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Word Count
From "Yea" and "Yes" to "Yeah" and "Yup"
Wed Jul 09 12:00:00 EDT 2014
Grammar Girl, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty, has been sharing short tips on usage and style with us. Her latest tip looks at the evolution of affirmative interjections, from yea and yes in Old English to yeah and yup in contemporary English.
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Word Count
How the Rediscovery of a Poem Helped Kickstart the Renaissance
Wed Jul 09 00:00:00 EDT 2014
The world utterly forgot the Roman poet-philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus and his masterwork, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Then in January 1417 an adventuresome papal secretary found a 500-year-old copy on a dusty shelf in a German monastery, and De Rerum began a second illustrious life that continues, still blossoming, to this day.
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Evasive Maneuvers
One Man's Trash is Another Man's Service Item
Mon Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Hillary Clinton put her foot in her mouth recently when she made some comments that made it sound like she and her family were inches from the poorhouse and perhaps down to their last mouthful of gruel. She tried to explain this gaffe by saying those comments were inartful. Huh?
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Blog Excerpts
The "Yanks" Are Coming: From Disparagement to Pride
Fri Jul 04 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Just in time for the 4th of July, our own Ben Zimmer investigates how the term "Yank" started off as a term of disparagement but was reclaimed as an expression of patriotic pride in settings from world wars to the World Cup.
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Language Lounge
Six Reasons Why Aristotle Prefigures Clickbait
Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 EDT 2014
"Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." That's Aristotle, writing in the fourth century BCE. Most of the wiles and schemes by which modern-day crafters of clickbait entice you to take the fateful step of clicking on a link were anticipated by the Master.
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Word Count
The Reason Why Is Because...
Mon Jun 30 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Pop quiz time, readers! Which of the following sentences is correct?
The reason why they got married is they love each other.
The reason that they got married is they love each other.
The reason they got married is they love each other.
The reason why they got married is because they love each other.
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Dog Eared
Ammon Shea's Anti-Peeving Manifesto is Bad News for Bullies
Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Ammon Shea's enjoyable, witty new book Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation shows that English isn't really bad at all — despite what legions of gripers and nitpickers have to say. Armed with facts and historical context, Shea gives readers an informed and enjoyable tour of the issues that annoy people the most about language.
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Word Count
When Is a Comment "Facetious" and When Is It "Sarcastic"?
Wed Jun 25 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Here's the latest in our series of tips on usage and style from the one and only Grammar Girl, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty. What's the difference between facetious and sarcastic?
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Word Count
Wrong Turns: Keeping Readers Off the "Garden Path"
Mon Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Sentences have destinations, the place you want your readers to go to absorb the information you're delivering. Sentences that mislead readers are called "garden path" sentences, because they take readers in unexpected directions, the way someone who has been "led down the garden path" has been misled.
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Behind the Dictionary
"Tradecraft" Infiltrates the Language
Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Tradecraft, which has been spy jargon since at least the 1960s, has been making its way into more mainstream consciousness recently, as we hear about operations like the search for Osama bin Laden, or about Edward Snowden's training as a spy. It's a good example of how words with seemingly transparent meanings can settle into semantic idiosyncrasy through historical circumstance.
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