop smoking. Start meditating. Save more money. Do a better job of managing stress. But I'm now inclined to think we should abandon them altogether and replace them with rituals.

  2. Evasive Maneuvers

     What's the Euphemism of the Year?
    Fri Jan 02 00:00:00 EST 2015
    It's never easy picking a Euphemism of the Year. For 2014, it feels like a four-horse race—or should I say a four-pronged equine competition. My picks for EOTY are a Gwyneth Paltrow special and three other mounds of mumbo-jumbo. Read them and weep for clear, honest, non-sneaky language.

  3. Language Lounge

     Pillow Talk and Its Ramifications
    Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015
    Scientists have long been interested in the role that genetics plays over evolutionary time in the production of genetically distinct populations in all organisms. When the organism in question is homo sapiens, there's a new twist in the tale because people need to talk, and talk accompanies nearly everything that we do, including procreation.

  4. Word Count

     How "Into the Woods" Reveals the Power of Revision
    Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 EST 2014
    The film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into The Woods just opened to much critical acclaim. Musical theater and film are very different, and revising and adapting one's work is a challenge, but what changes and how it changes can offer us insight into the art and the artist.

  5. Blog Excerpts

     It's the Most Wonderful (Word Learning) Time of the Year!
    Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 EST 2014
    The holiday season is famous for its hustle and bustle. But that doesn't mean word learning has to come to a stop. In fact, the holidays provide many opportunities to acquire and think about words. It's just a question of knowing where to look for them.

  6. Word Routes

     Looking Back on the Vortex of Words in 2014
    Mon Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2014
    It's time once again for the annual look back at the noteworthy words of the past year. Did you indulge in any manspreading or Columbusing this year? Were you concerned about dark money or plastigomerate? Here's a veritable vortex of words that rose to prominence in 2014.

  7. Blog Excerpts

     A Farewell to Stephen Colbert's "Truthiness"
    Wed Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2014
    In an interview with Stephen Colbert, whose "Colbert Report" ends this week after nine years on the air, Ben Zimmer gets the inside scoop on truthiness, Colbert's ultimate "silly word that would feel wrong in your mouth."

  8. Word Routes

     A Story of "Grog" That Won't Leave You Groggy
    Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2014
    For my latest appearance on the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I take a look at a word with an origin story that seems too good to be true: grog, an alcoholic concoction, typically of rum and water, that has been making sailors groggy since the 18th century.

  9. Candlepower

     Brand Names of the Year for 2014
    Fri Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2014
    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 have linguistic or onomastic significance — onomastics being the study of names.

  10. Word Count

     Unexpected Opposites
    Wed Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2014
    I occasionally teach a class about using Microsoft Word. In one of the class exercises, students are asked to format a page, and the instructions tell them to "outdent" a heading. After I got several questions about that each class, I realized that lots of people have no idea what the term means.
46 47 48 49 50 Displaying 471-480 of 3488 Results